Freedom of Praise Pt. 1

We had just finished our series on “Know Who You Are Following” and I didn’t have any direction as to where to go after that until this past Sunday. I was praying last week and this week for direction. God gave me the direction at the end of service on Sunday.

I want to talk about praise and worship. Sometimes in our Christian walk we get to the point where we come into service and we kind of just go through the motions. We know that we open the service with a song, we pray, shake each other’s hand, then we move on to the tithes and offerings, then our 3 or 4 songs for worship. It becomes mundane. It becomes protocol. If we are not careful it can become mechanical. Where we come in and just do what we always do. Sing our songs then sit down and listen then go home. I don’t believe this is how God intended it to be. Praise and worship is part of our relationship with God.

Psalm 100
“¹ Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! ² Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. ³ Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. ⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. ⁵ For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” – NKJ

1st Chronicles 16:9
“⁹Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His wondrous works and devoutly praise them!” – AMP

Psalm 34:1-3
“¹ I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. ² My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. ³ Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.” – NKJ

Romans 15:11
“¹¹And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.” – NIV
When we offer up praise and worship to God we are exalting Him over everything else in our lives. We are exalting Him over people, we are exalting Him over our circumstance, we are exalting Him and lifting Him above everything and everybody. We are recognizing He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God above all gods. When we lift up our hands we are surrendering all that we have to Him. Surrendering all that we are going through to Him and entrusting Him with our lives.

We were created to worship God. Did you know that?

Revelation 4:11
“¹¹"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” – NIV

How many of you were created by God? Then you were created to worship Him.

Psalm 102:18
“¹⁸This will be written for the generation to come, That a people yet to be created may praise the LORD.” – NKJ

We were created to dance with God. Be in harmony with God.

Zephaniah 3:17
“¹⁷ For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” – NIV

We read here in Zephaniah that God rejoices over us with joyful songs. This word rejoice means to “leap” as a gazelle or deer leaps and bounds. If you have ever seen a deer leap and bound it is like a dance that takes place. God is like that with us he dances over us…not just over us but wants to dance with us. I am reminded of how David “leaped and danced” before the Lord in 2^nd Samuel 6. He was worshipping God. Dancing with God.

Too many Christians today are Wallflowers.

Wallflower: a shy or retiring person who remains unnoticed at social events, especially a woman without a dance partner.

Some Christians are ok with just sitting on the sidelines and not step out when God asks, “May I have this dance”, or “Would you like to dance”. Maybe it is something in their life that is hindering them from getting on the dance floor with God. Maybe it is some kind of sin that is in the way. Maybe the devil whispers in their spirit, “You’re not good enough for Him.” Causing them not to worship the way God had intended them to worship. And it becomes mundane. It becomes mechanical. It becomes just lip service. But dancing with God is more than the same ole same ole. Worshipping with God is having an encounter with the Creator. Having an experience with the King of Kings.

Worship is a dance with the bridegroom. We are the bride and because we are the bride we need to allow God to lead. Sometimes we want to lead the dance and we end up stepping on toes and falling over. God is supposed to lead, we were meant to follow. When we allow God to lead this dance, some things begin to break loose in our lives.

Freedom of Praise

When you begin to worship God and really begin to praise Him, it brings a sense of freedom to your life. A freedom that can only come from a dance with God. A freedom that can only come from praising God with all your heart, mind, and soul. You haven’t experience true freedom until you have danced with God, until you really have experienced worship with God. It is not how you worship, it is why you worship that brings that freedom.

Matthew 15:8-9
“ ⁸These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ⁹They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” –NIV

Your heart has to be in it. Otherwise it is in vain. It is for nothing. When you connect your heart to the heart of God, freedom begins to ring throughout your life.

Sometimes we let our circumstance dictate our worship. We allow the issues in our lives determine how we worship and praise God. When we do this we are trying to lead the dance and it doesn’t work that way, it won’t work that way. It seems that when things are going good in our lives we praise God and we worship God with all our heart, mind, and soul, but the moment we go through a rough spot….the moment we enter into a valley our worship becomes less than what it should be. We let our circumstance dictate how we worship. Our hearts are not in it. It becomes something we do on Sundays.

We need to get to the point where we can worship God no matter what the circumstance. No matter what the situation. When you don’t feel like worshipping, worship. When you’re in the valley, worship. When you’re in the middle of the storm, worship. When no one else is worshipping, worship. When you just begin to worship, freedom comes about.

We read about Paul and Silas who were thrown into prison because they were doing the work of the Lord. They had two options while they were in prison. They could have just sat there and sulked and complained about their situation. They could have gone before God and blamed God for everything. “If God were for us then why didn’t He step in”, “I thought our steps were ordered of the Lord” and so on and so on. But that is not what they chose to do. Instead they chose to worship God despite of their circumstance.

Acts 16:25
“²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…” - NIV

At midnight, in the darkest hour of their lives they began to worship God. They began to cry out to God and sing unto God. They worshipped despite their circumstance. Despite the fact that they were in prison, despite the fact that no one else joined in, despite the fact they might die the next day…they worshipped God! And because of their worship and praising God they had a sense of freedom that no chains could keep locked up. There were two different kinds of freedom they experiences, physical and Spiritual. In the Spiritual sense they still proclaimed their love for God and worshipped Him. These are two who praised God with their hearts and not lips only. Despite the situation, they felt free enough to praise God in the most difficult of times. When you worship God even though you don’t feel like it, it frees you spiritually. God is asking if you will dance with Him even though your situation looks grim, even though the dance floor doesn’t look stable, are willing to trust Him in guiding you and leading you in the steps He wants you to go in.

When you get in line with the steps of God, He can bring you to a place of physical freedom. We see that Paul and Silas continued to sing and worship, they were free spiritually to do so and soon:

Acts 16:26
“²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.” - NIV

I believe that God can shake some things loose in your life when you begin to praise Him. When you are genuinely worshipping Him you are connecting with Him, you are dancing with Him.

2nd Corinthians 3:17-18
“¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” – NIV

Getting into the Lords presence means His Spirit is with you. If the Spirit of the Lord is with you, the Word says there is freedom. When God gets into your life, He starts to change things. We know that when we come to God we come to Him as we are, but God doesn’t want us to stay the same. When your heart lines up with His heart, and you are allowing Him to lead the dance, I believe God can break addictions, I believe lives can be changed. You see where God is…. sin can’t be. Where there is light…there can’t be darkness.

1st John 1:5
“⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” – NIV

This worship that we are talking about is not just on Sundays when we have praise and worship…worship is a lifestyle. It is worshipping God in everything you do. When you begin to worship God in everything you do, you see He is transforming you into the image of Christ. When you are being transformed the sin has to go! The more you look like Christ the less you look like the world.

Paul used to be Saul the Christian killer. But, Paul had an encounter with God that transformed his life. He was in bondage of sin but God grabbed a hold of him and set him free. God began to lead him in the dance. He was free! He continued to live in that freedom. It wasn’t just a Sunday religion to him; it was a lifestyle of worship to God. Everything he did was to worship God.

When we allow God to take the lead, true freedom will reign in our lives.
John 8:31-32
“³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching (let me take the lead), you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” NIV (emphasis added)

John 8:34-36
³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” - NIV

Jesus is saying if you hold to my teaching, meaning let me lead the dance, you will know the truth and out of that truth you will know that a lifestyle of sin is not freedom. But if you allow the Me too…I can set you free! Notice it says “if” the Son sets you free, not when. Why? Because it is up to us to answer yes to God’s question: “May I have this dance?”

If you choose to take the dance you choose to worship God, you choose to let God lead the way and when you do that there is freedom…true freedom!