"This Time, I Will Praise the Lord" (Part 2): Praise

Introduction

This Sunday, January 18, 2026, elder Junias Anané continued the exhortation he had begun the previous week around the same theme: "This time, I will praise the Lord." After reading Psalm 30, he brought the congregation back to Genesis 29:31-35, the foundational text for the month of fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving.

Leah, unloved, humiliated, overshadowed by her sister Rachel, eventually made a decision that changed her destiny and that of her descendants: turning her gaze away from what she lacked and fixing it on what God was giving her. At the birth of her fourth son, she declares, "This time, I will praise the Lord," and she names him Judah.

This second part goes deeper into what such praise sets in motion. It's not an easy praise, offered when everything is going well. It's a sacrifice, in the fullest sense of the word. And that sacrifice opens doors, breaks chains, and draws down a supernatural intervention from God.

Sermon Outline

1. Leah's decision: praising against all odds

Leah was cruelly deprived of her husband's love. She had every reason to complain. At the birth of Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi, she still mentions Jacob, still hoping for a look, an affection. Then, at Judah's birth, something shifts. She stops naming Jacob. She looks to the Lord instead.

She decides that her praise will no longer depend on her husband, nor on her circumstances, nor on what she lacks. From now on, her praise will depend on the Lord alone. As the preacher reminds us: your praise shouldn't depend on what your spouse does to you, nor on what your circumstances impose on you, but on who God is.

Praise becomes a spiritual garment. We must strip off the spirit of heaviness and put on the mantle of praise, because "praise befits the upright." It's this garment that beautifies us and makes us radiant.

2. The sacrifice of praise: praising when it costs you

Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, then, let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name." If you only praise God when everything is going well, that's not a sacrifice. It hasn't cost you anything.

The sacrifice of praise is praising when everything is going wrong. It's praising when you don't feel like it. It's getting up, splashing cold water on your face, and blessing the name of the Lord even while the flesh is pushing you to complain and to accuse heaven.

That's precisely the moment you need to praise the most. That's where praise silences Satan, who tries to make you believe that God doesn't love you and hasn't done anything for you. As soon as you start recounting God's goodness, the enemy falls silent and starts to flee.

3. Paul and Silas: praise that shakes prisons

Acts 16:25-26 gives the most striking illustration. Paul and Silas were unjustly beaten for preaching the gospel. Their backs covered in blood, their hands and feet chained in the most secure cell of the prison, at midnight, they pray and sing hymns of praise to God. The other prisoners, the text says, were listening attentively to them, because in a prison, normally, people don't praise. They cry, they murmur, they cry out against injustice.

What Paul and Silas do isn't natural, it isn't of the flesh. And then, "suddenly there was a great earthquake... and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened." There are earthquakes that aren't of natural origin. Some are triggered by praise rising up to the throne.

If you want to see doors open in your life and chains fall, praise God. The key that releases God's power is praise.

4. Jeremiah 33: what God promises Judah

Leah had dedicated her son Judah to praise (Judah means "praise the Lord"). In Jeremiah 33, when God speaks of restoration, he addresses Judah by name. Not because he ignores Israel, but because God knows that Judah is praise, and praise is what surrounds him on his throne.

In verses 10 and 11, God announces that there will again be heard, in the desolate places, sounds of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, the voice of those offering sacrifices of praise, saying, "Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." These three reasons, God's goodness, his steadfast love, his faithfulness, never change. They ought to feed a praise that likewise never changes.

In verses 6 through 9, the Lord promises those who offer these sacrifices: healing and health, an abundant supply of peace and truth, forgiveness of iniquities, restoration as in former times, and a renown that will astonish the surrounding nations.

5. The altar connected to the throne

Of Jacob's twelve sons, only one received royalty and dominion: Judah. Because his mother dedicated him to praise. The altar is always connected to the throne. Whoever brings the sacrifice of praise and worship is the one who sits on the throne.

That's what Jesus Christ accomplished. On the altar of the cross, he offered his life. And it's the slain Lamb who today sits on the throne. He bears the emblem of Judah: he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. If you want to walk in Christ's authority in your life, you must pass through the altar of praise and worship.

Key Takeaways

• Your praise shouldn't depend on your spouse or your circumstances, but on who God is.
• True sacrifice of praise is the kind that costs you: praising when everything is going wrong and when you don't feel like it.
• Praise silences the enemy, opens closed doors, and breaks chains (Acts 16).
• God speaks in a particular way to those who make their lives a praise: healing, peace, forgiveness, restoration (Jeremiah 33:6-11).
• The altar of praise is connected to the throne: Judah, and then Christ the Lion of Judah, are the proof of it.

Personal Application

1. What circumstance is keeping you from praising God today? Are you ready to decide, like Leah, that "this time" your praise will no longer depend on it?
2. At what point in your week can you offer a true sacrifice of praise, a moment when you would praise God even though you don't feel like it?
3. Is there, in your life, a "prison" (a stuck situation, a bond, a debt, a broken relationship) that you keep bringing to God through complaints rather than through praise?
4. Concretely, what blessings you've already received will you confess out loud today, before asking for anything else?
5. How can your family become, at your level, a "Judah" dedicated to praising the Lord?

Scriptures Cited

• Psalm 30
• Genesis 29:31-35
• Genesis 30:13
• Hebrews 13:15
• Acts 16:25-26
• Jeremiah 33:6-11
• Psalm 50:14-15
• Matthew 7:11
• Revelation 5:5

FAQ

What is a "sacrifice of praise" according to Hebrews 13:15?

It's a praise that costs something. It's not a spontaneous praise, carried by the joy of the moment. It's the deliberate choice to bless God and confess his name even while circumstances, fatigue, or suffering are pushing us to stay silent or to complain.

Why does the sermon place so much emphasis on the name Judah?

Because Judah means "praise the Lord." Leah made her fourth son a lasting memorial of praise. Judah alone, among his brothers, would be entrusted with royalty by God, and it's from Judah that Jesus would be born, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The praise a mother dedicated marked an entire lineage.

Does praise replace prayers of request?

No. Psalm 50 says, "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving... and call upon me in the day of trouble." We can and should ask God for good things (Matthew 7:11), but praise for what he has already done comes before the asking, and prepares our hearts to receive.