Michael Youssef - Empowered by Praise: 20th Anniversary Edition (2021)

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EMPOWERED BY PRAISE by Michael Youssef

Published by Charisma House

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Copyright 2021 by Michael Youssef

All rights reserved

Visit the authors website at ltw.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

An application to register this book for cataloging has been submitted to the Library of Congress.

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62999-988-3

E-book ISBN: 978-1-62999-989-0

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To Dennis and Lavon Chorba

for their quiet yet powerful leadership

in the ministry of Leading The Way

THE WORLD HAS changed greatly in the twenty years since Empowered by Praise was first published. Here are just a few of the events that have shaken our culture over the past two decades: the September 11 attacks of 2001; the launch of Facebook in 2004, YouTube in 2005, and Twitter in 2006; the Arab Spring in 2010; the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Muammar al-Gaddhafi in 2011; the rise of ISIS in 2014; the United Kingdoms Brexit vote of 2016; and the global COVID-19 pandemic of 20192021. In recent years smartphones, social media, and Zoom meetings have changed the way we relate to each other in business and at school.

Though it seems that the world has changed enormously over the past twenty years, these changes are minor and superficial compared with two great realities that never change: the reality of Gods nature and the reality of human nature.

Gods nature has not changed since time began. Hes the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And human nature has not changed since the fall of Adam and Eve. We are still made in the image of God, still cut off from Him by sin, and still desperately in need of a Savior.

No matter how the world may change, this truth remains constant: God made us to know Him, to worship Him, and to give Him praise. We are made to experience and glorify the majesty of God.

Praise the Lord for His enduring truth!

A MIDDLE EASTERN VIEW OF PRAISE

If King David were here today, hed shout to every believer, Clap your hands! Make a joyful noise with musical instruments! Shout praises to the Most High, the almighty God!

Its impossible to picture David standing quietly before us, droning theological platitudes. No! He would be excited. He would be dancing. He would shout and invite us to join him and all the saints in praising our Lord.

To our Western way of thinking, this seems way over-the-top. We believe in worship, but we dont want to seem overly emotional! Dont we sing hymns and praise choruses every Sunday morning? Dont we pray? Dont we give thanks and acknowledge God as Lord? Of course we do.

So whats all this fuss about praise?

It might help to look at this question from Davids perspectivea Middle Eastern perspective.

I am by birth and upbringing a Middle Easterner, so I understand the passion of a man like David. In the Middle East you dont greet a friend with a casual hello. Even if you have just seen him the day before, you greet him heartily and even embrace him. Encountering a friend is a cause for gladness and celebration. Why? Because your friend is important to you.

How much more, then, would a Middle Easterner, a man like David, express his emotions upon encountering the Lord Most High! You can imagine that Davids praise for God, his expressions of joy and gladness, would far exceed the greetings exchanged by two good friends.

King David, if he were here today, would urge us to leap to our feet with singing and dancing and shout, Praise the Lord!

How would you respond to the passionate, exuberant display of praise from King David? Would you dismiss him as a Middle Eastern religious fanatic? Would you tell him, Sh! We dont allow noisy displays of emotion around here?

Or would you gladly heed his call to praise God with your entire being? Would you praise the Lord with all that you are, all that you have, and all that you will ever be, every day of your life?

THE NEGLECT OF PRAISE

Over the years, Ive heard many Christians confess, I dont praise the Lord as much as I should. Its truenone of us give God the intense, heartfelt praise He deserves. In fact, we should ask ourselves: Do I praise God at all? Do I begin my prayers with praiseor do I jump straight to my list of requests? Are my prayers full of praiseor only petitions?

I believe the church today is not a praising church because believers have not been taught the importance of praise. We dont realize that giving God the praise He deserves is vital to our spiritual growth. When we neglect praise, we block the channel through which Gods power was meant to flow into our lives.

When C. S. Lewis was a new believer, he bristled at the Bibles command to praise God. He recalled his attitude at the time: We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people around every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. It seemed to Lewis that the psalmists were trying to bribe God with praise: More than once the Psalmists seemed to be saying [to God], You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall have some.

But as Lewis grew in his faith, he learned that praising God really means enjoying God to the fullest. He wrote, We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.

Many Christians view praise as something we do for God. They believe that when we praise God, we are doing something that benefits God. In reality, praise enables us to enjoy God. Praise prepares us to receive blessings from Him. Praise produces spiritual growth and development. Praise is the great

engine that increases our faith as we pray and produces a more powerful witness in our lives.

If praise produces great benefits in the church and in our individual lives, why do we neglect it? Perhaps its because praise doesnt fit into a simple formula. Praise is not a mere repetition of words, nor is praise a means of manipulating God into answering our prayer requests. Rather, praise flows from our love of God and our enjoyment of Him.