Sunday Message

Hello on this beautiful first day of the week!

When I was woke up on the morning of August 7, 2005, I had in my mind, the phrase "Put on the Garment of Praise". I had been praying for our church and thanking God, that how through many trials, we are still teaching and preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ -- Grace, mercy, restoration and reconciliation to hurting people.

So, I looked up the phrase "Garment of Praise" in the Word, and found this scripture:

Isaiah 61:3 -- To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

I was truly touched by how awesome God is ... our church body had been through many trials in the last few years.

But as I heard God speaking to us, that although we may be mourning, or we may be filled with heaviness, that we are to come out of the ashes of our mourning with the oil of joy ... to put off the garments of heaviness, for the garments of praise, so that we can be called "Trees of Righteousness", the planting of the Lord .... so HE CAN be glorified. We need to embrace praising the Lord.

Another scripture I found, also in Isaiah 61 is verse 10 --

Isaiah 61:10 -- I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

So we are to put off heaviness, put off mourning, put off sorrow ... and the Lord tells us to PUT ON Garments of Praise, and He will clothe us with Garments of Salvation .. He Has covers me with the ROBE of Righteousness... we the Bride of Christ adorns ourselves with Jewels... My soul shall be joyful in OUR God..

Hear our singing fill the air... Praising the Lord is a joyous thing. The prince of the air doesn't want us to express our love for Jesus, our Praise for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Word of God is complete with the Praises of God -- Singing unto the Lord.

Don't be ashamed to lift your voice to sing unto God. Not only in church, from the mountains to the valleys; Have God hear our praises vocally rise to HIM! God is awesome. I love to praise Him, and lift up His holy name. Sing alleluia! Put on praise music in your car, in your home. Fill the air around us with the praise music, surround yourself with the praises of the people! Our garments of praise, garments of righteousness exalt the name of Jesus.

A marvelous thing will start to happen. We will be continually thinking about and praising God for all the experiences in our life.

A song I used to hear all the time -- "I want to praise you Lord much more than I do, Learn to seek your face, and the knowledge of your Grace." -- We need to learn to praise God with all of our being, our mind, and our soul. Worship Him.

Use the time to draw near to the Lord. When we come to church for worship ... do it.. Worship. Sing and praise Him. Listen to the Word, learn to seek His Face. We will put on the garments of praise to lift off (or put off) the spirit of heaviness.

Below, is an article I found by Darlene Zschech. She is one of the worship leaders in many of the songs from Hillsongs Music Australia, ("Shout to the Lord", "Jesus, Lover of my Soul", "Power of Your Love", etc.) I hope this blesses you as well as it did for me.

God bless you and I bless the name of the Lord,

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Worship the Lord with Singing
Worship Notes with Darlene Zschech

How sweet it is .. to have the honour and privilege of leading people into God's presence through singing and music, confessing with our lips, singing loud and strong the promises of His Word. Singing is not the only way to worship our Lord, but I'm so glad it is a part of it!!

The first place we find singing in the Bible is in Exodus 15:2-3, when Moses and the Israelities sang an incredible hymn of praise, thanking God for His spectacular win over Pharaoh and his army. The sound must have been so victorious as they sang "The Lord is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation, He is my God and I will praise Him, ... my Father God, and I will exalt Him!"

Coming before the Lord in praise and worship with thankful, grateful hearts is a powerful principle; always remembering how far Christ has brought you and the price He paid for your salvation.

We hear the comment so often from new people coming into our church, "You guys look so happy! You're singing like you really mean what you're singing about!" Genuine.

Psalm 5:11 says "Let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them EVER SING FOR JOY!!" There is great joy when we worship with singing in Spirit and in truth. The unsaved will walk in and say "I want what these people have!" Singing was the immediate response of the children of Israel to God's incredible deliverance. Notice they never sang to each other, but they responded to the Lord with a song of praise to Him.

Sometimes you may not FEEL like singing praise to God, but in Psalm 27:5-6, David says he will offer sacrifices of joy, sing and make music to the Lord. In Isaiah 61:3, the word says to "put on" the garments of praise instead of the spirit of despair.

God created this beautiful gift of worship for His pleasure and His glory and as you OBEDIENTLY AND DILIGENTLY seek Him, His response to your worship will be immeasurable.

©2001 by Darlene Zschech
This article was originally published in the Hillsong Magazine.