SACRIFICE OF PRAISE – PART 2: PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 5TH NOVEMBER, 2023.

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: SACRIFICE OF PRAISE – PART 2 (UNTO THE LORD)

DATE: 5TH NOVEMBER 2023

BIBLE TEXT: HEBREWS 13:15; PSALMS 29: 1-2 AND EXODUS 30: 8-9

Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.

Are you ready? Say with me:

I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.

In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.

In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.

Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!

I started a Series called “The Sacrifice of Praise” and this is the Part 2.

In this Part 2, my Subtitle is “Unto the Lord” – In Part 1, we look at “The Fruits of Our Lips”.

One of the most important thing we have to keep in Mind as we Worship, as we come to Church, as we Sing, as we dance, as we Clap; is to know whom to all of this is for!

Because sometimes, if you are not careful, you do something and sometimes you do it for yourself or you do it just to be happy or you do it because it is fun.

A. But our Worship should be unto the Lord:

• When we Clap, we Clap unto the Lord.
• When we Shout, we shout unto the Lord.
• When we Sing, we sing unto the Lord.
• When we dance, we dance unto the Lord.

All of our Praise, is “Unto the Lord” – And it is important that we keep this in focus in all that we do.

So, we will go back to the Bible Text that I started with and that I anchored the Part 1 of the Series on – That is Hebrews 13:15.

Hebrews 13:15:

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving Thanks to His Name.

There are two (2) References in this Bible Verse that I want to draw your attention to:

1. “To God” – Let us offer the Fruits of our lips to God.

That means; for who He is, we declare what we declare – We Sing, we Shout and we make all these Pronouncements and it is to God.

… We offer the Fruits of our lips to God!

And that is basically Thanking God for who He is; not for what He has done but because He is God and because He is who He is!

2. “To His Name”,

That means His Character – Who God is.

And God is not Annonymous – His Name distinguishes Him from other gods.

You know that in the Natural, a Human Being name separates him from other People; although some of us have names that other People have.

However when it comes to God, other People are called gods. But not like a Personal name which He revealed to Moses at the Burning Bush – “I Am”.

He is the only One who is “The Great I Am”.

And He says that when we Praise Him; we don’t just declare Him, but also declare to His Name.

That means we are separating God from all others so that our Praise doesn’t go to the wrong Person but our Praise goes to exactly to whom we want to Praise.

In the Old Testament, the Jews will Worship God and then they said because He is Good and His Mercy endures Forever.

Giving Praise to God and His Name is Experimental.

So, when I say I’m giving Praise to God; I’m giving Praise to His Name – I’m talking about how I have experienced Him!

So, if your Experience of Him is Shallow; your Praise will also be Shallow.

If your Experience of Him is Deep, then your Praise will be Deep.

Because when we give Praise to Him because of His Name, we are talking about how we have experienced God.

So for Example:

I. When we Experienced Him as our Saviour, we Thank Him for our Salvation.

For those who has Experienced Him as their Saviour, He is the Lord our Saviour – That is the Name we gave to Him.

II. When we Experienced Him as our Healer, we Thank Him for our Healings.

And for such People, the Name of the Lord our Healer.

III. If He Provides for us, we know Him as the Lord the Provider.

And I Pray that as you will experience God in all His Names, in the Fullness of His Name; then you will have an Experience of Him that is Deep.

So when you come to Worship God, you draw from the Deep Wells of your Experience of Him.

I remembered when I was very Young as a Child; our family was okay but a Typical Ghanaian family – Always in trouble, broke; especially when my father lost his job.

The family was going through severe Hardship but my mother was a “Woman of Faith” – And many times, we will come and there is Nothing in the house and she will say: God will do it and God will Provide.

And somehow, God will Provide and she will Pray.

And as a Child, I learnt that once my mother says God will Provide, something will show up.

And so, we will be at home and then Somebody will come from somewhere (Maybe a Relative or Friend) and will say: I just came and I brought this. And they will give us maybe some foodstuffs or money – And that will be what we will live on.

So, we get to know that God is not just the Saviour of our Souls; we know His Name as the Great Provider.

If you have never been broke before, you won’t know Him as the Great Provider!

If you have never been Sick before, you won’t know Him as the Great Healer.

But when you experienced Him in your Worship, in your Praise; you will Praise His Name!

And I Pray that you will experience God in Deep ways so that your Worship and your Praise will also be Deep!

B. And we give Praise to the Lord to show who He is to us – This is emphasised in Psalms 29: 1-2:

Psalms 29: 1-2

1 Give unto the Lord, O you Mighty ones,
Give unto the Lord Glory and Strength.

2 Give unto the Lord the Glory due to His Name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness.

And what this Verse tells us is that our Worship belongs to God alone!

We did not divide our Worship – Because what I saw going on is that when we were in hardship and Somebody brought something; we Thank the Person but give the Praise to God. Because we know that Human Being brought it but the One who made the Human Being is God.

Our Worship is to God alone – We appreciate People for what they did for us; we appreciate People for their Kindness to us but when we want to ascribe the Worship; it doesn’t go to a Human Being but unto God!

Because if you are not careful, you are going to Worship the People God uses to bless you and there will be Nothing left for God because you have given all the Worship for Human Being.

God can use a Doctor to bring Health to you but your Healing is from God.

He can use Somebody to open a Door for you but your Favour is from God.

And if you are going to be a True Worshipper, you have to learn to distinguish the People God uses from God – He uses People but they are not God.

As long as we are Appreciative and we honour the People, we have to be careful not to give what is due to God to a Human Being.

And in the Bible Text, it says that:

1. We give Him all our Strength and Honour – Our Glory and Strength with all that we have achieved, the thing that makes us Strong.

That means that when I become Strong, when I am blessed, when I become Mighty; when I come before God, I give all of that to Him.

So, if you are a King; you cannot be in His Presence of God and behave like a King.

So, if you are a King and People wait on you and Peoplle bow before you; you cannot come before the Presence of God and tell People to bow to you.

You take your Strength, your Glory and all that God has given to you and say: Lord, it is Yours.

And so, you can’t be arrogant in the Presence of God; you can’t be Proud in the Presence of God; you can’t be conscious of your Status and your Position and who you are in the Presence of God.

And you can’t be Shy in the Presence of God.

When we come to the Presence of God, we are enthusiastic and we give Him our Glory and our Strength – We give all to Him!

2. Not only do we give Him our Strength and Glory; we give Him what is Worthy and Befitting – That is the Glory due to His Name!

That means that we must be Intentional to give God what we considered Worthy of Him.

That is always difficult because God has let us to determine how much He is worth to us.

He says that if you think that I am important to you, then show it; if you believed that I am the One who has given you what you have, show it – He has given us the Freedom!

So, the Question we ask when we are Worshippping God is: Is this befitting? Is this Deserving?

If I dance more at a Party, then I dance before God and then I’m showing who deserves my dance more.

Some of you are Good Dancers but when you come to Church, you won’t dance.

So, what are you saying? You say: Lord, the Party deserves my dance more and not You!

Because we have to give Him the Glory due to Him and there must be something we give to Somebody else that is Greater than what we give to God.

• You cannot Praise something else more than you Praise God.
• You cannot Praise food more than God because for some of us, when it comes to food, we wax eloquent and we begin to speak very Prophetic words about the food. And how the “fufu” (DMC NOTES: “Fufu” is made from Cassava) has been, the soup has been and the meat and the smell and we name the Spices one by one. And when there is a crab there, we describe it.
• Some of us are so fascinated about Football; that we can describe a Goal that a Footballer scored with Superlative words. But when it comes to God, there is no Superlative words.

The word you used to Praise a Goal in Soccer is greater than the word you used to Praise God.

So, you are not giving Him the Glory that is due to His Name.

• Sometimes you have a friend that you love so much because they mean so much to you and then you can say things about them.

Now, do you say such things about God? Do you describe God in those words?

Because sometimes, People say: I don’t even know what to say to Worship God but: You know what to say about Messi’s Goal? You know what to say about the food you just ate? You know what to say about a friend, a Movie/Film you watched or a Song that you listened to?

You say: Oh, this Song move my Heart or it takes me to Places that I have never been before.

If you can say that about Music, then you should say better things about God!

The reason why many of us finds it difficult to Worship God is because we reserved our Best words for something else – For a Girl, for a Man, for a friend or for a food.

It’s like a Ghanaian who has travelled to Spain – Barcelona; or they went on a Cruise to Greece and they give descriptions of the Place.

And the same Person will come to Church and will be Quiet.

By that Action, you are showing who is your God!

So the Psalmist says: Give Him what is due to Him, what He is Worthy of!

• If you think that God is Worthy – He is your Deliverer, then Praise Him as your Deliverer.
• if you think that God is your Provider, then Praise Him as your Provider.
• If you think that God is your Healer, then Praise Him as your Healer.

Give Honour to His Name and do it in a befitting Manner.

All of us are Guilty of it – There are some things we speak more highly of, that we wax more eloquent about than our Praise to God.

But we are all learning and we have to develop the discipline of reserving our Choicest Vocabulary for God.

Our deepest and most Emotional Expressions must be to God!

Our Worship belongs to God alone – We can appreciate People but our Total Devotion only belongs to God!

C. Before in Part 1, we talked about the Worship in the Temple, we talked about the Incense that goes up in the Morning and goes up in the Evening.

And there is something there that I want to use to help us qualify our Worship Properly:

Exodus 30: 8-9

8 And when Aaron lights the Lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a Perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your Generations.

9 You shall not offer Strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.

So, this is talking about the “Altar of Increase”.

And it says that Aaron goes both in the Morning and Night. He has to put the Incense because that Incense raises the Prayer, Worship and Praise of the People and it is there throughout the Day and Night.

But if you look at the Passage, it carries some very Peculiar Instructions – And we will look at two (2) of the thing it addeesses:

1. In Verse 9, it says that: You shall not offer Strange incense on the Altar.

That means that you don’t give God a “Mistaken Offering” – An Offering that is not Approved!

A Strange Incense is an Incense.

But if you look at the Old Testament, an Incense was to be made according to Prescriptions. And there were Specific Spices that must be used and Specific People who Produce the Incense.

And God says: Don’t Present Strange Incense.

In other words, don’t just pick an Incense at all and come and burn on my Altar.

So, God is very Specific about the Worship that we give to Him!

So, God has some Peculiarity about what He is looking for; that the Offering that I’m giving Him has to be done right.

If you know your Bible very well, in the Book of Leviticus, Aaron’s children has brought Strange Incense to put on that Altar – They are Pastors’ kids and they offer Strange Offering.

The Bible says that Fire came from that Altar and Consumed them.

And that shows you how important is it that the Worship we give to God must be right.

Even when we dance before the Lord, it has to be right – You can’t be wriggling your waist back and forth in Praise of God!

You must dance but be careful that you are not dancing and Mindful that it is God that you are dancing to – This is not a “Party Dance”.

Even in Parties, you are a Christian and you belong to God!

But for some of you, your dance must be Godly – You can’t be Standing infront of God and your waist is going up and down. That is a Strange Incense!

It is a dance of course, but it is Strange and so it cannot be offered on the Temple of God!

2. The Second Thing here is called “Misplaced Offering”.

And when you look at the Bible Text, it’s quite interesting – And so I spent a lot of time trying to Understand that Instruction.

So, what is the Bible Text saying: You don’t have to make an Offering in a Wrong Place.

The “Grain Offering” is a Good Offering; the “Burnt Offering” is a Good Offering; but there is a Place for “Grain Offering” and “Burnt Offering”.

He said on my Incense Offering Altar, you don’t make this Offering!

And what God is saying is that: Something may be right for something else; but it may not be appropriate at another Place.

And when it comes to Worship, we have to be very careful – That something may be right, we have to make sure that we are not Offering the right thing at the wrong Place.

Let me give you an Example:

Whatever we do in an Offering and Worship, we give it unto God.

• So, when we Clap; we are Clapping unto the Lord.
• When we Shout, we are Shouting unto the Lord.
• When we lift up our hands, we lift it unto the Lord.

If you Change that and for example, you are Worshipping and Somebody say: Let us Clap and saying we are Clapping at the devil.

It may sound Spiritual but there is a Place for Spiritual Warfare but not on this Altar.

So, on the Altar of Worship, you don’t Clap to stop the devil as the devil is not in the Equation. But on the Altar of Worship, we Clap unto the Lord!

So, what happens is that what is due to God, we forget it and our Worship is no longer unto God but Offering something to ourselves.

Do you know why those Offerings are not supposed to be on the Altar of Incense?

It is because the “Burnt Offering” is for the People – The People has sinned and they go to make Offerings.

The “Grain Offering” is for the People.

But He says that things that are to benefit you, you don’t put on the Altar of Incense because everything on the Altar of Incense is totally to God!

I believe in Spiritual Warfare but our Worship must not be for Spiritual Warfare!

God engages in battles for us when we Worship Him but we don’t engage in Battle with our Worship!

The Israelites went into battle in 2 Chronicles Chapter 20 and the Praise Leaders sang and God sent ambushment. But they didn’t do that to say as we come Worshipping, we are fighting the Enemy.

They Worship God because He is God.

And God says that you Worship me, and I will fight for you.

If we Worship God, He Weaponises and fight for us.

But you don’t say: I am fighting this battle and I’m doing it in Worship because you lose focus of whom you are Worshipping!

You Worship God and He fights your battles – You don’t Worship and fight with your Worship!

The Altar we give our Worship to God must always be done consciously as unto God:

• We don’t Clap to slap the devil.
• We don’t Stamp our feet to crush the devil.

We do all of those as Praise to God and the Lord that we Worship will fight for us and give us the Victory!

Does the Lord fight for us? – Yes! As we Worship the Lord, He fights for us.

But it is not ours to do – The battle is unto the Lord; the Warefare is God’s own. Yours is just to give Him all your Worship!

So, when you come to Worship, don’t think about the devil – Just say: I’m Worshipping God, I’m Praising God, I’m giving Him all that is within me and God knows how to fight your battles!

Is there a Place we do Spiritual Warfare? – Yes, there is a Place we do Spiritual Warfare but not on this Altar. The Altar of Worship is for Worship!

Before we Close – I want us to spend some couples of Minutes to give God Praise and to give God Worship.

Let Us Stand Up – Just for 2 Minutes:

What do you want to tell God?

• Who is He to you?
• This week, what has He done for you?
• In the Past, in the whole of this Year (2023); what has He done for you?

Praise His Name – Lift Up your Holy Hands to God and begin to declare from your lips who He is.

Thank You Lord, Praise and Honour and Adoration to You.

CLOSING PRAYER

You are our Help, You are our Strength, You are our Shield – Everything belongs to You.

Our Praise belongs to You, the Fruits of our lips belongs to You.

You are the Giver – You use People but You are my Giver, You are my Helper, You are my Deliverer.

I have no one except You Lord and my eyes are on You Lord.

Great Lord Almighty; the Great I Am – You are my Sufficiency, there is Nothing I need that You cannot Provide. You make my Life Complete.

I Honour You this Morning, I declare Your Majesty, Beauty and Power,

I Celebrate You for who You are, for what You have done, for what You are doing and for what You will do.

The Kingdom is Yours, the Glory is Yours, the Praise is Yours – With no Strings attached, we Honour You Lord.

We declare Your Praise Lord.

In Jesus Name – Amen!

And we will do something else before I sit down:

There are many ways to Praise God:

I. And one of them is with a Shout.

When we Shout, we are not disturbing the devil but we are shouting unto God,

II. And we Clap our hands.

Not slapping the devil but we are hailing God – We say that we Celebrate You Lord.

So, give Him a Shout and a Clap unto the Lord!

IT IS UNTO YOU LORD!!!

It is time for us to take our eyes off the devil and our Enemies and Spiritual Attacks.

And when we come to Worship God; Pure Incense must go to God – Pure Incense of Gratitude must go the Lord!

God Bless You – Amen!!!

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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