 Hi everyone, welcome. Thanks for joining in those joining in on us online. Thank you Good morning. I hope you had a good week end lovely lovely to see Right, thanks guys. Okay. Let's pray and we'll get started. Yeah, father. We submit this day into your hands We submit this time into your hands a lot of learning and everything Holy Spirit come and do what you do best continue to pour out your wisdom and your knowledge over us God I Pray that even as we read and learn from your word Lord, I pray that you would reveal things like never before I pray that even as you speak that we would be Sensitive to the to the leading of your voice God in Jesus name. Amen Amen All right Great. Okay. So yeah, let's get started It's in the last class we covered what? Foundations of praise. Okay, so what have we covered so far everything just very quickly and whatever you think It doesn't have to be in order a whatever you comes to your mind first of what we've covered so far Just let me know a list of God's attributes. Okay list of God attributes. Okay. What else have you learned? So far we learned a little bit about worship case. This is praise and worship class at least say it Okay, we learned a little bit about praise and little bit about worship Okay, so with a little bit of definitions of what worship is Worship is a posture. Thank you Nina for sharing Worship is a posture. We learned about different postures of praise different postures of One posture of worship That's all about surrender Did you get your notes? Did you get the hard copy? Okay, it's fine. It's okay. It's okay. So but please make sure let me know if you don't have one Okay, we'll ask get on to your Cool. Okay. Oh, what else? Praise is direct and indirect. Okay There's power in praise. Awesome. Yeah, there is power in praise Paces God's address. Yeah, okay Hebrew words for praise and worship. Yes. Yeah The posture of worship image is face down. It's a picture of humility. Yes. Thanks Nina for sharing It's a picture of humility. It's a posture of complete surrender Right absolute surrender What else? We are commanded to praise him. Yeah, a few things that we covered. Okay. No, we are in chapter 3 We looked at the origins of the word praise Right all begins from Judah Why should we praise When should we praise? Right guys online if you're wondering why I'm smiling I'm smiling at your classmate Francis He's he's having a lovely lovely day by the way, so he slept well. He's all smiles He's you know, he's 100% focus and attention is on me He's physically present here and also mentally present here So I'm just having a go at him. So those of you online say hi to Francis. I let him know that you said hi Cool, cool, we're just having a little bit of fun Right, so we've covered all of that and we've kind of at least established that praise is important Yeah, Krisha says hi Francis and Francis is high back Krisha Awesome, okay, so now we look at chapter four today, sorry Chapter four is the power of praise Okay, okay, so the power of praise Let's go to second chronicles The book of second Chronicles in the previous chapters what we've covered. We also learned that We praise God for so many reasons right we praise him Because he's good. We praise him because he's faithful. We praise him because he is wonderful And all of it right there are so many things for his great deeds for all everything that he's done for us we praise him and We also learned that but heaven praises him for only one reason and that is he is He is worthy. Okay, everybody say worthy Okay, one more time worthy Okay, you'll get is the correct Okay He is worthy that's if there's anything that we can take back from from this course is The revelation of we praise him because he is worthy we praising and worship is not just singing a song It's not based on your feeling Right, that's one of the reasons why I ask it how you're feeling this morning I Don't feel like learning about praise and worship today, but that's different But you know choosing him choosing to praise him and worship With the revelation that he is worthy it's It's it's important. Okay, so today I want to just share from one of my favorite passages and a very popular passage And I say popular it's most one of the most well read most red chapters in the bible all across The world when it comes to the understanding the power of praise and worship. So you guys ready? second chronicles chapter 20 Okay, if you're still looking for it, please come forward. I will pray for you I'm having a good time guys today. So are you guys ready to learn? Yep, am I too loud? Is this too loud? Okay Please let me know Francis can always reduce the volume Yeah Okay, um, so we're going to read the entire chapter You can let him know if it's too loud or too soft whenever it is, right Cool second chronicles chapter 20 Thanks, friends after this The moabites and ammonites and some muenites came to make war on jahoshafa Okay Moabites ammonites and the muenites. Everybody say moabites ammonites muenites No, it's not there guys. Come on. It's So all the sites came okay to make war on jahoshafa, okay So some men came and told jahoshafa A vast army is coming against you from edom From the other side of the sea it is already in hasazon Tamar that is engedi. Engedi is a place where it's it's like a valley with the waters Where all these mountain deers would come to drink. Okay, so it's like a valley of waters. It's beautiful Most of the war took place in the valleys. So that's why they've mentioned here. That is engedi. Okay um alarmed jahoshafa Resolved to inquire of the lord. Okay, so there's an amazing progression here I want to take time in reading this chapter because every verse is like a precious gold. Okay jam Um, so first thing it starts off by saying all these nations Moabites ammonites muenites. They're all coming to make war on jahoshafa, right? What is it say war? Everybody's coming home for dinner They're not coming to have a nice meal with him, right? uh, so war in those days was more brutal it's Very right, uh, they meant business. So a vast army is coming against you from edom Okay, edom is another word or name of the country for philistines Okay, uh, so who goliath was an edomite Okay, so if you have you heard of this person called obed edom Right. Um, so it just goes on to say okay. This person was from the place called edomite. Okay, so and edom was made of many nations Uh, it's like all these moabites and you know heights Alarm jahoshafa look at his response He was alarmed. He didn't panic. He didn't go into okay. Let me google and see how do I defeat the army? They're like, okay, talk to my friends. You know, it's like, oh, okay. Hey, hey, what's happening? This is armies coming. What do I do? What do I do panic mode? but He was alarmed, but his first response is to inquire of the lord Okay, this is this is where we begin to understand the power of praise Is when we go to the source itself that is god, okay And he proclaimed a fast for all juda The people of juda came together to seek help from the lord. Okay, let's pause The people of juda So king jahoshafa Okay The king of an entire nation declared what? fast What does fasting do? Abstand from food, maybe drinking. I don't I don't know what kind of fast it was But an army is coming to attack you You need energy What gives you energy? Right, if you if you don't eat if you don't have the energy you're not going to be able to Fight right but then instead He calls a fast for all juda The people of juda came together To seek help from the lord. Indeed. They came from every town in juda to seek him Underline seek him Okay We've played hide and seek, right? Yeah, um, yes. No, no. Was it was just my generation that's played hide and seek You guys are all too cool to play hide and seek. I don't play hide and seek Right Right, so they all came to seek him verse five Then jahoshafa stood up in the assembly of juda And jerusalem at the temple of the lord in the front of the new courtyard And said okay pause then jahoshafa stood in the assembly off And the assembly off Okay, another meaning meaning for juda is Praise, right? Okay. So he stood in the assembly of juda, which means praise and jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard and he said This is important guys. Be attention. Okay verse six Oh lord God of our fathers Are you not god who is in heaven? You rule over the kingdoms of the nations Power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you Oh our god Did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people? Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend They lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your name Saying if calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment or plague or famine We will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your name and will cry out to you in our distress and you will hear us and save us Are you with me guys? Are you with me so far, right? It's it's a beautiful beautiful narrative It's a beautiful storytelling. Uh, you know the way Everything is being built up from the from the background to whatnot So we know that these three nations only three nations are coming. I'm saying only three nations, but three nations Okay, imagine India and then there's Our neighboring countries, okay, Pakistan and Bangladesh or China Mongolia, whatever they're trying to invade our land right, it's not it's It's it's going to make us nervous. That's what's happening here But Jehoshaphat calls the entire nation And beautiful it says in verse four that people from Judah came from every town Everybody say every town every town, okay Yeah, some of us are physically present here, but mentally my gosh, we are somewhere else We are in cloud nine, okay Okay, focus focus roshan, all right It's a serious passage. Okay, let's focus. Okay, but Look at the humility of the king of Judah. Okay. He's like, I am the king of Judah. He's not saying I know what to do. Let's go to war But he calls people for fast in his humility in the presence of every people He is reminding himself and the nation Of who god is Right, he says, are you not god? King of all nations power and might is in your hands Right, he's declaring it's important to declare and say who god is and what he's done in your life Right, I mean so many times we might feel like, okay, all of this is happening The whole world is fighting against you and whatnot, but What's one thing that's helped me is pause and say, okay Everything that god has done good in my life, right and say, okay You saw me through 34 years of my life and you're going to see me through All the days of my life, right? So that's exactly what Jehoshaphat is doing verse 10 Second chronicles chapter 20 just in case you've forgotten where we are Okay, verse 10 Now Here are men from Ammon Moab and Mount Seir whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt So they turned away and From them and did not destroy them See how they are repaying us By coming to drive us out of the possession You gave us as an inheritance Verse 12, this is important Oh our god, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us I love these next lines We do not know what to do But our eyes Are upon you Right, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are up on you. Wow Okay How many times we've been in a place like that where we don't know what to do has anybody been in the place like that? right many many times, okay like It feels like okay, there's a spiritual warfare You know, all of this is happening. Nothing and nothing right is going on in my life My family needs a financial breakthrough healing sickness and whatnot But something beautiful about going before god in humility and saying I don't know what to do But my eyes Are on you that's exactly what johoshaphat is saying Right, you're with me so far. Everybody is understanding the story Yeah, it's a storytelling time. Yeah Verse 13 all the men of juda Okay, all the men of juda with their wives and children and little ones that means infants stood there before the lord Then the spirit of the lord came upon jahaziel son of zakariah son of bananaya the son of jayyal son of matinaya a Levite and a descendant of asaph as he stood in the assembly Verse 19, sorry 15. He said listen King jahoshaphat and all who live in juda and jahusalam. This is what the lord says to you Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours, but gods Right, but the battle is not yours, but Gods Okay, so when is the response coming When people have decided to seek him When people have decided to humble themselves and say, okay, we're going to seek help from god We want you to help us you speak We are here to pray and then the spirit of the lord came upon this prophet And then he speaks and god says it's not your battle. It's mine verse 16. Here we go Tomorrow march down against them They will be climbing up by the pass of ziz and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the desert of jeruel Verse 17 guys important You will not have to fight this battle Take up your positions stand firm and see the deliverance the lord will give you Or juda and jahusalam. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged Go out to face them tomorrow and the lord will be with you Verse 18 Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground And all the people of juda and jahusalam fell down in worship before the lord. Let's pause there Okay, too much reading too much reading. Okay Um, so what what what has happened here? Can someone tell me what's happened? What has happened so far From what we've read little out of camp battle belongs to the lord. Okay, so Stand there. Uh, you will not have to fight the battle battle belongs to god. Okay. What else? What else? It's a question Sorry Okay Yeah, what else? Yes Fire is going on. Okay. Yeah, okay What is okay? Like I said, okay, there's there's no right answer wrong answer But I won't understand what you've understood from here like till this so far. Okay Dachan is saying they need not fight but victory will come from god as they sought his help. Okay. Thank you. What else? What is what else? There's something very important. That's happening here God's revealing their plans. Yeah, so god is telling them Like prophetically saying, okay where the enemy is going to be they're going to come out from this side You go down from this side meet them there. Okay He's giving them the strategy, right? But Okay Go on worshiping god. Okay. Yeah They don't have to be afraid of discourage dismayed Because he is going before them. Okay This sought after god and the god spoke to him. Yeah, okay, and nina saying when there was a problem Jehochef and jay proclaimed a fast The response came when they assembled before the lord. Yeah, so the response came again So let's just build up to this whole thing. Okay, it's very Very very important Okay, the progression of this whole thing enemies attacking Jehochef at the response by inquiring of the lord as a king, right? So What is in it for us over here? Why am I stressing on the importance of the first response of jehochef at was he inquired of the lord He was a king in other words a leader Most of us If you are not already a leader, you are going to be a leader You are going to be leading a ministry Or some of you might already be leading one. I don't know, right? But your first response when you have a problem Is not panic Is to inquire of the lord? Okay, and that's what he does And then he brings in all the nation to the fast And they seek after god and then the spirit of god comes and response and god tells him, okay, you don't have to fight this battle All etc etc, right or not? Okay question Have they gone into battle already till what we've read Battle have they gone into battle already? Yes, no, maybe No, right. So god has only told them that okay, you have to go into battle tomorrow That if you haven't gone into battle Already, that means you haven't still seen the victory Yes or no, but God's word for them was enough when god said This battle belongs to me. This is not your battle. This is my battle All you have to do is stand that was enough for jahosh of fath and his people And so their response was they bowed down in worship Even before they saw the victory Are you guys with me? Right, they worshiped even before They saw the victory and they fell down in worship before the lord And now let's go to verse 19 And some Levites from the Kohathites and the Korahites Stood up and praised the lord. Okay. Now side note verse 19. Listen Then some Levites from Kohathites and Korahites Uh, I want you to go ahead and study about who these Kohathites are And who these Korahites are Okay, because next class I will ask you Oh, this is when I will decide to take notes. Oh wonderful. Okay This is who I just woke up from my sleep Okay, uh, who are these Kohathites Korahites? In fact, um, there are three clans that come out from the tribe of Levites Okay, three clans and I want you to study on them. Okay um So then some Levites from the Kohathites and the Korahites stood up and praised the lord the god of israel with the Shabbat With a very loud voice Okay So verse 20 now Early in the morning, they left for the dessert of tekova As they set out Jehoshaphat stood and said listen to me Judah and the people of Jerusalem Have faith in the lord your god and you will be upheld. Have faith in his prophets and you will be successful After consulting the people Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out ahead of the army this is Practically realistically speaking wrong in so many levels Have you seen a war movie anybody? War movie Let me use another words. Have you seen Bahubali? This Right you any uh any war movies like I like war movies You see tanks and soldiers with their guns, you know You don't see a band in front of an army Anybody seen a a band like let's have the Beatles come And you know play some song and then we go into the battles Yeah Let's have some okay Shiraz come and lead worship. Uh, you know before we're going to go into the war Does it happen? but Jehoshaphat has realized something in this journey There is power once again in humility in seeking after God in surrender Leaning on his wisdom and not on his own understanding or on his own wisdom And then he tells I'm going to put a worship team in front of the army We are going to go into war everybody is there with swords Right ready to chop your head off But I want worshipers in the front Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness They are not even praising him for a breakthrough Right most of the times we praise him because we I need a breakthrough which is fine But he's not saying let's praise him so that this enemy gets defeated Are you guys with me? Every word is important in this passage. Okay, he's sort of saying praise him For the splendor of his holiness. I don't know what your translation is saying. Okay Praise him for the splendor of his holiness As they went out ahead of the army Right, so that's what they did. They just praised him for who he is everybody say Who he is Okay, sometimes we need to praise him not sometimes most of the times if not all the time We need to praise him for who he is not so we can get a breakthrough. Our god is good He's a good father. He will give you the breakthrough All that is great But sometimes you need to tell yourself I need to praise him for who he is and who he is is that he is worthy He is holy And he is he away and he is god alone Right That's all we need. We don't need to have like any major revelation is like, okay. He provided me new shoes So i'm going to praise him. He's given me a new car. He's given me a new job He's given me all this things. I'm going to praise him. All that is good. It's good to praise him It's good to thank him, but we need to just stop and praise him for who he is We need to know that in our journey as ministry leaders We need to know that That's what I was sharing with the team yesterday When I was the worship team in church Is uh, so when we were seeing we we had the song Called every praise as to our god It's very intentional The first two line words of that song is every praise I was telling them guys when we are going out to lead in worship It's minister from that place where we are not expecting anything But praise him for who he is And when that happens you will see a new worshipper arise from within you Can I say that again when you begin to praise him for who he is A new person of inside of you comes out is like you did not know. Okay. I could praise him like this You'll be like did I do that? Did I scream like that? Did I actually lift my hands? Are you guys with me? Right. So praise him for who he is and listen to the amazing song that they sang One verse One chorus another verse another chorus and there's a bridge over there and there's an additional tag Yeah, it's the most awesome song ever there's two lines give thanks to the lord For his love in yours forever That is all they sang Okay, let can I remind you again that they are going up against an army And this army wants to kill you And there's a worship team in front of the army And they are singing this beautiful two line song give thanks to the lord for his love endures forever One more verse. Is that okay verse 22 As they began to sing and praise Okay, everybody say as they began To sing and praise Okay The lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seer who were invading Judah and they were defeated Okay, so long story short is They fought each other they killed each other And they destroyed them each other They destroyed them each other so they did not even the Judah people of Judah did not have to do anything They didn't even have to fight But God caused an ambush As they were praising him as they were singing thanks to the lord Are you guys with me Right, I want us to just pause and just remind us that there is power In praise there is power in your praise Okay In your weakest When you feel the most weakest and the most vulnerable That's when your praise is the most powerful Okay in your weakest moments in your lowest moments That's when the devil is most scared of your praise because that's when he knows your praise is the most powerful Are you guys with me So there is power in praise in general But there is power in your praise Okay, there is power in your praise Right guys Okay, let's go to another passage in the New Testament Acts chapter 16 Everyone online you're doing okay Yeah, you guys learning something Yes, no, maybe Acts chapter 16 Okay, so I want to read from verse 16 actually So more scripture reading I hope you guys are okay Acts chapter 16 verse 16 onwards For us to just understand the context for the text that we are reading Acts chapter 16 verse 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling This girl followed Paul and the rest of us shouting These men are the servants of the most high God Okay, so let's come fast forward come down to verse 22 So basically long story short there People there did not like what they were doing Paul and Silas So what they do the verse 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas And the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten Underlined stripped and beaten or whichever words there The magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten After they had been severely flogged They were thrown into prison And a jailer was commanded to guard them carefully Upon receiving such orders He put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the Stalks is that what it says in your translation stocks? What else does it say? Sorry Keep them securely Okay, so and fastened their feet to some anything Stalks only right Okay, cool Okay, so let's pause there All right, so the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas Now here we don't have a vast army Like what we read in 2nd Chronicles 20 But a crowd Has anyone here been attacked by a crowd? It's still dangerous isn't it? It's not nice like you know it's pretty scary The crowd joined them in attack against the Paul and Silas Magistrates that the government officials ordered them to be Stripped and Stripped and beaten So they were not just beaten They were stripped and beaten Now it's funny that I'm just reminded but also not very proud of it I don't know how parents these days are They're very nice but when I was growing up my dad was very strict Anyone dad very strict over here Okay, so So And if he when I've done something I was not a very good child I was very naughty Very rebellious And what not so he would hit me Sometimes you know with the belt and what not you know because And then there are times when he knows like you know when he's hitting me I will not react to anything Why because I'm wearing a jeans And You know It's like why you're not reacting in times you know because I'm just controlling you know he's not hurting as much because It's pretty tough isn't it He learned that He got to know it's not hurting me It's like remove your pants Wacked you know so It's not pleasant guys It's funny now Okay, it's funny in this class now But But it wasn't yeah But It's A very embarrassing situation right here right now To an adult Right when two adults in public are being stripped Now we don't know if they were stripped naked or what I don't know but being stripped in itself is Embarrassing Yes or no As if that wasn't enough They are beaten Now we don't know how the crowd Reacted Verse 23 After they had been severely flogged You know what flogging is So this punishment in the Roman rule was called grace Okay, so it was like you seem passion of Christ Right with that thing It would have those clippers at the end that can pull your flesh out Okay, so that was called grace And it was 39 lashes You know why it's called grace Because the 40th lash will kill you They will be beaten 39 times That's flogging And that punishment was called grace Because the 40th lash will kill you So they will bring you to that edge of death Until you can't do anything and the only thing that you're doing by default A little bit is breathing That is where they are And then it goes on to say They put them in the cell and had their feet tied to a stalk Now I don't know how to show I have an image to show you guys online about how they were tied But then you're not going to be able to see this on people online So please excuse me You have your hands down and your hands are tied to the ankle They have a wooden plank So it will go into your feet And then most of the times An adult man can't easily reach his ankle Are you with me? An adult man can't easily reach You have to bend But what they would do is When it doesn't reach They will pull the shoulders So the shoulders are dislocated So I have experienced shoulder dislocation Exactly 10 years ago In my 25th birthday I slid down the stairs I didn't want my head to hit the stairs So I held the grill But I was going down too fast I held the grill by the hand So this curved thing that you see over here was flat So it was like a bone was piercing me inside And my friends who were taking me to the hospital did not have a nice time They had to hear a mouthful Trust me, it was just one hand It was very painful But that's where these guys are They are embarrassed publicly Humiliated in front of people They are stripped They are stripped They are beaten Almost to death Their feet are tied to the stalks And their shoulders probably dislocated You know where we are going with this, right? Next verse Verse 25 About midnight Paul and Silas Were praying and singing hymns to God And the other prisoners were listening to them Suddenly 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 Okay, so we all know the rest of the story Right? In this condition You can think of the best singer in the world And I'm pretty sure that they're not going They're not feeling like singing Whoever the singer that you listen to But these guys started singing, they started praising God And the earth starts shaking But the beauty of this is Listen guys, the beauty of this passage is When they started praising The Bible doesn't say Paul's chains and Silas's chains broke Does it say that? It just doesn't say Paul's chains and Silas's chains broke It says Every other prison doors opened And every prisoners were set free So So we've understood, we've learned That there is power in praise There is power in your praise And in your praise The breakthrough is not just for you It's for people around you You might not even be praying for them Paul and Silas doesn't say Okay, Lord, now we pray for this jailer number nine Sel For all these reasons that he is committed Please forgive him, nothing I stand in the gap, I intercede, nothing They were just praising God And every other prisoners were set free Amen That is the power of praise People, that is the power of praise Now we can learn a lot more about it But as I always say Just go back and read more scriptures That is mentioned in your notes Because of time I'm not going to go Through all of them But you go through it, make your notes Write your own thing There's so much depth Just understanding the power of praise Amen Let's pause here We'll take a break We'll resume after that See you