Mitch Knapp Sermon

Good afternoon, everyone. I get all combubrated here and ready to speak. Well, it's really wonderful to be here in the Bronfels. When I first recognized somebody from home, only two of us are from the areas that my wife and I work in, Omaha and Des Moines. That is two couples, four of us. At any rate, it's great. When I first heard of this feast site, I said, you know, in the Bronfels, I said, one word, huh? I never heard it come down.

And of course, since then, we've heard it's beautiful, which it is. And we always came down to Texas, like, for the last 65 years or something. More than that. Not true. And we turned east at Fort Worth, and I never got down here. Fooey. Because we're going to the feast in Big Sandy. And so I just had, I thought, I saw a sign that said, don't speed, don't drive so fast, you're already in Texas. And then somebody said, you know, well, I wasn't born here, but I got here as quick as I could. Pretty neat, very clever. And I just, I did think the thought.

I said, man, it's really good to be back. I had some wonderful times in Texas, many feasts. So it's good to be here. It's good to be here with you. And the hall looks like it really filled up from last night. It's so good to see, as Mr. Foster mentioned. We've had a wonderful welcome so far. And it's, you know, it's so good to be here in Texas.

But that doesn't compare to how good it is to be at God's Feast of Tabernacles. It's not ours, it's not the Jews. It's God's Feast. And that's what's so good. That just trumps everything else. So we're looking forward to a great experience, which will go very fast. Mr. Foster mentioned that last night. So let us dive in to the sermon. The first day's sermon is actually the second sermon. You're probably aware of the Psalms of degrees, Psalm 120 through 134 degrees. Psalms of a sense are goings up. And it has to do, apparently, with the choir, at least one part of it is.

They would sing the first one, which is Psalm 120. And then they would move up. Everybody would move up one step on this temple steps and sing two and all the way up, 15 Psalms. Not sure how long that was done or how much. But people say that that's what happened. Makes sense. But they certainly do have the fall holy days as their theme. It's a wonderful set. It's a smaller festival Psalter that was added to the Psalms. At a certain point, it was a separate group of Psalms. And it starts out with coming to the feast and goes all the way through.

It mentions the themes of trumpets and atonement are mentioned. And mainly, it's about the feast and several different lessons. Just psalm after psalm. Big feast lessons. And it just describes how we keep the feast. The attitudes that we keep the feast, some of the challenges you have, and so on. Just a wonderful section. Two of them are specifically on family themes.

That's pretty good. You know, one-seventh of these psalms are about the family and how we live at home. This is a taste of how family life and everything else will be in the future. I, for the last up-team years in Wisconsin Dills, after having given a sermon about 20 years, 30 years ago there, on the Psalms of degrees, I always try to review the first two or three, or at least the first.

So Psalm 120. In my distress I cried to the Lord and he heard me, deliver my soul, Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. And of course, you've sung the song many times.

What shall be given unto you, you false tongue? He's so frustrated, he's being lied about, gossiped about. Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper, which burn especially hot, that plant. And so these lies, he's talking about other descriptions, approximately, you know, arrows of the strong and mighty who are attacking.

Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, ancient name of Moscow, as I understand it, and those people, of course, move north, some of the tribes there, that I dwell in the tents of Kadar, another enemy that lives close by. In other words, I am in enemy territory. My souls long dwelt with them that hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they're for war. I am in enemy territory. I need a break. Interesting, because the first introductory to the fall holy days is, I need a break, a cool change, a fresh start.

Well, it's over here. That's the reason for the feast. The context of it is going to the feast, is to get a change, a taste of the world tomorrow, as we say. So, it sounds pretty negative as a beginning theme, but isn't that absolutely perfectly apropos. The next one, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills, and talking about the hills where Jerusalem is the top hill, and the Lord, that's where my help comes from. That's how I'm going to be delivered from this physical life, with all the stressors and the difficulties that we live with. The whole idea of overcoming your own nature is way beyond our power.

And so, it's just a perfect introductory thought for the feast, and that will be all the introduction to Psalms of Degrees for now. If we can get on to other things. I would love to get that, too. But I'll leave that to you, and I'm sure that most, if not all, of you have studied that, at least to some degree. The Psalms of Degrees to a degree. I noted Mr. Foster's encouraging exhortation last night. They have a positive attitude. Quote, Of course he will bless you. This is all his idea in the first place. That really stood out. I appreciated that and mentioned that.

There's a scripture, and I lost track of it. I couldn't find it for years. And not that I tried. I'd say, Oh, what is that? But I lived by it in my thoughts since I was a little kid, because it was given, and my parents heard it along with me, and we talked about it. And the idea is, when you go to the feast, first of all, it's God's will. It is God's will that we be here. Of course he'll bless. Just adding to what Mr. Foster said. You know, our success is God's success. That's what he's doing.

The main thing is us, for now, and then later extended to everybody. But when we leave for the feast, people worry, and I don't know how much they worry. But some people probably worry. I've heard that. Well, what if somebody, you know, robs me. I won't be here to defend.

What are you going to do to defend it? You'll probably be robbed when you're out of the house anyway. So that doesn't... that's not a good line of reasoning. But there's a scripture that said he would watch after our stuff while we were away keeping the feast. And I couldn't think of that for years. You probably... or you might know it. But one of the ladies... I mentioned this two Sabbaths ago, and one of the ladies afterwards were talking about it, and she said, I believe that's...

and there it was. Exodus 34, 24. For I will cast out to the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders, cause you to grow. In other words, neither shall any man desire thy land. You know, if they all went down to keep the feast of Tabernacles, or at least many of them, certainly the leaders of families, and there would be certain people that had to stay home.

Like, for instance, those too old to travel, that happens, or those too pregnant to travel, that happens, or just little children, or the families... you know, some... but you empty out the majority of the strong men who would be able to defend, and the Ammonites would just roll right across and grab the land, move in. But God said, you keep my feast. I got your back. You don't worry about that. I want you to obey me, and I'll watch everything. I'll watch your stuff.

He just uses land here, but I have thought about that since I was a kid, because my parents taught me, and I heard it from the from the lectern too, from the pulpit. So I just wanted to add that as just to back up, Mr. Foster's excellent point. Of course, God will bless us. He is here. He said He would be here. He wants us here. This is God's will. So it's so good to be with you, wherever, physical location, but keeping the feast of the Lord. I just wanted to... okay, from now on, I'll just give a sermon.

I won't keep giving this sermon again. Just an excellent point. Excellent way to begin the feast. Okay, now Psalm 21, the next one says, God never slumbers, never sleeps. He'll watch us. The holidays are are joyous, but life is tough, and it's hard to...

you know, it's really hard to put off your own negative attitudes and just let the stressors go. Just put it out, big sigh, and enjoy the feast. You shall surely rejoice. Sometimes you're going through trials, but you just put them out of your mind. Don't worry, they'll be there when you get back. That's the old saying, you know. But God wants us to really rejoice spiritually, and that's His command.

So how do you do that? To get away from the negatives and, you know, discouragement, doubt, hate, lust, greed, attitudes from all the evil sources that hit us all the time from those spiritual entities that have access to our minds. Put thoughts in there. How do you go right into an attitude of faith, hope, love, joy, exaltation, that mode of thinking? Because we are required to do that. You shall surely rejoice.

That's not, you know, a suggestion. God is saying, do this. Come here and do this. This is my will. And I was just thinking, you know, wouldn't it be neat if there was something that you could do? A lot of times, if there's a problem, do that fixes the problem. But there are other things that are more complicated. Wouldn't it be neat if there are something that you could do, that you yourself could do, that would just power you out of a rotten attitude?

Lustful, greedy, selfish, just overwhelmed with the world. And would that be neat if there's something you could do just to get power to overcome a bad attitude and put yourself into a positive attitude? I thought that would be a cool idea. And would you believe we have the answer? There's something that you can do. It just happens to relate to the meaning of the feast.

What do you know? What a coincidence. It's not a stretch. It really does. So I like to look at this command that God gives us. It's a key action God tells us to take all through the Bible and how often. And a little bit about how it works. The connection to the feast will be obvious and encouraging in the extreme. So here's a summary of what I would like to cover here.

First of all, number one, God commands us to give praise to him. That's more than just thanks. Thanks is part of praise, but praise is the valuation of God's greatness. Number two, this will trigger God's way of thinking and change it to an outgoing direction, first to him and then to others.

Praise is actually showing love. God is love, he says. That's one word to describe God's attitude, love. What is praise? Showing love. Telling the good things about your friend, your spouse, God himself. Showing that you appreciate and understand how important God is and what he does, what he is, and that applies to all other relationships as well.

So that's number two. And number three, the whole kingdom and family of God forever is built on this principle, which we'll see. Come back to it in just a little bit. So those are the three points. First point, Hebrews 13, if you would. And you don't have to turn there because you know it.

Hebrews 13 verses 15 to 16. But to do good and to communicate, forget not. Do not forget to do good and communicate. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So I'm sorry, I jumped ahead and read 16 before 15. Here's verse 15. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God.

How much or how often? Continually. He's talking about living in the house of God, which is the temple. And we have access. It's like we have the night key or the door lock that not everybody does, the electronic door lock. We can have access into the building, the big building, God's house, anytime, day or night. Not everybody has that. But we do have that. Access anytime.

I will be with you always, he said. And so we have the opportunity of offering these spiritual sacrifices at all times. Continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. As I mentioned, thanks is certainly praise. Praise is bigger. There is more to praise than just thanksgiving. Just pure valuation. Saying how great God is. Every once in a while you'll see something else come along. Stop and just tell God. This is just amazing. I never thought of it just that way. What great things you do. And this is another one. So praise is bigger. Worship is even bigger in one sense. And that's what we do at all times. Worship, that is our lives, our dedicated God. Praise is specifically telling God what we think of him and what we understand of him. Come back to that point as well very quickly. And thanks is one of those things that adds up to praise. It's one aspect of praise. So it's good to have definitions here. Let's go to Psalm 117, verse 1. This is so good of a psalm I memorized the entire psalm. Did it in one day. Are you there yet?

I said this to Bragg, and that is in both Omaha and Des Moines. I just thought I'd set people up, Bragg a little bit. And they started to get it slowly as they turned there. Because did you know Psalm 117, before I memorized it, I didn't. This is a two-verse psalm. Really tough to memorize. So there's a couple of giggles and snickers, you know, they passed around. But this psalm is so important, the shortest psalm, but it is a picture or a small summary of all the psalms. And here it is because the meaning of the term psalm is praise. I believe I mentioned that already. O praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise him, all ye peoples. Nations, organized bunch, it's just all peoples, wherever. And then, for his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. A direct command.

It's a summary of all the psalms, and it's so powerfully meaningful you could memorize it easily and add it to the long list of scripture that you have memorized.

To understand the subject of praise, we actually have to know a little bit about the psalms, the meaning of the praises that I mentioned. There are... The word praise comes from the concept which we in English say appraise. You get your house appraised. You find out what it is worth to other people in this market at this time.

The word praise is a response to understanding how great God is, or how great your spouse is, or your friend. Because I understand that you are this way to your spouse or your friend. You know, you're saying, I understand it. We don't say it that way. We say, you know, that was so thoughtfully of you. I appreciate that. That was so nice. Didn't expect it. And, you know, just want you to know, thanks a lot. I appreciate that. You're always so kind.

Best music to our ears. Don't lie. Make sure it's true so that your reputation is strong enough. When you say it, it'll really be appreciated. Your compliment. It builds people. It builds a relationship. That's what it does. But praise is a response to the worthiness of someone, whether it's a fellow human being, but especially when it's for God, we praise Him for His actions, and for His attributes, for His character, for what He does, and for what He is always to us.

He's gracious. He's always gracious. He doesn't nitpick. You know, and that's a synonym of upbraid. You know, He just doesn't upbraid. He doesn't nitpick with His pick, pick, pick.

Not that way. He's all for us all the time. So He's gracious, and He's good, and He's always got the end goal in mind, and so on. There are, I think, 15-plus different types of Psalms that people divide them in. One of them is just the praise Psalm, just pure praise. There are the last five Psalms are just pure praise Psalms, and there are others as well. They don't have anything negative, even 145, which is just a terrific praise Psalm, has one implication about the world we live in, like Psalm 120 does, as it starts our introduction to keeping the holidays, fall holidays especially.

But God's praise-worthy acts are in three major areas. The nature or creation, like Psalm 104, history, like Psalm 78, and just in our personal life, many examples through that, and prayers in the Bible. But our praises have to do with how God has helped us as we walk through our lives, discussing our lives, and you need plenty of time for that. You need a lot of time. Just, I've got to get in my 20 minutes, you know, this morning, so I'll have 10 minutes to go and have 30 minutes. No, forget that. Take the time to discuss what's really important in your life and talk about that with God, and then you'll be doing what you need to do in building that relationship. Here's a quote from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Isbe, or Is-be, as some people say, there are certain ingredients that make up praise itself, and so here's a quote. One is elevation of the object of praise. That's God. Related to this is the direction of the speaker's whole being away for himself or herself and toward God.

Thus, while praise psalms are filled with the speaker's emotions, you read Daniel and Moses Jeremiah, David, Asaph, all their whole emotions, and you read Christ the summary of his three prayers to God and see the personal emotion coming through in prayer. So they're just filled with the speaker's emotions. We're not actually directed to look at the speaker or the writer of the psalm. Instead, we look at the speaker with the speaker at God.

And he says there's a corresponding double quality which looks horizontally at fellow citizens and vertically to God. In other words, if you get your eyes on God, you start also thinking of other people. It works together, of course. And this begins to change your attitude.

He actually... and so he actually... there's a wonderful psalm 73. I'm not going to read this just for time's sake, but... and I'll summarize it. And if you're taking notice, put down psalm 73 and look for the four sections. Easily done if you know what you're looking for. Psalm 73 and other psalms. David starts out in a rotten attitude. Really crummy, crummy, crummy attitude.

And he's... and that's what we should do, by the way. If you have an attitude, go to God and say, Father, I need help. I'm in a lousy attitude. I'm not... I'm here in Jesus' name. I'm not worthy to talk to you. And start talking about your attitude. First of all, confess what your attitude is sunk to. Does this not happen to you all the time? Sure does to me. Go back and get renewed. First section, that's what he's saying. He's all upset about the evil people that don't even try and they are blessed. And... have you ever had that attitude? Pretty common. And secondly, he starts thinking God changes his mind. And so as he talks through this, he's talking about other people.

And the third one is he realizes very quickly he has to look to God. And the fourth one is just his praise of God. Four sections, about 11 or 10, 11, 12 verses in each section. I wish I had time to go through it with you, but you can do that. And just look at those first sections. He starts out, completely consumes himself, moves to other people. Then he realizes I'm supposed to be... I'm talking to the God of the universe and all of his blessing, and then he praises God for all. He says, I'm going to stick with you. God takes our prayers as we pray to him through the Psalms and just our own prayers. You begin praying like the Psalms, if you do that long enough.

And he uses that time in personal conversation to influence this, and he changes our attitude.

He prays God, and he will give you the power from on high that was promised.

And you can just power your own attitude into a godly attitude. Power from on high.

I wondered about that term for a long time. That's what it is. The power to see yourself and to rearrange your view of life right to God, and to give him thanks and praise, at which time God converts the mind to a right spirit. Create a right spirit in me, Psalm 51.

So that's just an example of what praise is and what it does. Let's go to the second point, which is the example of Christ. We actually can do this pretty quickly because you're so familiar with it, the Lord's Prayer. What does he start with? Well, his first big point you can say is that we are here for the kingdom.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, his work in preparation for the kingdom. But before that, the prelude is our Father establishing the relationship. It's not just our God or our Creator or the Almighty God. It's the Almighty God, dear, beloved Father in heaven. And then praise to God. That's the first thing. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

The first section is a direct address to God in giving of praise. And then you're ready to pray the rest of your prayer. I use this not all the time, maybe about a third of the time or half.

For the last several years when I realized this is the form, pray this way, he said, do it this way. And so that's a natural. If you don't watch it, you'll spend way too much time on hallowed be thy name. If you begin to get used to praising God, it's a good problem to have. Oh, I've got to pray about other things, too.

The Lord's Prayer is his example. Many times Christ went out to be alone with the Father.

He recognized his need as a human being for just continually refilling. You do it once a day, one day, and you're all filled up, you're powered up, have a good night's sleep, hopefully, or a bad one is worse. You still, either way, you need to fill your tank. Emotional, spiritual. And so he recognized that. When Christ went out and did miracles, there are several times in there where it mentions he had been praying. And so you look at it more closely, or at least just be aware of that. What was he praying for hours and hours on end? Well, apparently he was planning what he was going to do, what miracle he would do. We know that was planned out well in advance, and so the angels, he and his father were talking, the angels could be dispatched to make the weather right, to make the boat get there right at the right time, and everything else. Knowing that Satan was working against him, sent the angels out. And certainly, many trials that he had, he would be praying about that. The powerful example we have is the last night, where he prayed three prayers each an hour.

And sometimes, you know, when you're first beginning, it's hard to even think of enough to say for a half hour, but that changes as you get in the habit. And as you add praise and appreciation to God as the first thing you want to do, where you start in your prayers. But Christ prayed, and quoted, and did the Psalms. One of the greatest examples, besides the one just before this, is when he was on the cross, Psalm 22.1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He had himself inspired those words. It still must have been a shock. He'd never experienced that to be in such a close relationship forever. Not just a long time, like if you've been married for 60 years. That's a long time to us. But forever, all of a sudden he was a human, vastly reduced in power, still trying to get used to it, obviously. Praying fervently earlier that night, or the previous night, in John 17, you know, give me the glory that I had before with you, when I was with you.

So, apparently it was a shock at that point. Why have you forsaken me? Blurped out. He lived the Psalms. Of course, he had inspired them. But we reproduce that by studying them. So, Christ prayed basically about everything. He shared his whole life with God, and he gave praise to God continually. And we have those examples. And we should follow his example. Point three.

Overall, description of the Psalter. This is a small point also. Smaller yet. It's been described as the spiritual life of the nation of Israel. I think that's fair. Well, it probably is true.

Even though they read a lot of those Psalms, didn't understand it thoroughly. But we do the same thing. We're continually growing. How they communicated, how they were told to communicate with God. Put it that way. It's just as true for us, and even more so. We're praying through the spiritual temple as a major guide for our prayers. Another description for the Psalms. I like this better even. It's all about God. All about our God. That's what the Psalms is. He is gracious. He's merciful. He's absolutely honest. Straight as a string. Faithful. Perfect in character. What he does, he does what he does. Never slumbers. He's always looking out for us. Camps about us. Sends angels to camp about us. Psalm 39, pardon me, 34. Builds a hedge around us. Here's an act that he looks for opportunities to help us. It's 2nd Chronicles, 16.9, where he sends his angels out to look for opportunities where he can give people a special blessing. He's looking to be able to do that. He exalts and glories in that. That's Scripture in just a moment.

He's extremely generous. He's gracious. He gives blessings in favor and love. He gives wisdom for almost nothing. All you have to do is ask. And wisdom is the insight to where you start. So, of course, you put a very low bar. You don't have to qualify to pray for more insight about what is right. What's the right thing to do here? Very low bar. Just ask. I'll give it to you. He is just so good. Of course, he has all wisdom, all knowledge. He promises to even help our memory when we forget the knowledge we had. He's called the God of all comfort. He's glorious in so many ways. And I don't want to just stand up and name all those things out. You know them and you'll come across them. It's what we when we're thinking about these these things, they jump out at us.

As we read. Point three is the spiritual life that's in the Psalms is all about God. And that's how we learn about God. One of the major ways that we learn about God is giving praise. As you do, he gives understanding. And that grows. And you grow because you know God better. And also, he knows you better. Now, a couple of questions. Point four, why does God, you know, all these things about praise, why does God want us to praise Him continually? I would say this is the absolute top lousy visit I ever had as a minister. It was when I was fairly new and I was called out. Well, I won't mention the city. But not that they would know. But this hippy type sort of commune that was living in this one house called me out, called the church, and they wanted to know this, found out they just wanted to argue and had this sneering attitude. This one woman, there were several rotten statements made. This woman said, ah, what is Christianity anyway? I won't say the next thing. It's so absolutely abominably blasphemous. But she said, I just, this is bad enough. She said, I just think it just seems like God is on a power trip, you know. He just wants everybody to look at Him and just, you know, like insecure. I thought, man, what an idiot. And I almost stepped back, you know, and waited for the lightning strike. But it wasn't God's will to do that just then. Talk about an abomination. Like I said, my lousiest visit ever. But a lot of people have this, you know. They think they're on a par with God. And praise God? Why, you know? And then they look around at their own little world. It just doesn't, it sounds like crazy talk. Really just sounds like crazy talk. Okay, but let's answer the question because we can, we have that answer, too. Why does He want us to praise Him? Not just why, but why all the time.

He wants us to constantly be an add, an attitude of praise.

And basically, it's because that's how He thinks. He always thinks outgoing. He wants us to think outgoing. You start focusing in on self and my needs. You're going south, attitude and spirit-wise.

Although it's so natural to do, we have to overcome that. So let's ask this then.

Well, let's answer the question first in two ways.

Why does God want us to praise Him so much? Well, He thinks like that, secondly. And secondly, because of the many benefits to all parties, many benefits to both God and those who are praying. So let's analyze this just a little bit. What does God get out of our praise?

You know, what do we have to give to Him? David said, I could give you a holy day offering 10 times bigger than this. That doesn't matter. I got it from you in the first place. It's His prayer, or maybe that was Solomon. No, it was David and later Solomon repeated it. But we're giving you of everything you've already given to us. The holy day offering, which symbolizes giving our whole self to God, not just some money. So what does God get out of our prayers? Something that He can't get any other way. And that is, let's take the example. You know, you have a child, they're so selfish. They just don't. They're not thinking. And as a parent, you might get missed.

Didn't He notice I did, or didn't you think about how I sacrificed for it? No, they didn't, because they're kids. But when they get to be, you know, older children, they should be taught this, and teenagers, and then moving on into young adults, pretty soon at some point, it should really kick in. Wow, my parents have been sacrificing so much.

And that builds their love for you. And when you see them growing, thinking your thoughts, and being appreciative for what you've done, and others, what God has done in lives, but when you see that, is there anything greater than that in this world?

When you see them making progress and going along the way they should, what a validation to yourself as a parent. And you can't get that any other way.

Until your child reaches that maturity to start thanking you and recognizes it.

And God can't get that wonderful blessing.

He can create tens of thousands and millions of angels that will join and acquire and praise Him, which He has. This is a good thing. An example for us and a lot of other things.

But that's what you can give Him, that He will not create for Himself and make you do.

He has to have that freewill praise and thanks and appreciation and love for Him from you. That's what He gets out of it. Not to mention the whole plan going forward and serving other people and so on. What do we get out of praising God continually? Absolutely everything is the answer to that one. Spiritual growth in all areas. Focus on the enrichment of our spiritual understanding and our wisdom. We come to have the heredity, the thoughts, the life of God in ourselves.

And that's, you know, the fantastic, fabulous benefit. You don't have to turn to Jeremiah.

I'm going to quote 924, which you know, but let Him that glory is because Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, or also 131 actually.

Glory not that you understand Me, pardon me, that's a summary, but let Him that glories, glory in this, that He understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, which exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness. Loving-kindness, judgment, you know, righteousness, getting everything right, making it right.

And with the whole attitude of love and care, graciousness, and so on. He says, for in these things I delight. So if you ask the question, what delights God?

Will it see us, well, anytime, Himself or others. He loves to do this, and He wants us to see us just glorying in Him, that we know Him. Therefore, we're striving to do everything in loving-kindness, judge righteous judgment, think right, and do righteousness.

In these things I delight. So Paul quotes that, which I started to read, glory in the things in which you understand Me and who I am. That's the thing, those are the things that we should be proud of, not if you're rich, you're rich as if you're smart, you're intelligent, if whatever, things of earth. But if you want to be gloriously happy, you know, what do we have?

Sorry about this, Mr. Foster, one more quote. What do we have to be excited about the feast? Well, the kingdom and everything that goes with it. That's what he's talking about.

Glory and the fact that you know Me, therefore you know what's going on, and you know all the blessings that God is transferring as He commands us to come to the feast and listen again, not to some guy blathering his own stuff, but reading from the Scriptures. So we get to know God through three primary ways, you've probably heard this many times, from the revelation of truth, that is, reading and studying God's worth and having it expounded to us by God's inspiration. Secondly, obedience to the law of liberty, changing our ways. And number three, not always mentioned, praising Him continually. That's how we get to know God. That's one of the most powerful, I don't know if it's either probably equal, but that's how we get to know God.

Most people don't conceive of this, that it's the praise that helps us to get to understand and know God, because as we praise Him more, He will give us more understanding to be able to understand those same praises that we read. We just understand it more and more deeply and grow in knowing how great God is and who He is. So those three are the three big ways to get to know God.

We're just continually reaffirming. When you praise, you're continually reaffirming and our admiration, our appreciation for God, our faithfulness to Him, our loyalty, our love, our determination to continue to seek Him. That's what praise is. Now in Psalm 103, another scripture I won't turn to, but I just pointed out, reminded, don't forget. Remember all those benefits. Don't forget all the benefits, and it names some, but there are hundreds of them. I started and got to about 20 or 25. This is when I first began studying into this, and I gave up because you learn more and more things as you go. So many, many, many benefits.

I'll give you one example. These are all kinds of benefits and spiritual things. I read a book early on in my ministry and ran across it and learned a huge lesson and didn't connect it with the study of praise until a few years ago. It was a book by the wife of a Baptist minister who was at that—they were retired already in their 60s or early 70s—and she wrote this book for the benefit of the young woman. She always looked at that and said, read the Bible, and said she was supposed to honor her husband and even obey him and be his helper spiritually, especially in work in the church. But he was supposed to be a minister, and therefore he's supposed to be perfect. He probably thinks the minister is supposed to be perfect, except anybody who knows anything about anything. That's not the point at all. It's so untrue. And we all think about that often, you know? But she knew that was there that her part, which he had to give respect, is that not ever one of our part? We all must give respect and honor.

But she said especially to her husband—and she struggled with this for years. My mom even told me about her struggles with that after I was grown. And she had—my mom had something similar to this woman—but she said, I found the key, and she was so right on. Let's write what I discovered again by studying this subject of praise. And she said, the key is internal praise. Whenever I would get a rebellious thought or a resentful thought—and I think he was just paying attention to himself, and not to me, which might have been true. And maybe she wasn't, you know, aware of everything he was thinking to do for her. That doesn't matter. She said, whenever I got the wrong attitude, I started—she didn't say pray. Of course she'd pray. She said, I started the habit. I discovered the principle of internal praise. I started reciting to myself and remembering all the good things about my husband—internal praise. She had stumbled upon—maybe God just directed and helped her to think that—the key to everything when you think about it. The key to all relationships.

Because as soon as she started thinking about the good things, she began a little appreciation. Oh, yeah, I do have it pretty good, you know. I can take some mistakes. I can take some faults.

This is a good man, and she went on from there and described that.

If that isn't the exact principle that the entire universe is built upon, that is, all the relations in the universe, and specifically between Jesus Christ and the Father. You know, I didn't—I stopped doing this list and decided I wouldn't try to read it to anybody so long, but I kept going, you know, to build it. So I understand it. But it wasn't just a laundry list. God really deserves our praise. He is so deserving. We should praise Him because it would just be unfair not to recognize all the good things that He does. And so we have the example of Christ, who made a point all through the Gospels. I'm not saying my own things. I don't have any words of my own. I'm telling you the words of my Father. The Father is greater than I am. And just before He left, He said, no, I'm going to my Father and your Father, and I'll be seeing you later. I thought, that's a strange one. My Father and your Father. Really trying to get us to understand we are in the family. We're children of God and we're brothers of Christ. We're slated to be elevated so far high above what we are now. We can't even understand it. And we need to keep those things in mind, lest we forget. So that's yet another smaller subdivision of why we need to praise God all the time. When you think about that, that's the key not just to God's relationship with us. It was at first when there were only two, that was the key. Christ, when He came and became Jesus Christ, the man, focused on and emphasized how great the Father was. And God's purpose, He also told us, the Father's purpose was to glorify the Son. You can see the pattern here. It's the same that internal praise thing that that wife had figured out over the years with a lot of experience.

You need to have a good attitude towards each other. And how do you do that? If you don't know how, you probably just stool over the same incident that came up and keep your bad attitude. No, change. Power out of it and do something yourself. And that is start praising your spouse, your friend, your co-worker, especially God. Praise somebody else. And then you think of, oh yes, the whole thing is thanks to God. Let's praise Him. That will change your attitude.

God uses our prayers and our praise. When we do what He does, which is to praise in an outgoing concern, the definition of love.

Do what He does. He will bless us for that. That's when He converts us.

Back to the notes. Let's see. I guess the next thing is, let's just go to Psalm 107. I'm going to have to give you a summary because I would love to give you an hour and a half Bible study on this one psalm. It's worth that. It's worth your time. I really strongly encourage you to do that. But, you know, you get into the Bible and the more you know, the more you realize there's more to know. In Psalm 107, there are five sections and then an additional little addition on the end. The first section starts in verse 1. O give thanks unto the Eternal, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. That's the first statement. It's going to expand on this, which is also in other psalms.

And we just read 117, kind of summary of everything. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. He's doubling down. Say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. So if you have been called and redeemed and given the hope of our calling and something to really be excited for when you're keeping the feast, just as one example, then you need to say so. You need to talk to God and give Him praise.

And He repeats this in verse 8. O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Just reiterating what He said in verse 1. For He satisfies the longing of His soul. And He gives a whole section on what's different than the first few verses, the first seven verses. And He gives another reason to give praise to God, verse 15. O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for the wonderful works to the children of men. Because a lot of times God does so much for us and we forget and we just go on to the next thing.

Ever done that? I've done it a lot. Oh, thanks, Father. I asked this the other day, or asked this earlier in the day or last year. I didn't even notice. I just sort of expected, you know, I don't know what I did. It was dumb. Thank you for doing that. Thank you, Father. If I didn't remember it first, I'm sure remembering now. Just thank you. You are so faithful and so gracious. And depending on what it was, then you go ahead and expound. He wants to hear it. I just left those scriptures out where He wants to hear us say it. So say it, even if it's late. That's okay. That's worship.

That's praise. I read verse 15, and then He gives another example. Verse 21, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

And verse 31, same thing, same exact words. He gives the last example, and then He adds on verse 42 and 43. This is giving, okay, now here is why God inspired this psalm to be written down and put into Psalter for our spiritual worship. This is our spiritual life that's been written down for us. The righteous shall see this. And well, verse 41, yet He seteth the poor on high from affliction. He saves people from trouble, and He makes their families like a flock. He blesses them in every way. Just a summary statement. So there are five examples, and five almost laments. We have a song about that, him too. Oh, men would thank God for everything He's doing.

Verse 42, the righteous shall see it and rejoice, implying the right, the unrighteous, that don't think about those things, that don't try to obey. That's the key. They miss it. The righteous, however, shall see it and rejoice. And all iniquities will stop her mouth. Very interesting poetic statement. Moving on, verse 43, whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall... and here we are, these five examples, symbolizing all the blessings God gives in our lives. Whoever sees it and recognizes it, they will understand.

Okay, so obeying God and then seeing and thanking God for that. That's another big one. Obedience and praise. They shall understand. But we're not done yet. A few more words. They shall understand what? The loving kindness of the Lord. God will give us understanding and does when we praise Him.

He'll give us more things to praise Him about. We'll grow in that. And pretty soon we will come to know God through our praises to Him. This is huge. This is a great lesson, spiritual lesson, as to live our lives. You come to the feast, it says to learn about, to learn to fear the Lord, our God always, and to hear and listen and learn. This is just one of the biggest keys there is, is to learn about the law of God. You have to try to do it and then recognize what God, how He is blessing, and give Him praise for that. Okay.

That's the basic lesson I wanted to give. Of course, I could add and you could too. I just mentioned Psalm 145. I don't have time for that. Just a wonderful Psalm to start with. Sometimes when I'm just sort of all strung out and I need a refresher. Psalm 145. There are other wonderful Psalms, but this is a good one. Just set you right back on track. 145. Please study 107. It will really be a blessing to understand that more deeply. One of these five examples is a prophecy that Christ fulfilled Himself along with His disciples. That's just a hint. You'll be able to see it right away. When I mentioned this, I usually mention this as the Dales found some way to mention it for the last few years. Every time it says the fear of the Lord. We're supposed to fear God. We explained, well, you know, there's fear of terror and then there's fear of deep respect.

Well, if you have a deep respect for the Lord, our God, who's given us all this, you would be scared to step over the line. No, I don't want to do anything at all to step over the line and purposely do something wrong, you know, accidentally all the time. But on purpose, no way. So you have the fear of disobeying. So you strive to obey. And in that process, God makes changes to your life. And you begin to have appreciation because you see all that God does.

And then you have a deeper knowledge and understanding that, whoa, I didn't understand nearly as much. God's mercy is not limited. It goes on forever in His blessings and all the other things. And that leads, that grows, and it becomes to an absolute devotion to God.

And you wake up and you realize in this process, I love you God, our Father, our Lord Jesus.

I really do. And I want to be on your team. Psalm 110, you know, great. It says, your warriors, those who volunteer for you, can't wait to be on your team. That's a serious paraphrase, I guess. Psalm 110. It's referring to the firstfruits. And Christ, as a warrior coming back, the volunteers to be with Him and do His work and help Him in everything, just can't wait to get going and serve Christ when He comes back. That would be us.

It's just fabulous. The fear of the Lord then turns into love. And so later it does say, thou shalt love the Lord. Same. It's just the first step is the fear of the Lord. And that's what's emphasized in the Old Testament. The love of the Lord, the result as that process moves on, that's more emphasized in the New Testament. Same attitude that God is building into us.

So praise turns out to be the gateway to all other types of effective prayer, where you make contact and you give to God your life, your blessing. Just like the two from the beginning, the Father and the one who became the Son. Don't know a lot about that process or how that happened, but they praised each other. That was the basis of their relationship. And it's going to be the basis of theirs and our relationship with them and each other forever praising the other guy. We used to say, and do still, it's not as much probably, outgoing concern. The love of God, outgoing concern. How's that expressed? Praise. You acknowledge it. You say something about it.

But praise, in other words, is outgoing concern. Praise is godly love.

Demonstration of it, what you're thinking. It's a fabulous thought. Christ, in John 17, verse 22, said, prayed, actually, to the Father, that we all could be in perfect unity by having the same spiritual mutual love expressed by mutual praise and glorifying each other. You can review that section, verses 11 to 22 and 23. That's what he was praying for. We will do this through eternity.

That was John 17 verses 22 and 23. Kind of ran over that pretty quickly. But this is what we're going to do for eternity. We will be in this spiritual oneness with each other for eternity, or else we won't be there in the first place. This is just absolutely, this is becoming like God. This is what we need to do. We get a glimpse in Revelation of this relationship with the Father expressed by the angelic 24 elders. Remember when it came to the throne, they took off their crowns, and it says, they cast, or threw. I'm not sure about that translation. They placed, maybe, but they put them there, their crowns, the symbol of their own glory, the 24 glorious angels.

And we don't know much about them, but they're very high-level angels, and they just put them in front of God and said, you are the greatest. I'm nothing compared to you. Here's my crown. Take it. I can't do anything. You surprise us again. And when they sang, Holy, Holy, Holy, that's a summary.

That's what we're supposed to do, is praise God continually. But what do you say? Well, you've done it again. Thank you for that answered prayer. I keep asking everything. I need help on so many things, and you keep answering. Thank you, Father. Thank you for answering these prayers. Thank you for everything. Your plan is so glorious, and they keep doing that as an example of the attitude, just humility before God, that we need. An example set by angels for us in this case. Well, let's review the points. God commands us to give praise to Him. Interesting that serving others comes before praise. Pardon me, comes after praise. First, that's the first thing you praise. We learn God's way of thinking and become like God to come up to this God-plane level of outgoing concern, His godly love. That's point two. The third one is the whole family and kingdom forever will be built on this principle, and that's what we need to be learning now. From our hearts, just praising God, thanking Him, recognizing, affirming our love and our faithfulness.

Despite our faults, we're still here, and we're not giving up. Those kind of thoughts. Just give that to God as a precious gift that we can give to Him. When you praise God or others, it's the expression of God's fundamental character that you are learning to give.

So, three assignments, as it were, three to-do's, three takeaways from the sermon.

Start and finish your prayers with praise. It's the first step, it turns out, it's kind of all encompassing. Start and finish your prayers with praise. Just make a point to do that. Change your prayer life if you're not already doing that. It will enhance and help however you're praying. It will benefit unless you're already doing it. And then, of course, still benefits. Number two, make the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which we read at the very first Paul mentions in Hebrews 13. Make the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving a personal loving gift to the Father and Jesus Christ. We talk about feast gifts, which we give to each other.

The holy offering, which we give to God. It's a giving feast. It's a time to not focus on yourself, to focus on others. So, and specifically, make the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving a personal loving gift to the Father and to Jesus and to each other. And the third, take away or assignment or whatever, start this habit of prayer at the feast. We do that each day at the feast. Start and finish with praise, because in the end, it's going to be an eternal habit. It's a real good one to work on to make an understatement of the century or the millennium. We recall to the greatest, most glorious calling at the foundational core of our calling to God's kingdom is the imperative command of God for our huge benefit.

Brethren, always and forever, praise ye the Lord. And may God bless this feast of tabernacles for all of us.