 Okay, welcome back. I hope you had a good one. Right, so let's just resume from where we left off. We've been reading from Revelation chapter 4 just to get a picture of God's throne room. We saw Isaiah chapter 6. These are some of the scriptures that, in my opinion, that every Christian should read and kind of spend time, not just reading, but also study and meditate on. Let's just read another chapter, if you don't mind, for us to understand what's happening in the heavenlies. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 1. If ever you come to the church office, there's this book called the Tanakh. Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible, only the Old Testament, right? And it has the commentary of this Ezekiel 1. It says, the most qualified scribes could not understand or put in their own words of what exactly it's being said here. And it's one of those chapters that's kind of complex, so I'm just giving you a heads up. If you don't understand, that means you're still normal, perfectly fine, but then it's there. Let's just give it an attempt, because I like to read it and not understand anything and feel good about it. It's like, wow, I didn't understand that, but I like it. Can we do that, guys? Yeah, Ezekiel 1. Once again, I'm just going to read, I'll see where I can stop. It just starts off by saying, Ezekiel's vision of God's glory. Okay. Now it came to pass in the 30th year, in the fourth month on the fifth day of the month, that I was among the captives by River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. I saw visions of God. Verse 3, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Boosie in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there. Verse 4, here we go, here we go. Then I looked and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself. A great cloud of raging fire, I'm reading from the NKJV, engulfing itself and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst, like a color of amber out of the midst of the fire. Amber, it's somewhat golden yellowish kind of a thing. And also, verse 5, also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures and this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man. Each only had four faces and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight and their soles off their feet were like the soles of calves feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. The hands of man were hands on their wings on their four sides and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went but each went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a face of a man, each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side and each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side and each on the four had the face of an eagle. That's where their faces was 12. And each one went straight forward and they went wherever the spirit wanted to go and they did not turn when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright and out of the fire went lightning, verse 14. And the living creatures ran back and forth in appearance like a flash of lightning. Talk about the speed of light. Talk about how fast these creatures can go travel. They went back and forth in appearance like a flash of lightning. How cool is that? I think I'll pause there. But you can read about these other cherubim. The cherubim, the one we read in Isaiah 6 were the seraphim. And the one you read in Ezekiel, Revelation 4, are known as the living creatures. It's like some of us have read enough scriptures for the whole month. Let's pause and let's imagine once again. Let's take time to absorb what we've just read from Revelation 4. It's crazy angels to Isaiah 6, the seraphims, and then just this. Guys, this is the God that you and I are talking about worshipping. He's surrounded by absolute magnificence. I just can't begin to fathom. I don't know what choice of words to use to define everything that is mentioned. But coming back to Psalm 22 verse 3, it says, But you are enthroned on the praises of your people. All of this throne and all this glory around. This is what happens when we praise him and we worship him. Now let's just take, imagine a palace. I'm going to keep using this word, imagine. So forgive me if I overuse it. Imagine a palace or house, whatever. It has many, many rooms, isn't it? Yes or no? And one room out of all these rooms in the palace is the throne room. Also known as the presence chamber. Okay, it is from the throne room where the king commands and gives orders politically what needs to be done or shouldn't be done. This is what has to happen on this day, et cetera, et cetera. Right? It's that's the throne room. I mean, God says I'm enthroned on the praises. When we praise him in this room, right? When we praise him, when we come together, when we start singing praises and worship to him, this room becomes his throne room. We don't have to see the heavens open and whatnot because that's what the psalmist says. He's enthroned on our praises. Are you with me? Right? So we just read two other scriptures. It says, I will enter his gates with thanksgiving. Our gates will be called praise. Yes. And Psalm 22 verse 3 says he's enthroned on our praises. Now, if God is enthroned on our praises, someone else is enthroned on our complaints. Should I say that again? If God is enthroned on my praise, someone else is enthroned on my complaints. Who is that someone? Thank you, Rin. Everybody is second guessing. Is that the devil? So good, you see. Come on, guys. Right? Three things that happens when the Israelites were coming out of Egypt. MCG. That's murmuring, complaining, grumbling. MCG is like Melbourne Cricket Ground. If God is enthroned on our praises, complaints is like... That's what attracts the flies kind of a thing. It's like it attracts every kind of demonic spirit, every kind of... The demonic kingdom is attracted towards your murmuring, your ungratefulness, your unthankfulness, your constant complain. Yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah, you know? Are you with me? But when God is enthroned on our praises, that also means that the enemy is dethroned. Yeah? When God is enthroned on our praises, it also means that the devil is dethroned. Are you with me? So praise is powerful. Okay? Next chapter, we're going to be talking about praise and warfare, but you understand, praise is more than what you're just saying and just to make you feel good and watered. No, no, no, no, no. Praise is fast songs, jumpy songs, you know? But no, it's warfare, right? The verse that says, I will enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Then whose gates are you entering when you're complaining and murmuring? Whose courts are you going into? It's like, yeah, this is not good. Yeah, that is not good. My family is like this. Yeah, my friends are like this. My life is like this. Bye-bye. From morning till evening, from the rising of the sun to the going of the same, I will complain. If we enter God's gates with praise and thanksgiving, whose gates are we entering when we complain and murmur and we are not being grateful or thankful? Think about it. Believe me and trust me, you don't want to enter those gates. Once you enter in, it's very hard to get out. Okay, so everybody got serious. You're with me so far, yeah? Praise becomes so much more easier once we have an image of who this God be a worshipping. And like I said, he's given us his scripture, his word for us to constantly imagine so that for us to imagine paint pictures. Okay, so let's move on. In your notes to the bottom of page 14, distinctives of praise. Praise is extroverted in nature. Everybody say extrovert. It simply means expressive. It's not something that you can just do on the inside of your heart. It's like praise the Lord. No brother, it's okay. Thank you. I will do it inside. Okay, I'm praising you. I'm just doing it. It's on the inside, brother. No, praise is extroverted in nature. We just went through the seven Hebrew words. It's like you have to express. You have to lift your hands. All of those are the postures, okay? Because we are commanded to do that. It's not just, okay? It looks good. Oh, cheerleaders. Hey, you know. It's not, you know, it's sometimes, you know, we worship leaders think that we are cheerleaders, but the congregation needs to understand, hey, it's a command. We are all commanded. That's what it's saying next in the next point. But very quickly, distinctives of praise. It's extroverted in nature. That means we are all invited and commanded to express, right? And we've just touched on what touched on those points saying, it's based on who God is and not our feelings. Okay, often we must will and determine to praise God. And now I realize it that it's very easy for me to say that it's praise is not about feeling and it's a choice. It's easy for me to say and expect you to do it. But it takes faith, right? It takes developing that intimacy with God, knowing who God is. So and having the revelation of who he is every day is a strength for us to do life. Okay, you with me? Okay, next, let's go to the next page. Why should we praise him? Why should we praise him? We are commanded in his word to do so. Can someone go to Psalm 81 was one to four. Psalm 81 was one to four. Can someone read that out, please? Thank you. Thanks, bro. Single out to God our strength. Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. It's a command, right? We are commanded to praise him. Let's go to Psalm 148. I know the notes say Psalm 149, but let's go to Psalm 148. Okay, Psalm 148. Can someone read that out loud, please? I shall not ask of you. This is all from the earth. You bring the secretaries and all the texts. Fire and rain, snow and cloud, snowy wind, cool breeze, water, mountains and mountains, cool breeze and all the birds. In this and all that weather, drinking in and playing golf, in this of the earth and all the birds, the birds of the earth. Both young men and great men, all the children, let them praise the name of the Lord, His name alone is exalted, His glory is above the earth and heaven, and He has exalted the month of His people. The praise of all His saints, of the children, of His kind, of the people near to Him. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thank you. Thank you for reading the entire Psalm. I love the Psalm because it starts off, it's divided so beautifully from verse 1 to verse 6. It's all about the heavenlies. Everything about praise the Lord from the heavens, the heights, angels, hosts, moons, stars of light. Praise you heavens of heavens and whatnot. And then verse 7, it progresses down to earth and all the sea creatures and everything. Human beings don't even come until verse 10. Sorry, verse 11. One verse late. Then finally, kings of the earth and all people's praise and all judges of the earth. So beautiful because you see all these creatures that's mentioned above, right? They don't have a choice. They don't have a choice. The deep sea creatures praise Him. The trees of the field clap their hands and they praise Him. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God day and night. They pour forth speech night after night, day after day without stop. Only us, we have a choice to praise Him. And so we are commanded to praise Him. And if you want to follow the command, it's up to us. So I don't want to read Psalm 149 and 15 because of time we all know what it is. Once again, coming back to God is enthroned on our praises. Why should we praise Him? Because He is enthroned on our praises. When He is enthroned, something is dethroned. It's a good thing, right? There is power in praise. Remember that point because the next chapter, the whole chapter is about that, okay? Understanding that there's power in praise and the passage that we will be looking at is from 2 Chronicles chapter 20. So I'm not going to read that right now. Okay, so why should we praise? There is power in praise. And fourth, it is a good thing to praise. It's a good thing to praise. And God is worthy of our praise. As we've read in Revelation 4, 11, He is worthy of our praise. We were created to praise Him. They're all very simple points for us to understand, right? And any points that you see in these notes, it doesn't end there, okay? It's not an exhaustive list, okay? But it's just there. So why should we praise Him? We have all those points. And the next we go on to when should we praise? When should we praise? Okay, let's go to Psalm 34 verse 1. And different... I want to read that verse in different languages. Tamil, if possible, Kannada or Hindi, Malayalam, whichever. Okay, Psalm 34 verse 1. Anyone in English? Start us off. Thank you. So I will bless the Lord at some times. Sure. Okay, I will bless the Lord. Yeah, even my Bible says that. Yeah, so I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Okay. Any other languages? Dude, he started reading. Okay, so what is it saying? No, as in English, bro. All times. That's what it is. Okay. Your thanks to Him at all times. Okay. So His praise will always be on my lips. Okay. Any other languages? Okay. So what does it mean? Every day. Okay, so every day, every time. Okay, all the time, every time. Okay, what else? Yes, Kannada? Sure. Go ahead. Okay. Praslain once again. Thank you, Karen. Okay, Tamil. Okay. So kalam is... What is the meaning of that? Seasons. Time. Okay. That's what I was going for. So any other language? Anything else? Yeah. Francis. So what is the first line talking about? Is it same as all time? Okay. Every season. Okay. Yeah. That's very interesting. So I will praise Him. One English says all times every day. You know, it's all the time. You know, it's... But I like those words. Like every season. Okay. Now I'm not talking about summer, winter, you know, like springtime and autumn and whatnot. But we have different seasons in our lives. Right? I mean, good season, bad season, ups and downs. It's again coming back to that. Right? A season of waiting. A season of not knowing what to do. A season of everything is happening, point, you know, on point. You know where you have to be, et cetera, et cetera. Those are all seasons of life. And here the psalmist is inviting. When are we to praise Him? Praise Him in every season. Right? That's a beautiful thing, isn't it? So let's go on to... Okay. So when should we praise Him? That's understood. Where do we praise? Let's go to Psalm 149 verse 1. Okay. Don't worry, guys. I'll let you all go a little soon today. Everybody said amen. Okay. Now, can you all open the scriptures that's mentioned in the notes and be ready? So I wouldn't... Someone to... Psalm 35 verse 18 and Psalm 177 verse 32. Okay. Someone read Psalm 149 verse 1, please. Thank you. So praise Him in the assembly of saints. Okay. Psalm 35 verse 18, someone. I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people. Thank you. Okay. Psalm 177 verse 32. Thank you. So there are many more scriptures on praising Him corporately, but this is... Okay. Where do we praise Him? Praise Him in the congregation. Praise Him in the great multitudes. Okay. In the great assembly. Publicly praise Him. Okay. Next. At home. Verse 149 verse 5. Once again, Karen. The single loud on their beds. Okay. It simply means at home, whenever, wherever. You know. Right. And then before the nations, the third point and all peoples. Psalm 96 verse 1 to 3. Someone. Amen. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for reading all the scriptures. So we're just coming to the end of this chapter. Is concluding with understanding why should we praise Him? Because we are commanded and a list of reasons. And when should we praise Him? Praise Him at all times. Praise Him in every season. And where do we praise Him? Praise Him basically everywhere. We praise Him in the congregations. Praise Him at home. You know, praise Him before the multitudes of people. And all of this, again, becomes very easy when we understand, you know, the origins of praise is going back to, when you see, understand Leia's plight. Okay. If I can relate with her and she, when she decided and she, chose to fix her eyes on God, everything changes. Right. And so, and I can guarantee you that is when you begin to praise Him, things, your circumstances change because He's enthroned on your praises. Right. So that is chapter three, the foundations of praise. And I want to actually stop here. And I want to resume in chapter four from next class. Okay. I know that we're stopping a little early, but then that's okay. The focus is really not to just throw all information on your dump, all the knowledge and content on you because I can do that. But then I want you to just take the rest of the time to actually just ponder on the scriptures that you just read. Is that okay? Yeah, just take the next 20 minutes and just let, you know, just sink in, absorb in the scriptures that you do, whichever passage that touched you in the last two hours. Just go back to that and read, even for y'all online, you know, for the next 20 minutes or so before you start the next session, just spend some time reading the scriptures that was mentioned. So we'll stop now and we'll meet again next week for chapter four. All right. Thanks guys. Thanks for joining.