Hebrews 13:15 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

I Chronicles 16:29 - Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

   * Reminder: Last week we discussed the model prayer…When Jesus started out his model prayer, he addressed God.

   * We need to spend time praising God instead of going to Him with a laundry list of wants.

   * Jesus said to pray in like manner when He gave The Lord’s Prayer.

Psalms 50:23 - Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will i whew the salvation of God.

   * What do I have that God would want? One thing that we can give Him is our praise.        * If we don’t give Him praise, we can begin to feel that we don’t need Him and are greater than God.      * That is what happened to Satan when he was in Heaven. He thought that he was greater than God and that he wanted praise. God cast him out of Heaven.      * We should praise God in all aspects of our lives, at all times. Do people see you praising God continually or someone who is stuck on yourself?

   * We were created to praise God. What are you sacrificing for the cause of Christ? An hour in prayer? 30 minutes? 15 minutes?   * The oldest and most perfect communication is prayer.       * Do you really understand spiritual sacrifice?       * It is truly giving an offering to God of our time and efforts in a way that is pleasing to Him.

   * Compare Noah to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.    * Noah was obedient, humble and reverent to God while the Israelites complained and were upset with Moses and God.

   * Praise can take on many forms but they have to be based on spiritual truths and principles and presented with humility.   * Many times people get so far away from the Lord.       * The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. 

   * Once you trust Christ as your Savior, He becomes your Heavenly Father and that never changes.       * However, the fellowship can be broken.       * It is our job to restore that fellowship with God when it is broken.

   * We need to think about that…Are we really praising the Lord or are we running our lives and doing it our way?      * If you are a child of God, you need to get back to praising Him.       * If we have broken the fellowship, we need to say we are sorry and get that sweet fellowship back.

Psalms 9:1 - I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvelous works.

   * Praise is expressing to God our thanks and appreciation for his divine nature.    * When we praise God, we help ourselves.    * It is putting into your mind and heart that right relationship that you have.

   * We live our lives so concerned to please others that we compromise our convictions and morals.    * We need to be more concerned to please God and not others.    * We should not permit our feelings to be hurt or it can be a form of egotism.       * Sometimes we hear things said that are criticism and we need to hear those things.

   * We need to be more concerned with is our life is more pleasing to God than more pleasing to others.