Main passages: Hebrews 13:15; 1 Peter 2:4–9; Ephesians 1:3–14
Why do we praise God — and what actually changes because of it? Week after week we hear the Word, we are moved and motivated, and we resolve to live differently. Yet a day passes, and the motivation fades. As one self-help speaker puts it, motivation is like a shower — that's why we need it daily. But God's Word is not mere motivation. It is "living and active," and it has the power to change us permanently. So this message asked a practical question: what is true praise, and why do we offer it?
Praise, we were reminded, is not a technique for getting things from God. There is no mantra we can repeat to manipulate Him into changing our circumstances. True praise is a response — to who God is and to what He has done. Hebrews calls it a sacrifice: "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name" (Hebrews 13:15). Our lips could be used for many other things; choosing to use them to give God glory is a spiritual sacrifice, offered through Jesus Christ.
That is exactly what God has made His people for. In 1 Peter 2, believers are living stones being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. Peter writes: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). We do not praise God in order to be blessed — we praise Him because He is worthy, and because of the great thing He has already done: He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Like Habakkuk, we can say, "yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:18) — not to change our circumstances, but because God Himself is our joy.
The message illustrated this with a story: a king's son brought his friend, a poor boy from the street, to live in the palace. The boy was given fine clothes and shoes — but imagine him caring only about his shirt, his pants, and his shoes, and forgetting the palace and the friendship of the king's son. Too often, that is us: preoccupied with the temporary things of this life — job, money, comfort — while forgetting the relationship that brought us into the kingdom. In the New Testament, praise focuses above all on one thing: what God has done for us in Christ. Ephesians 1, where "the praise of his glory" rings out three times, celebrates spiritual blessings, not earthly comforts: God chose us, adopted us as His sons and daughters, and "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7). His great purpose is "to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10) — and praise keeps that eternal purpose at the center of our lives.
Bringing It Home
• Begin your prayers at the cross. Before asking God for anything, thank Him for what He has already done: you were washed, redeemed, adopted, and sealed with the Holy Spirit.
• Praise God for who He is, not only for what He gives. Earthly blessings are good gifts, but they are the "shirt and shoes" — not the palace. Let your thanksgiving rest first on your eternal inheritance in Christ.
• Offer the sacrifice daily. Hebrews says "continually." Set aside a few minutes each day this week to offer God the fruit of your lips — praise that expects nothing in return except more of Him.
May we be a praising people — not moved only for a moment, but changed for good by the God who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
This is the first of a two-part series: this message on praising God, and a second, to come, on encouraging one another and bringing others to Christ.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.