The 10 Commitments Of A Vintage Church Part 4

In this message, Pastor Steve Holt continues the “10 Commitments of a Vintage Church” series by focusing on the power of joyful praise as a defining characteristic of the early church. This sermon teaches that praise is more than music—it is an active expression of trust in God’s sovereignty that shifts our focus from fear and hardship to the reality of God’s presence and power. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holtz. I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. Go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2. And this is the last segment in the Ten Commitments of a Vintage Church. And I'm going to read from that, but you're going to. Keep your finger, like do this. Just put your finger in Acts 2. Then go to the left. You'll come to the last chapter of Luke. Look at that. And these are the two verses I want to build off of this morning. It's a really important message on praise this morning. And I want you to understand the context of what was happening in the book of Acts. And I think the last part of Luke gives us pause to what was happening in Acts. So turn, so let's go to Acts 2.46 first. And then would you stand with me? And I'm going to read it as we read God's Word. Verse 46 of Acts chapter 2. I don't usually do this, usually it's just one verse, but today it just seemed like these two needed to be side by side. So Acts 2.46 says, So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. Verse 47 is what we're camping on today, the last commitment of a vintage church, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to the church daily those who are being saved. Now look at the very end of Luke, because Luke is the writer of Acts, and in this last part, he's kind of giving a benediction. It's sort of a benediction to his gospel of Luke. And as he does, go down to, let's start at 50. And he led them out as far as Bethany. So that's right near, that's right, that area of the Mount of Olives. And he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And now it came to pass while he blessed them that he parted from them and carried up and was carried up into heaven. Now look at this. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And this is the benediction of the gospel of Luke. They were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Isn't that interesting? He finishes up this biography of the life of Jesus. He's getting ready to now segue in, as I've told you earlier in the early days of the introduction of Acts, that they were one book. So there wasn't chapter and verses. So that would have ended, and you'd go right into the book of Acts, but it wasn't called Acts. It was the history of the early church. They changed it later when they went to, when they were breaking things up. So the point being today, and this is really important, is that praise was a huge part of the early church. And that constituted who they were. And so when we come on Sunday morning, praise should be a part of everything we do in the litany or the liturgy of who we are as a gospel-centered church that comes together corporately. And sometimes we forget that, right? Sometimes we come in and we bring in all our stuff and we get busy and we're all confused. But what I love about the road, and what I love about churches like the road, where we make praise a big part of who we are, that's just lining ourselves up with the early church, and I think lining ourselves up with heaven. So you can be seated now, and I want to talk about this idea of praise, and I'm gonna call it joyful praise. I mean, the argument could be made is like, why would you say joyful praise? Because praise is so joyful. But I see that even Luke talks about joy a lot. So I'm gonna tell you about joyful praise, and this follows. Write this down. This is probably a phrase you're not familiar with unless you've listened to me, wholehearted men, I talk about it more on Tuesday mornings, but kind of a spiritual circadian rhythm. Jesus had a spiritual circadian rhythm. You need a spiritual circadian rhythm, and that's what you do every day. That's how you start your day. And what you see in the Gospel of Luke is this circadian rhythm of Jesus, where you'll see in one chapter he's healing the sick, he's casting out demons, he's preaching the kingdom. Then you'll see at the end of a chapter, and this was how the monk who set up the chapters, evidently he was cued in on that, was it starts with, and then he would go to a lonely place. Or he would go to a deserted place. And so you see the circadian rhythm of Jesus, where he's in public proclaiming, demonstrating the kingdom. Then he's in private and he's spending time with the Father. So in the book of Acts, it's really important that you understand, they're following that circadian rhythm. They're following that rhythm even when all the persecution comes, all of the great things that are happening, 3,000 have gotten saved, and that's probably just counting the men. So it's probably five to six thousand new believers meeting at uh the colonnade there at the temple, large groups of them worshiping together, praising God together. But then they're also connecting with each other. So we've been looking at those ten commitments, and you can look back and see what those are. If you're guests with us today, just go back and look. I'm not gonna go through them right now, but there was a connection with people, and there was a connection with God. And this is important because every one of us are wired for connection. It's the most important thing in your life. More important than your job, more important than your how much money you make. It's it we are wired for connection, and when the wiring gets snapped or the wiring begins to get confused, you feel despair. That's why when we as we grow older and we see disconnection with our kids at times and things like that, it's really, really hard. It's really difficult because we're made for connection. But we're also made for connection with God. Now, sometimes we can't determine the connection with people because people will betray you. And if you haven't been betrayed yet, you need to get out more often. Okay, so you you're gonna get betrayed, you're gonna get hurt by people, but there's only one place you can go every day where you can find unconditional love, and that's through a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ. He's never gonna turn his back on you, he's never gonna betray you. You may betray him, but he'll forgive you, he'll welcome you back, even as a prodigal son, back into the fold. So he loves you. So praise at its core is gonna be this, what I'm gonna talk about today is this adoration of the one connection that no one can take away. So let me give you a quick kind of maybe definition. Praise in its essence is the adoration of God. Praise is always active, it's assertive, demonstrative, and open. Wherever it is mentioned, movement, action, sounds, and songs are seen and heard. Now that's important because you can't just be by yourself just praising God. I mean, I guess you can be whispering that to yourself, but what we see in the Bible, what we see in the Bible about praise is it it's active, it's action-packed, it it involves movement, it involves your voice, it involves what you say. It's God directed, but it's also, in a sense, people communicated too. So you can tell when someone's praising God. It could be uplifted hands, it could be the high praises of your voice, it could be singing, it could be the adoration you give to God because of a testimony of your life or testimony that you hear from someone else. It's something that's action, it's movement in the Bible. Why is that important? Because that's the way you're wired to. You're wired for praise and connection through praise that involves your whole body. It involves everything in you. And the more active it's a part of who you are, then the more power it can actually have in your life. So that's why I encourage you to raise your hands. And I know that's hard for some of you. I went, some weeks I go back and I sit with Benjamin in the back, or I go up to the mezzanine and I watch you guys. And so I'm just trying to see engagement. And really, it's not the it's not the movement of your arms as much as the attitude of your heart. And so, you know, some of us are waiting for the bus worship. You know? That's okay, as long as your heart's engaged. Waiting on the bus worship. And then some of you are waiters. Waiters worship. And then some of you are Superman, Superwoman. This is more my style. And so I've mine's been in the evolution. The evolution of praise and worship as coming out of a Lutheran background, definitely right here. Then Southern Baptist here. And then, you know, to Pentecostal and all that. So I don't know what we are. We're we're charismatic with a seatbelt on. Okay, that's kind of who we are. All right. So no, we don't have any snake handling around here. Um, no literal holy rollers, usually. Um it's okay. It doesn't matter. It's the attitude of the heart, but I'm just saying that biblically, activity with your body is a big part of it. Just read the scriptures. It's it's a big part of praise. So, praise is the natural progression of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Isn't that interesting? So here we see the filling of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2, and then praise and joy becomes a big part of the early church because they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And here's how I know Ephesians 5, 18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. But we forget sometimes the next verse. Verse 19. Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Talk about movement, speaking, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, making melody. I'm glad making melodies at the end because I'm not very good at that, but I can speak it and I can sing it. So, and another thing that's interesting about the verse is it's talking about psalms, hymns, great hymns, spiritual songs, which I would I would interpret that today as kind of contemporary songs, and then singing what's in your heart. Just make him out. Sing what's in your heart, make it up, write your own songs. Isn't that the freedom of that and the eclectic nature of praise right here is amazing to me. That the early church felt like it was important to write down and for Paul to communicate in Ephesians, this is what the spirit-filled looks like. The spirit-filled life looks like. It's a life of singing songs you make up. It is singing old hymns. It's singing from the Psalms, the Psalter, which was the hymn book of the Jewish nation in the middle of the Bible. It's spiritual songs. It's today, you know, it's the many beautiful contemporary worship songs that are coming out of so many different places. So it's all of that. That's all praise. That's all adoration to God and the spirit-filled life. But I feel like this morning that we had to go back to the foundation or the fountainhead of praise. And I believe that's found in Revelation chapter 4. And it's lining ourselves. Praise is lining ourselves up with what's happening in heaven. And there is a massive prayer service happening in heaven found in Revelation 4. So Revelation 4 and 5 are the classic two chapters of the Bible that give us a glimpse of heaven. But I'm going to call it not heaven, I'm going to call it God's living room, God's war room, God's praise room. All those apply. So turn to Revelation 4. Now, Revelation 4 is interesting because we're looking at a man named John who is being persecuted for his faith. He's been placed by the Roman authorities on the island of Patmos, which was kind of a prison island. Rocky, arid island. And he's alone. He's by himself. And most of his friends have been killed. He's the last of the apostles. He's the last of the apostles. And he had to have been somewhat discouraged, church. I mean, it just seems like that the resurrection of Christ was such a glorious event. He saw the resurrection of Christ in a vision a few years after the resurrection. He's seen the church explode in growth up to probably 50,000 believers in the Jerusalem area, and then churches have been planted in Judea and Samaria and the remotest parts of the earth. That Asia Minor area was where he was key. God used Paul plant church after church in Ephesus and Galatia and Philippi and Thessalonica and places like that. But at the same time, the stark reality is everywhere they go, the Jews attack and persecute, and the Romans follow. So that it's just, there's just now this persecution that's arising across the empire because the Romans and the Jews are fearful of this church. So at first it was like, what is this? Is this a sect of Judaism or what? But now it's a movement. It's a movement. And you'll know in America that revival has come. Or a third great awakening has come when the government is afraid of the church. Because when the church starts moving out with the power of the Holy Spirit, governments get very, very uneasy. Because we're now prophetically speaking to power instead of just being a part of acquiescing to power. And so, as I said earlier in another message, I said that when the church is more powerful than the culture, a kingdom of God revolution happens. But when the culture is more powerful than the church, usually the church becomes corrupt. So this movement is happening. It's happening across the globe. It's starting to happen over the civilized world at that time, starting to move into Spain a little bit, not really. Maybe later in the next hundred years, it'll go into Ireland and Scotland and Great Britain, but not yet. It's just there. So he's discouraged. He must have been discouraged. Could have been discouraged. So look at Revelation 4. And then this is so cool. Because Jesus shows up and wants to introduce John to what's really happening in heaven right now. So what John is going to see, I'm going to read the whole thing, but what John's going to see is two realities. And I want you to understand this with praise. There's the reality of what's happening on earth. Could be really discouraging, could be you're really depressed, could be you're going through a lot of problems. But there's another reality, and that's the reality of what's happening in God's living room or God's war room. And Jesus is on the throne, everybody. That's praise. Praise is focusing on, and that first song that Desiree led us in was perfect because Jesus is on the throne and he's not up for re-election every four years. And he doesn't have a Senate and he doesn't have a house. Praise God. There's no Supreme Court. No, there's angels and principalities and powers, but they follow what the man on the throne tells them to do. And he's orchestrating stuff on earth, and so evidently God felt like it was important for John to see in this reality of persecution and pain and hurt. He wanted to introduce him with a door wide open to say, this is what's happening in heaven. And church, you got to remember this dark days and beautiful days are ahead of us. We're going to see both, right? But when we have an attitude of praise, we begin to get the throne room into us. So this is what's happening. After these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here. And I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne. There we go. We're going to see throne seventeen times, excuse me, eleven times in chapter four, seventeen times in chapter four and five. Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a Sardis stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are of the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in the back. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf. Third living creature had a face like a man. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And by the way, in the earliest translations we have of this verse, holy, holy, holy is mentioned nine times, not three. So later translations shortened it, but the earliest translations we have is nine times. The point being, God is holy. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, which is another great biblical definition of praise, giving glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever. The 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and they worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. There's that definition again. For you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. You're worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for you created all things, even Satan, even demons. Even the demonic world is being used by God to carry out his plan. And by your will, they exist and they were created. That's what's happening in heaven right now. For all time. God's not wandering around heaven with his hands in his pockets or his hands behind the back, worried and frustrated by what's happening on earth. He is sitting on the throne, and it says that he's going to sit on his throne until all his enemies are under his footstool. The most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament, five times, Psalm 110, that he will sit on the throne until all his enemies are under his footstool. So guess what we get to do? We get to practice praise. We get to practice what's happening in the living room of God. What's happening in the war room of God. And I like the word war room because it reminds me of being in Yokosuka, Japan so many years ago. And this guy was a Christian. He was part of Campus Crusade, which I was a part of, and he was one of the commanders on this battleship. He took us on this battleship, I don't remember which one it was. We're on this battleship and he took us down into this war room. And there was this throne. It was a chair on a swivel. And I don't know if any of you guys that are Navy or anything, if this is still true, but back then, this is in the 80s, there was this swivel chair in the middle, and it was elevated above it, and then he could see all the screens, all the screens that related to missile launches and incoming missiles and everything that was happening, and he could swivel around and he could tell people when to fire. To me, this is the throne room of God. This is not unlike that battleship. That God is commanding, he's moving, he somehow in the vast spectrum of how he works, he says, praise and worship is breaking out in South America. Sin revival. Holy Spirit goes sin revival. And then the angels take off and they fly in and God begins to move. And when he sees, I think when he sees praise and worship, what he sees is, oh, they're lining up with what I like the most. Because Jesus can do anything he wants in heaven, right? He can decide whatever he wants, and this is his living room. That he's seated in his reclining throne with his feet up. He's good. And he's receiving worship. And I feel like that when when we we as a church come and we're engaged each Sunday together corporately, and we and we worship him and we lift up praise. I think it gets God's attention. I really do. And when you in your life, when you're going through hard times and it's really, really difficult, and you choose praise, it gets God's attention. And he's ready to bless and he's ready to move in a mighty and powerful way. So praise is nothing more or less than a commitment to and a confession of the sovereign power and providence of God. It's a great definition by me. I like it. Commitment to, confession of, and the sovereign power of the providence of God. So it's a confession, it's a commitment that God's sovereign over these things in our lives. And so we wake up in the morning and we're down and we're hurting and it's been really hard, and we choose praise. That is supernatural, right? That's not normal. So look at Psalm 22. Look at Psalm 22. So for David, here's how I think you bring the throne room down into our lives. David, who more than anybody in all of scripture understood despair, understood difficulties. And yet he's the man that wrote more psalms than anyone else. Sang his praises more than anyone else. And in Psalm 22, wow, this is just so cool because in Psalm 22, this is really a psalm about despair and praise. It's looking at the two realities, you guys. This is super important. So the reality you're gonna read in the first few verses and all through Psalms is really, really hard. He's going through a difficult time, and yet, watch how he's gonna choose praise. He's gonna choose praise in his life. Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning. Oh my God. I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear. Anybody ever felt that way? And in the night season, I'm not silent. But then look what he does. He turns a corner in verse 3. But you are holy, enthroned, there's that throne room again, enthroned in the praises of Israel. So David, I mean, this is such a despairing psalm that Jesus quoted it on the cross. And so He's saying, He's saying here, I feel forsaken, I feel depressed, I feel anxiety, I feel despair, but you are holy. And you're enthroned in the praises of Israel. When you choose praise, in times of turmoil, God is enthroned in your heart. Isn't that great? I'm not convinced that you just that you heard what I just said. It's really good. So when you're in times of turmoil and despair and anxiety, when you praise the Lord, God gets enthroned in your heart. I'm not saying you feel it. I'm not saying that it's the greatest and most wonderful thing that you're now praising God and you can sense his presence. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. I'm just saying, though, that when you are in turmoil and you choose praise, Scripture would say you're enthroning, you're putting Christ, the seated Christ in the heavenlies, down and enthroning him in your own heart. It's huge in the work of God to transform us even through difficult, extremely difficult circumstances that we go through. Desperation and defeat are the best setup for praise. Desperation and defeat are the best setup for praise because you are at your wit's end. Your resources have been exhausted, and you feel like you have no place to turn, then don't turn anymore. Look up. Quit turning and looking for solutions from man. Look up and praise God. He's gonna get enthroned, and guess what? The ideas you'll start to have come from him. So I was a struggling sophomore in college in Newport Beach, California, many, many years ago, struggling with chronic acne. At least that was a term that dermatologists used back then. And I was in despair and I was depressed and I was down. And Dr. Bill Bright, the founder and president of Campus Crusade for Christ, had spoken at this event that we did in Newport Beach, California. I went up to him and I told him that I was down and depressed because of my acne. He had so much compassion for me. And I said, I don't know I've ever met anyone who's such a man of faith as you. Would you pray for me to be healed? He said, Absolutely. So he prayed for me, and over the next three months it got worse. So back then we had this thing called letter writing. And it doesn't mean you write like one letter, it actually meant you take out a piece of paper and you write things. It usually has lines on it. You took out a pen. You want this? And then ink would come through, and you would have letters and stuff. And so I wrote this letter to Dr. Bright, and I told him what had happened that um after he prayed for me, it got worse. He wrote me back. So some secretary of the thousands of letters he got said, we've got a weird one here. So he got it to him, and he wrote me back. And he said, Steve, in my understanding of the Bible and personal experience, when you're going through difficult times, you've got to learn to praise God. You've got to learn to just give it to him. So I challenge you to praise God for your acne. So I did. And so I woke up in the morning, didn't look in the mirror for three months. And all I did was wake up, open my Bible, and praise him for my acne. And praise him for my acne. And it completely healed and never came back. So something was released. I don't know if I'm not gonna say it was demonic. I have no idea what it was. I'm just saying something changed in me, maybe, and there was a there was a conduit by which God could come and bring healing because of praise with no results at first. And then God came. So if you're carrying turmoil, you're carrying despair and anxiety, let me challenge you. Quit looking around for solutions. I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just saying stop that for a while, or at least stop that every day at some point and praise him. God, I just thank you for the struggles of my son and daughter. I thank you, Lord, for my disease, my cancer. I thank you, Lord, for my for that death. And I'm I don't feel it, I don't understand it, but you're on the throne. And I need you to enthrone you yourself in me, so I'm gonna praise you for it. Look what he does next. Look what he does next, verse 4. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and you delivered them. They trusted in you and they were not ashamed. That's exciting. What he's saying here is this sometimes, men and women, is how we praise God. We praise him by trusting that he's still in control, that he wants to deliver, and that eventually he's going to deliver. The practice of praise renews our focus from our problems to God's power. Praise takes our mind off our problems horizontally and raises our eyes and our heart to the other reality of the throne room of God in the heavenly realm. His power is there, and he's getting enthroned in your heart, so you're now lining yourself up with his power, and his power can flow into your life. Now, I want you to jump to verse 22. So look, stay in Psalm 22. Look at verse 22. I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. That's what we're getting ready to do. David switches gears here from his personal issues to now. He's gathering, he's gathering the nation. And I will, in the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. You fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him and fear him. All you offspring of Israel, verse 24. For he is not despised nor poured the affliction of the afflicted, nor is he hidden his face from him, but he cried to him he heard. Verse 25, My praise shall be of you in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear you. So the practice of praise is the fear of God that focuses our heart. It's the fear of God that focuses our heart. Sometimes in the most difficult circumstances, we choose praise. David is now focused. Now look what happens next. This is missing sometimes when we talk about praise, but look at verse 26. The poor shall eat and be satisfied. What? Don't skip that. The poor shall eat and be satisfied. In other words, it's the poor man who doesn't have any resources. That God says, when you praise me, when you fear me, I'm gonna satisfy you, I'm gonna take care of you, and I'm gonna give you those resources. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over all the nations. Don't miss this. The practice of praise releases kingdom of God power. The practice of praise releases kingdom of God power in your job, in your family, in your personal life, in our church. The practice of praise this morning is gonna release the kingdom of God over Colorado Springs. To the extent that we're a unified congregation in praise, to the extent that we're a unified church, a group of people from all kinds of backgrounds, that when we come together, we're unified in praise. We may not be unified politically, we may not be unified in how we view America right now. We may not be unified in what's happening in our families. Some of you are having glorious situations of these really despairing. But when we come together, we we take our eyes off the horizontal, we put our eyes on the vertical, and we go to God in praise, and somehow, in a mysterious way, God releases production upon the earth. And he makes you more productive, more powerful, more joyful. Keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about The Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.