Garment of Praise
Key Passage: Isaiah 61:1-3
Date: June 7, 2024
Turning your Bibles, if you would, to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter number 61. We are leaving our series on the Ten Commandments. We’ve been covering the Ten Commandments for the last five Sundays. We’re actually on the Sixth Commandment. I studied it out this week, and I just felt like the Lord will be pleased if we change for one Sunday, and we’re going to go to a different subject. We’ll go back, Lord willing, next Sunday to the Sixth Commandment and finish our series on the Ten Commandments soon.
Isaiah 61. This is an Old Testament scripture about the coming Messiah. It’s talking about Jesus Christ. Actually, Jesus Christ fulfilled this in Luke 4. We won’t take time to read it. It’ll be fully fulfilled in the millennium reign. But this is a prophecy of the coming Messiah. We want to look at one phrase that Jesus came to do. And I’m praying that he’ll fulfill it even more in your life because of this morning.
And so Isaiah 61, verse number one is where we’re starting. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good. Would you please stand if you’re able to just to show the word of God respect as we get going this morning? 61, verse number one. You’ll notice the Trinity right off the bat here, verse number one.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn.”
I’ve already mentioned, but it just seems somewhat—my Sunday school class mentioned they’ve had three funerals this week and three the week before. I think about Jerry and Betty. I think about others, an anniversary of a loved one passing. And isn’t it wonderful? One of the reasons why Jesus came, he says, to comfort all that mourn. What a blessed Jesus came for that.
Verse number three: “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Sometimes I hesitate to mention someone because there are so many worthy of mentioning. But I can’t help but think about as I read that about Mary Dauphin. And she’s been just bubbling over this morning, smiling and hugging and giving everybody a hard time. You know what I’m talking about. But this week was a three-year anniversary of her husband, I believe it was, and, of course, her sons with the Lord also. One of our buildings out here, the Dwayne Dought Teen Room, is named after him.
And that’s what we’re talking about here: that verse number three, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he be glorified. The tree just stands after all they’ve been through, so many—you stand—trees are righteous. The planting of the Lord that he be glorified. There’s so much there. We won’t cover it all, but let’s just do this: let’s just take this one little phrase, “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Let’s just focus on that for the little bit of time we have left.
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Let’s just talk about that phrase. One of the reasons why Jesus came. Would you do this? Would you read that phrase out loud with me? Here we go: “The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Would you pray inside as I lead us in prayer outside? I pray that God would just really put this phrase, write it on our hearts where it will always be there and we will be better at following what Jesus came to do. Would you pray as I pray out loud?
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. I’m going to preach for a little while on, “What are you wearing?” I’m not talking about your happy socks here, all right? I’m not talking about the blouse or whatever it may be. But what are you wearing here? Notice he says the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Spirit, attitude.
A spirit or attitude of heaviness—you know how attitude or spirit can just come upon you. You know there are other spirits besides the Holy Spirit. The Bible sometimes calls them demons, evil spirits, or attitudes. Have you ever just had—I have, I’m not trying to doubt it, it happens—but have you ever just maybe a spirit or attitude of heaviness come upon you?
And it’s amazing. Maybe even sometimes at the moment you think you’re the holiest of you, maybe in your prayer time, and a spirit will just come in there. A spirit of heaviness. It’s, “Boy, I can’t win. I’ll never win.” I had a man, a good man, he texted me last night, and he said, “Pastor, I’ve been struggling over these addictions for years now.”
And he said, “Man, I just have a—feel like I can’t win.” And the spirit was coming over him. And by the way, praise the Lord, he’s not where he was a couple of years ago. He’s growing, but he’s still got a lot of battles to fight. And I encouraged him, “Man, stay in there. Don’t give up the fight.” But a spirit of heaviness will come over you. There’s an attitude of just tired weariness.
You know, the Bible says, “Let us not be weary in well-doing.” I like the last part of that, though, and we seek for that—that’s what the Bible says—but he says, “Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”
There might be times that spirit comes over you, and we can do something about it, but we’re going to preach about that. But if it comes, don’t faint. You shall reap if you faint not. But the spirit of heaviness comes, a spirit of, “Man, I’m just tired.” Sometimes maybe you have physical problems involved. That can add so much to it. And though it may be a physical problem, it can affect our spirit. And boy, physical and spiritual sometimes are hard to separate because they kind of overlap. Just physically sick, it’s pretty hard to have a good prayer time. Not that you can’t, but it can make it tougher.
And the spirit of heaviness, and I’m just wore out. This spirit of heaviness comes over: “I can’t take another tragedy.” This spirit—I’ll be honest, I confess a little bit—when I was younger, it seemed like funerals kind of rolled off your back, but after a while and after a lot of funerals, I don’t like it as much as I used to. And there have been too many of them. And if I’m not careful, this spirit of heaviness can come in. And it’ll come. And a spirit of heaviness in your finances: “I’ll never get out of debt.” Anybody ever had that spirit come over you, you know?
And there is money to pay them, you know. And the spirit of heaviness just comes on us. And it may be circumstances. It may be our flesh. It may be our tendency. It may be the devil and his demons. But the Bible here is speaking of Jesus coming. He comes. It’s very interesting how God words it: “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
A spirit is not tangible. I can’t get something out and say, “Here’s that spirit.” You can’t grab a hold of a spirit. You can’t touch the spirit. But a garment, it’s tangible. See, I can take my garment off. You know, and I can hold it. Somebody says, “Put your garment back on. Your underarms stink, Pastor.” Man, keep it on there, you know. But I have a choice. I can hold this garment. See? I can get up and say, “All right, I’m going to wear that right there.” And I choose; it’s tangible. I choose to put this garment on. See?
Now here’s the thing. You said, “Man, this spirit comes on me, and what can I do about it?” And there are some spiritual things you can do about it, but you can’t say, “All right, why don’t you go fight that spirit?” Well, you can’t grab a hold of the spirit. But God here has given us a formula of this tangible something, a formula, something tangible that you can do. A garment—I mean, you put it on, you can hold it, you grab it, and you choose to put it on here. And the garment of praise—can I say this?—the garment of praise is a choice, a decision.
Something tangible you can do. You say, “Well, so-and-so is just born; they’re a praising Christian.” No, no, you’re mistaken. I guarantee you, they have to work at it. “Well, they’re just more prone to be a praising Christian.” They’re prone to be a praising Christian because they wake up and decide to put that garment on. They got a flesh just like you do. They got the world and the devil just like—it’s a choice.
Let me say something else about a garment here. A garment is on the outside. See? I choose to put this garment on. Nobody says, “Well, let me pull something out of the closet. I need to find something for my kidneys to wear today.” You know? “Well, I guess you can put a diaper on.” Hopefully, you don’t do that, you know. But now, you don’t find a garment for my appendix to wear today. “My lungs need something that looks good.” You know, you don’t wear a garment—it’s on the outside. Y’all with me this morning?
Now, here’s the thing: the garment is on the outside. Isn’t it interesting how garments affect you? I went to a Christian school, and I grew up in a Christian school, and sometimes they would have tie day. Now, this guys hated it when we had to wear a tie to school. “Dirty big of the backers ladder, we’ve got to wear a tie.” But the teachers would always comment on them. When they made us have dress-up days, then we had to dress up a little bit, they said, “It’s just amazing how much better the students are well-mannered and they obey.” And the more polite clothes affect you. Ladies, you know better than us guys. You know, it’s a rainy, cloudy, you know, just kind of a little bit miserable day, and so some of you ladies, you’re good about it. You say, “Well, I’m going to wear something bright and cheerful,” and it kind of affects your world and others’ world.
Vacation Bible School, we just finished a couple of weeks ago here. But I remember years ago we had Vacation Bible School, and one of the dress-up days was Superhero Day. And we had some boys over here, and one of the boys was Superman. You know, man, he had the ‘S’ on his chest, you know. And we had another Batman. Those boys wouldn’t listen to a word I said. Superman doesn’t listen to anybody, buddy! What in the order you do and try to tell Superman what to do, you know? Batman—I was about ready to take him back to Batman, you know. I’m saying garments affect you.
I was at the way, and one of the men I know a little best said, “Man, you dress up pretty nice.” He had a suit and tie on, and he said, “Yeah, yeah. This interesting suit and tie.” It’s amazing how sometimes people just kind of they step up a little bit. Here’s the thing: this praise might not be in your heart at the moment. It’s not on the inside at the moment, but you put it on. And you put on the garment of praise. It’s amazing when you put on the garment of praise in time, how it affects the inside. You’ll be shocked.
When the spirit of heaviness comes on you, get in your car, drive down the road—drive this speed limit now, okay—and just on purpose, you won’t feel like doing it, on purpose, praise God for everything you see. That skunk is dead on the road? Praise the Lord, he’s dead. He’s not in my backyard, amen! We’ve been doing that a little bit because we have skunk problems in our yard here lately. Hey, you see the grass? Thank you, Lord, for the grass. Thank you, God, for the grass. Thank you, God, for the earth. Beautiful. I mean, you see someone pulled over by the police? Thank you, Lord, it’s them and not me, you know.
Now, I’m being facetious, but everything you see, start thanking God for. It is amazing. I did it. I need to do it often. It’s amazing when I put it on and I wear it for a while how it starts getting inside. And you’ve got to do it on purpose. I’ve told our people, told you many times, the Bible talks about not just listening to good music, but the Bible talks about singing, singing and making melody in your hearts unto the Lord. It’s in Psalm 51:9.
One of our men, Brother Stover, he’s already moved, so he can’t get me too bad. Tara, you won’t tell your mom and dad, will you please, you know? But Brother Stover even said it from the pulpit himself when they were moving. But Brother Stover, you know, he’s not known for singing; he’s known for singing, but singing badly, you know? A little bit is when he worked at the rents—that’s a joke, honestly. And Brother Stover, he’s told me a person before he said to hear—he said, “Man, he used to talk about singing. I thought, ‘Me? He’s singing?’” And he said, “You know, there’s something to that thing. It works.”
Now, you might want to roll up your window so nobody else can hear or hide or put them up. But it’s amazing. And I have to work at it sometimes, and I can feel that spirit of heaviness and say, “I just get a song and start singing a song.” That’s not going to be in your heart because the spirit is there. But something tangible—you put on the garment of praise and you just start singing. And you say, “Many ways you can praise the Lord,” but what a great way. And you just sing to the Lord. And it’s a wonderful thing when you on purpose put it on. It’s a decision.
Now, here’s some things that happen when you start putting on the garment of praise. Look, if you will, over in Psalms 22. Psalm 22, if you would please. Psalm 22, verse number three. You can probably pull this out in other places in the Bible, but look at this one. Psalm 22, verse number three. When you find that, would you say, “Praise the Lord”? Praise the Lord. Good, you’re there, you’re there.
Psalm 22, verse number three: “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.” And Israel, that’s God’s chosen people. If you’re a born-again Christian through Jesus Christ, you’re part of His people. And so here’s the truth: God inhabits the praises of His people.
I’ve used this illustration before, if you’ve been around here for a while, it’s illustration number 47, you know that one? Amen. But years ago, we were out visiting and soul-winning, telling people about Jesus Christ. And I was walking on this—no, I was on this side of this street, I believe it was—and Mary Dempsey and another lady was over here. Maybe I was over here, and y’all were over here. But Mary Dempsey was over here, and she was talking to someone about coming to our church. And you’re going to be shocked, all right? Take a night of glistening, you know, if you get—because Mary Dempsey, I heard her. She was over here saying to this person, “You need to come to our church. You need to hear our preacher preach. Oh, he’s a good preacher. Man, just come one time and hear our preacher preach.”
Now, here’s an amazing thing: I’m walking over here, and I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden my feet started going this way. It’s true. And all of a sudden, and then I said, “Is that Mary Dempsey?” Wow. And I did—I just automatically started drifting over. And you know, and I kind of, and then, you know, my head got bigger and all that stuff, you know. Now, that’s what he’s saying: God inhabits the praises of his people.
And so I got the Spirit of Heaviness, and I’m there sometimes—just the Spirit of, “I’ll never, never get my head above water.” That spirit ever come upon you? And it’s there. And so what do you do? You say, “Well, I can’t fight the spirit, can’t grab it, but he gives us something tangible: put on the garment of praise.” And so you on purpose put it on the outside, and you start praising him. “Thank you, God. Thank you, though I’m out of money, my bills for this month are paid.” Whatever may be, you praise it. You put on the garment of praise, and here’s what happens: God, the Holy Spirit, says, “You know what? I think I’ll come over in that car.” It’s an old, broke-down—I won’t say that F-O-R-D, I won’t say that. I’m joking with you there a little bit. But I didn’t say Dodge. It didn’t say Chevy. It could be whatever it is. But anyway, you know, and the Spirit of God says, “Well, that’s all broke-down vehicle, but they’re praising me.” God inhabits the praises.
Now, when the Spirit of God moves in, the presence of God, He’s the one that can fight the evil spirits. Friend, they don’t stand a chance.
Look over in Psalm 16:11. Great phrase over there from the Bible. Psalms 16 and verse number 11 of the Word of God. Very key phrase with this formula we’re talking about here. Psalm 16, and look in verse number 11. He says, “Thou wilt show me the path of life.” Here it is: “In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
Now, the ultimate fulfillment of that is when someone goes home to be with the Lord. But we can have a taste of heaven here on earth when God’s presence moves in, when He inhabits—would you help me out?—He inhabits what? The praises. So I got the Spirit of Heaviness moving in on me. I on purpose go over to the closet and say, “Let me get that garment of praise.” I don’t feel it, but you make a decision. You say, “Well, let me put that thing on. I need it. Man, I just feel overwhelmed, and I feel heavy and weary and wore out and defeated.” And so you go over there, “Let me put it on.” You on purpose. “All right, thank you, God. Though me and my wife got in a fight last night, I only have one black eye, not two eyes.” Right? Whatever. And you just start thanking Him and praising Him. Sing a song to it. And you put it on. You don’t feel it, but God says, “My goodness, Pastor is praising me.”
And kind of like when I heard Mary Dempsey, you know, and God says, “Let me come over there,” and God moves in there. And then when His presence moves in, “In thy presence is fullness of joy.” Oh, now we’re putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. By the way, Jesus came. By the way, if you know Jesus as your Savior, you got something to praise God about all the time. I mean, I can take a lot on the trip if I know it’s at the end of the road in heaven.
It’s a wonderful way of living. Now, let’s talk a little bit more about this saying praise. Look over in Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13 and verse number 15. And the Bible gives us a little bit more specific instructions about praise. We already said it’s a garment on the outside, but I want you to see it maybe a little different angle, somewhat the truth.
Hebrews 13, look in verse number 15. Hebrews 13:15. “By him—Jesus—by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of what’s the next word? Praise to God continually.” Now watch, He describes it. That is the emotion in your heart? That’s not what it says. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
You say, “Well, I have a heart of God.” Wonderful, let it out. It’s not just what’s on the inside. He said the fruit of our lips. It goes along with James 3. Your tongue steers your steering wheel. And when you start giving thanks, when you start talking, when you start saying, when you start verbalizing, you start praising the Lord verbally. I’m not talking about necessarily some show. I don’t mind somebody raising their hand in church; nothing wrong with that. That’s in the Bible, by the way. But I’m not talking about some show. Not talking about that either. See? And I don’t know the heart, and I’m not trying to judge anybody. I like it if somebody really is into it. I mean that. That’s wonderful. But I’m talking about when you give thanks with your lips, not just Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday, in the spirit of heaviness.
And maybe you need to go to your mom or dad or your friend, call them on the phone, and just say, “Hey, let’s talk about some good things for a while.”
Can I confess a little bit here? I’ll come to the altar, okay? I’m here at the altar. But I think it was last Sunday—I think it was last Sunday afternoon—I was a little weary, and the spirit of heaviness and just a little tired. And Brother Marlin came into my office where I had prayer meeting. And Brother Marlin, he prayed first. You know, he was the first in the batting lineup, amen. And he just thanked God in his prayer. Thing after thing after thing after thing. And he was praying out loud, and I was following him inside. I was just trying to pray along with him and praise the Lord. He led me to praise God.
And you know, by the time he was done, we were done praying. I hadn’t even started my prayer for you. I just followed him. I was on the upside. Why? Because he was giving thanks with his lips. And I was following him along. I wasn’t praying out loud at the time, but I was following him. And look, that’s praise: giving thanks with your lips.
You want a home that has a presence of God in it? Let it be often around your home, giving thanks out loud. You’re saying, “I would like the Spirit of God to live in my marriage.” All right, in your marriage, give thanks to the Lord a lot. “Well, I feel it in my heart.” All right, okay. But I want to hear it on your tongue. God wants to hear it on your tongue. He said that is the fruit of our lips. And you’re giving thanks, and you praise Him over—He says continually, pretty powerful. Not there all the time myself, but, you know, when I need it the most, when the Spirit of Heaviness comes on…
I’ve told this before. I’m using all the old illustrations. This is illustration number 23 right here. Remember that way? You know? But years ago, before my dad passed, when they lived in Florida, and, you know, sometimes it cracks me up sometimes, the wiser generation, the little bit older ones, to see them operate cell phones. You know, you don’t talk about there, you know? And it’s an LCD screen, whatever. They think sometimes hitting it harder works better, you know, or pretty soon they think they’re going to get a hammer, just, you know.
And I’m on my phone, and he didn’t mean to, he pocket-dialed our house. And my wife answered. He was in Florida; we were in Tennessee. And he didn’t know—he didn’t know he had dialed our house. My wife answered it, and she said—she just listened in. Nobody was over there saying, “Hello.” But she could hear somebody on the other side of it and said, “Well, praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!” And it was my dad. He sprayed bugs; he fed them with pesticide, you know. He had his own business, just a small business. He drove a little Nissan truck. And my dad was in his truck and on his route, and he would, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!”
And then, Dad—if you know Dad—Dad was a soul winner. He just told people about Jesus. And he’d see somebody walking on the side of the road, and he’d pull up to him, put the window down, and he’d start witnessing to him. Dad—that wasn’t his main thing. I mean, he’d just get to the point. I’ve heard him—well, the first thing he ever said to a person, literally, I mean, if I tried it, I’d get hit, you know, but I’d get away with it. He’d just walk up to some man and he said, “Are you going to heaven when you die?”
That’s the way he’d introduce himself, literally. I’ve heard him do it up many a time. And he’d just ride up to somebody, “Hey, are you going to heaven when you die?” And he’d witness to him, and they’d say they’re saved, whatever. And then Dad’d drive on down, and you’d hear the trip race up a little. And then he’d say, “Amen! Praise the Lord! God talked to somebody about Jesus.” And you just start praising the Lord and give Him thanks. Yeah. And by the way, he had cancer. And he had problems just like us all. And I’m sure, I’m sure the spirit of heaviness was coming. But you put on the garment of praise with the fruit of your lips. You give thanks. You on purpose put it on the outside. It’s amazing how your garments affect even the inside.
By the way, you know, if a pastor were to come in and if I were to have some older clothes, we’ll say, you know, and there was a hole here in breakfast from last week was on my tie, and my suit coat, you know, was one of those old, old polyester, you know, and oh, I had dirty, filthy clothes on—you’d have a little influence there. I think I don’t know if I’m going to listen to that guy. I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, the guy dresses like that. I don’t know about him, you know.
And here’s what I’m saying: when you put on the garment of praise, it’s a great testimony for the Lord. John Rice used to say one of the best billboards Christ has is a smiling Christian. And you can work—and, man, everybody just has a spirit of heaviness. “Well, we haven’t got a raise in three years,” or that boss and so-and-so and all the problems and working overtime and all the time is the ever workplace. Amen. That’s how the pastor just nailed it because it’s all of them, you know.
But you come in there and you’re wearing the garment of praise, and somebody said, “Wow. Where did they get those clothes from? They’re happy, they’re cheerful. They got a—they got a different spirit about them.” One of the best billboards Christ has: a smiling Christian. We weren’t perfect about it, and we have issues in our family like any family, but we tried over the years. We didn’t want to come home—I don’t want to come home and tell all the problems at church. Didn’t want to do that.
There have been times in our family—oh, did we fail? Yeah, uh-huh. I need to come to the altar. But there have been times in our family where maybe the Spirit of Heaviness was coming home, and we would gather the family in the living room, and we said, “All right, we’re going to go around the room. Just got to give something you’re thankful for. You’ve got to give it.” And at first, the kids are like, “Oh, no, Dad, this again,” you know. And I’d start off that way. It’s still the easy ones, amen. And I praise God for my salvation or whatever. And then Tammy was next, and she said, “Give me something good to think.” No, no, she wouldn’t. And then the kids. And you couldn’t use the same thing twice. And every about three, four times around the room, you know, you’re thinking, “All right, why can I be—it’s coming.” It’s amazing how it goes around so quick. You’re like, “All right, why can I be thankful for it?” And think that way and talk that way. It’s amazing. Even though the kids knew what was coming, we didn’t, and I knew what was trying to do, it still worked. And so often when we’re done, we would leave, not just on the outside, but a guide in on the inside.
That’s why Christ came: the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That heaviness comes. Some of you got health issues. I hate that for you. Wish I could change it. And the spirit of heaviness will come, and all the problems, and just part of living in this sin-cursed world, and then battling your flesh and battling the devil, and it just comes to everybody, living for the Lord or not. It comes to everybody. But Jesus came—He came to give us something to do about it. Jesus said, “I came to give you the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness.”
I’m always amazed when I get to visit a saint that’s about to pass. They know it so often. I can’t help but my mind goes to Brother Calvin. He knew he was going, and yet he kept that garment on until the end. Why? Because he knew he’s going because of Jesus. Jesus came to give us a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness.
He was a businessman. He had gotten saved. He was questioning, “Did I really get saved, or was I saved or not?” He was catching the train coming home from work in the city as a businessman. And he was trying to get the train, and a little boy was there putting a puzzle together right in the middle of everything, and he didn’t mean to, but he knocked the little boy over. And he thought, “Well, I won’t stop and help that boy.” He stopped and helped the boy. He missed the train. And the little boy looked up at him and he said, “Sir, are you Jesus?” And the man said—the Holy Spirit said, “Hey, you’re my child.” Christ shone through you when he had the garment of praise on.
Original File: Garment of Praise - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 61619