Praise

"He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen."

"For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods."

"Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name."

"I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High."

"I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies."

"Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power."

"I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You."

 "You who fear the Lord, praise Him."

 "The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord."

 "Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name."

"Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright."

 "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord."

 "O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise."

These are just a few samples of what I found for the word "praise."  But in these few verses the call is clear - we need to praise the Lord.

So today is Sunday morning and I've got to tell you, friends, I am pumped to praise the Lord this morning.  I can look back at my week, see His hand of faithfulness and provision, and now I get to gather with my church body and raise the roof!  Come on, aren't you ready?

Unfortunately many of us will enter the sanctuary with our eyes completely focused on ourselves. We will be burdened with the troubles of life and the busyness of summer.  Oh, yes, we will offer praise, but it will not be heartfelt or even worthy of our Savior.  Because our eyes are in the wrong place.

When you lift your eyes and let them rest on your Savior, the praise naturally begins to flow.  Let's decide to take with us to church this morning, praise that is worthy of the Lord.  And then, let's just keep on praising - every day, all week, until we gather again!  Imagine the sound that will rise from the sanctuary if the children of God came prepared to offer praise to the Lord - it would be deafening!

Have a great morning - go to biblegateway.com and type in PRAISE if you have time. You'll see that it comes naturally to those who have their eyes set on Him...