LEVEL UP.  

Back when I completely changed my life after healing from my divorce, one of the things that I did was become a certified Life Coach. I wasn’t walking with the Lord back then, but my love for helping others that has been with me all my life got amplified through my own healing.  

I knew I needed to help others feel and experience what I had, and since being a Pastor was nowhere near my radar at the time, becoming a life coach was a perfect fit for me.  

I developed many tag lines and catch phrases back then, including the “#beMORE #doMORE” that you see on my social media posts….. 

Another one of my “tag lines” that I began using, and still use to this day, is “Level Up”. I don’t believe there are plateaus in life. You are either progressing, or regressing. If you aren’t moving forward, you aren’t growing. And even if you are staying still, that means you aren’t moving forward and progressing! 

There is always more to learn, more to accomplish, and tremendous purpose and value in personal growth!  

And NOW, that I am walking with King Jesus and surrendered to Him and have become a pastor- this concept just gets that much BIGGER and that much SWEETER. Because now, I am not “LEVELING UP” on my own- I am following the Way Maker, YHWH, the One who knitted me in my mother’s womb with purpose and an anointing!  

And the King of kings and Lord of lords is LIMITLESS, Church!  

1 Corinthians 2:9. “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him’—” 

Isaiah 55:9. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” 

Ephesians 1:18-19. “I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. He displayed this power in the working of His mighty strength.” 

So, every single time you get to where He is calling you to, He will take a step back, and call you to Him, causing you to grow and stretch yourself way more than you thought you could, and you will LEVEL UP!  

You have inherited the Kingdom that cannot be shaken, from the CEO of the Universe, and your future is glory to glory- not only do you dwell in His glory, but His sanctification of our lives will always cause us to pursue more and LEVEL UP.

So let’s jump into one of my favorite subjects, PRAISE! It is so near and dear to me, since worship music is often correlated with praise, and a good part of my life and ministry has been devoted to praise and worship.  

To praise God means to say good things about Him, to honor and worship Him, to celebrate His goodness and grace, to give Him thanks and adore His beautiful name.  

And since we are talking to YHWH when we are speaking of His greatness and goodness, praise is a beautiful form of prayer. 

When we praise God, we benefit in powerful ways: 

• Our thoughts turn from self to YHWH, and enable us to better experience His presence with us. 
• We learn humility, trust, and dependence on King Jesus. 
• We make room in our heart and mind for Holy Spirit’s power to work and drive out the darkness. 
• Our pain takes on purpose, and our heartache turns to hope! 

There are many ways to offer praise- we are used to doing it through prayer, and through our worship time as we sing. In the book of Psalms, we find expressions of praise through song and dance, the lifting of hands, clapping, and the playing of instruments.  

For me, just playing the piano is such a powerful and intimate time with ABBA; as I play, the Holy Spirit that resides within me is conversing with Father God, and it is so beautiful! 

“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.” Psalm 30:11

When life hurts, when we’re anxious and depressed and the storm clouds are gathering, when we are struggling…. we typically don’t feel like praising God.  

Yet, this is exactly the time we need to praise Him most!  

It’s easy to praise God and declare His goodness when life feels good, right? “Oh… thank you God for these blessings…. life is so good because You are so good! You are amazing… (because I feel amazing…) 

It’s harder when life feels bad, when we’re broken and bitter, anxious and afraid.  

That’s when it’s called a “sacrifice of praise,” because we don’t necessarily feel like celebrating God’s goodness, but we do it anyway, simply because He is worthy.  

God’s power, authority, grace and mercy doesn’t change ONE bit when we are going through tough times.  

ABBA’s love for us doesn’t change ONE bit when we are hurting and heartbroken.  

God doesn’t need our praise, but He certainly desires it and He knows that it will help us through all of our storms. 

In Psalm 40: 1-3, David shared his own testimony as he worshipped the Lord saying, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He turned to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God; many will see it, and fear, and will trust in the Lord.“ 

And allow me to give you some perspective here…. I submit to you that worship in the pit is the most precious thing we can give to God. On the other side of eternity, in Heaven, you won’t have to worship through pain and disappointment. Worshiping through the pain, the sadness, the frustration, the disappointment can ONLY be given to Him on THIS side of eternity.  

It is a true sacrifice, and it causes King Jesus to set your feet on a rock and He WILL give you a firm place to stand.  

Cory Asbury’s song “Nothing More than You” has some beautiful lyrics concerning praise and our Father’s love when we are down and out.  

“When I was at my lowest, You still were on Your throne 
And when I was still a long way off, You ran to bring me home 
When I was prone to wander, You loved me anyway 
When I was six feet under, You pulled me from the grave.” 

And when we worship through all of the muck and mire of this world, it changes our focus.  

It causes us to shift our thinking, our minds and our hearts to the PROBLEM SOLVER, instead of the problem.  

Even when we don’t see it, He’s working.  

Even when we don’t feel it, He’s working.  

You never stop…. never stop working… you never stop… you never stop working!  

He IS the Way Maker. 

When you authentically worship and praise King Jesus, hope arises, faith is renewed, strength is restored, strongholds are broken- in you and in the lives of those who see you and hear you as you praise the Lord. 

Amen?!  

Let’s dig into Ephesians 1 together!  

Ephesians 1: 3-6 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” 

WOW! An entire sermon could be preached from these 3 verses- this is powerful!  

Please know that being blessed in Christ with “every spiritual blessing” really means every spiritual blessing!

• This means that every blessing we receive, we receive in Christ. 
• This means that God wants to bless us with every blessing available to us. 

These blessings are ours in the heavenly places in Christ, they are higher, better, and more secure than earthly blessings. 

Charles Spurgeon said, “Our thanks are due to God for all temporal blessings; they are more than we deserve. But our thanks ought to go to God in thunders of hallelujahs for spiritual blessings. A new heart is better than a new coat. To feed on Christ is better than to have the best earthly food. To be an heir of God is better than being the heir of the greatest nobleman. To have God for our portion is blessed, infinitely more blessed than to own broad acres of land. God hath blessed us with spiritual blessings. These are the rarest, the richest, the most enduring of all blessings; they are priceless in value.” 

I love this line,” …to the praise of His glorious grace, in which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” Again, Paul is focused on the relationship- the relational love that YHWH has for us- so much so that He has freely given it to us through King Jesus.  

Freely given is based on the Greek word, “charito”, “highly favored” or “full of grace”… and every believer is blessed with it because of God’s grace and the sacrifice of King Jesus.  

Continuing on in Ephesians 1, we get to verses 7 and 8. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us…” 

In Him we have redemption and nowhere else- there is no possible redemption outside of Jesus and His redeeming blood!  

Redemption always implies a price being paid for the freedom that is purchased. It uses the ancient Greek word “lootruo”, which means, “to liberate on the receipt of a ransom.” Here the price is His blood, showing that the blessing from the Father and the Son comes not only from a divine decree, but it also comes according to His righteousness and holiness.  

He cannot bless in opposition to His righteousness and holiness. 

The redemption and forgiveness given to us comes according to the measure of the riches of His grace. It is so powerful, and so over the top- we can’t even comprehend it…. It is not a “small” redemption or forgiveness won by Jesus on the cross. It is immense!   

And He lavished it on us! Lavish means “spending, giving, or using more than is necessary or reasonable; more than enough!” 

And He lavished it on us with ALL wisdom and understanding…. it wasn’t willy-nilly… it wasn’t an impulsive decision. It is purposeful and calculated. We serve an intentional and purposeful God!  

Ephesians 1:9-12 says, “… in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. 

What a powerful image we see in verse 10… “as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.” 

God’s ultimate plan is to bring together – to ultimately resolve – all things in Christ, either through King Jesus as a Savior or King Jesus as a Judge; this will happen in the fullness of the times, during the end times.  

This is the great resolution and deliverance that even the creation groans for (Romans 8:18-22), the day when every wrong will be made right and every matter resolved according to God’s holy love and ultimate justice. 

For believers, King Jesus is not a judge, but the One in whom we have an inheritance. Believers are predestined for this according to the counsel of His will – again, the reasons for His choosing reside in Him, not in us. 

We can see three aspects of God’s plan working together here. It begins with His purpose, then the counsel of His will, and finally results in His work. God made His plan carefully according to an eternal purpose, taking counsel within the Godhead, and then He works with all wisdom…. SO THAT….. 

… we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. God’s purpose in all this is so that those who have trusted the Messiah will exist to the praise of His glory. The goal of God’s ultimate plan is to glorify Him.  

We exist for HIS GLORY!!!  

Not for worldly success, not for that promotion you sacrificed your family for, not for money, or a fancy car, or fame….. we exist for HIS GLORY. We exist to PRAISE Him!  

Faith-> Action-> Stewardship-> Closer to Jesus-> Will of God-> God gets all the glory! 

Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” 

WOW! Yes, yes, yes!  

An essential part of YHWH’s work is the sealing work of the Holy Spirit.  

His presence in our lives acts as a seal which indicates ownership, and which is a guarantee of our inheritance! The seal is therefore the Holy Spirit Himself, and His presence in the believer denotes ownership and security. The sealing with the Spirit is not an emotional feeling, or some mysterious inward experience- it is a divine, supernatural PROMISE!  

This exact Greek word used for guaranteeing is used only in the New Testament when speaking of the Holy Spirit. He is our only down payment of coming glory; nothing else is provided – or needed. 

We have this guarantee until we are “completely purchased” by God through resurrection and glorification…. in other words- we can rest assured that we are safe in the Savior’s arms…. from glory to glory!  

From the moment that we surrender to King Jesus, become saved and are dead to our selves and alive in Christ, until we enter into our eternal glory in the presence of the Most High!  

To the PRAISE of His GLORY!  

We can STAND FIRM on the promises of our God, and regardless of what is happening in our lives and in this crazy world, He deserves all the praise for rescuing us from the dominion of darkness.  

And because of that, we can PRAISE HIM ANYWHERE…. ANYTIME… and with all we have!  

Praise breaks down the walls of fear…. of depression… of shame and confusion.  

PRAISE is rooted in gratitude, and again, when we PRAISE, our focus goes from the problem to the Problem Solver.  

The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people…. He will always be found within our worship and praise.  

Let me ask you this…..  

If God inhabits our praise, who do you think inhabits our complaints?  

If you are ready to LEVEL UP, and if we are going to LEVEL UP as a church family, I promise you- it begins with PRAISE!  

John 12:32, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” 

When we lift King Jesus up… when we PRAISE Him- He will draw everyone to Him.  

When we lift King Jesus up… when we PRAISE Him, our churches will grow, our community will change, and our lives will never, ever be the same.