"How To Praise God In Another Way"

Scripture: "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." -Romans 15:7, NIV

Yesterday morning, at the 10 AM service at the Sanctuary at Kingdom Square, the Holy Spirit had His way! After listening to the anointed singing of our Colston Memorial Voices, the Spirit came in and it hit the congregation any way it could! Throughout this service of praise, I saw people praising God by clapping, praising Him by shouting, praising Him by dancing, praising Him by stomping, and other ways. At the end of the day, God accepts true praise from you and me. Once we leave the church house, are we able to carry the spirit of praise on the Metro or your respective mode of transportation? Do we carry the same spirit of praise at the workplace? Do we carry the same spirit of praise at home? These are questions only you and the Father can answer. However, He provides us today, within our main scripture, another way to praise Him.

This week, the Lord has started our journey in the book of Romans. Outside of Romans being the sixth book in the New Testament, it was the first of Paul's thirteen books or letters he wrote throughout the New Testament. Within this book, it was Paul's intent to explain that salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Within this particular chapter, we find that Paul blesses the people with some opening remarks, then discusses himself as a minister to the Gentiles, and discusses his plans to visit Rome. Our main scripture is found in Paul's opening remarks within this chapter.

Paul provides us with another way to praise God at the beginning of this text. He told them then and us now to "accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you". That ought to make us do self - inventory really quick! When I think of the term accept, it eludes to one being understanding of another person's needs, wants, disabilities, abilities, and other things. With this being said, do we accept our brother and sister though they may wear the skimpiest clothing to church and abroad? Do we accept our sisters when they get pregnant out of wedlock and not provide the nurture they need to make it? Do we accept our brothers who do not have a role model in their lives and cast them out as outcasts? Do we accept our elderly citizens though they are up in age and at times, hard to understand? Let's take inventory and realize that by accepting people, despite their level, age, gender, race, etc., is critical because it brings praise to God! You know why else we should accept one another? Because Jesus accepted you! If we keep it real with ourselves, we know that we did not come to Jesus with everything honky dory and all of our problems situated. We came to Jesus "a hot mess" and still come to Him as "a hot mess" from time to time. Nevertheless, despite our diseases, lack of praising and worshipping Him, lack of giving Him what's due to Him, lack of loving our neighbors as ourselves, and other things, He accepted us! He took us by the hand and has now brought us into His Kingdom! Aren't you glad that Jesus accepted you?

As stated in the title, once we accept one another as Christ accepted us, this will set things up "to bring praise to God". If you want to praise God on an everyday basis, accept one another! If you want to let Him know that your praise and worship is for real, accept one another!

In closing, we love to shout, dance, clap, and other things to give God praise. Are we open and real enough with Him to give Him praise by accepting your respective brother and sister? If the answer to this question is no, then I implore you to accept one another and watch God receive praise from you!