The Enemies of Praise

The Enemies of Praise

20. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

23. And exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.

24. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

25. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – Who is forever praised. Amen.

Romans 1:20-25

Responding To God’s Revelation

It is a common practice for businesses to stamp their image on products that they manufacture. This does two things. First it establishes the fact that a certain company has made the product and they are proud to stand behind what they have made. The product label is also the identification so that no matter where that product is distributed everyone will know the company. That’s called name brand recognition. You might go as far to say that the label reveals not only the product but also the producer of the product. For instance, the Coca-Cola brand is recognized all over the world. The Nike “victory” symbol is also something that people readily identify with. The symbol was worn by Tiger Woods and it makes a statement.

In his letter to the Roman Christians, the Apostle Paul speaks of God’s Creation as evidence of God’s Power and Glory. His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. It is quite clear that the things God has made are intended to reveal the invisible attributes of God in such a way that the Creation is one of God’s Revelation. Yet, for some reason, some do not see or acknowledge God as the Creator of all things. Paul argues that they are clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. There is literally no excuse for people not seeing the obvious that God has created all these things. So, when a skeptic or agnostic says they don’t believe that God created all things, they are denying God’s Revelation and this places them in a dangerous position of being reprobate, perverted, and depraved of all goodness. You cannot deny God’s Revelation and just walk away unscathed. You cannot say, “God didn’t do this,” when the work speaks for itself. When anyone, (and I do mean anyone), does that they have begun the downward spiral to the depraved and vain life. Later, we will discuss God’s response to such “foolishness,” but for now, we need to consider the appropriate response to God’s Creation as His personal Revelation of His Power.

How should believers respond to God’s Creation? Paul addresses this also. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened … Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. So, if those who knew God did not glorify Him nor did they give Him thanks, then they are guilty of refusing to “Praise the Lord.” You see, praise is the appropriate and loving response to the Revelation of God.

In the message, Praise Under Pressure, we demonstrated that the lack of praise can be a result of our inappropriate responses to circumstances and struggles in life. The person who determines to praise God regardless of life situations, will always emerge victorious because their praise demonstrates their trust in God. This is the proper response of God’s children. We should never wait until God performs His wonders to give praise. We already know that He will do what is perfect for our lives, so our praise is given at all times.

We should not only praise the Lord at all times, but we should do so as a response to God’s Revelation. While Christians know this, they don’t necessarily get into praise because of certain spiritual influences and attitudes. In their hearts, they recognize God as the Creator but it does not come through their lips nor is it demonstrated in their lifestyle. What happened? Some believers fail to consider that there are enemies in the spiritual realm that will rob God’s praise from the heart. These are not merely circumstances, but these are considered to be spiritual influences and negative forces.

Five Enemies of Praise

What is it that causes people not to praise God even though they see the evidence of God everywhere? The Scriptures reveal five enemies to praise. As believers, we are not immune to the attacks of these enemies that could result in us failing to offer God thanks and praise. These enemies of praise are disobedience, discontentment, doubt, discouragement, and distress.

The Apostle Paul makes it very plain in his letter to the Romans that they knew God based on God’s Revelation through Creation alone. His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse … For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. How could people who know something not do what should have come naturally? It is disobedience. Yes, it is possible for Saints to disobey God. So, when you know God but fail to praise God, that is disobedience. The word ‘Hallelujah’ is not a simple expression, it is a command to praise God. Whenever you hear the word ‘Hallelujah,’ you are to give God thanks. Jesus asked His Disciples, “how can you call Me Lord, if you don’t do the things I command you?” Luke 6:46. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him.

Disobedience can be so subtle; it will creep in on little cat feet and steal your praise without you realizing it. Many go to Church with the thought that they will give God praise and thanks, but because someone doesn’t speak they immediately get into their feelings and shut down the praise.  Regardless of what people do to you – God still deserves your praise. Don’t listen to your feelings because they cannot answer prayer. If you don’t praise God – you are being disobedient to God.

Not only is disobedience an enemy of praise, but it is accompanied by another enemy called discontentment. Discontentment takes over and blames God for things or when something doesn’t happen the way we expect. It starts off slow with words like, “Why didn’t the Lord answer my prayer?” The Hebrew word refers to murmur or to speak under our breath (raghan). Believers are often guilty of murmuring or muttering against God. That is when you are talking about God, but not in a genuine and thankful way. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. Rather than giving thanks, people become vain in their thinking. They allow their request to become bigger than God’s answer. The children of Israel did the same thing with their discontentment. They complained about the journey to freedom. They complained about the food God provided. They complained and murmured against Moses and Aaron. They even complained about the Promised Land and said that Egypt was better. This resulted in them dying in the wilderness. Yet, not everyone died. There were a few that praised their way to God’s Promised Land. Praise kept them from being discontented. They were thankful.

The third enemy to attack praise is doubt. Disobedience and discontentment may not affect every child of God all the time, but doubt attacks every day. Doubt will sit beside you in Church and tell you “God is not listening to you.” Doubt doesn’t just rob you of your praise, it snatches it out of your heart. Notice how the Apostle Paul addresses this state of mind. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator. Doubt will exchange the Truth of God for the lie every time. If you do something wrong, doubt will tell you that God does not love you because of what you did. Doubt will tell you to not give God thanks because you don’t have anything to thank God for. Doubt will have you so focused on your failure that you cannot see your blessing. But if you could just muster up enough strength to praise God anyhow, that praise will tell you that it is not about you – but it is all about God. If you would give God praise, you will break the shackles of doubt every time.

The Disciples were on the sea with Jesus when they encountered a massive storm. Some asked Jesus, “Lord don’t you care whether we perish.” That’s doubt. Jesus rebuked the wind and sea and then turned to them and said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Talk to doubt and tell it to shut up and be still. Give God praise over the doubt.

That is why you come to Church so we can cheer each other on to praise God and give Him Glory. That is why we honor God and exalt Him because we don’t want the things of the world to throw us off course from fulfilling our mission. That mission starts and ends with your praise. Praise God for each day. Praise God for each opportunity. Praise God for being God who created all things. Let’s just Praise the Lord.

Then there is the fourth enemy of praise and it is discouragement. The Apostle Paul recognized the power of human imagination to change things. That is what discouragement does; it changes the Glory of God into something else. Paul says, they exchanged the Glory of the Immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles. The lack of praise will cause you to imagine things that are not true about God. At that point, they become vain in the things that are imagined by the mind. As Dr. Benjamin Hooks said, “the mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Yet, the minds of many Christians are being wasted on fruitless things and it comes from being discouraged. Here’s how it works. God gives you an assignment and before you start out, the devil of discouragement whispers, “you can’t do that because you are not good enough.” This happened to the children of Israel on the very day that they were supposed to enter the Promised Land. The Ten Spies of Discouragement came back with an evil report of the land. Rather than them saying what was true, they became vain in their imaginations. They said, “we looked like grasshoppers in the eyes of those people and they were giants to us.” See Numbers 13:33. What kind of talk is that? They were so vain in their thinking that they called themselves grasshoppers rather than the people of God. If they could have just praised God, their thinking would have changed so that they could have realized that God did not bring grasshoppers out of Egypt, the Lord delivered the Children of Abraham. That is the power of Praise over discouragement.

Although there are other enemies of praise, these five are forces to be reckoned with and yet they cannot overpower your praise. Praise is the only thing that we can genuinely give God. Everything else depends on God’s Power, and to a certain extent even our praise depends on God’s Breath in our hearts. So here is the point. Why use God’s Power to speak against God? Why allow the enemies of praise to block you from expressing the Truth about God’s Goodness. Praise God anyhow!

I cannot close without sharing a few words on the last enemy of praise. That enemy is distress. It also goes by the nickname of fear. The goal of fear is to make every other thing bigger than the Creator. Fear does the very opposite of praise. Praise exalts and magnifies God. But fear minimizes God and exalts the problems. Fear boldly says that your God is not big enough. The Apostle Paul warns of Distress. When distress grips a person’s heart, they resort to exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – Who is forever praised. Amen. So, basically your Distress is a lie. Notice however, just in Creation alone, God has revealed His Truth. Distress wants to lie about God. But here’s the good news, Distress cannot change the Truth of God.

Here is how Distress works. A situation causes us to become alarmed which is a natural response that will cause us to seek safety. Rather than running to God for safety, distress tells us to turn to anything else except God. Distress or fear is not from God and I can prove it from God’s Word. 2 Timothy 1:7, for God has not given us the spirit of fear (distress), but of power, love, and soundness of mind. When distress comes, we call it being bent out of shape. Consequently, if the fear did not come as a gift of God, then by default it is the tool of Satan. The devil does not want you to praise God, but that is exactly what you must do to have power, love, and a sound mind. Distress will come upon you especially while you are praying. Remember how the devil attacked Jesus while He was praying? What did Jesus do? Jesus turned to God’s Word and spoke it back to the enemy. Here is the point child of God; when the enemy of distress attacks you, turn to God’s Word and begin to praise God. Your praise will defeat your distress and will usher you into that safe place in God. 

Praise God in all situations. Praise Him in the height of His Glory. Praise God with all your heart and watch God fill your heart with His Goodness. The best way to defeat the enemies of praise is to give God Glory and Honor. Hallelujah! Amen!