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There is no substitute for a lifestyle and revelation of praise and worship of God Almighty in your life. Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah when He said that He had come to:

The first thing that is evident from these words is that praise is not necessarily something you do, but something you put on. And since the garment in Bible days signified the true identity of the wearer, praise is not something you do, but something that you are. The second thing that is evident from this scripture is that praise involves and exchange of one thing for another.

What all this means to you is that to put on the garment of praise and worship God, you must first remove whatever garment you were wearing. In the story of our text, David first removed his kingly garment and then put on the linen ephod, the garment of phrase. I'm not saying that when we come to church, we must change clothes physically, but I am saying that if you are to praise God, then you must change clothes spiritually every time you come to church. You may be boss at work, but you must exchange those robes for the robe of worship while in God's presence. Conversely, many times people come into the house of God with the robe of complaining, the garment of depression, the shawl of having had a bad day, or the heavy blanket of worry pressing down upon their shoulders, and yet if you are to put on the "garment of praise" then you must be willing to first remove those garments that you wore in. If you are to praise God like He is worthy to be praised, then there must be an exchange of the spirit that you are wearing and if there is to be an exchange, then you must first give up your attitude that you walked in here with.

Maybe I'm preaching to someone tonight that you walked into church with a lot of baggage and worries and burdens and heaviness. God has news for you: He wants to touch you and bless you and strengthen you and lift you up from such things, and yet He will not be able to do so until you are willing to change the garments of heaviness and let them go and put on the garment of praise! If you came in here depressed and down and out, then know that God wants there to be an exchange of that spirit for one of joy in your life! And the way that you are going to get there, is through putting on praise!

Most of you have often heard me preach on praise. And it is certainly a worthy subject to preach on regularly because -- let me repeat -- there is no substitute for it in your spiritual life. We must be worshippers. We must be praisers. It must be a priority in our life.

And so, before I take the opposite subject, let me remind you that praise is important because of what it can do in your life and what it can bring about. Praise can do much:

As Paul and Silas found out when they sang in the jail at midnight, praise can turn the darkest night and turn it into a glorious experience. Before they sang and praised, they were beaten, defeated, locked up, and with a bleak future. When they sang and praise God, the first jail house rock took place, they were loosed from their bondage, everyone around them were freed also, and the jailor and all of his house were converted to Christianity and baptized that night! Revival and liberty came from praise and worship!

As Solomon found out at the dedication of his great temple, praise can usher in the very presence of God into your midst in a way that can be felt. God's Spirit fills the universe, but the way that I see His Spirit manifest in such a way that I can discern it and fill it mightily is through praise and worship. The scriptures say that when Solomon had offered up his great sacrifice of praise, that the Shekina presence of God filled the temple so much that the priests had to stop ministering. That was not a one time occurrence for them back then, because when you and I make up in our minds to praise Him today, His presence manifests itself in a mighty way in our midst even now! And we don't mind having to postpone our plans for the service to fit God in! Praise is our ticket into God's presence!

Praise is the key to getting God to work in our lives and to receive what He has for us! The Syro-Phonecian woman was a Gentile who was not getting very far with Jesus until the Bible says that "she worshipped Him." Her asking got her nowhere until she combined it with worship! But her worship changed God's mind toward her request and caused Jesus to step out of time and plan and give her blessing that was reserved for those Gentiles in the future and yet she got what she needed, because of her willingness to praise and worship Him!

And so if praise and worship seems to you as something that "I have to do," then let me remind you that you don't have to do it. Sure you are commanded to do it, but you are asking the question wrong. The question is "do you want hope and salvation and power to come in and right your desperate situations and issues?" The question is "do you want to see and feel God's Spirit moving freely and ministering in this place and in your life?" The question is "do you want your petitions to be heard and answered and be able to see God working in your life?" If the answer to any of these things are "yes" then praise should not be a duty to you but a joy because it is what can usher these things into your life. Without praise, you will not see these things present in your existence!

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Because it is so important; because it is so needful. There are sometimes people who exalt the importance of praise too much. I didn't say that they praised too much, but that they exalted the importance of praise too much. Listen carefully: because praise is so intrinsic and essential to getting so many things from God, there is a danger that we begin to think of praise as the "end all" the right response and the coverer of everything. We can begin to think that "if I praise God, then I'm covered spiritually in every area" but that is not the case because there are some things that all the praise in the world cannot do. And so for the rest of this message, knowing that we will continue to praise and worship God and it is a vital part of our walk with God, let me preach a reminder from God of what praise cannot do in our lives. There is no substitute for praise in our lives, and yet there are also things that praise is not a substitute for.

In our text in 2 Samuel 6, we read about a time of praise and joy in King David's life. David -- as you well know -- was a praiser, and so it is natural to notice his worship and song when you read of his life. There was no greater praise and worship service in his life than what we read about in this passage. It was a time of great celebration because it was the day that the ark of the covenant, the golden box that represented the throne of God on earth was returning to the temple of God. For years, God had been missing from His temple. For years, incense and praise and sacrifice had gone before an empty holy place. In Saul's reign, the ark had been captured because of the sinfulness of the sons of Eli. When the Philistines quickly returned it because of the hemorrhoids and such, the ark was brought into the house of a man named Abinadab. And there it had quietly stayed, blessing the house of Abinadab, when it should have been blessing the entire nation of Israel.

But this was about to change because David was bringing the ark back to it's rightful place. And it was to be a big deal! David gathered together thirty thousand warriors from the army to help protect it and help worship God on the trip. Besides these warriors, tens of thousands of people went with him to see the great sight of God's ark coming back to the temple. David had dozens of musical instruments that were handed out to capable musicians and played together as the marched. The ark was placed upon a new cart specifically built for this day and so no Mardi Gras or Fiesta parade could ever compare to the grandeur and excitement of this trip. People lined the streets to catch a glimpse of it as it came by. Fathers and mothers hoisted their little children upon their shoulders to help them see. A surge of excitement went through the crowd as they heard the music and then when they caught a glimpse of King David dancing at the head of the procession. This was no idolatrous festival of drunkenness and sin as we have today, but rather a procession of praise and glory to God Almighty. People will emulate their leaders, and so there is no doubt that many grabbed a tambourine and began to dance before the Lord right there in the street. I want you to grasp that most of us have never seen a scene of praise and worship quite like this one. They were praising God and genuinely so because God's presence was coming back to His temple! You can only imagine the enthusiasm and passion with which the praise went forth this day.

And in the midst of all of this celebration and praise. As David danced and the crowds shouted and the musicians played. The oxen stumbled and two of the sons of Abinadab were leading the cart and one of them, Uzzah, as a precautionary measure reached out his hand and steadied the ark on the cart, and when he did, God suddenly struck him dead!

I've seen some preachers get up and kill the moving of God before in a service, but in this case, God literally killed this praise service! The musicians stopped playing. David stopped dancing. The crowd stopped rejoicing. The cart stopped moving, and a shocked silence prevailed on the once worshipping scene. Uzzah was dead! And as the shocked crowd dispersed, the ark was hastily taken to another man's home, a man named Obed-edom, and the party ended. The scriptures say that David got angry with God that He would do such a thing when all of David's intentions were right. The people were genuinely praising God and lifting Him higher, why should God end such a procession in this manner?! David got mad and it took him a while to get over it because after all "I've done nothing but worship You and doing something good and needed and yet You strike somebody dead."

The lesson that David the praiser had to learn is that there are some things that even the greatest level of praise will not do. In his zeal to set everything up, David did not know what the Word of God said about moving the ark. The Word of God written down by Moses stated clearly that the ark was not to be moved on a cart, even a new fancy one built for it, but was to be moved only on the shoulders of the priests. And that when it was moved, a covering was to be placed upon it to shield it from the eyes of the onlookers. And so God allowed the oxen to stumble and when Uzzah reached out and touched the uncovered ark upon the cart, God killed him.

Listen praisers of MVCW! Listen to this preacher and grasp this! Praise can do a lot of things, but it cannot substitute for a lack of knowledge of what the Word of God says. If we have a church full of thirty thousand people and the best music and people who dance every service and people who have the highest revelation of praise and worship, and yet we do so not knowing what the Word of God says and without doctrine and teaching and Godly living, then despite the highest level of praise on the planet we can be lost and destroyed because of our lack of knowledge!

There are churches everywhere today that clap their hands and shout and rejoice and have good music singing the same songs that we do and getting just as excited and yet do not have a revelation of what the Bible says you must do to be saved. They can juke and jive and talk in tongues and yet do not even know the most basic scriptures as to how to live Godly and separated from this world. And if we are not careful we will let a mindset of "but they are praising God" come into our heart that will slowly tear from us the feeling of necessity of really knowing truth and holding onto sound teaching and doctrine. They are not like us, at least we'd better be different! Because hopefully you praise with knowledge of who it is that you praise. Hopefully you are worshipping with the knowledge of how the Bible says that you are to worship Him. Do not be deceived by the churches that do not teach doctrine and yet have the multitudes worshipping together, because such an arrangement even if it is the highest praise can only lead to death! Praise can never substitute for knowing the Word of God! They are like those that Jesus spoke of in our text in Matthew:

Our praise service is important. I wish some of you would get a revelation of just how important it is. If you miss or tune out the worship service, then you miss the point that it is to get your heart open and ready to receive the Word of God. And for that our praise service is essential! But the Word of God going forth is just as important and more so! Not just to hear the preaching but to know it and receive it and learn what the Word of God says. Because the greatest praise in the world will not save you if you do not know and obey what God's Word has spoken. If you praise God fanatically everyday and speak in tongues for three hours every day and dance and shout every service, there is nothing wrong with that -- the Apostle Paul said "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than ye all!" But if you do all of that and yet in your life you are disobeying something in the Word of God because you did not realize it was there, you are not going to make it into the kingdom of God because praise can do many things, but it is no substitute for the knowledge of the Word of God! We must praise Him in spirit AND in truth!

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This story also teaches us another limitation of praise. Uzzah, the man who was killed for reaching out and touching the ark, was of the tribe of Levi and thus a "priest" and someone who was to lead Israel in praise. And yet God killed him because only the direct descendants of the High Priest, Aaron, were allowed to touch the ark of the covenant. Even the highest praise cannot substitute for a lack of God's authority or calling.

I am reminded of the story of King Uzziah, whose name is eerily similar to the man who died touching the ark. King Uzziah got it in his head that because he was king of Israel, he should be able to go into the temple and offer up praise to God. The priests begged him not to, but the scriptures say that King Uzziah entered into the temple and listen to the description of that day:

Did you catch that? Uzziah wanted to enter the temple to "burn incense on the altar of incense." In other words, his reason was "I want to praise God in the highest sense." And yet because he entered into a place where God had forbidden him to go at his level of calling, he was stuck with leprosy and banned from Israel and died a leper!

When you praise God, God will speak to you and interact with you. When you praise God, you will feel God's presence and anointing. When you praise God, you will be blessed and receive anointings and revelations beyond anything that you have ever experienced. But the danger of that is when people begin to think that "I can hear from God for myself, therefore I don't need a pastor or a man of God over me." or "if God wanted me to be corrected, He would correct me Himself." There is no doubt that if you are a Spirit-filled, worshipper of God that you can hear from God for yourself, but it's not an issue of your ability to hear from God, but an issue of God's authority and calling upon people's lives. God has not called you to pastor yourself and He has given that authority to someone to be your shepherd and to guide you in His ways. Praise is no substitute for God-given authority and anointing. If you are born again, you are "kings and priests" unto Jesus Christ, but remember Uzzah and Uzziah that God has placed spiritual authority among those kings and priests and your great praise -- no matter if it is the highest that you can give -- will not change the fact that God has anointed men for different purposes and different callings. You need a preacher and a pastor to be saved. I need a preacher and a pastor to be saved. God has ordained that we be accountable to others with whom God has given that anointing and calling to! It's for our salvation and the "maturing of the saints." The greatest praise will never change that fact!

Don't become so lifted up in your spiritual maturity that you become too mature to be corrected or lead! I've known some people that got so mature that they couldn't be saved because they began to trust in themselves for their salvation. You've come a long way baby, but you've still got a long ways to go. Don't be like the Pharisees and look down on people that you would label as "sinners" and say, "I thank thee God that I am not like them anymore." Yes, a change of your object of praise has brought about great works in your life, but remember that the greatest devotion in praise is no substitute for a teachable spirit and a humble heart!

Let me remind you that the devil began his existence as the most anointed angel and in a supreme position in heaven as the chief of the praisers. He had all the talent and ability and was the most beautiful and yet he was cast down because "pride was found in his heart." Some of you, God has transformed from being like the devil in your lifestyle and made a saint out of you! God has done great things and now He is placing anointings and understandings and revelations in your life. You are becoming a leader of praise in your household and in your life. What God is doing is a beautiful thing. But beware, lest in the midst of your salvation, you become again like the devil in that despite the great blessings of God you begin to think too highly of yourself and "pride be found in your heart!" Praise is no substitute for true humility and we must never forget that but by the grace and mercy of God we would still be lost and we have not obtained anything so much that we can afford to look down upon others and lift ourselves up! Praise cannot replace humility!

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Before King David was King Saul and there has never been a more tragic case than that of the man called Saul in the Old Testament. A man who started out anointed of God and mightily used of God and yet who ended his life lost and a God reject. Saul was not a man who did not know the Word of God because God put the prophet Samuel in his life to preach it and reveal it to him regularly.

And never did God speak more clearly than when Saul went out to fight the Amalekites, an idolatrous people that constantly plagued Israel. Before Saul went out to fight, the prophet Samuel came to him with a direct word from God: Saul was to fight the enemy and God would give him the victory, but after the victory, Saul was to kill all of the Amalekites from the king to the smallest infant and not only that but to slaughter all of the Amalekite animals including sheep and oxen. God wanted this sinful people who were so fighting against Him, totally annihilated off the face of the earth!

And so Saul went and fought and just as the Word of God had said, he had a complete and utter victory over the enemy! And yet instead of doing what God had said, he kept the sheep and oxen and the spoils of the enemy and he also kept the king alive to parade around and show that he had brought a great victory. When the prophet Samuel came up after the fight, Saul said "I have completely done what the Lord said" and Samuel replied "why then do I hear the bleating of sheep and the lowing of oxen?" And Saul replied:

I could preach on this scripture a while! Saul said "the people brought of the choicest animals to sacrifice to the Lord your God." Your God as in, "Samuel that Word is how you believe, but I'm going to serve God like I want to." "I'll worship God and obey God's Word when it's convenient but when I want to change it, I'll change it." Saul thought that obeying some of the Word of God was good enough, especially since he planned to use the animals to offer up sacrifices of praise to God! But Samuel replied:

To obey is better than sacrifice and to listen is better than offering the fat of rams. In other words, the greatest praise can never substitute for complete obedience to all of that God has said! God has more delight in complete obedience that He does in the greatest sacrifice of praise.

Some people justify their lack of obedience to God's Word by their great sacrifice in other areas. I've heard people say "well, I had to give up much to live for God, therefore He doesn't mind if I disregard that." Or "I've had a rough life and yadda yadda yadda . . . "

Never forget that praise and sacrifice is needed and great, but they are no substitute for simple obedience to all that God has said. How many people obey God's plan of salvation and yet because they were baptized in the name of Jesus and got the Holy Ghost, think that they can ignore scriptures that might cause a change of lifestyle or action in their everyday life. Or because they are faithful to the house of God and praise God extravagantly they think that they are somehow justified to ignore that verse. But obedience is better than sacrifice. Saul, you know what the Word of God said, and no amount of justification or excuses or praise or sacrifice is going to substitute for simple obedience.

I've known people who were holding on to sin in their life try to make up for it by doing good deeds in other areas. There have been people in the past that I have finally had to confront and say "look, you're doing this is in clear rebellion to the Word of God" and I've had more than one of them say "but I do this for the church and I sacrificed such and such and I gave so much in the building fund, and . . . " Wait a minute! Those services and sacrifices rendered are great and good and needed, but they don't substitute for obedience to the Word of God! Come give the biggest sacrifice that you can, but if you are not obeying the Word of God, God considers you rebellious and just as a witch or warlock! Our sacrifices and giving and praise should not be an effort to make up for disobedience in our life, but rather should be the natural out spring of living a life that pleases God! The greatest sacrifice of praise will never substitute for simple obedience to what God's Word has said!

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And finally, despite all the great things praise can do, praise cannot make up for impure motives or unGodly desires. I am haunted by Judas Iscariot's actions on the night of Jesus' arrest. The scriptures say that He "kissed Jesus" as the sign of his betrayal. That was not a romantic kiss lips to lips as you and I think today, but rather a cheek to cheek hug and greeting that one would give a close friend. And Jesus responded "friend" despite the fact that Judas was just going through the motions and had the hidden motives of betraying Jesus into the hands of His enemies.

Ever since I have taught that first Wednesday night lesson on the calling of Nathanael Bartholomew in our Apostles' series, I have daily quoted to myself what Jesus said of him: "behold an Israelite in which there is no guile." A man in whom there is no hidden agenda. A man who is pure and whose motives and actions are pure and unstained with other goals that that which is presented. And every day I have made it my prayer that "God let there be no guile in me." Let me be pure in every action not to be a deceitful person and when people see me to realize that there is no cause for which I live or speak other than the cause of Christ. Paul told the mumbling and backstabbing and ill-motive church members in Corinth that:

In other words, "I'm not interested in joining in with your petty dispute with so and so." "I'm not interested in hearing about how somebody did this and then you did that and now you're going to do this." "I don't even want to know about their personal issues and this motive and that." "I'm not here to take sides, but to honor Christ and let's talk about Calvary and what a change God has made available to us through His death on the cross!"

I've known people to worship God because they saw the church as an opportunity to get rich. I've known preacher who preached for that reason (HA!). I've known people to come and worship God because the church fulfilled their need to belong to a group and a social environment. I've known people who worshipped regularly in a church because of the blessings and handouts that they regularly received from others. I've known people to worship in a church because it's a place where they can be seen and heard and known and praised and their talents revealed. I've known people to attend a church and worship on Sunday because they liked the prestige of being known as going to such and such church pastored by such and such. I've known people to attend to church because it gave them an opportunity to be in some position of authority and power over people was their driving force of their life. Take them out of their position and they drift away. Take the fellowship away from the socialite and they quickly lose interest. Take the handouts from the beggar and they drift on to the next place that will keep giving them fish.

But oh, that God would be able to say of us when He sees us coming "there is a church goer in whom there is no guile!" "There is someone coming to my house to praise me because they are grateful for the work of Calvary and have received a revelation of who I am!" Oh, that we would be a group of people whose motives would be so pure that our reason for serving Him would be to see Him high and lifted up and to know Him better! God desires for our praise to spring from a sincere heart to see Him as He really is! But if it does not, then remember that the greatest praise and level of sacrifice and involvement cannot cover and make right impure motives or desires!

Let's praise our God, but let us also know what His Word has said. Let's praise our God, but let us stay humble and filled with humility. Let's praise our God, but let's endeavor to obey every Word that has come from the mouth of God. Let's praise our God, but let's do so with pure intentions and motives and without the hidden agendas of this world. Let us allow praise to be all that it should be, and never let us forget the things that praise cannot make up for! Let us worship God in spirit and in truth!