This is “Worship is a Big Deal to me”. The church is going through the same things the world is going through and the world is asking the church for a song of hope—asking for our worship. The world is looking for hope and light and faith. We have to get our harps out of the willow trees and lift up our voices. We must bring the sound of victory and salvation to a world in desperate need of hope and salvation.
>> Thank you for joining us
today on Kingdom Connection.
It’s my prayer that God
will use something specific
in this broadcast today
to really speak directly
to your spirit.
I say that with confidence
because I know God
still speaks to us,
and it’s really our desire here
that you will open your heart
and hear a now word
of what God is saying to you.
We’re so grateful
to have you with us
on Kingdom Connection today.
Let’s go right into the service.
♪ ♪
>> I want you to look
with me in Psalms 137.
“By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat down.
Yes, we wept
when we remembered Zion.”
Here’s what I want you
to focus on.
“We hung our harps
up in the willows
in the midst of it
For there those who carried
us away captive
asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us
requested mirth,
Saying “Sing us one
of the songs of Zion!”
Verse 4, “How shall we sing
the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?”
The King James says,
“How shall we sing
the Lord’s song
in a strange land?”
But what touched me about
this story is we have a picture
of some people
who had a wonderful life
in Jerusalem
and wonderful worship,
and they played their harps,
and they had a choir
that would sing in the temple,
and people would shout
and praise God in the temple,
but now circumstances
had changed,
and they were taken
into Babylonian captivity.
They were about to enter
across the river.
They would go
and be enslaved for many years,
and they knew it.
And the Bible said
in desperation —
there’s my saxophone,
and I love to play it.
It’s a part of my life.
It’s a very big part of my life
since I was 12 years old,
and I picked it up
for the first time.
But I can’t imagine anything
so bad happening in my life
that I would say,
“I’m never going to pick
that instrument up again.
I’m never gonna play it again.
I’ve been so hurt.
I’ve been so devastated.
I’m so defeated
that I’ve lost my song.
I’ve lost my music.
I’ve lost my worship,
and I’m gonna hang that
instrument of worship
up in the willow tree
which is a sign of weeping
and sorrow because
of what’s happened in my life,
and I’ll never sing again,
and I’ll never play again,
and I’ll never worship again
with joy of the Lord.”
But that’s what had happened
to these people.
The primary instrument
or musical instrument
that that they had was the harp,
and they said,
“We’re putting our harps.
We’ll never sing again.”
Circumstances have changed,
and this is so important.
When conditions change,
that’s when the enemy whispers,
“Hang it up.”
When things change
from very positive
and very delightful
to total uncertainty
and mystery and where is God
and why would He allow
all this to happen
and why doesn’t He do something,
that’s when the enemy
comes and says,
“Just hang it up.
Just give up.
Just throw in the towel.”
And you’ll never sing again.
You’ll never be happy again.
You’ll never play
that song again,
and this is a point
that these people
had reached.
I want to remind you
today that worship
is not just something we do.
Worship is a weapon.
The devil’s desire
is to make us more defensive
than offensive.
Lucifer was the archangel
of worship.
He was over heaven’s worship,
and he knows more about worship
than any of us including me.
He knows that if he can
defeat us individually
or as a church or as a people,
the only way that he can do that
is to first defeat us
in the arena of worship.
Satan knows that your worship
is a weapon,
and he wants you
to get so discouraged
that you lose your song.
You lose the heart of worship.
You lose your love for God.
When I think about
how the most potent weapon
that we have
in our offensive operation
against Satan’s power
is worship.
When we begin to worship,
we invade the devil’s territory.
When we begin to worship
like Aaron did.
He took a censor and when
a plague broke out in Israel,
the Bible said he ran
and stood between
the living and the dead,
and he would swing that censor,
and those incense would burn up,
and the Bible said
the plague stopped.
Psalm 68:1 says,
“Let God arise,
and His enemies be scattered.”
When you begin to praise God —
and the next part says,
“Our God has gone up
with a shout.”
The way that God gets aroused,
the way that God will rise up
in your defense
is when you begin
to praise Him.
He inhabits the praise.
And notice when God arises,
the enemy starts running.
Two things happen when we begin
to praise the Lord.
God rises, and the enemy runs.
He runs from the worship
of God’s people.
Listen, when you worship God,
what you’re doing is
you are redeeming the thing
that Satan stole from heaven.
Satan was the worship leader,
and you become his replacement.
When you begin to praise God,
you are restoring and redeeming
what Satan stole from heaven.
He hates to hear you worship.
Worship is so much of a weapon
that in 2 Chronicles 20,
Jehoshaphat was about
to fight a battle, and he said,
“Where’s the spears
and where’s the sword
and where’s the weapons of war?”
And the prophet said,
“Thus sayeth the Lord,
you will not fight
with those weapons,
but you put the praise singers
and the musicians
out on the front line,
and he said worship
will be your weapon
in this battle.”
Praise births
the presence of angels
into the battle zone
of your experience.
When you begin to praise God,
praise is God’s address.
Praise brings revelation.
Listen carefully to this
and don’t ever forget
what I’m about
to share with you.
When Joseph was there in Egypt
as a powerful man
who had all the wealth
and the food when the nation
and the world was starving
to death and his brothers came,
the same brothers
that had done him so wrong,
do you remember
he disguised himself,
and they did not know
it was Joseph their brother?
But the Bible says something
that you’ll read right over.
Do you know what made him reveal
who he really was to them?
He had all that they needed,
and they didn’t even know
who he was,
and they were in a famine,
and they had come
just to get some scraps.
But do you know
what made him reveal?
He said I want you to go
back to your father,
and I want you to bring
the youngest son back with you.
And the Bible said
and suddenly one of the brothers
named Judah stepped forward,
and he said, oh,
that would break
my father’s heart
if I have to go get
my younger brother
and bring him to you to enslave.
He said I’ll tell you what,
take me instead and when Judah,
which means praise.
That’s the Hebrew word
for praise.
When Judah stepped forward,
the Bible said Joseph broke,
and he went behind the curtain,
and he began to weep,
and he took his disguise off,
and he came out,
and he said I am Joseph.
I am your brother.
If you really wanna see
who the King is,
when you begin to worship,
worship is revelatory.
Worship brings revelation.
You will see who God is
only when you begin when Judah
in your life steps forward
and begin to praise Him.
From that day forward,
Judah and Benjamin
were inseparable.
They were always together.
Every time you read
in the Old Testament,
1 Kings 12:21
when the kingdom split,
Judah stayed with Benjamin.
Benjamin, according
to Genesis 49,
the prophesy over him
as he would be a warrior,
a ravenous wolf.
Praisers and warriors
go together.
If you praise,
you become a warrior.
You’ve got to be a worshipper
and a warrior in times
like these.
The Bible says in Psalms 50,
“Praise Him in the sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament
of His power.”
It seems backwards.
It seems like the praise
should start in Heaven,
and it should fill the earth,
but God says, no.
He says it starts on Earth
and when you praise me
and remember your body
is the temple,
your body is the sanctuary,
and when you praise me
in the sanctuary, He says,
then I will turn around,
and I will begin
to send the blessings.
If nothing goes up,
nothing comes down.
If you don’t release worship,
miracles do not come down.
Praise Him in the sanctuary.
Praise Him in here,
and He’ll go with you out there.
Praise Him in here,
and He’ll fill your week
all week long.
Praise Him in here
in your heart,
in your life.
Ezekiel saw the throne of God,
and he saw it as wheels.
It had wheels.
He said, “I saw the throne,
and it was a mobile throne,”
and he said, “It was like wheels
in the middle of a wheel.”
He said, “I saw
a flashing light.
I saw living creatures.
I saw all of these things
enfolding upon themselves,”
and He said, “I saw wheels
turning on the throne as God
was moving from heaven
to Earth.”
And then he said,
“The only thing human
that he saw
in all of this flashing
and lightning and glory
was human hands.”
The tremendous power
of God’s presence
is in our hands
when we begin to worship God.
We’ve got a rolling throne.
He gives us somewhere
to praise God.
Praise Him in the sanctuary.
That’s your temple.
And then he says something
to praise God for.
Praise Him for His mighty acts
and for His excellent greatness.
And then he gives us something
to praise God with.
Praise Him with a trumpet.
Praise Him with
the stringed instruments.
Praise Him with the tumbrel
and the dance.
Praise Him with the cymbals
and the high-sounding cymbals.
“Well, I’m not a musician,
Pastor Franklin.”
Well, can you breathe?
Do you breathe
because he then finishes it
and says, “Let everything
that has breath praise
ye the Lord.”
[applause]
I’m right where
I wanted to get.
So, these people
have been taken captive,
and here’s the lesson.
Look at me, everyone.
It’s so important.
They’re prisoners of war
because they have hung up
their harps in the willow trees.
You’re either gonna be a P.O.W.,
meaning a person of worship,
or you’re going to become
a prisoner of war
because when hard times
and bad things
happen to you
and you hang your harp up,
then I’m gonna
tell you something.
You become a prisoner of war,
to hopelessness,
to depression,
to addiction,
to defeat,
to lies,
to fear,
to worry,
to depression.
I refuse to do that.
I have a choice.
Which one do you choose?
You’re gonna be a P.O.W.
You’re either
gonna be a person of worship or
you’re going to become
a prisoner of war,
and you decide.
When your mouth is silent,
when you hang your harp up,
your worship up because
of what you’ve been through,
you lose the victory.
I want us to understand
that the Bible said
that they were
in a strange land.
And this is the problem;
they were dealing with things
they didn’t plan for.
It’s not the things
we never saw this year coming.
We never saw
the coronavirus coming.
We never saw and dreamed
the things that we’ve seen;
the division, the pain,
the hurt in our Nation,
the unemployment,
all of this stuff,
all of the division,
all of the hurt,
and now being out of church
for almost six months.
We didn’t see.
It’s the strangest!
The Bible said
they were in a strange land.
You talk about —
this is the strangest year
of my life.
I have never seen anything
like this in my life.
It’s the strangest time
for the church.
It’s the strangest time
for people individually.
It’s the strangest time
in our families
and in our lives.
We don’t —
but that’s when
the enemy whispers,
“Give up your worship.
Lose your song.
Hang up your harp
in the willow tree.”
But if I’m reading this text,
it’s when
the unexpected happens,
you have to determine
you’re not going to let it
steal your song.
You’ve got to learn how to sing
when you are in uncertainty,
when things have happened
that you never saw coming,
and you never planned for.
That’s that strange place,
that strange time,
and you have to make a decision,
and here’s how you do it.
The thing you have to do
is you have to remember
that you don’t allow
your identity to be defined
by circumstances.
I’m still a child of God
no matter
what I’m going through.
My circumstances
may have changed
from being blessed
in the temple to a situation
where I feel like
I’m at the river
right next to Babylon
and all hell is breaking loose,
but that doesn’t change.
Where you are does not change
who you are.
Your geography
does not change
your genealogy.
Who you are is who you are,
and it’s not determined
by where you are.
You may be watching me
in the hospital
with COVID right now,
but that does not change
the fact that you’re not here
and you’re there
in the hospital,
and that doesn’t change
the fact that you are still
a child of God.
You may be sitting here today,
and last week you were employed,
and this week you’re unemployed,
but where you are
does not change who you are.
You’re still blood bought.
You’re still called by His name.
You still have Him
as your Savior
and your Redeemer.
You’re God’s child
no matter where you are,
no matter what you’re
going through,
and that’s why you ought
not to hang your harp up,
but you ought to praise Him
even more that you’re not alone,
that you won’t face it
by yourself.
Shout amen, somebody.
Tell somebody
I’m still a child of God
whether I have COVID
or I don’t have COVID,
whether I go through high times
or I go through low times.
I’m still a child of God,
and that makes me
wanna praise Him.
[cheering]
Don’t allow where you are
to hinder your worship.
Paul and Silas
started praising God
in the jail cell
in the midnight hour.
They sang praises unto God.
If anybody had a right
to hang their harp up —
now, I’m getting
a little stirred in my spirit
because I don’t believe
that you’re hearing
what I’m preaching to you,
but you better hear it
’cause it’s critical
in these times.
We’re in a strange time,
and the voice of the enemy
is saying to believers,
“Hang your worship in a tree
of weeping and lose your song.”
But notice what they did.
In the midnight hour,
backs beaten,
chained to the wall,
Paul starts going “Do-re-mi,
mi-mi-mi,
re-re-re,”
and Silas says,
“What are you doing?”
He says, “I’m getting ready
to sing my song of joy
in this filthy prison house
surrounded with rats,
surrounded with guards
and captives.
I’m gonna lift Him up
in my midnight hour.”
And he began to sing praises
unto God in that
horrible circumstance.
The Bible said,
“They hung their harps
in the willow trees.”
They hung their praise
and worship up
because they got
in discouraging circumstances.
The Bible said what got them
to the place of giving up
and hanging their instrument
into the trees of sorrow was,
first of all,
that first part
of the verse in Verse 2
it tells us they hung
their harps up,
but in Verse 1 it tells us
why they did it.
It said they sat down
and then they started weeping,
and then the next thing you know
they lost their song.
They hung their harps up.
It all starts when you sit down.
They got tired of standing.
You have to keep standing
for what’s right.
You have to keep standing
on what this book says.
You have to keep standing.
You can’t get your eyes
on people.
You can’t get your eyes
on what so and so is doing.
You just keep standing
when you know what is right
and you do what God —
and when you feel like
sitting down,
that’s when you need to stand up
and start praising God,
and when the enemy
says sit down and cry,
you need to say,
“No, I’m gonna stand up
in praise ’cause I know
my God is still on the throne.”
Give God a mighty praise
and refuse
to sit down and cry.
Boo-hoo-hoo
or praise the Lord.
You choose.
You choose.
[cheering]
You’re gonna have to choose.
Don’t trade your harp
for a handkerchief…
[whimpering]
…have a pity party.
When you send out
the invitations, nobody comes
but the devil, and he says,
“Yes, you’re right.
You should.”
No, no, no.
Stand up to life.
We reign in this life as kings,
the Bible says.
We reign in this life.
God has not made you
a trampling mat for the devil.
Weeping may endure for the night
and when it does,
that’s when you sing.
Sing through the weeping.
Sing through the sorrow.
Sing through the depression.
Sing through the dark days.
Weeping endures for the night,
but the devil needs
to know that my sorrow
and your sorrow
has an expiration date
already written.
Before you ever got in it,
he already had something
coming down the road,
and He says, “If you make it
through the night,
joy comes in the morning.”
And the only thing
that’s gonna get you
from a weeping night
to a joyful morning
is praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Let me put some worship on.
Let me get into the book.
Let me lift my hands
even when I don’t feel like it.
Hallelujah!
God, makes this more
than words and just
another sermon.
It’s gotta become who we are.
You don’t understand.
I am a praiser.
Before I was a preacher,
I was a praiser.
Before I was anything,
I was a praiser.
There was something
in me in my DNA
My mama and my daddy
put praise in my DNA,
I do believe,
and I can’t help myself.
I can’t go but so long
and I’ll start singing praise.
And you say, “Well,
I don’t know no songs.”
Well, sing this, “Hallelujah!
I don’t have
the coronavirus today.
Praise the name of Jesus.
I’m not in the ICU
Hallelujah!
If I’m in it,
I’m coming out of it
’cause He set up an end
to darkness, Job said.
I don’t have cancer.
I’ve got food today.
I’ve got a roof over my head.
I’ve got all that I need.”
[applause]
And if you do have
and you don’t have,
praise Him,
and that’ll build the bridge.
I want you to notice
in closing this.
The Bible said that the enemy
required of us a song.
Did you read that?
Notice that the Babylonians
when they saw the Israelites
who were famous
for their worship
hanging their harps up
in the willow trees.
These are God’s people,
and the Babylonians are a type
of the world’s people,
and the world’s people
are going through the same thing
that the church people
are going through.
They’ve just been up
on their holy hills so long
that they can’t relate
to those people down there,
but now we’re all going through
the same thing.
Can’t even half come to church.
Go for five months.
So, we’re in the same boat
as the Babylonians,
and the only thing
that the Babylonians said
to them is they said,
“Would you please
sing for us?
If we ever needed to hear
your song,
we need to hear it.
I’m looking for something.
I worship 400 gods
across the river over there
in Babylon,
but they just don’t,
they just don’t meet my need.
If I could see.
I’ve heard you people sing.
I’ve seen the joy
that you have, and would you?
I require of you.
Please give me your song
’cause we’re all going through
the same thing.”
And if ever there was a time
when the world
needs to hear our joy,
hear our faith,
hear our love,
hear our praise,
hear our worship,
it’s now.
People need hope.
People need it.
♪ ♪
>> Thank you so much
for being with us today
on Kingdom Connection.
It’s because of you
we’re on television right now.
Our number one goal
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is to reach people
with the Gospel.
To find the hurting,
the broken,
those that feel like
they don’t matter
and don’t count,
and call them into a real
loving relationship
with Jesus Christ.
If you’re hurting today
and you’re watching right now
and you want to give
your life to Jesus,
why don’t you just repeat
this prayer after me.
“Lord, Jesus.”
Just say those words.
“Lord, Jesus
come into my heart.
You died and shed your blood
to forgive me,
and rose again
to live through me.
I give You my life,
give me Your peace,
give me Your help,
give me Your purpose
for my life.
Help my family, help me,
direct me, guide me
through this time.
In Jesus’ name.
I don’t wanna be alone anymore.
Amen, and amen.”
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