The Fruit of Praise | More Than a Melody | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
The Fruit of Praise | More Than a Melody | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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But I wanna get into this thing that the Lord's put in my spirit.
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This started last week. How many of were with us last week? And we were talking last week.
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Man, there was a lot of wonderful things we were talking about. But there was a statement that we made last week that talked about the fact that when we were using the story of Peter in the boat with Jesus, and Jesus told Peter, gave him the command to go cast his his nets. And and Peter said, at your word I'll cast my net. I wanna go back and reteach that. But simply just this point, is that you can't catch what you don't cast.
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So the reality is is that there would have never been any fish in his boat or the partners that he signaled to come over if they didn't actually cast a net.
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And so the... Here's what... Here's the point. The point is, you can never receive what God has if you're not willing to offer Him something to put in your hand.
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So, if I were to... If if I don't have anything on me other than this microphone, then I'll take your phone from Cam.
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But if if I said this was my phone and, and I said, you know, get ready to catch this phone, what are you gonna cast?
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Your hands. Lest this phone hit you in the chest and not harm you. Right? I'm not gonna throw your phone. Don't worry. Naturally,
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when you're about to to catch something, you gotta cast something.
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You gotta release something. You gotta put something out there and your and your life has to be set before the Lord in every... And this is what we've been talking about in our series on seeds.
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But but your life is set before the Lord in such a way that when you show up before God, you gotta... See, we wanna come and just receive and take, but you need to give something in order to get something.
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I know we don't wanna talk about that, but the reality is this is that you can't get your miracle if you're not willing to give God some faith.
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Faith is the conditions and the context in which God will respond to.
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And so this past week as I was kind of meditating on last week's message, I... There were some things that the Lord began to put in my spirit. And I wanna just really spend the the next and it sounds long, but it's not because these next two months are gonna go by very quick. Can you believe it's November today?
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And we're almost at the end of the year. And so the Lord has really stirred in my heart to take the remainder of this year and just spend time really resetting the culture of this house.
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Some things that I wanna teach you. Some things I wanna share with you. Some things that I think, I think in a lot of ways we don't realize why we do certain things when we do come together in a corporate service, in a corporate setting.
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And and because we don't understand it, the Bible says this that my people, they they they they perish from a lack of knowledge.
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And then and let me ask this. And I'll be and I'll be kind of transparent and vulnerable a little bit. But how many y'all would say that you've been in a service, you heard the Word, and the Word sounded really, really good?
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Like it was a it was a good Word. Like, man, I got that. Like your head said, man, that makes sense. I I get... How many would say I've been... Pastor, I've been in one of the services that you preach, and I don't need it because I need to be affirmed. I'm just simply saying that you were in a service, you heard the word, and you're like, man, that that that that that was good. I needed to hear that.
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Okay?
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But now here here here's where I need you to be a little vulnerable first. How many would say, pastor, I heard that word, but nothing actually happened in my life when I received it?
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That's okay. There's been times that I've been in a service where I heard a word, it was good, but nothing came from that word. Whether it be something that I'm believing for or something that I'm navigating through, I knew the word was right, but just for some reason, nothing came from that.
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Come on. Anybody ever been in that place? I'm not offended. I'm not hurt if you said no.
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I want us to get real about this thing because I wanna teach you something today. I wanna teach you something today. I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15 and just put your finger there and I'm gonna set this thing up today.
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Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15.
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And then when you get there, just hold tight.
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And when you're there, tell me you're there.
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Are you there? Okay.
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Alright. I can move on now.
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It's important to understand
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that there are two things
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that are responsible for new life.
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There are two things that are responsible to create new life.
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Number one is seed, what we've talked about the last several months.
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Number two is soil.
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Seed and soil must come together for new life to take place.
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Do we agree? In the same way, and I don't I don't mean to I don't I don't I don't mean to sound, you know, gross or anything like that.
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But in order for there to be conception, there's two things that must take place or two things that must happen.
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There must be sperm and there must be a womb.
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I want you to stay with me because I need to I'm gonna take it somewhere.
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And if those two things don't come together, just like seed and soil, new life can't be had.
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Now here's the thing.
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When we're talking about seed, seed is a carrier of life.
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It carries all the potential for new life.
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There is nothing that needs to take place when it comes to the seed for the soil in the same way for the sperm to produce life. It is what it is. It is all powerful in and on its own by itself.
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However though, soil changes from season to season and soil must be prepared.
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No different than with a womb, it goes through seasons and cycles that it's not at any point that a woman can get pregnant. There's a certain time where the womb is ready. There's a season and a cycle in which it can receive that seed for that individual to become pregnant.
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Are you with me?
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When we're talking about seed and soil, the seed is God's word.
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The bible tells us in Mark four fourteen, the sower sows the word. This is Jesus speaking. The sower sows the word.
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God's word is powerful.
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The bible tells us in Revelation 19 in verse six is it says, the Lord God Almighty is omnipotent.
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Anybody ever heard that word? Omnipotent.
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Anybody ever wonder what that word means?
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Omnipotent is a compound word.
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Omni, which means one or the one or the only one. And potent, that pretty much speaks for itself. Anything that's potent, anything that's strong, anything that's powerful, potent is where you get the word potential.
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So, the Lord God Almighty is the one who is all powerful, filled with all potential.
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And so, if Jesus, who is the Word and says that the Word is seed, it means the seed of God's Word is the thing that carries all power, all potential for new life.
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You with me so far?
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So, the Word does not need any preparation.
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The Word does not need anything added to it. We were laughing yesterday. My wife showed me this video of some, I don't know, some church, wherever it was at. It was some woke church where two ladies were trying to pastor it, and you know, they had their own situation going on there. Anyways, they were talking some nonsense about you know, you know, the the the universe and all of these weird language and terms. Wasn't even talking about God as being God.
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And I told her, I said, know, the Bible says, Apostle Paul says that beware of strange doctrine in the end days.
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You don't take bits and pieces from this word and you don't add bits and pieces to it. It is what it is. It's the same as we already declared earlier, the same yesterday, today, and forever. This seed is all powerful. It does not need me to wrap my mind around it. It actually is the Word that needs to wrap around my mind.
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And so, the seed never has to be prepared in and of itself. It contains life.
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It's the soil.
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It's the womb.
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In the same way, if you were to build a fire, it is the altar being laid in proper arrangement. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter six and verse 13 that there should be a fire that continually burns.
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And this was speaking to the nation of Israel that with the sacrifices that were being made, that it's a continual sacrifice.
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But in order for there to be a continual sacrifice, it means that the old wood has to come out and new wood has to go in. The altar has to continually be prepared if a fire is going to remain. So
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you've got the seed and you have the soil. You have the seed and you have the womb. The seed in itself does not need anything added or taken away. Life is in it on its own. What has to be prepared is the soil. What has to be prepared is the womb.
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The womb is your heart.
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The seed is God's Word.
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When the seed of God's Word gets into your heart, now the potential of new life can come to pass.
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But your heart has to be prepared in order for it to receive the seed.
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If you do not prepare the womb of your heart, it can't receive the seed.
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Are you at Hebrews 13? Yeah. The Bible says this in Hebrews 13 verse 15.
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It says, and by Him, meaning Jesus, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise. Somebody say praise. Praise. The Bible says that we should continually offer up a sacrifice of praise that is, ready for this? If it's on the screen or if you're looking at it, the fruit of your lips.
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The fruit of your lips. Somebody say, the fruit The fruit. Of my lips. My lips.
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So the scripture is saying this, let us continually offer up a sacrifice.
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Let's rip that down for a second. Continually means what?
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Continually.
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Nonstop.
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Continually. Over and over and over.
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To offer up, offer is to give or to release, like we were talking about last week, casting that net. If Peter wanted to continually catch fish, it means he had to continually offer up or cast his net. So, is a continuation of me offering, giving up.
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Now, A sacrifice.
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Sacrifice is that which will cost you something.
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A sacrifice is not out of convenience.
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A sacrifice is not out of a place where everything is working perfect in your favor.
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A sacrifice is anything that costs you something.
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It's something that's going to require a little bit more than what you are willing to give.
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And here's one thing, sidebar, is that anything in life that has ever been worth chasing after has cost me everything, and I didn't mind giving up everything, because I knew at the end of the line that it was there. And God's not a man that He should lie. And if God has declared promises, and if God has declared His Word to be true, if God has declared that the end line is the fruit of the seed, I don't care what it costs, I'm gonna sow it.
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Couple of you. And so, the scripture says, let us continually give up something that will cost me.
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What am I giving up? The Bible says that it is praise. Somebody say praise. Praise.
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And then the language gets specific and it says that is the fruit of your lips.
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The fruit of your lips is the result of the seed that is in your heart.
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The Bible says in Luke chapter six, that it's by our fruit they will know us.
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But the Bible says that a good tree does not bear bad fruit nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. You cannot pull figs from thorn bushes or blueberries from bramble bushes.
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Out of the good treasure of the heart comes good things. Out of the evil treasure of the heart comes evil things. And Jesus punches that statement with this, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak.
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So, if the seed is God's Word and His Word's planted in my heart and His Word begins to grow, what is the seed to end destination?
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It is fruit.
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So, if the seed is in my heart, then what is on my lips? It is going to be fruit.
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And so the Bible says it is the fruit of our lips.
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It's His word that has been planted in my heart that has grown, has matured, it's gone from the root to the shoot to the fruit that now it's of that fruit I am giving God praise. Okay.
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I know I'm teaching a little bit here.
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Here's where I wanted to bring this to.
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And it's this, is that the Bible says in Hebrews that it is a sacrifice of praise. Tell me... Tell you say it one more time. Praise.
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This is why this is important.
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Is because when we come together and we worship on a Sunday, or however you start your morning or your week, or whatever that moment is when you are spending time with the Lord, Praise and worship prepares the womb of your heart to receive God's Word.
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I'll say that one more time.
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Praise and worship prepares the womb of your heart or the soil of your heart to receive God's Word. The reason for that is praise and worship in this context, in a service, is not about coming in and singing a few songs.
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It's not about coming in and we're following a program.
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You know, you could say, well, you know, I I I came on Sunday to worship the Lord. But if all you did was just stood and looked at the team worshiping and singing, you did absolutely nothing.
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You didn't prepare your heart. If you didn't raise your hands and sing a hallelujah as we declared earlier, you did not praise in worship.
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And I think that there's something to be said that God is not looking for a silent church, God is looking for a church of men and women in generations that are willing to offer up a sacrifice of praise that will cost them something, that will allow them to get in position and shout a hallelujah.
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You did not come to a worship service just to spectate and to look, and this is one of the reasons why the seed of God's Word that's being preached right now doesn't get planted in your heart because you didn't prepare the soil. And so you walk out of here and you get frustrated and you say, there was nothing to that, And that's because the soil in the womb was not prepared to receive the seed. When
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we come and we praise and we worship,
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we are preparing our hearts so that when God's word is ministered, the ground is so fertile, so ripe, so ready that it's gonna receive and immediately it will begin to take root.
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Jesus even says, when the seed's sown into good ground, immediately it will take root.
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But when I don't understand what praise and worship is, and I'm not here to to you know, try and make anyone feel bad or out of position or out of place. Again, people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
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That's simply what it is.
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And when we come together and we're praising and we're worshiping, what we're doing is we're allowing our heart to be tenderized so we can receive God's Word.
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Now, now here's some things that's pertinent to culture.
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When I show up at 10:30 and service starts at ten, you have not prepared your heart. If you walk around saying, well, I like abundant life because I just wanna receive a word. Well, what? That word will never take root.
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It is when a body of believers comes together through praise and through prayer and through worship that it prepares our hearts in such a way that all of us are receiving the seed of God's Word so that all of us can produce fruit, so that all of us can walk with the harvest and the increase of the things that we're believing for.
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It does not rise and fall on the on the musicians or or on the worship leader to just sing all the songs.
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It requires us out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.
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And what I speak, what I cast will determine what I catch.
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Is this is is this... I wanna... I really wanna help you all.
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Because I I I feel as if out of not understanding these basic principles, we'll come into a a a service and we won't offer the Lord any worship.
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The word praise is broken into two words.
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Broken into two words. And I and I really want you to listen to my heart more than I want you to take notes today.
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You can go back and listen to this and take all the notes. I just want you to hear my heart. The word praise is broken up into two words. It's yada and halal.
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Yada means to cast like a stone.
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Yada is when Jesus was walking through the streets and they raised the palm branches. And when they extended their hands with the palm branches, it was a casting of praise.
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It was them declaring.
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It was them worshiping.
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It was them saying, Hosanna in the highest. It was them declaring the goodness of God.
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And what happened in that setting? The Pharisees tried to tell Jesus, rebuke them and tell them to stop speaking. And Jesus says, if I tell them to be quiet, the stones are gonna cry out.
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So you don't have to say one peep in this service, but you better watch out because the stones will begin to cry out. Now, here's something that blew me away. Why the stones? Why not any other thing did Jesus use to illustrate?
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Because a stone, when we choose not to praise, is what our heart becomes.
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And Jesus says, the very thing that is hardened like a stone on the inside of you, if you don't learn to turn that into good soil and release a fruit of praise from your lips, then I'm gonna cause the very thing that shouldn't produce fruit to produce fruit.
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And so, he says, the rocks will cry out.
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When I come into a service like this, I'm not here to act like I'm being humble before the Lord saying nothing. And don't get me wrong, there are beautiful moments where we get quiet, and you can say lah yourself. But when I come into the house of the Lord, the Bible is very, very clear, and it says this, that I'm going to enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. I'm going to be thankful unto Him, and I'm going to bless His name. What am I blessing His name with, church? I'm blessing Him with the fruit of my lips that my God is a good God, and my God loves me, and my God wants to bless me. My God is the one that restores all things. My God restores the health into my body. My God will restore the marriage. My God will restore children back to you. God will restore my dignity.
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My God will restore my victory, because it's in Him I live and move and have my being.
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Is there any people that just want to cry out like that to God?
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I want to cast something so that I can catch something.
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Forgot where I was going. Got excited with your shout.
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I
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long for the day.
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Look, even the weather is... I love it. You can't play in that. I
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long for the day to pastor the church where just the men will shout and cry and declare and just let God know how good He is. I feel like fellas, to shout out loud loud sounds like we're being emotional.
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It sounds very, very, very, it makes us feel like we're feminine.
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I shout out loud. I don't think that I'm very feminine.
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Kevin's not walking up to me calling me sweet cheeks.
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I love the Lord with all my heart.
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There ain't no sweetness in this guy right here.
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David got before the Lord, and he danced with all his might.
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David is the one that they said that Saul slayed thousands, but David slayed his 10 thousands, and here he is rolling into the city all undignified and unrolled before the Lord.
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Is there any fellas that just say, I don't even care. I'll give God a crazy praise. I'm just telling you.
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Because when you begin to let that thing loose like that, what you're doing is you're saying it's no longer in my might, it's not in my power, but it's by His Spirit.
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And last I checked, the key to David's victory is that he continually allowed the spirit of the Lord to move within his heart.
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And so he praised only like David could praise, and he danced only like David could dance.
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Praise and worship prepares your heart so that the Word now can be planted and begin to take root.
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I want God's Word to be planted and to take root into my heart. And so when we come together in worship, we have to get outside of this this this fear or this worry of how is the brother or the sister thinking about me? Who cares what they think about you?
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Who really cares?
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Some of y'all need to loosen your neckties. Some of you ladies need to kick off your heels.
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Who really cares if a lash slides off in the middle of worship?
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You can reattach it later.
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Who really cares if you're a little sweaty?
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Who really cares?
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David was the king of Israel and he did not care how he looked one bit.
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We got to break off this this this mindset, this culture of what people think.
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I mean, we're willing to scream, to shout and do all the things for everything else. But why do we come to the house of the Lord as if we have to be all stoic?
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That's religious spirit.
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When I come to God, I wanna come to Him crying out, Hosanna.
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Hosanna.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, I wanna give you some context here because if all we do is just get to an excited moment and I don't actually give you some understanding, then we're gonna miss it.
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The bible says this in Ephesians chapter five, is it says, do not be unwise.
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What does that mean? To have no wisdom. Do not be unwise, but to but to know that the will of the Lord is at hand. And the Bible says this. It says, and do not be drunk with wine because that's where there is dissipation, debauchery, ruinous living.
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But it says, be filled with the spirit.
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And it says, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to one another, singing and making melody in your heart.
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Singing and making melody in your heart.
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But we gotta look at the text.
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The text goes back and it says, don't be unwise. Know what the will of the Lord is. Don't be drunk with the things of the world. Specifically, Paul's talking about in those days they... Man, there were some churches that were having some underground like drinking parties. And they were trying to go out and have their own little worship sessions.
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Man, if anyone ever invites you one of those, run far far far far far away.
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You have to think about that though.
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People get drunk in the world, their filter goes away. Ugly people start to look good.
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Dare I say, we need to get drunk with the Holy Ghost again.
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And then you'll stop looking at some people in this room with an ugly eye, and you'll start making melody in your heart, and we can start being in the church, and we can start worshiping and praising together. I don't know about you, but I think we need a fresh move of the Holy Ghost again.
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Some of y'all are looking a little dry and thirsty like you need a fresh touch from the Lord today. Anybody would say, man, I just need an encounter with Jesus. I need to fill me up. I need to fill me up. Oh, Lord, baptize us with Holy Ghost and fire again.
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Baptize us with Holy Ghost and fire again. We need the power of the Lord at work within us.
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You You having fun? And
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so the scripture says to be filled with the Holy Spirit or to be filled with the spirit.
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And it says now, singing to one another psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
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Alright. Here's the lesson.
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God always has protocol.
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God's not just aimlessly doing things.
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God is a God of protocol.
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God is a God of protocol.
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He's a line upon line.
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And so the apostle Paul did not just say, hey, here's just a random formula. He was very, very intentional.
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He said, Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. What is the difference, pastor? Glad you asked that question. A Psalm is a song written to God's word. God's scripture.
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Okay?
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It is a song that is purely scripture.
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Ken, do you have a song that's purely scripture? I know I'm putting you on the spot. What's a what's a song that would just be purely scripture? Can you can you minister that for a moment?
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Those with clean hands and a pure heart.
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Who shall climb onto the hill of the Lord.
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Those with clean hands and a pure heart, let the king of glory enter it.
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Let the king of glory enter it.
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Let the king of glory enter it.
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The the king of glory enter it.
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Who shall climb?
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Who shall climb onto the hill of
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And
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to
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Let the king of glory enter.
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The king of glory enter. It.
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Isn't that beautiful?
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For some of you as you were just sitting there and praising and worshiping, declaring his word, your heart began to get soft. Some things that you'd been struggling with or navigating through or or just trying to get your head wrapped around.
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The soil of your heart begin to break down.
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And so a Psalm is a song that is written with scripture.
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So whenever we come into the house of the Lord, the first thing that we're ministering in song must always be scripture.
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It must always be His word.
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Here's why.
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Because a Psalm is His Word but a hymn is our Word.
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A hymn is a declaration of how we view God based upon where we're at in our life.
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And so, I come in first declaring my word, then I'm out of sequence.
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I need to declare His word first, then my word.
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Because sometimes I might be going through a real challenge and my word might fall out of alignment with His word.
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And so, I need His word to now validate my word.
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And so, a Psalm is a song for the soul, but a hymn is a song for the heart.
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The Word of God according to James chapter one says in verse 21, that we would receive the implanted Word of God that it would save your soul.
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So when we sing Psalms, it's the word of God cleansing and saving your soul.
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But now from there, I move into a hymn.
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And a hymn, the hymn of my heart is now me knowing that regardless of what I'm going through, highs and lows that my God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let me give you some context.
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Two of the most widely ministered hymns, they've been around for hundreds of years.
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Great is thy faithfulness and how great thou art. Now, many of us know that. Some of us in the younger generation haven't heard that or don't know it or don't even realize that we sang it. But these are two hymns that's been around for over three hundred years.
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Now catch this.
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How Great Thou Art was written by a Swedish pastor or preacher by the name of Carl Boberg.
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Carl Boberg was much like today. It was rainy out. It was cloudy, thunderstorms.
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It looked like a really bad storm was blowing through. And all of a sudden, as he was leaving from the office of where his church was, he was trying to get home. And in those days, they didn't have the easy means of transportation like we did. So he just had his coat and he was just trying to push through the storm. And in the middle of the storm, all of a sudden, the clouds opened up.
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The sun showed its face.
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Every raindrop in the sky dried up.
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And to his words as he said, it was the most glorious sky I'd ever seen filled with every color.
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Carl Boebert went home and he began to write down, how great thou art. He began to write about the fact that that even when it looks when it looks ugly in the moment, when God shows up, look at how awesome and how great, and that's not necessarily the words to the song, but his heart when he was writing how great the art is. How great is our God?
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He is the God that can part the seas. He's the God that can open the skies. That was a hymn from his experience.
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Great is Thy Faithfulness was wrote or written by an American man by the name of Thomas Chisholm.
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Thomas Chisholm was a preacher as well.
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Thomas Chisholm had a fast growing church in the seventeen hundreds in New Jersey.
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And as his church was growing, his health began to fail him to the point where he could no longer pastor the church anymore And he had to get a day to day job just trying to put a few hours in because he knew that he still needed it to support his family.
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He said, I didn't want to walk away from the ministry, but there was no way I could keep up with the demands of the ministry.
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And so, he just began to work this job and just trying to get through. And he was sick in his body and there was, there was all kinds of challenges.
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But yet, in the middle of all that, he said, I might not be preaching, but great is Thy faithfulness.
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I don't understand why my health is failing me, but God, You're still faithful to me. I don't know why nothing is changing right now, but I know this is that You're not a God that's gonna change.
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That You are that same yesterday, today, and... So, I'm gonna declare your faithfulness and He wrote, great is thy faithfulness.
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One wrote a hymn based upon their perspective at the top of the mountain.
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Another one wrote their hymn based upon where they were in the valley.
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And for some of you, you're experiencing the greatness of God and so the hymn that you're singing when you come in to hear is God is good.
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But there's some of you that come in here and you say, God is good, but I'm going through hell right now.
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I don't know how this is gonna work out. I'm really struggling. And if it's not your health, maybe it's your marriage. If it's not your marriage, maybe it's your job. If it's not your job, maybe it's just you having that sensitive heart, that open heart for the things of God that you've gotten calloused along the way.
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But yet, in the middle of all that, great is Thy faithfulness.
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You're faithful in the struggle. You're faithful in the victory. Great is... The hymn is Your Word.
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The psalm is His Word.
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But then Paul says this. Listen. He says it's psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms.
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It's His Word followed by my word, followed by what the spirit is saying right now. And when the spirit begins to minister in song, all of a sudden prophetic songs begin to be ministered.
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All of a sudden, songs that are wrapped in wisdom where you came in and you did not know how you were gonna get through that situation, but the wisdom in that song was ministered that you had your moment.
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Because now the spirit of the Lord is knocking on your heart, showing you things that you did not know, that now you are getting revelation to the word of God. You didn't just come in to get my word and to feel good. You're saying, God, I've got the word rooted in my heart, And when I leave from here, now I know exactly what I need to do. Because your word is a lamp to my feet, and it's a light into my path. His word is always gonna lead you forward.
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And the Bible talks about the fact that Jesus, He Himself is prophecy, and that the spirit of the Lord, the word of God, the word of Jesus is the prophetic word to your life.
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Some of us are saying, I just need a prophetic word. This right here is the prophetic word.
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And I prepare my heart and now His word begins to make sense that I didn't just get a good word.
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I got seed sown into the womb of my heart, to the soil of my heart so that now fruit, good fruit begins to come forward.
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Psalm is His word. A hymn is my word, and the spirit of God is what He is saying in that moment.
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And He says, so singing with one another and making melody with your heart. I believe that Paul understood not all of us have a good voice.
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Making melody in your heart, making melody
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Its exact definition is to pull on a chord like a harp or like a chord on a bass.
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It's that that that strumming.
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It's that knocking.
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That even if I can't get the words out of my mouth, that my heart is a melody unto the Lord. That everywhere that I'm walking, there's a psalm and a hymn and a spiritual song moving inside of me that when I don't know what to do this week, I know that God is moving in me. It's now all of a sudden that something is beginning to rise up. It's a hallelujah.
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It's a hallelujah. By the way, I said the other word. You've got which is to cast.
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Halal is to shout. It's where we get the word hallelujah from. And so now, as I'm making melody in my heart, I can look at that situation, and I can raise a hallelujah because I know that my God go before me that nothing would be against me. That my God is my shield and my exceedingly great reward.
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I'm making melody in my heart. I'm following the rhythm of the spirit, and my God will only lead me on the right path. My God is the one who is with me in all things.
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Some of you need to get the melody back in your heart again.
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I don't ever wanna stop raising that hallelujah.
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God, let us never stop raising a hallelujah.
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I'm gonna be at lunch today doing this, and it's not gonna be because you're hungry.
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My kids, daddy, I'm so hungry. I'm like, no, you're not. You just had a full meal and a bowl of ice cream. Daddy, I'm so hungry.
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I wanna prepare my heart.
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When I come in to a service, when I start my week, when I'm going through that long day. I'm coming with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
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We live right now in an era, in a pocket of time where there is more spiritual songs that are being ministered in the earth right now. There's more prophetic songs, songs of healing, songs of deliverance. These are spiritual songs by the way.
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So when someone on this amazing team begins to prophesy or they begin to say, I just feel like right now as I'm singing this song, there's healing in the room. It's a spiritual song.
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It's a spiritual song.
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You think about the gifts of the spirit, they all have an intent on the other side.
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Faith, wisdom, word of knowledge, tongues. The bible even talks about in first Corinthians 14 that we sing in the spirit. We sing in tongues. Couple years ago, we were in a service.
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It was a pastor's conference and there was about 3,000 people and they were all singing in tongues. I've never had experience like that in my life. It was one of the most electrifying moments that just brought me down to my knees weeping because you felt the power of God moving, making melody.
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So, I close
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with bringing us to this place that when David danced, when David sang, when David shouted, he did it from a place that he said, I'm not trying to be dignified.
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He did it from a place that he said, it was before and is for the Lord.
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His wife, Michal, made fun of him.
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And the last line of text that closed out that story was, and she never had any children for the rest of her life.
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Her womb was closed.
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David's womb was open.
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We know more about David than we know about her because one was willing to offer up a sacrifice of praise by the fruit of his lips.
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Church, let our womb not be closed. Let our soil not be hardened. But God, we raise a hallelujah to the king of kings and the lord of lords.
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry, you can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.