 All right, let's pray, shall we? Yeah, it's on. Let's look to him father. We honor you this morning Lord how wonderful how marvelous how beautiful are you Jesus? Lord we are gathered together here in your name. We are your people called by your name Holy Spirit we invite you We humble ourselves as we continue to learn from your word as we learn to praise and honor and worship you Lord I pray that you would open up our hearts our minds. I pray that our soul our spirit would be Sensitive and receptive to the leading of your voice Help us understand give us the wisdom that we need to understand and learn your word Lord and Let the seeds Go deep into our hearts grow and bear fruit. I pray Jesus name. Amen Awesome, okay, I hope you've been learning something in this course Something something that's helpful I hope the teaching has been helpful But yeah So let's just do a quick recap of what we've done As I always like to do we've covered the seven Hebrew words for praise Yadah Poda Halal halal Y'all need more chai Yeah, yeah, okay Shabbat it's nice Shabbat and What's the next word? Tehila right Barak and Zamar, okay Yeah, Zamar, okay, and then we went on to learn the origins of praise, right about the name of Judah We learned a little bit about Leia and Rachel Right and how God honors people who chooses to praise. No, it's just wonderful So that's what just a very quick recap of what we've learned so far No, I know I haven't started teaching in this class yet, but does anybody have any questions from the previous classes That you've had That you wanted to ask If anybody online if you have a question, please type it in the chat section, okay Because the sound clarity is not always the greatest So if you have any question put it in the chat section, we'll try and address it any questions here guys anything Yes, no, maybe the Indian nodding No questions Okay, so you know what they say, you know, if you have no questions you either understood everything or nothing Right Okay, let's just continue. We are still in chapter 3 We looked at Wait Yeah, we stopped at understanding the origins of praise and Then we stopped at Actually, we stopped God is enthroned on the praises of his people, right? Some 22 verse 3. That's what it says. Isn't it some 22 verse 3? What does it say in your Bible? Who's enthroned in your Bible? So I just want to very quickly look at, you know, this what we concluded in the last class Thrown again in Hindi singharsan, isn't it? So throne room is what? That's also singharsana. No, right? So throne room throne room matlab Bedroom side Okay, something okay, so In simple words, this is a room where the throne is placed Is that easy to understand? Yeah, it's a room where a throne is placed, isn't it? So in this room if a throne is placed, it becomes the throne room Yeah, where the king is seated and In the midst of the king to his right and to his left are the ministers, you know All the government officials of the land, right? It is in the throne room where decisions are made for the kingdom right Decisions are made for the country and every what has to happen, you know, how much is one dollar? How much it should be, you know, all those things are decided in the throne room everything, right? It is in the throne room where the king is seated right King is seated I know we spoke about this in the last class, but I felt like we need to just dwell into it just a little bit Is that okay? Yeah, okay, please bear with me Forgive me if I sounding repetitive Um For the longest time, right for at least since 2010 and Do you know the song we might probably sing this in the supernatural hour I Enter the holy of holies I Enter through the blood of the lamb no, no, okay Take me past the outer course To your holy place past the brazen author, okay Very old songs, okay But all of it it is talking about the throne room of God Like take me past the outer course and do your holy of holies Right, holy of holies is like the throne room here on earth and and ever since I started reading, you know the revelation The four and revelation chapter four and five and Isaiah chapter six especially Isaiah chapter six You know Isaiah is having this vision of the heavens the throne room of God My prayer for the longest time has been I want to see what they saw Why not make that prayer? No, there's nothing wrong in it You know, I want to see what Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter six I want to see what John saw in revelation chapter four five and six I want to see what Daniel saw in Daniel chapter seven and I want to see what Ezekiel saw and Ezekiel chapter one All of these chapters that I've mentioned if you haven't read it. No, you'll all I will call it students I'm sure you've read it Read it again, but ever since I've read those passages my prayer one of the prayers been I Want to see what they saw You know, it's just in his throne room in his majesty and whatnot so In Psalm 22 verse 3 he says God is enthroned. That means his throne is exalted Enthroned is two words right enthroned is Two different words separate words. He's enthroned. That means he builds a throne on our praises right God is enthroned on our praises that means His seated on the throne like, you know, he builds the throne on our praise That means when you say God, I love you. You are awesome. You're magnificent. You are majestic. You are holy You are wonderful. You are you are kind. You are merciful. You are faithful. I praise you You are my Jehovah Jireh. I praise you. You are my Jehovah Rafa. I praise you. El Shaddai Adonai. I praise you. What are you doing? I'm praising him and as I praise him he's being enthroned Are you with me and David makes this prayer says my soul magnifies the Lord What does he say? Magnify, right? You've heard that word before magnify Kind of How many of you in your school Have used a magnification glass magnifying glass You've used magnifying glass Yeah, you've done that experiment with pointing to the sun and trying to burn a book That I've done sir, you know the subjects I didn't like I tried to burn that book So what does a magnifying glass do? It makes the small thing Big isn't it? It's like the specs you take the Magnifying glass you go you can read the small thing big isn't it? That's what a magnifying glass does, right? So magnifying or magnification is to make small things big Yes or no, but when David is praying my soul magnifies the Lord How do you make someone big? So big More bigger Someone is already very big, right? But how do you make him bigger? When you go through the entire psalm it says when I praise him Right, he becomes big in us He becomes bigger than our situation that you are facing Are you following when you choose to praise him? He magnifies himself He exalts himself over the situation and the circumstances that you are going through Are you with me? Yes, and so that's why when we praise He is enthroned his throne becomes big that means If someone is enthroned, there's place only for one person on the throne Yes or no, there is space only for one person on the throne So if God is enthroned, if Jesus is enthroned on our praises That means someone else is Dethroned Dethroned means they're off the throne. They are not trying to get out of the throne Seated on the throne anymore. Are you with me? So if God is enthroned On my praises that means the enemy the devil shaitan He is dethroned. Are you with me? Yeah, so Now another important thing that you need to pay attention is If God is enthroned on our praises If God is enthroned on our praises, the opposite of praise is complaints Not being grateful, not being thankful, right? Are you with me? So if God is enthroned on our praises, who is enthroned on our Complaints? Why did you bring us out to this wilderness, Moses? You could have been in Egypt. Why did you bring us out to here to die? There's no water. It's bitter. There's no food. There's no bread. There's no meat to eat. There's nothing. Why did you bring us out to it? What did they do? They were constantly They did this three thing, very famous thing. Remember these, okay? MCG, murmuring, complaining, grumbling, murmuring, complaining, grumbling, constantly against God. So what happens? So if praise is building God's throne, complains and ungratefulness, not being thankful for what God has done enthrones the devil's throne. Are you with me? Yes. Now Psalm 100 verse 4 it says, I will enter his gates. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise. I will enter his gates. Whose gates? Whose gates? Sure. No, God's gates. No, my gates. It's my house gate. I will enter the gates of God with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. So if you're entering God's gates with thanksgiving and praise, whose gates are you entering when you complain and murmur, how many of you have complained? No one. Such good students we have in class. I didn't complain, right? No. But I hope you understand the power and the intensity of praise and being thankful, being grateful. Are you with me? Right? His throne is established when you praise. When God is enthroned, the devil is dethroned. When you enter his gates, when you enter God's gates with thanksgiving and praise, you enter the devil's gates when you complain and murmur and whine. Are you with me? Right? And so these are all like the basic foundations of praise that we need to understand. Okay, so now that we've understood, let's look at in your notes, in your PDF, it's page 14. It says, Distinctives of Praise. Which page number is for you guys? Distinctives of praise. Page 14, right? At the bottom. Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. So there are different kinds of praise. That's basically what it is. Okay. So praise, the first one, the word used, there is extrovert in nature. Extrovert. So what is, okay, what does the extrovert mean? Any idea? Extrovert, how do you spell it? Extrovert. Okay. The opposite of extrovert is introvert. So let me give you an example. So I am an introvert. My personality, a character is, that means I like to be alone. Like, you know, I don't, I don't hate people, but I don't necessarily like, you know, spending time. I don't hate people. Okay, let me make that very clear. You know, when I go to church or someone, I am one of those types. As soon as this pastor says amen and whatnot, escape. Okay, I am not staying back, say hi, hello, hello, you know, I mean, that doesn't mean I hate people. My wife is not like that. My wife is an extrovert. She will invite a stranger home for lunch. Okay. Yeah, she was traveling in a train one day from Chennai to Bangalore. She met a lady on train. Yeah, come home for lunch. Where is she from? You know, so she likes, so that's extroverted people is like, you know, they always like, they are very loud. They are like very easy to have conversations with. They like to have chat with people. You know, and so they're very expressive in other words. Extroverted people. Now, some hundred verse one, some hundred verse one, just go there. Okay, by the way, those online, I'm looking forward to meeting you all just because I said I'm an introvert. That doesn't mean, you know, so yeah. So it says, make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Isn't it? Right? Some hundred verse one, it says, make a joyful noise. It doesn't give any specific words. It's just saying shout. Make a noise. Make some noise. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the lands or all the earth. Right? It doesn't say make a joyful noise to the Lord only extroverts. All your extroverts make joyful noise. All the introverts just clap your hands, clap offering. No, isn't it? Bible is commanding that all doesn't really care if you're introvert or an extrovert. Are you with me? So praise in your notes, it says, praise is extroverted in nature. That means you have to be vocal about it. You have to be expressive when you praise. Are you with me? Right? It's extroverted in nature. And you read that throughout the Old Testament that everybody, you know, that's why we have seven Hebrew words for praise, is like lifting hands, bowing down, playing an instrument, etc. Okay. The second point is, it's to be declared or manifested. You have to verbally say it. You have to declare it. Every morning you'll have devotions, isn't it? And every Sunday in church we make the declaration, isn't it? This is God's word. What are you doing? You are declaring. You are saying it, isn't it? You can't say I'm praising God and I'm being quite. Brother, what are you doing? No, I'm praising God. I'm praising God. Right? It's extroverted in nature and you have to declare it. Read the redeemed of the Lord say so. The Bible declares that. So praise is extroverted in nature. You have to declare it and praise is also based on who God is and not our feelings. That's the last point there. Praise is based on who God is and not our feelings. I don't need to explain that point, but I think we get lost in this thing called feelings. Right? I don't feel like praising Him. Listen, I might be teaching on this point that praise is not based on feelings, but I've gone through that season. Okay? Please don't think that I'm sorted, perfect. No, no, no. But it's always a good encouragement to remind us. It's like, okay, hey, intentionally keep this aside. I know what you're feeling. I know you don't feel like praising, but keep it aside. But let's choose to praise because your praise is not based on you, how you feel. You praise because of who God is, who He is, what He has done for you and what He does for you. Right? Even if He doesn't give you one more blessing in your life, simply because He died for you on the cross is enough for you to praise. Understood? Even if He doesn't answer one more prayer of yours, it's absolutely fine. He is still worthy to be praised. Why? Because He has already given everything. He gave His life for us. And that alone, that one reason is enough. Are you with me? Right? Okay. All okay, no? Okay. All right, let's go to the next section. Why should we praise? Why should we praise? We look at a couple of scriptures. We are commanded in His Word to do so. We are commanded in His Word. Let's read Psalm 81 verse 1 to 4. Psalm 81 verse 1 to 4, it says, Sing aloud to God our strength. Shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Raise a song. Assound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon on our feast day. Verse 4, Psalm 81, for it is a statue for Israel, statue as in it's a command for Israel, a rule of the God of Jacob. Okay. Why should we praise Him? Because we are commanded in His Word to do so. How many of us believe in the Bible? Bible colleagues. Sorry, one second. I forgot. I imagine in the Bible colleagues, they know I don't believe in the Bible. All right. So if you believe in the Bible, if you believe what it says, that means you have to do what it says. Right? One of the preachers, he said, Bible study without Bible experience is waste. Doing Bible studies without Bible experience that is experiencing everything what the Bible has given us to experience is a waste of time. So we are not here only for knowledge. We are not here only for information. We are here for transformation, isn't it? Right? So the first point there is we are commanded in His Word to do so. Psalm 81 verse one to four says that second point, why should we praise? We've looked at that point extensively is because God is enthroned in our praises. God is enthroned in our praises. There is power and praise. We learn about it in detail probably in the next class thereafter. There is power in your praise. And we look at that specific chapter, Second Chronicles chapter 20. Okay? It is a good thing to praise Him. Let's look at Psalm 92 verse one and Psalm 135 verse three. Psalm 92 verse one. Are you there? Psalm 92 verse one. It says it starts off by saying it is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praise to your name almost high, to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night. Right? It is good. It's a good thing. Right? Let's look at another scripture. Psalm 135 verse three. Psalm 135 verse three. It says praise the Lord for the Lord is good. Sing to His name for it is pleasant. I'm reading from the ESV version. But yeah, other translations, versions should say something similar. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good. Sing to His name for it is pleasant. It's a good thing. Fifth point is why should we praise Him? Because He is worthy of our praise. Right? God is worthy of our praise. And finally, last point, we were created to praise Him. We were created to praise Him. Think about it, right? We read in the scriptures and Psalms, it says, you know, the trees of the field, they clap their hands in praise. Right? Psalm 19 verse one. Psalm 19 verse one says, the heavens declare the glory of God day and night, their poor fourth speech. Psalm 95 says, the deep sea creatures praise Him. And so all of every other creation praises Him, but only you and I have a choice to praise Him. Only you and I can make that choice. That's why our worship is so powerful is because you choose to praise Him. Are you with me? So when it says we were created to worship, when we realize that, think, here's the thing. In the world, there is a lot of sin that is going on. Right? Yes or no? Right? You can commit any different activities of sin, whatever it is. You know about all that. Yes or no? You know about pornography. You know about smoking, about alcohol, about bad language, or anything. Right? Anything that we know, we have the knowledge of all those things. In this body, I have the capacity to commit all those sins. Yes? I know I can do all those things, but I'm choosing not to do that, and I choose you. And that's why our worship is so special and powerful to God. Are you with me? So when we realize that, hey, I was not created for all the wrong things. I was created for Him, for His pleasure, a perspective of worship changes completely. Okay? We've got any questions so far? Anything? I hope everybody online are doing all right. Okay. Just a couple more sections and we'll be done. When should we praise? When should we praise simple answer at all times and forever? At all times, Psalm 34 verse 1 is, I will exalt the Lord at all times. Right? Not only on Sunday morning church, 10.30 a.m., 10.30 to 11.15, I'll praise Him. After that, I'll sit down. You know? When should we praise? You know, this is one of those verses. It's, you know, we read about this scripture. It says, pray without seizing. Have you heard that verse? Pray without seizing. That means pray without stopping. It's talking about the posture of your heart. Let your heart always be inclined to what God is doing. Right? And when that is in tune with God, praising and prayer will not be a challenge. Right? So we are commanded to praise Him at all times to have the posture of praise. And where do we praise? There are three points there in the congregation at home and before the nations, all peoples, basically everywhere. Okay? Everywhere. So we are encouraged to praise. Again, I've given a lot of scriptures. Please go through them, highlight them, use it whenever you can. And then when God takes you back, after you're done with your degree, please use all these materials to teach. Okay? Don't just keep it with you. All right? Go ahead and teach more people. So let's take a look at quick, very quickly of what we've covered so far. We learned about God being enthroned on our praises, different expressions of praise. That means it's extroverted. That means you have to express, you have to declare it. Right? Not just hold your hands and be quiet. We are commanded to praise. He's enthroned. It is a good thing to praise. We are encouraged to praise Him at all times. And we are encouraged to praise everywhere. All good? We'll read just one more scripture and we'll close. Okay? Let's go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119 was 169. It's just one last side note as for us, if you're there. Psalm 119 verse 169. Let my cry come before you, O Lord, give me understanding according to your word. If you have a pen underlined according to your word, let my plea come before you. Deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise for you teach me your statues. My tongue will sing of your word for all your commandments are right. So according to your word is mentioned twice. It says, let my cry come before you, O Lord, verse 169. Give me understanding according to your word. Okay? Second, verse 170. Let my plea come before you. Deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise for you teach me your statues. So you see that my lips will pour forth praise. Why? Because you teach me your statues. Statues, in other words, is word, a commandment. Because you teach me, I know how to praise. Are you with me? And so the guidelines on how to praise and worship is in his word. Are you with me? Okay? Now I make this, I make all my students do this exercise in different batches. Psalm 119 is one of my favorite Psalms. The scholars call it as, it's a love poetry to the word of God. It's an expression of love poetry to the word of God. There are 175 verses. Yeah? 76? Okay. I didn't get 900 out of 100. Okay. So Psalm 119, every verse, every verse, you know, 176 verses, you will find these words. You will find the word, a word, you will find the word law, precepts. It just depends on which version you're using. Okay? Precept commands, ways, testimony, statues, something else, promise. I'm talking about the English Bible. And depending on your version of the Bible, it might vary. So you will find these words in every different verses. Okay? That's the word statues, word, law, precepts, commands, commandments, ways, testimony, promise. All of this, it simply means is all pointing to the word of God. Okay? Understood? All of these words are simply pointing to the word of God. So take 15 minutes when you can. If you can find these words, underline it. Okay? This whole Psalm, it talks about the importance of the word of God. And verse, Psalm 19, Psalm 119, verse 170 says, because you teach me, I praise. Are you with me? Okay? Many, many years ago, 2007, 2007, my mentor asked me to do this exercise. He said, he mark all these words in your Bible, go through those words versus, I've never forgotten that exercise. So, yeah, everybody online, I hope you guys are okay. I'll actually pause here for today. We'll continue the next chapter, next class with the power of praise. Okay? All right, great then. Well, thanks for joining in. God bless you. Have a good day. Oh, there is no assignment, Nisha. This is just an exercise. So, yeah, there is no assignment. Don't worry. Thank you. God bless you. Thanks.