2020 is not getting my praise.
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by bringing the Lord a sacrifice of praise.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you, God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily Posture of perfect peace.
In Hebrews 13:15, it says, through Him meaning Jesus. “Through Him, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name”.
So, it occurred to me today because October honestly, has snuck up on me all of a sudden. We are wrapping up season 3 with this episode, and season 4 of Posture will be back on October 19th. Because guess what y’all? We are in the final quarter of the year. 2020 is almost over. I mean, I get it some of you right now are like, “it honestly can’t end soon enough”. Like, “do I have to do three more months of this?”. That has really been the popular narrative since about March of this year was like since the beginning of this year. We’ve been ready for the end of it.
I’ve seen so many posts, I’ve had a lot of conversations this year that have included the phrase “I will be so glad when this is over”. I mean, I’ve said that many times before about my own hard circumstances, painful seasons in the past. I have said, I will be so glad when this is over but why wait? You know, Nehemiah 8:10 tells us the joy of the Lord is our strength. So, why wait to be glad? Why wait for joy? Why put off the very thing that strengthens us when it is in the hard circumstances and the hard seasons when we need strength the most?
Here’s the truth. In every circumstance, in every season, in every year. You have a source of joy that never runs dry which means your strength never has to run out. We always have a reason to rejoice, to be joyful and that is who God is. His nature, His presence, and who we are becoming in Him, who we are becoming because He is so present and so faithful.
You know praise, that is a posture. And it’s a posture that keeps us standing firm in the truth no matter what the current facts of our circumstances may be. The truth is that God is with us. God is in us, God is surrounding us everything about Him is for us and He will help us. He has held nothing back from us. Not His strength, not His joy, not even Himself, we can trust Him. He is worthy of our trust. You know, a couple of years ago, I faced a loss that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever have to face. And maybe that’s exactly how your 2020 has gone down. Like, maybe the things that you have had to face this year were some things that you never thought you would have to face. You never expected you’d have to deal with them. You know, when I was in that season a few years ago, I got to the point where I, I believed I would never recover from it. I would never heal. I was so thick in despair. But it was then that I came across this scripture, about bringing the Lord a sacrifice of praise. And you know, it was a familiar concept like I’d heard the phrase before. I’m sure I’d sung the phrase, a sacrifice of praise in like worship songs before. But when I was in the middle of a season of such incredible pain and loss, you know. Experiencing that grief, that was so heavy. I just couldn’t even think straight sometimes.
This scripture in Hebrews 13, it came alive to me like it hadn’t before in easier seasons. And I realized, you know a sacrifice of praise wasn’t me not getting enough sleep on a Saturday night and still deciding to come to church and push past the exhaustion and you know, raise my hands in worship. No, that’s not what it is. And a sacrifice of praise wasn’t me like overcoming my shyness, and overcoming my introvertedness and shouting Hallelujah in the middle of a crowded worship dance. I realized, there would actually be very few seasons in my lifetime. Very few opportunities to bring a true sacrifice of praise in the midst of intense grief and suffering and unknown.
So, I decided. I decided I wasn’t going to walk away from God like I thought about doing. I wasn’t going to shut down, I wasn’t going to exalt the pain. I wasn’t going to let rage or bitterness or unforgiveness take over and take me out. And I wasn’t going to wait another moment to praise Him. I was going to bring my sacrifice of praise to my God in the middle of the crisis because He is worthy of all my praise. That season of grief, it didn’t get an ounce of my praise. It didn’t get my adoration, it didn’t get my trust. It didn’t get my peace, it didn’t get my joy. All of that belongs to and is secure in the one true God who is trustworthy.
2020 is not getting my praise either. The United States election is not getting my praise. COVID is not getting my praise. The economy is not getting my praise. You know, there may never be another year quite like this one. We all have a very unique opportunity right now to bring a sacrifice of praise, and because God is always joyful, that’s His nature. Our rejoicing with Him, it triggers an experience of His joy that elevates us above the noise and the chaos and the confusion of our current circumstances. It wasn’t that I didn’t grieve in that season, of course, I did. It’s healthy to grieve but I didn’t make grief, my lifestyle. No one. No one can take your joy away from you but you can surrender it by not understanding its power and by refusing to participate in it. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
I’m going to end this episode and wrap up this season with one of my favorite verses. Philippians 4:4 through 9 it says this. It says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!” Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, my brothers and sisters. Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right. Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me. Put it in a practice, and the God of peace will be with you.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26:3. In Hebrew. It is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus, because of Jesus. You are a living testimony of Jesus’s ultimate win. With every step you take today you’re putting Jesus’s victory on display and satan’s defeat on replay.