Jentezen Franklin - Praise Is Our Purpose - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, I'm gonna ask you to open them with me to the Book of Ezekiel 28:11, "Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Son of man, take up a lamentation for the King of Tyre, and say to him, "Thus says the Lord,"'" Now, there's a section in this study Bible that, I have a study Bible I'm reading through right now, It's Adrian Rogers study Bible, and he has a whole thing on the side, On The Power Behind the Throne. It saying it's a letter to the King of Tyre, but sometimes when you read the Bible you have to understand the setting and this is really talking about Lucifer.
These scriptures are talking about Lucifer. When he was in Heaven, his name means, "Light Bearer," Lucifer, one of the three archangels. And this is what He says, "You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty," Lucifer, Satan was perfect and is still, I would imagine, perfect in beauty. He doesn't look like some horrible demon, terrifying, perfect in beauty. "You were in the garden, the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering," This is astounding. He had all of the stones that is mentioned, the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, and emerald with gold, all of those stones are the exact same stones that were in the high priest breastplate.
Lucifer was in Heaven, light bearer, he was Heaven's worship leader, and he had those stones in his created being and body. The next part of the verse says, "The workmanship of your timbrels or tambourines, or percussions, and pipes, wind instruments, trumpet, saxophone, anything that requires wind to produce the sound, they were created in him. They were prepared for you on the day you were created. you are," or were, "the anointed cherub," A cherub is a singer. A cherub is an anointed angel singer. "You were the anointed cherub who covers, I establish you, you were on the holy mountain of God," The holy of holiest. "You walked back and forth in Heaven, in the midst of the fiery stones, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you".
I think it's pretty astounding when you understand that Lucifer was created by God for a divine purpose, and it was to praise and worship and bring glory to God. When Lucifer... In Heaven, as Isaiah 6 talks about the Lord would fill, His glory would fill the temple, and the angles would begin the saying, "Holy, holy, holy," and it would be Lucifer, who for centuries of creation would lead the worship in Heaven. It was unbelievable. He was beautiful. He had these stones in His being, and when the light or the light bearer would light up as the glory filled the temple, that light would shoot through those colored stones, each one if those stones being a different color, and it would be like a kaleidoscope of worship, even in the pageantry of worshipping the almighty God.
And then Lucifer would explode, and he had stringed instruments in his body that would begin to vibrate with worship, and praise. And percussion instruments in his body, music... No wonder the enemy uses music in the arts and entertainment, he is the original created with those particular gifts. And they would burst forth in its deep expression of adoration and praise unto God. And then there came a day that I want you to hear what I'm gonna talk to you about briefly this morning. The Devil has not always been a Devil. He used to be Lucifer, the anointed cherub but there came a day when he chose to become the Devil.
When I think about how important praise is, how important worship is, how that when Lucifer was cast out of Heaven, you and I, the high priest in the Old Testament would wear those same stones on the breastplate when he would go into the holy of holies, because we are Satan's replacement, we are Lucifer, the light bearer's replacement. When we sing, and when we worship, and when we praise, and when we speak praise to God, and thank God, and give Him honor, and give Him glory, we are literally taking His place. And I'm so thankful today that whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. That we are liberated, and we are set free but we are here for a purpose, He did not just save us to save us.
As a matter of fact, the Bible said in 1 Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen generation, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, you are a peculiar, a special people in the Earth". Who's he talking to? The people who have been washed and cleansed and save by the blood of Jesus Christ. And He says, "Here's why you're chosen, you're royal, you're holy, you're peculiar people, He says that you would show forth the praises of Him, who's called you out of darkness into this marvelous light". That's not just some figure of speech. He said, "There is one purpose for which you have been saved, now that you are saved, that in whatever you do in life you give praise, and glory, and honor to God, you replace Lucifer with your praise. You don't take the glory, you don't keep it inside to yourself, but you give God the glory, and you give God the praise".
I just wanna praise Him this morning that I am saved and I'm satisfied. I am happily saved and am satisfied. I'm not only saved from sin, but I'm satisfied and I don't crave it anymore, Hallelujah. I thank God I'm not burning for drugs this morning. I'm not burning in lust this morning. I'm not burning to have an affair or go out and be drunk today. I am thankful that I'm saved and I'm satisfied. I'm not saved and miserable, I'm not saved and crying over what I can't do and where I can't go. I'm so happy I'm free. I'm so happy I'm saved and I'm satisfied. I don't want anything that pulls me further away from Jesus.
And if I do have a tendency, and I still do, doesn't mean you're sinless, but when you do have a born-again experience, your nature has changed and I have to fight the little voice that says, "That's not right. That's not who you are, that's not your new identity". And that's a blessing. Praise is our purpose. We were raised to praise. He brought us from death to life to worship, and He said, "Let everything that has breath," Psalms 150, "praise the Lord".
Do you know that in the Book of Genesis 2, God breathe breath into the nostrils of man, and He became a living being? And then before Jesus left on a cloudy elevator and went to Heaven, the Bible said He breathe on them and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost". Or the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the breath of God. And what He was saying was, "Let everything that has the breath of God in it, those who have been redeemed, let them praise the Lord with that breath".
Now, if you don't have the breath of God on your soul, then you sit there, but if you have the breath of God, that means let everything that has the breath, I'm alive today, and I'm saved, and I'm satisfied. Woah! Come on and take a praise break. You forgot how lost you were, you forgot how hell bound you were, but He reached down His hand for me. To God be the glory! And as long as I have breath, I'm going to praise Him, how about you? Hallelujah! We were justified to glorify. We were liberated to love Him. He took those cigarettes out of your hands so you could clap them and praise Him. He took that weed out of your fingers so you could raise them and say, "I've been delivered". To God be the glory!
I'm so glad a vape doesn't get my breath, God gets my breath! With every breath that I have, I'm going to praise Him! My body belongs to God. My lips belong to God. My voice belongs to God. My ears belong to God. I'm gonna give Him praise. Shake those sin shackles off your feet. You used to dance in the club like a wild person, but you sit there like a wooden minion this morning. My God, every once in a while, you ought to get up off your blessed assurance and give Him a praise because He deserves a stand innovation, Hallelujah!
I feel the Lord in this place. He took your profanity out of your mouth so you could praise. How many of you used to cuss people out? How many of you used to, at the slightest provocation, just throw up a half peace sign and start cussing, but now, the Lord... All you do is when they look at you, "Praise the Lord, hallelujah". And if you're not there yet, go on and practice. Praise the Lord. We're not crazy. If they can go crazy at a ball game, we can go crazy for Jesus. We can get loud for Jesus. He deserves the highest praise. Never be ashamed, never apologize for giving God the glory and God the praise.
Are there any liberated people, any free people at Free Chapel? Then give Him a praise of freedom. Pardon the noise. It's the sound of freedom. We've been washed to worship. We've been redeemed to rejoice. And I'm here to defend old-fashion worship, where we unapologetically start getting a fire burning in people. You know, in the old Pentecostal church I grew up in, the baptists used to come on Sunday night to watch us burn, hallelujah! Now, I was born in the fire and I can't live in the smoke, I gotta have some praise around me. I want my children to grow up in a church where people shout and praise the Lord, and they're not ashamed. And you can make fun of it, and you can belittle it but I tell you one thing, when you find out what we're shouting about, you will shout too.
One more time, if you've got breath, give it back to Him with a praise. Look around you. Look to your left and to your right, all around you are former alcoholics, are former jailbird, are former drug addicts, are former depressed, manic depressive suicidal people but Jesus set em' free. What do you mean tone it down? What do you mean be quiet? Why not give Him great praise? For this purpose, we were born to give Him praise. How many of you have a house you didn't think you'd have? How many of you have got a car? You ought not no to praise Him less, you ought not to become uppity the more God blesses you, it ought to humble you, you ought to fall on your knees every once in a while in that new house and weep, and say, "God, you did it, you did it. You gave me everything I have, I'll give you back the praise". Bless God.
As long as I live, there's gonna be some shouting around here, y'all be what y'all want when I'm gone. There's gon' be some tongue talking, there's gon' be some laying on hand and slapping oil. I know where I came from. I'm like David, if you think I'm bad now, the older I get, I have more to praise Him for at 60 than I did at 30, woah! I know what He can do now, I thought I knew then but I know who He is. I know how He can raise you, I know how He can take what the enemy meant for your evil and He can turn it around for good. We will give Him the glory. He will come out with the victory. If you'll praise Him, He'll fight your battles. Give Him another praise and I'll try to calm down.
Oh, I love this anointing. I know y'all saying, "I wish He'd calm down". But He takes too long to find this vein and I'm in it. And I feel like you're one praise away from a breakthrough. I feel like you're one hallelujah away from the battle turning. I feel like somebody's about to see a demon run up out your house with one more hallelujah to the Lamb. You can get your body healed, right here, right now, with one, "Praise the Lord". Healing is in the house. Throw your hands up. Healing's in the house. Everybody praise Him for healing. Wow. "Anything is possible," says the Lord. "Anything... I inhabit the praises of My people".
And if you like it, you may be seated. If you like an alive church, if you like praise, if you like freedom, if you like the moving of the Holy Spirit, if you like worship, if you like it you better do it. I don't want this church to become lukewarm. I want em' to say, "They used to shout, they used to dance, they used to prophecy. They used to have might moves of God". Well, now that God's given us a platform, we might as well show the world. What we knew in secret, it's time to shout it from the rooftops.
Come on, let's praise the Lord together! If your praise and my praise ever get together. You know what keeps you in a Heavenly atmosphere? The only thing is worship. You think it's something small, you think it's something you do at church but if you ever learn the secret of praising the Lord in the good times and the bad times, worshipping Him, putting on music, listening, playing, singing songs, Ephesians 5, singing songs, spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart unto the Lord. Singing praise to Him, not for the audience when people are watching.
My greatest times of worship are in my office or walking through the woods, or sitting at my piano when nobody's there, and just singing to the Lord, playing to the Lord, picking up my horn, and playing my sax, and just praising the Lord to myself. Singing a song from me to Him. It's gotten me through everything I've ever faced and fought. Every demon, and every devil that tried to kill, steal, and destroy our family, destroy this ministry, I learned how to put on the garment of praise for the spirit if heaviness.
Life will beat you down, life will kick you in the teeth, life will bloody you up, but I'll tell you what Paul and Silas teach us, they teach us, "As long as I've got a praise there Is," they took a beaten but they said, "As long as I've got a praise, I'll get out of this, I'll break loose of this prison, I'll see God's goodness in the land of the living". Have you still got a praise? I don't care how you're bleeding, I don't care how you're broken, if you still got a praise, you will come out and see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Somebody offer Him a sacrifice of praise, out of a bloody battle.
There's something powerful, Lucifer, he was Heaven's choir director, he was the worship leader in Heaven, until iniquity was found in him and he was dismissed, and he was demoted, and he was distanced from the throne of God. And you and I sinned, and Jesus, God put on skin and came down, and bled and died, and carried a rugged cross to pay the way for us to some back to Him, but when Lucifer sinned, God said, "You are banned from the throne room, I will never allow you back, there is no way back". Why? What did he do that was so horrible? Did he murder masses of people? No, his sin was pride, self-exaltation and rebellion, that's the inwards sin.
But notice this, the outward manifestation of inward pride and self-exaltation was the refusal to worship. See, worship is not this out here that you do on the outside, worship is what's on the inside. If you don't have any worship, do you have anything on the inside? The more you have going on on the inside, the more your outside wants to express what you feel. John 4, "They that worship, must worship in Spirit and in truth". And the hour has come... This is so good. The hour has come that the Spirit is searching and seeking, I mean, I've sought God but there is a way you can reverse it to where God says, "I'll search the Earth for you if you're a worshipper".