Who do you cheer for?
Guessing many of you are like me and were raised to love a certain team. For me it was and still is the Oklahoma Sooners. Listening to games on the radio while fishing with dad was a Saturday tradition that I miss dearly today. Hearing OU’s legendary broadcaster Bob Barry give dramatic details of a play when a Sooner broke free for a long touchdown run down the sideline was music to my ears. Sooner fans have been blessed with a lot of success over the years, which made it even easier to fall in love with cheering like crazy for the crimson and cream. Boomer Sooner Baby was forever entrenched in my soul.
What makes you cheer? To figure that out, let’s actually define the word – Cheer.
Definition of cheer: To shout praise, to shout for joy, or to shout encouragement
Wow, to shout Praise. Who do you cheer for? Who deserves and receives our highest praise?
If you are a true OU fan, you know every word of our fight song, you know every team cheer by heart, and you know every tradition that makes our team so special. The Sooner Schooner, the days of the wishbone, legendary coaches, 7 national championships, 50 conference championships, and seven Heisman Trophy winners. I could go on and on. Your closet is full of Sooner’s gear. You bleed crimson and cream. You will get up at 5 am to drive 3 hours to tailgate. There is no worry about cost of season tickets or if the weather is hot or cold, nothing can stop a true OU Sooner worshiper from praising their team!
How do I know? Because I have done them all. I’ve set through the famed 1985 Ice Bowl, suffered for days after a tough loss and posted all over social media after a big win. If you think I’m nuts, then you should consider my wife, who is not into sports at all, but in a heartbeat, becomes all excited when she hears Arkansas Razorback fans call the hogs. I’ve seen old ladies or quiet farmers throw all care out the door and call the Hogs like their lives depend on it.
What if your life did depend on your praise?
Satan absolutely hates praise. Before his fall, he used to be the worship leader in heaven, so now he hates anyone who chooses to take his place. I have seen some absolute nuts at OU games who will cheer, scream, and are willing to make absolute fools of themselves in front of thousands. Satan loves when you focus all your cheers, praise, and joy on earthly idols and reward.
Let’s consider what it would look like if you were to focus all your cheering, praise, and joy on Jesus.
David, even as a young boy, grasped the power of praising God with all his heart. He is an incredible role model to look at, if you want to find the level of praise you should strive for.
In order to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to his home, the Bible says David brought the nation’s best singers, dancers, and musicians out and they all danced and sang with every ounce inside them. Sadly, they cut a couple corners coming up with their own plan of moving the presence of God and used oxen instead priest, whom God instructed to carry the Ark. When one of the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark. The power of God was too strong for a man to touch, thus Uzzah died instantly. David was frustrated and left the Ark at Obed Edom for three months, but once David saw how much Obed and his family were being blessed, David became determined to bring the Ark and presence of God to his home.
David planned a great celebration and every six paces of the six-mile trek to Jerusalem, they stopped and offered the Lord praise by sacrificing a bull and a fattened calf. A 30-year-old David, wearing only a linen cloth around his waist, danced with all his might to honor the Lord. He and all the Israelites took the Ark up to Jerusalem with shouts of Joy and the sound of trumpets. Sounds pretty similar to an OU football game to me: a band, cheerleaders, dancers, and slaughtering other teams while everyone shouts with all they have. They even ended the day tailgating with a great celebration meal.
When David returned to his room after the big day, his wife Michal let him know he looked like a fool as a grown man and King dancing and praising without regards to what everyone thought of him. Mikal was the same daughter of Saul who had chosen to be David’s wife after he defeated Goliath as a gift from her father. Michal had once loved David’s bold and passionate praise for God, but sadly she had changed and now was disgusted with him and had lost her own praise. As a consequence of her failure to stay passionate, Michal was baron from that day on.
I took two important details from this story.
- Go to the limit boldly and shamelessly with all your heart when praising God.
- Never let your desire to praise grow old or hold you back publicly when praising our King.
There were 12 tribes of Israel. The largest and most powerful was the tribe of Judah. In case you did not know, Judah means praise. When going into battle or even when leaving Egypt, the tribe of Judah always led the way. You want to be a leader in God’s army, you better learn to praise.
Let’s take this Biblical principle all the way back to the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph was his father’s favorite that caused some problems ending in a plan where his brothers placed him in a pit with intentions of killing him, but Simeon convinced the brothers otherwise and instead they sold him as a slave. God’s favor shined on Joseph in the pit and later in prison, leading to Joseph becoming the second in command of all of Egypt. When his brothers came to get food, because of a severe drought, Joseph recognized them. Instead of taking revenge, he formed a plan. Part of the plan was that they left his brother Benjamin behind so that they would for sure return. Judah stepped forward and offered to take the place of Benjamin. What is the significance of this you ask? Judah “PRAISE” from the start was willing to stand up and in the place for you. Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, ultimately went to the cross in your place. How much praise is that worth?
What does that mean we should do when it comes to cheering for what or who we love? When things go wrong or right, there is one thing you should always remember. Praise, Praise, Praise! Praise God first, praise God with your best praise, praise him shamelessly, and praise him morning, noon, and night.
Where does the Bible say this? David set aside seven times a day to praise God. The result, the great grandpa of Jesus never lost a battle. David was not perfect and he paid dearly as a result of his sin with his children, but other than Jesus, David the cheerleader, the raise leader, and the worshiper is one of the mightiest men to ever live.
Bad players are only motivated when praised. Good players are motivated when praise and by when challenged. Great players don’t need motivation. They always have an inner praise going! I tell my team the Holy Spirit travels! If He is in you, it is your job to let Jesus fire be seen through your hard work, attitude, and worship on the court. When you do all you can do, when you give all you can give, then you open the door for the Holy Spirit to do more.
God is going to make sure His Son gets His Harvest; thus, the enemy can’t stop anyone set on fulfilling this plan. You have to be willing to go there in order to get there. Go where? Go to the place where you care more about praising God with all you heart, than pleasing others watching. The Lion of the Tribe of Praise deserves your praise.
On the way to our game Saturday, I was posting about our game day on my social media to let everyone know the game link to watch. Psalms 118:24 came to my spirit when posting. This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. If you remember from the definition of the word -cheer, to shout for Joy was one of the definitions. That is exactly what rejoice is. I felt like God was saying. This is the (GAME) Day that the Lord has made. It caused me to look up other versions of the verse. The Good News Translation blew my mind. “This is the day of the Lords victory; let us be happy, let us celebrate!”
We are to bring our praise to the House of the Lord. Matthew 21:13 says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer. Praise is a major part of prayer that many forget. They spend most of their time in prayer asking for things, instead of thanking God for everything He has done. What is faith? Believing before we can see it? Is praise only thanking God for favor already received? I don’t believe so, I believe we are to praise God with faith for things we can only dream and imagine.
I am always crossing the line and I know I just did once again. It sounds too easy, just praise God for a blessing and the blessing automatically shows up. No, that is not what I am saying. I am saying to praise God all the time with all you heart no matter the result and never stop asking your loving Heavenly Father for the desires heart. Just as the three Hebrew boys headed to the deadly firey furnace. Even if you don’t Lord, I will still praise you boldly!
One of my favorite songs of all-time is Love in the House by Toby Mac. How can you not praise when Love Himself is inside you? If the fire inside you is as hot as it should be, then how can you keep from cheering with all your heart for the only one worthy of our praise!
When people ask me what kind of coach I am, I tell them a cheerleader basically. I am worn out after the game as I cheer my team on throughout the game. Doing all I can to help my players get a stop or rebound. Do you not think our Heavenly Coach is not cheering you on along with a host of angels and saints?
I leave you with this challenge. Make sure you are cheering, praising, and worshipping God with more joy and passion than you do your Sooners, Hogs, or whatever team you love. The results just might cause some of His awe and wonder to show up.
Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash