The Blood Covenant #27 — Praise That Changes Your Environment

The blood covenant means that everything you have becomes God’s and everything He has becomes yours. In this message the pastor shows that whatever you hand over to God, your life, time, money, talents and even your weakness, leaves the corrupted kingdom of this world and comes under the authority of the kingdom of heaven, where it is multiplied instead of diminished. Praise, he teaches, is God’s prescription for changing the environment you live in.

This teaching follows The Blood Covenant #26: How Praise Releases God’s Strength and builds to the story of King Jehoshaphat, whose singers marched ahead of the army. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries in Merrill, Wisconsin, and posted on July 7, 2021. It runs about 68 minutes and ends with communion for those in the room and those watching online or listening by radio. The pastor picks up the praise theme he began the previous Sunday and ties it back to the covenant foundation of the whole series.

His central contrast is between two kingdoms. The kingdoms of this world are divided and corrupt, and corruption always makes things less. The kingdom of heaven is undivided and incorruptible, so what is given to it grows. Praise is one of the main ways a believer trades weakness for God’s strength.

What the Blood Covenant Exchanges

The pastor opens by saying God has been a covenant-making God since Adam sinned. Most people in the Western world do not understand covenant, but certain nations and tribes do. He recalls how David Livingstone, as a missionary in Africa, cut over fifty covenants with tribes, because a covenant means the strength of the one you cut it with becomes yours. When Adam’s weakness showed, God cut a covenant so His strength would prevail in man’s life.

The exchange runs both ways. We receive what God has, and He receives what we have, however small. Jesus watched a widow put a tiny coin in the offering and said she gave more than those giving large sums, because she gave all she had (Mark 12:41–44).

God bound Himself to this covenant with His own blood. That is why Romans 8:32 can say that He who did not spare His own Son will with Him freely give us all things. Jesus told His disciples, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Money is where many people stumble. The pastor tells of a minister who visited Hungary about twenty years earlier, where believers were legally allowed to give only two and a half percent of their income to the church, and they prayed daily for ways to give more. Back in the United States, the same man met believers searching the Scriptures for ways to give nothing, and he wept. They did not understand that what is given exchanges kingdoms and becomes more.

Two Kingdoms: Corruption and Increase

Every nation on earth, the pastor says, is corrupted and divided. There is only one exception: the kingdom of heaven. Jesus taught that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:24–25), so the kingdom that stands forever is the one that is not divided. Churches doing different things are not division, any more than a hand doing something different from a foot. Everyone say it, he urges: the church is not divided.

What happens to something depends on whose authority it comes under. The authority of a corrupted kingdom can only diminish. Corruption makes things grow less, rust out and decay. That is why Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but He came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10).

The pastor applies this across life. Give God your corrupted life and He gives you eternal life. Give Him your time in hearing and obeying the Word, and He gives you health (Proverbs 4:20–22). Give to His work and it comes back good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). That is how His kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:9–10).

He grounds it in Romans 12:1–2: present your bodies a living sacrifice. He teaches that the Greek word for bodies, soma, means every fiber of your being: your mind, soul, talents, skills and finances. Do not be conformed to this world, because it is corrupted and will only give you grief. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22), because God knows a heart submitted to Him will give more and help more.

The table below follows the exchanges he names through the message.

Why God Gave Us Praise

Life in a corruptible world brings pressure: marriage, children, jobs and finances. In such a world, people will do anything for an advantage. The answer, the pastor says, is praise, because praise is God’s prescription for changing our environment. Hebrews 13:14–16 reminds believers that this world is not their permanent home, and therefore they offer a continual sacrifice of praise. While living in a corrupted world, learn to live constantly from an incorruptible realm.

He returns to Leah from the previous message. Her first three sons were named to win Jacob’s favor. With the fourth she said, now I will praise the Lord, and named him Judah (Genesis 29:35). Her thinking changed from pleasing the world to praising God. That is also why God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7): what is given in praise is given to His kingdom, and the strength of His kingdom comes into it.

Does God have an ego problem, or fits of depression that make Him crave attention? No. He did not set up praise for Himself. He set it up for us. Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants He ordained strength to silence the enemy and the avenger (Psalm 8:2).

Praise does not change God. “For I am the LORD, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6), and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Praise is for us. It is the exchange process. Rather than curling up in a corner and crying when the soul is weak, we praise Him, however weak or flimsy it feels, and He exchanges our weakness for His strength.

The pastor explains God’s sovereignty from a theological dictionary he read years ago: God exists by Himself, without any external help. He does not need us to be God. Yet He gave man dominion and the right to choose, and that freedom shows His supremacy. Everyone will live forever; the only question is whether it is life with God or death, which is the absence of God.

The Environment of His Presence

God told Adam that in the day he ate of the tree he would surely die (Genesis 2:17), and he was separated from God’s presence. The pastor teaches that the garden of Eden was more than a place. It was the presence of God, an atmosphere, which is why no one can find it now. He has seen that atmosphere so strong in services that people could not stand.

Galatians 6:7–10 says whoever sows to the flesh reaps corruption, but whoever sows to the Spirit reaps everlasting life. Sowing means giving in. Like a hard kernel of corn that dies in the ground and comes up as many meals, what we yield to God takes time, so do not grow weary in doing good. The words about doing good especially to the household of faith reshaped the church’s food program. After the pastor followed them and opened the cafeteria to the congregation after every service, the supply grew from fifteen stores in seven communities.

In 1 Corinthians 15:50–58, Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and this corruptible must put on incorruption. Death is swallowed up in victory. So be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because your labor is not in vain. The pastor says he could have left town dozens of times, but he did what God said, and today the work includes over a thousand churches in 57 nations, schools, clinics, feeding programs and a Bible college, all for God’s glory.

He tells of a former pastor who had grown bitter and angry and finally blurted out that he could not believe in a God who sits in heaven wanting people to say “I praise you” in His face. The pastor answered that this is not God; God does not need our praise. The man did not understand covenant: give God your weakness and hurt, and He gives you His strength and love.

A fish taken out of water dies; a tree pulled from the ground dies. When a believer’s heart gets engrossed in the world, it leaves its environment for life. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). He tells of an older couple watching a young pair sitting close in a car. The wife asks why they do not do that anymore, and the husband answers that he never moved. God never moved either. Praise is responding to who He is, and He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20–21).

Paul and Silas proved it. Beaten and chained in the inner prison after casting a spirit out of a fortune-telling girl, they held a praise service so loud the whole jail heard. The place shook, the doors opened, every chain fell off, and the jailer’s household was saved and baptized (Acts 16:16–34). God turns mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11–12).

Jehoshaphat and the Battle That Was Not His

The longest section of the sermon walks through 2 Chronicles 20:3–12. Several armies joined together against Judah, and King Jehoshaphat feared. But he set himself to seek the Lord, proclaimed a fast and stood in the assembly declaring that God rules over all the kingdoms of the nations. The pastor says Jehoshaphat bragged on God. Then he admitted, we have no power against this great multitude, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.

Most of us, the pastor observes, would draw up an escape plan or look for someone with an answer. Jehoshaphat chose praise, expectancy and obedience. Every new step of promotion brings new devils taunting us to weaken, but praise is what keeps us from fainting under the pressure of this world.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel in 2 Chronicles 20:14–19: “the battle is not yours, but God’s.” Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The king and people bowed in worship, and the Levites stood up to praise with voices loud and high. That does not mean falsetto, the pastor laughs; it means strong, with all the strength they had. People give their strength to their jobs, hobbies and sports, then doze off in church. A song of faith in the face of adversity is the highest form of praise, a true sacrifice of praise.

In 2 Chronicles 20:20–24, Jehoshaphat told the people to believe the Lord and they would be established, believe His prophets and they would prosper. He appointed singers to go before the army praising the beauty of holiness: “Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever.” They were appealing to God’s integrity, praising as though the enemy were already dead. When they began to sing, the Lord set ambushes, the enemy armies destroyed one another, and no one escaped.

From the Valley of Blessing to the Wealth of the Sinner

The pastor shares a personal testimony. When his two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter had leukemia, he sat in her hospital room declaring the whole book of Psalms. Nurses and doctors began spending their breaks in the room, saying they had never felt such peace, and other parents asked him to pray for their children. He reports that within two weeks she was healed. You have to quit singing the poor me’s, he says, and start singing the praise hymns.

Praise shows faith in who God is before He has done anything. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). And God did more than destroy Judah’s enemies. In 2 Chronicles 20:25–30 they found so many valuables that it took three days to gather the spoil. On the fourth day they blessed the Lord in the Valley of Berachah, the valley of blessing, and God gave them rest all around.

Your life might be in the valley right now, the pastor says, but you can make it a valley of blessing. Stop grumbling and bring the presence of God in. In His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

He closes the teaching with three passages. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous (Proverbs 13:22). The wicked may heap up silver and clothing, but the just will wear it and the innocent will divide the silver (Job 27:16–17). And God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to the one who is good in His sight, but to the sinner the work of gathering, so he may give to the one who pleases God (Ecclesiastes 2:26). Building the kingdom, he says, takes money, ideas and wisdom, and God supplies them all.

Living the Blood Covenant This Week

Before communion (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), the pastor calls anyone whose heart has grown hard to simply say, God forgive me. Nobody else made your heart hard, he says, and nobody else drove away the environment of God. Here are steps drawn from this blood covenant message:

• Hand over what is corrupted. Give God your life, time, money and talents so they come under the authority of His kingdom.
• Praise for who He is. Do not wait for Him to do something first; He does not change, so your praise does not need to.
• Give Him your strength. Do not save all your energy for work and hobbies and then doze off in His presence.
• Stay in His environment. Keep coming to church and staying close to Him, like a fish that stays in water.
• Do good to the household of faith. Let generosity start with fellow believers, and keep sowing without growing weary.
• Turn your valley into blessing. When pressure comes, set yourself to seek the Lord and praise before the battle is won.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 God is a covenant-making God
• 1:16 The widow’s offering and Romans 8:32
• 3:26 Giving in Hungary
• 4:35 The kingdom of heaven is not divided
• 5:37 Corruption always diminishes
• 8:59 A living sacrifice: Romans 12:1–2
• 10:08 Praise changes our environment
• 12:17 A continual sacrifice of praise: Hebrews 13
• 14:42 Leah names Judah
• 15:45 Does God need our praise?
• 18:04 What God’s sovereignty means
• 20:56 Eden is the presence of God
• 21:56 Sowing and reaping: Galatians 6
• 24:27 The food program lesson
• 27:26 Corruption puts on incorruption
• 33:07 The pastor who would not praise
• 36:05 A fish out of water
• 41:27 Paul and Silas praise in prison
• 43:23 Jehoshaphat faces the armies
• 48:02 The battle is not yours
• 53:01 Singers go before the army
• 56:22 A granddaughter’s healing
• 58:31 Three days of spoil and the Valley of Berachah
• 1:01:56 The wealth of the sinner and communion

Blood Covenant Series

This message is part of a long teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or go back one message:

• First message: The Blood Covenant
• Previous: The Blood Covenant #26: How Praise Releases God’s Strength
• You are here: The Blood Covenant #27 — Praise That Changes Your Environment

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I pray for God to be with me today?

The pastor calls that a prayer of doubt and unbelief. God is already in the believer and will never leave, and in Him we live and move and have our being. What praise does is different: it lets Him manifest His presence. When His presence is manifest, He creates an environment of His goodness, love, holiness and plans for your life, and that is where you draw strength.

Does God’s blessing mean I can keep everything for myself?

No. The pastor teaches that God does not mind His children being rich because a heart submitted to His kingdom will give more, do more and help more. The goal is building the kingdom, not living a lavish life with no thought for God. He points out that the work in Merrill and the nations takes money, ideas, wisdom and understanding, and that what God provides is put back into His work.

What if I am too angry or hurt to praise?

The pastor speaks directly to people who have stopped reading the Bible and praying and whose hearts have hardened under life’s problems. He says the first step is not asking God to deal with your boss, spouse or children but saying, God forgive me. Then give Him who you are in all your weakness and take His strength. Praise Him for who He is rather than for what you have experienced.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• 2 Chronicles 20:20–24 — singers before the army
• 2 Chronicles 20:14–19 — the battle is not yours
• Romans 12:1–2 — a living sacrifice
• Romans 8:32 — freely given all things
• Hebrews 13:14–16 — the sacrifice of praise
• Psalm 8:2 — ordained strength
• Galatians 6:7–10 — sowing to the Spirit
• 1 Corinthians 15:50–58 — corruption puts on incorruption
• Acts 16:16–34 — Paul and Silas in prison
• Proverbs 13:22 — the wealth of the sinner

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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