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—A Grandpa Talk to Techi!DO 2833

1. Can I tell you a secret? This is one of my Mother's secrets. She said, "Often the secret of victory is down the much-neglected path of praise." In other words, while you're praising the Lord & singing His praises‚ you can't be thinking about anything negative & the Devil can't be lying to you. The song or the praise takes up your consciousness & concentrates it on the Lord & what you're singing or praising the Lord about! The Devil hates praise! Now I'm going to say it over again: The way to many victories is down the neglected path of praise!—Or maybe we should say up the neglected path of praise!

2. And I'll tell you something about your Mother that you may not know. One of her secrets is that she goes around continuously with a song of praise on her lips! She doesn't even know she's doing it sometimes, but she's singing in the bathroom, she's singing in the bedroom, she's singing in her little office‚ she's just always singing!—Sometimes saying the words, a lot of times just humming little tunes. I'll stop & ask her, "What is that song?" & she'll say, "Oh, was I singing?" She doesn't even know she's doing it!

3. I think that's one reason she has such victory in the areas of faith & courage & cheerfulness! She's always cheerful & she's always singing songs to the Lord. She's just constantly praising the Lord! And if she's not doing it out loud, she's doing it in her heart or in her head!

4. I don't sing out loud all the time, but I've almost always got some kind of song to the Lord or about the Lord running through my head & my heart. I'll often wake up in the morning with a new tune, some other song for the day!

5. Dr. Mitchell, the famous singer & Doctor of Music who came out to our little church at Valley Farms even got his directions from the Lord a lot of times from songs! He figured they were a message from the Lord! That's why he bought his little house out there in Arizona‚ because of a song! They were looking for a house & they passed by this cute little cottage with about an acre (about 4,000 square metres) around it.—And it turned out it had its own well‚ which was the ideal thing for Arizona, because water's a scarce commodity in that dry desert state.

6. As he looked at the house‚ the song began to come to him: "Home sweet home! Home sweet home! Where we'll never roam! I see the light of my mansion so bright, my home sweet home!" Of course, the song itself was about Heaven, our Heavenly Home, but they bought that home & they lived in it until the day he died & went to live in his Heavenly Home!

7. He's the one who wrote the famous song, "You Never Miss the Blessing Until the Blessing's Gone!" And it's so true! We don't really appreciate our blessings until they're gone. David said that the main lesson he learned from being sick is how much more thankful he should be that he has good health! We have so many blessings & so many things to be thankful for! As the little song goes:

Count your blessings,

Name them one by one!

Count your blessings,

See what God has done!

Count your blessings,

Name them one by one!

Count your many blessings

See what God has done!

8. When you're counting your blessings, you can't be complaining or murmuring about things! If you're counting all the good things you have & all the blessings God's given to you, you can't be complaining about this little thing or that little thing or murmuring—bellyaching, my Daddy used to call it—because you're too busy counting your blessings & thanking the Lord & praising Him for them! Amen?

9. That's the way your Mama does it, she goes around all day singing a little song! She'll just sing & sing & sing the whole day. And when she's not singing out loud, she's kind of humming!

10. So that's the story & the secret I wanted to tell you! When someone asked my Mother why she always seemed to be so victorious, she said, "I'll tell you a secret! The secret to victory is down the much-neglected path of praise!" Can you say that? (Techi: "The secret to victory is down the much-neglected path of praise!") That's right! Praise the Lord!

11. So if you have any problem along that line, sing! Praise the Lord! The Devil hates to hear praise, he hates to hear songs of praise, & he'll have to flee‚ because you're resisting him! You're doing something against him, actively fighting against him! So do you want to try it? (Techi: Yes!)

12. What song is going through your head right now? (Techi: Well, it's the one you just sang, "Count Your Blessings‚" & the one before that was "Home Sweet Home." But "Count Your Blessings" probably more.) Yes, "Count Your Blessings" is a good one for that. (Techi: Thank you, Grandpa, that's a good lesson!) Amen!

13. A funny song just came to me! It's not even a Christian song, but it's got a good moral to it:

Just let a smile be your umbrella

On a rainy, rainy day!

And if your sweetie cries,

Just tell her that a smile will always pay!

And when the sun don't shine,

Don't worry or fret.

Just let a smile be your umbrella

And you'll never get wet!

Just let a smile be your umbrella

On a rainy, rainy day!

14. In other words‚ a smile is like praise on a gloomy kind of day, dark days when the Devil tries to fight you with discouragement. My Mother used to say that the Devil's favourite weapon is discouragement. If he can't get you to believe that the Lord doesn't love you & didn't save you & everything else, he just tries to get you discouraged about yourself.

15. Never look inward! Keep your eyes off yourself, because that's bad business! Ourselves are nothing but bad selves. There's no "good self‚ bad self" like the Holiness people & the Baptists teach. The Baptists say, "You always have to be fighting your bad self!" And the Holiness people say, "You just need to get rid of your bad self so there's nothing left but your good self!" But we teach that there's no way to get rid of bad self or good self except with Himself! Get it?

16. So that's your little sermonette for tonight from your loving Grandpa! Will you think about that? (Techi: Yes!) Now you sing me a song, something that you like. I taught you the one about "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" years ago, but you don't have to sing that one. Sing some favourite hymn or some chorus that you know. Pick any one, the first thing that comes into your head! (Techi sings: "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus‚ sweetest name I know! Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go!") Amen, that's a good one! I think maybe I can even remember a verse of that! (Sings:)

There's within my heart a melody,

Jesus whispers sweet & low‚

Fear not‚ I am with thee‚

Peace, be still,

In all of life's ebb & flow!

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,

Sweetest name I know!

Fills my every longing‚

Keeps me singing as I go!

17. Hey, that's right on the subject, "Keeps me singing!" See? Now, will you try that? When the Devil tries to get you down & starts giving you bad thoughts or discouragement or whatever, just start praising the Lord & singing! It's wonderful what songs can do for you, that's why the church sings so many songs all the time. The trouble is, they've forgotten their work of getting out to witness & win the World. They just sit around singing songs because they enjoy that so much!

18. So how's that? (Techi: That's good!) Shall we give this little talk a title?—"Praise & Sing Your Way to Victory!" That's a little lesson the Lord brought to me this morning & I said, "I want to tell Techi about that!" Did you like it? (Techi: Yes, Grandpa!)

19. Lord bless her, in Jesus' name, & help her to get the victory with praise & song! Every time the Devil tempts you with some kind of discouragement or tries to tell you how bad you are, blah blah, just start singing! Good idea? (Techi: Amen!) Thank you, Honey! (Techi: Thank you, Grandpa, I love you!)

20. You always hear me praising the Lord, don't you? I'm a pretty happy guy, right? I'm thankful for all the things the Lord has given us & has helped us with—His protection & His provision. We lack for nothing‚ amen? The Lord's so good to us! So let's be happy people! (Sings:)

We're a happy people, yes we are!

We're a happy people, yes we are!

All day long we sing this song,

Jesus will right every wrong!

We're a happy people, yes we are, amen!

21. That's a good one too! (Techi: That's cute! The Lord keeps giving us songs about singing.) Thank You Lord! All right, I guess that's enough unless you can think of another one. (Techi: There are lots of songs!) Amen‚ Thank You Jesus! Praise You Lord! Amen! (Techi: What is that one about "sowing in the morning"?) (Dad sings:)

Sowing in the morning,

Sowing seeds of kindness‚

Sowing in the noontide

And the dewy eve!

Waiting for the harvest

And the time of reaping,

We shall come rejoicing,

Bringing in the sheaves!

Bringing in the sheaves‚

Bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing

Bringing in the sheaves!

Bringing in the sheaves,

Bringing in the sheaves,

We shall come rejoicing

Bringing in the sheaves!

22. See, that's about rejoicing! (Techi: It was "sowing" in the morning, but you could sing it, "Singing in the morning & the dewy eve!") Yes! Praise the Lord! Amen! We had a good little time tonight! (Techi: Yes, that was really fun!)

23. You are an encouragement, you always lift up my head! Thank You Lord! The Lord promised that's what you would be. Just to look at you encourages me! Just to see you, the very sight of you! I know the Lord gave you as my encourager, "the lifter up of my head."—Psalm 3:3. (Techi: I love you, Grandpa!) God bless you! I love you! (I love you all!—You're all mine! GBY! TYJ!)