PRAISE FOR EXCELLENCE

Our objective is to understand the connection between our praise and our excellence. What is very clear is that, those who understand praise and worship excel in life. If you understand how to praise and worship God, you stand out in life; you don’t die under, you stand out.

Those who understand praise and worship, they rise to the top; they take the lead. We’re going to look at two examples in this service and our first example is Abraham.

Abraham was a deep worshipper of God. In Genesis 17:3, Abraham fell on his face, that is a posture of worship while God talked with him. In Genesis 22:5, the Bible says, Abraham said unto his young men that he and the lad will go yonder and worship. That was the kind of person Abraham was.

 

He understood and valued worship. No wonder, nobody was bigger than Abraham in his generation. Nobody was higher, nobody stood out more

He excelled in animal husbandry, he was the first person to introduce the ranching system of farming as far as scripture is concerned.

Second is  Joseph.

Joseph was a man who understood the praise and the worship of God. Even though it was not stated directly how that he praise and worship God, but one thing we know was that; Joseph was a bundle of joy, a bundle of excitement. Church Gist. He carried what we call the joy of the Lord. When in Genesis 40:5-6, he was looking at the sadness of the butler and the baker in the prison; that was proof positive that he was a joy distributor, he was a joy transmitter, a joy carrier.

Also seeing that the Lord was permanent with Joseph in Genesis 39:2 and Genesis 39:21, the Lord was with Joseph. We then know what makes the Lord to be with a person. In Psalm 22:3, the Bible says, the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. In Psalm 89:15, the Bible says, blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk with the light of God’s countenance; God’s face will be upon them.  So we know that Joseph carried joy and that joy was probably a joyful sound as well and he commanded the presence of God, the Lord was with Joseph permanently.

 

The worship of God, the joy of the Lord that established the presence of God in Joseph’s life, because in Psalm 16:11, in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore. So, joy was literally a permanent feature of the life of Joseph that made God to dwell with him.

 

The outcome of that was that, Joseph was not less than anybody in the whole of the Egyptian empire; he excelled as a dreamer, a dream interpreter, a solution provider and as an administrator. He excelled in management; he was in charge; he was on top. He excelled in leadership. Nobody was bigger than him except Pharaoh and in fact, Pharaoh was just a figure-head.

 

What was it that made Joseph to stand out and stand up like that? – The joy of the Lord, the worship of the Lord, the praise of the Lord. You cannot feel low and fly high in life; it is not possible. Like we have said all the time, whatever weighs you down, ties you down.

 

To be weighed down is to be tied down. When you agree to be weighed down, you have agree to be tied down. To be weighed down is to be slow down. This young man took the highest place in the land at the frequency of praise, worship, joy and excitement.