 All right, and we're recording a good morning everybody once again. Welcome. Thank you all for joining Good afternoon. Good evening. Wherever you are joining us from Good to see you all. I hope you've been doing well Okay Few more people joining again Good. Can I request one of us to restart us off with the word of prayer this morning, please? Anybody let's go for it. Yeah Yeah, John go for it Father we thank you for this time We've given us Lord we humble ourselves before you even as we learn from your word Lord your word is power and We believe in your word Lord Jesus Lord even as we learn we pray that you will speak to us so clearly and Help us to understand you help us to understand your wordiness Help us to understand the power of your word God Help each one of us to align with your word We thank you for this opportunity In Jesus name we pray Thank you Thanks, John Yeah, I always like to do before we start our sessions is just to do a quick recap of what we've covered so far So I mean just keeps it keeps the content fresh for all of us And I think it's a good reminder as well And I'm sure you go back and study the notes that be that we do in every class But let's do a quick recap rate chapter one is all about giving a definition for praise and worship or understanding And defining praise and worship. That's what we did. We looked at multiple quotes from different people about their understanding or their revelation of worship and We also very briefly understood the definition of praise and the sacrifice of praise, etc And then we move on to the second chapter where we study the Hebrew words for praise and worship We saw we learned that there are seven main Hebrew words for praise. I one is called the hands of praise, which is yadda and Then the expectation of praise which is toda right and Then the third word was halal, which is known as the celebration of praise Which means to make a show to rave to rejoice to celebrate right to party basically That's what it is all about. So yadda basic once again I just means of praising him with extended hands. This is idea of You know, just throwing up praise at God, right? and we saw multiple verses multiple scriptures Two key scriptures that we looked at was Psalm 28 verse 1 and 2 and Psalm 134 right And expectation of praise is giving thanks to God for the things that are not yet received Okay, that's why it's called the expectation of praise and it still comes from the same root word as yadda, okay? the fourth word The Hebrew word for praise is Shabbah, which is the shout of praise One of the most beautiful things that we learned about this word is that because of our shouts of praise The next generation will know who the Lord is and so it is very important That the church of our day and age Lifts up the shout of praise It's not just to get everybody pumped up in a concert or in a praise and worship night Praise songs are more than that praise songs are not meant to just so we can feel good It's got a nice beat or a groove to it Praise is a weapon of warfare in his kingdom, isn't it? And it's so much of power and we will learn as we go on the power of praise, but that's Shabbah The shout of praise, okay? and The fifth one is the song of praise Which is tahila Okay, which simply means erupting in a spontaneous song a heart Filled with the song of praise for what he for what he has done for who he is basically That's tahila and then the sixth Hebrew word is Barak Which is kneeling down before the king of kings to salute to thank with bowed knees, okay And then finally the last Hebrew word for praise is Zamar Which is the music of praise praising him with singing praising him with musical instruments That is another aspect another element that's being added in praise Okay, so seven Hebrew words for praise and if you notice all of the end of all these each of these sections I've put a certain questions for you to go back and reflect on and I really hope that you've had the chance and opportunity to do that if you have not done that I'm gonna encourage you to do that You know just ask yourself those questions for example in the last section the music of praise in your notes In page 12 At the bottom there is a section says personal or group reflection questions, right? You know based on these verses how common do you think that the practice of music was in the ancient world? You know we can use it as group discussions in your church in your church worship teams as well, okay What what role has music played in your spiritual journey? So this this is just an example of each section and each section has these questions that you can reflect and Meditate on and learn from and learn and you will probably teach it to your to your worship team Members if you're part of them, right? So it's very nice You know, so make sure please make a use of it and the other Hebrew word we looked and we learned that was Shahaa Which is the Hebrew word for worship? It is a posture the ultimate posture of Worship right we learned a little bit about posture because if we notice that all the seven Hebrew words for praise and that one Hebrew word for worship All kind of is an expression is it's it's it resembles a posture Right, and then we looked at if there's a good posture. There is also a bad posture, right? physically speaking and realistically If we all know how a bad posture can affect our bodies Isn't it? We have to stand a right way We have to sit a right way and if we learn to sit the wrong way You know over and if that becomes your practice and a habit it starts affecting your body, isn't it? I Don't know how it's in how it is in the other parts of world, but you know in Bangalore at least Our auto drivers has had they have an amazing postures when they are riding orders It's like the handle is here, but the body will be here I'm not sure if you've seen it, but I'm not sure if it's the same in the past, but then Yeah, that's a I'm not sure that's the right posture, but hey, that's how they do it but all of that is for us to understand that the posture of worship that were Shahar it means just falling flat on the ground before the king of all kings Face down putting your face to the dust It is a place where you we cannot defend ourselves It is a place where we experience his goodness not just his goodness, but his overwhelming goodness He overwhelms us with his love with his goodness with his glory with simply his presence In in first chronicles in 15 chapter we see that the priests could not perform Their duties because the cloud descended on the temple So it is a place where we simply cannot defend ourselves. That is the good posture of worship that's what we saw isn't it and The bad posture Was the posture of pride? Isn't it now we looked at a couple of scriptures from Isaiah 7 Isaiah 7 I think and Ezekiel 28 is One of the verses that says you about the about about the enemy about Satan. He said I will make myself above The throne of God I will ascend above the throne. I will be like him. I will be like the most high Okay, remember those words. I will be like the most I like God That's a statement of pride and it is the exact same thing that he uses Who tempt Eve Adam and Eve isn't it? He says if you eat off this fruit, you will be like God's and that is born so Humility the origin of the source of humility is God And the origin or the source of pride is The devil you see how serious they are Okay, pride is Devastating pride. It will destroy us. It will destroy you God, you know God can simply not tolerate pride Right James says he resists the proud isn't it but gives grace to the humble that was one of those scriptures that we saw But we as worshipers as worship leaders, whatever, right? One of our duties is to go before him with worship The last thing that I want as a worshipper or as a worship leader is God saying, okay, no Roshan I don't want you. I I'm resisting because your heart is full of pride. Isn't it? and I'm just reminded of another scripture, but we look at it another point In it's in the book of Amos Amos chapter 2 or 5 I'm not sure but we look at later. It says all your praise and all your singing is just like loud noise gongs You don't mean anything. That's God simply resisting their worship So I Mean look guys During this course, right? We're going to learn a lot of things the practical aspects of praise and worship But there's if there's just two things that I would love for you to carry the rest of your life on the subject of praise and worship Worship is all about humility and what worship is not Is full is worship that is full of pride so just Be aware of that, you know in your entire journey as a Christian as a worshipper as a worship leader Pride and humility good posture bad posture Okay, the heart of worship as we sing I'm coming back to that heart of worship You need to be humble to say I'm coming back to you God. I cannot do this on my own I trust in you. I'm gonna depend on you The opposite of depend is independence and that attitude of independence is a sense of pride You know, I can do this all myself. I don't need your help You are you following with me? Yeah, you with me? Okay So all of this is still a recap of what we've done so far and the importance of the the posture of worship and praise Cool All right, so I hope everybody's with me Okay, today, let's go into chapter three in your notes Chapter three page 13 Okay, chapter three page 13 And we're going deeper and deeper into the subject of praise This chapter is titled the foundation of praise Okay, found foundation of praise Before we build something before we build a 10-story building or whatever it is We need to have a foundation, isn't it? And so this chapter is all about that. It's gonna set a beautiful foundation I mean every chapter so far has been like a foundation, but Okay, so once again The definition of praise just to remind us once again is the dictionary says it means to command to applaud To express approval good job awesome work. You know, it was a really nice Admiration of to extoll in words or in song to magnify to glorify and Praise is the verbal confession of adoration and thanksgiving For what God has done and for what he will do Right the prayer the expression of emotions and heartfelt feelings of thankfulness, etc Okay, so we praise God two ways one is directly and indirectly Okay, just like it is so similar to how we appreciate one another Okay, that's that's how easy it is as simple it is for us to understand There are a couple of people whom I know here So for example, it's like I can I can praise for example, let's say Nicholson, right? I know him I go to say like bro. I love the way you play your guitar. It's awesome You know, I'm applauding him. I'm I'm showing my approval my admiration my adoration directly to him Right and there's another way of me. I can go to John and says like hey John, you know Nicholson Yeah, man, I love the way he plays his guitar. It's just brilliant. He's so skillful so Virtuously right in the way he plays his guitar. I love the way he fee and I know I love his Love the way he feels it. He knows his techniques. What he says he's amazing. You see what happened there, right? I Directly praise him and I can also indirectly Appreciated and praised him through another friend. So that's exactly what we do right when we praise God directly We are directly telling him like I am extolling you Lord. I praise you Magnify you. You are awesome. You are magnificent. You are holy. You are amazing. You are wonderful. You are beautiful You are amazing. That's directly praising him And directly simply things like calm. Let us praise him for he is good Don't you know how good he is? How wonderful he is, right? And I've said this you know, I keep saying this like every time there's a word that ends with full Right, like beautiful or wonderful. It simply means he's full of wonder when we say he's wonderful He's full of wonder when we say he's beautiful You are full of beauty when we say that he is faithful. It simply means he is full of faith Isn't it and that's and that's you know, when we come together in corporate worship and then we extoll we Tell one another is like and when we testify to each other, you know, I mean, it doesn't have to be that you know Exuberant all the time even when we meet for a coffee, right? That's the famous thing in our culture, you know when we meet for coffee or Whatever see, you know last week I was going through this and God came through He was so good. I needed this amount of money to pay for my rent or fees or whatever it is and he provided He's so good. He's so awesome And that is it What's happening there? You are just showing off his goodness his praise his his wonderful acts Indirectly, right? So that's what it is. So we praise God directly and we praise him indirectly by commending him to others right, so That's that's just a brief understanding of how we praise him Okay. Now, let's take a look at Some of the scripture passage which is essential for our understanding of the foundations of praise. Okay It I am I going too fast? Uh Oh, yeah, hope not. Yeah, everybody. Okay. It was the follow Yes faster awesome Two people said thank you It's okay. We're two or three. I gathered he's he's kidding All right. Thank you, Priya. Thank you Okay, um, let's let's dive in now. Okay Scriptural references The first Old Testament reference is found in Genesis 25 Okay, uh, sorry 29 29 verse 35. Let's all go to Genesis chapter 29 Genesis chapter 29 verse 35 And she conceived again And beer is some As she said now will I praise the Lord? Therefore, she called his name Judah and left bearing Thank you But But can we just go back uh and read from verse 31? Can we do that? Please? From 31 and then we'll come back and come down to verse 35. So we understand the context. Thank you Genesis chapter 29 verse 31 And when the Lord saw That layer was heated Europe was burning and They are conceived and beer is on And she called his name Ruby For she said surely the Lord had look upon my affliction Now therefore my husband will love me And she conceived again and beer is on and said Because the Lord had asked that I was heated He had Therefore give me the song also And she called his name Simeon And she conceived again And beer is on and said now this Time my husband joined unto me because I have Born in three sons therefore was named Called baby past 35 as you conceived again And beer is on and she said now will I praise the Lord? Therefore she called his name Judah and left there Praise the Lord Amen. Thank you so much Right It's so crucial to understand the previous verses I just to read and go through various layers coming from her situation her circumstance um So verse 31 says when the Lord saw if you have a physical Bible make sure you're under line it, okay When the Lord saw Lord saw He knew Right, he saw and he knew That layer was not loved and some translation says that she was hated Okay He opened her womb But Rachel was barren Layer became pregnant and gave birth to a son She named him Rubin now at this point or by this point She wanted to win Jacob's love That was what dominated Her focus she was obsessed about winning Jacob's love for her which wife wouldn't Isn't it right? She she wanted to win her husband's love that that that drove her that was she was determined about that That was a focus. That was her obsession everything Okay What is interesting is that I mean we know that it's written that the Lord saw uh It's little sad that Leah did not realize or see that Lord saw And that's why he blessed her with children, but let's see. Let's let's go ahead. Okay So she has a first son and she names she named him if you can underline that as well, okay She named him Rubin For she said it is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now Okay, Rubin simply means seen see, okay She names him Rubin Because the Lord has seen her and since she's also telling Jacob is like hey Jacob See I have borne you a son. Will you not love me now? No Didn't work What happened again verse 33 She conceived again And when she gave birth to a son she said Because the Lord heard that I am not loved or because the Lord heard that I'm hated. He gave me this one too So she named him Simeon again, she used that God heard my cry Jacob will you not will you not see and hear my cry? Will you not love me still because I've been giving you two sons Why don't you see Why don't you see why don't you hear my hearts cry for your love? and nothing happens We go down to verse 34 again She conceived And when she gave birth to a son She said now at last my husband will become attached to me Because I have borne him three sons So he named so he was named Levi Okay, now there's a footnote there right at the end of Levi. I mean depending on which version you're but the meaning of the word The name Levi means attached. It comes from the root word attached. Okay So, um, I just I just based this in the chat section. So the third son named Levi simply means attachment. She was now Hoping that after she gave Jacob three sons He would get attached to her and love her as he had been attached to Rachel Okay, and now I'm sure not all of us Can relate to what Leah is going through right, it's not the point but But it's some way. I think we can kind of understand the grief right, but so she is obsessed She is she's determined. I want my husband's love That was her focus I don't know for how many years, you know, it doesn't record that What layer went through this? And then finally she realizes, you know what? I've done everything I possibly can I've been focused on my situation for far too long I have been focused on my needs for far too long I can't do it I don't know Now I give I give I surrender. I give it all to you First study if I comes into the scene. She conceived again when she gave birth This time I will praise the lord This time I'm going to shift my focus I'm going to praise him This is one of the most beautiful things what praise does is it helps us shift our focus From the problems that we face from the circumstances that we are going through from the situation that we are in And it helps us Refocus recalibrate our minds our thoughts and fix it on Jesus on him She named him Judah Isn't that amazing? That's what that's what praise does. Okay, uh, but here's the thing. I don't want to stop here Let's just go a little bit more deeper. Okay. Are you with me guys? Yeah, let's go a little bit more deeper. Now. What did it do now? Some translation it says right in Genesis 29 31 is that she lay anew That she was hated Okay, um, let's go to chapter 35 Genesis chapter 35 Five Okay verse 18 Genesis after 35 I mean you can you can read from 16 to 18 or 19, but uh, yeah, let's just put that for us And this is chapter 35 by 16 to 18 Then they moved on from the hell where they were still some distance from Rachel began to give birth and had great difficult And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth the middle. I've said to her don't be afraid for you have another son As she breathed her last for she was dying. She named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benju Thank you. Uh, could you read also verse 19, uh, jeffina, please? So Rachel died and was buried on the lake Okay, thank you jeffina, okay Now both the names there in verse 18 benoni again has a Footnote and benjamin has a footnote benoni in my bible. It says it means the son of my trouble Uh Rachel was not happy, uh, what she was going through. She was uh, almost like You know With whatever she was going through she had that one of the complainants like, you know, you're the son of my trouble negative You know something and then jacob comes into the scene No Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. Okay, let's just for a side note for us to understand but Just look at verse 19 Rachel died Okay, and was buried on the way to ifrath that is Bethlehem okay Not in Bethlehem On the way to Bethlehem that means somewhere while they were traveling Rachel was buried somewhere in the desert in the wilderness Okay, are you guys with me? Okay, good now. Let's go to the Genesis 49 Genesis 49 Now from chapter 35 to genesis 49 We see I mean The death of lair is not mentioned But there's something interesting that happens here. Okay, let's look at Um, let's read from verse 29. Okay genesis 49 verse 29 Genesis 49 verse 29 onwards Genesis 49 verse 20 Then he gave them these instructions. I'm about to be gathered to my people Burry me with my father's in the cave in the field of Ephron the hatchet Go on till Till verse 31, jeffina The cave in the field of mecca fell near mum re in canner Which abraham bought as a body of grace from Ephron the hatchet along with the feet There abraham and his wife's are available buddy. They're isek and his wife Rebecca were buried and there are buried in the air Okay, thank you jeffina Right. So like I said guys from genesis 35 till now it does not the bible doesn't record Or I might have missed if anybody gets to know If it's recorded somewhere in genesis, please let me know but uh from what I could go through It did not really record when she passed away But it records where lair was buried Now we need to ask that question Why is that mentioned? Why do I need to know that? Why is it important for me to know that? Um, you know, what is the importance of knowing where she was buried? We know that Genesis 35 that rachel was buried somewhere in the wilderness on the way somewhere, but lair was given this honor Of being buried with her descendants Now if there's anything that you and I need to know about the jews They take their pedigree very seriously Like they they take their, you know, their descendants their genealogies very very seriously And by jacob burying her with abraham and his wife and isek and his wife He has honored lair Of like the highest honor in their culture at their day and age So I don't know it's I think something shifted When lair said I'm not going to be focused on winning my husband's love for me I'm going to trust and rely on god And I'm going to praise him And let him Honor me the way only god does And guys if there's anything that we need to know The way god honors us Is Nothing compared to when a man honors us Right, uh, it's just such a beautiful thing, right? And let's look at the following verse. Sorry scripture that is mentioned in your notes Psalm 114 verse 2 We read Psalm 114 verse 2 It says jewder Became god's sanctuary Israel his dominion Okay, are you with me jewder became god's sanctuary Okay, now hold on to that thought Okay, before we go to sound 22. I mean we read this verse last week Psalm 22 verse 3 That he dwells in the midst of israel's praises the holy one of israel's dwells Right in the middle of israel's praises Okay, but But just that verse it was so strong when I read it. It's a jewder became god's sanctuary. Okay now Let's quickly go to again. This is not there in your notes, but let's go to exodus 25. Okay Exodus 25 let's quickly go to exodus 25 Okay, I hope we are all there exodus chapter 25. Okay now this is In this chapter It's where god is instructing moses on how to build a sanctuary Okay, that's the context behind this the tabernacle. So from verse one it says The lord said to moses tell the israelites to bring me an offering You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts to give who willingly give basically verse three These are the offerings you are to receive from them gold silver and bronze blue purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen goat hair ramskins dyed red and hides of sea cows Acacia wood olive oil for the light spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense And onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod of the breast piece Then have them make a sanctuary for me Okay, that's a what it says have them make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell among them Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern. I will show you Okay here god is saying Have them build a physical sanctuary use all these gold use all these, you know threads and skins and whatnot all these colors Build a sanctuary for me And then I said once you built that I will dwell and then in some 114 we see The psalmist writing the Judah became god's sanctuary Which Our praise our verbal declaration Becomes the place where he resides Where he lives, isn't that amazing? And that's what we see in psalm 22 s3 isn't it it's is that he he lives in the he is in the midst Of the praises of his people he he inhabits the praises of his people okay So that's one of the first scriptural references The first one from genesis 29 to psalm 114 And then let's look at the second scripture verse that's mentioned there is From the new testament which is found in matthew 21 16 So turn to matthew chapter 21 Okay Matthew chapter 21 verse 16 Do you hear what these children are saying they asked him yes Jesus replied have you never read from the lips of children and infants you have ordained friends Awesome. Amen. Thank you Let's just read from verse 15. Okay, I'll read it for us. Okay, matthew 21 verse 15 Matthew chapter 21 verse 15 It says when the chief priests and the teachers of the law Saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area. Okay children Okay shouting in the temple area Hosanna to the son of david They were indignant. I mean they were intentional Do you hear what these children are saying they asked him Yes replied jesus have you never read From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise He was courting from psalm Eight verse two From the lips of children you have ordained praise you have silenced my enemies with my praise You have silenced my enemies That's some a chapter eight verse two and three says isn't it? So again We saw what Praise did to layer it helped a shifter focus Right or when she's changed when she intentionally decided to change her focus We see the way god honored her And and we see the praise is something that god has ordained in the lips of infants and children Okay, and if you've seen infants and children They don't have an amazing vocabulary. They don't pronounce words very well Right and most of the times we like to imitate them even if they say things wrong But god is so beautiful and he says in their lips I have ordained praise We're going to look at another one of my favorite scriptures from luke 19 But much later when jesus says The rocks will cry out, but we'll go to that in just a second. Okay But look at Look at all these things that's mentioned in the notes, right bible gives a list of his attributes You know we praise him for so many various things Isn't it we praise him as it says in psalm 92 verse 1 It is good to praise the lord and make music to his name almost high A praise is a good thing. It is pleasant. It's a valuable valuable Morally excellent everything is right about praise. Everything is right about praise Someone 47 says tells us that praise is beautiful and agreeable And someone 50 he says we praise him for his mighty acts Efficiency one chapter 12 chapter 1 verse 12 says praise him for god's glorious grace By which we are saved And fast Thessalonians 15 5 16 to 18 says this is the will of god that we might praise him It is our purpose in everything give thanks. It's from the amplified version We praise him because he is full of glory. We praise him because he is great We praise him because he is wise and wonderful We praise him because he is merciful and faithful. He is full of mercy. He is full of faith We praise him because he is the one who saves us We praise him because he keeps his promises. We praise him because he pardons our sin We praise him because he gives us our daily food And like last class I said there's a book called thousand praises We praise him for a thousand reasons and like matt redman says we praise him for 10 000 reasons isn't it But heaven has only one reason To praise him We have all these reasons heaven has only one and that he is worthy Okay, that he is worthy All right, so that's what we're going to be looking at in the next session So what we'll do is we'll pause here Because I don't want to stop halfway through the topic because it's It's really exciting. It's really interesting. Okay, so we'll pause here. We'll take a break and I'll see you all again in 10 o'clock in 14 minutes, okay ciao