Transcription
Good morning, Mount Pleasant Christian Center. And let me just say I thank you for those that made it in this morning. It's been cold. It's been very cold. And you know, sometimes you just you look at it as a challenge. Okay. Am I going to really do this or not? You get inside even in your vehicle and it's like I needed to bring some water to put on that windshield and you're scraping and you're going through all that, right? All those things, everything that if you were to say, "I'm gonna pass." You know what? No one's gonna no one's gonna hit you with anything, right? Like, I get it. I get it. I get it. But you know what? You did it. Amen. You're here present in the house of God this morning and we thank you for that. Amen.
It has been crazy start to this new year, but so much stuff happening, so many things going on and and you can get to the point where you're just frozen looking at it and saying, "How do I make sense of this?" And you know when it comes down to it the hardest part I think hardest part in general sometimes is saying, "You know what? I can't control." However, what I can do is make sure that I am praying for God just to make way in every situation, in every part for people that are hurting, for people that are angry, people that are struggling right now. You know, we live our life by faith and we've talked about it over and over again that, you know, we have to put our trust in God as we're going through it. So many times, we can't see it. Our men's connect this week, that was kind of the topic talking about how we have to just trust God. It's not our ways. It's His will. It's His will. But we have to make sure that we're there to be ready to do what God has us to do when the opportunity arises. Amen.
But we are here today. We are gathered together as a body and everything that we have belongs to God. Our body, our voice, we are here to worship God completely. Amen. And I guarantee you that when we commit ourselves completely vulnerable, here we are exposed before God, He is going to take hold. He's going to hold us. He's going to direct us and He's going to get us to that point that we need to be. Amen. So, right here, right now, this is now officially, it's been officially, but we're making it official. This is God's time. Amen. We are here in God's house. This is His time. And He is going to do something mighty in each and every one of our lives. Amen. We're claiming that this morning. Amen. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father God, we thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to be standing here in Your presence, Lord. We thank You for who You are. None of us here are worthy in ourselves, God. It is You who has made us worthy. And right here, right now, God, we are presenting ourselves as sacrifices unto You. Have Your way this morning. Everything that takes place today, Lord God, let it be pleasing to Your will. Guide and direct us, Lord, and just help usher into Your presence this morning. For every note that is played, every word that is sung, every word that is spoken, God, it is guided and directed by You, the Creator of this universe. Lord, we commit this time to You, Lord. This is a holy place right now, dear Lord. Have Your way with me, God. We commit this right now in Your mighty name. And all of God's people said, "Amen."
Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. All right. Praise God. Y'all ready to praise the Lord this morning? I said, "Y'all ready to praise the Lord this morning?" All right. We got a brand new song we're going to teach you this morning. We're hoping it becomes one of your favorites. Um, in the days of old, the Israeli people, the Jew, used to give God names because of the great things that He would do for them. Names like names like names like me. Today we're going to sing a song. The names of God. Amen. Hallelujah. He shapes every heal. There's no other Jehovah. He speaks to nothing. Darkness. He goes by the name of Jehovah. Jehovah. Call [music and singing] the name. Call the name. Call [music and singing] the name. Jehovah. All thy praise. All thy [singing and music] praise, all thy praise belongs to heaven. His will be silence. He's fighting for Zion. There's no other God like Jehovah. is over. His arms never tired [music] like Jehovah. Jehovah. [music] Call the name. Call the [music] name. for the name Jehovah. All our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to him. Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah. All our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to him. Jehovah. Fight your battles. Jehovah. Fight your battles. Jehovah. Fight your battles. That's who He is. Jehovah. Fight your battles. [music] Jehovah Gyro. Beat your knee. Jehovah. Heal your body. Jehovah shall be your peace. Jehovah say, "Fight your battles." >> Jehovah Jehovah shall be your peace. Jehovah shall be your peace. Jehovah nattle. Call the [music and singing] name. Call the name. Call the name. Jehovah. All our praise, >> all our praise, >> all our praise, all our praise belongs to our names to him. Jehovah Fight your battlesh your Hallelujah. Shall I love Shall Let me be your Jehovah. Jehovah. Hallelujah. We stand before You, God. A submitted people wanting more and more of You, Father. >> Hallelujah. >> Oh Lord, fight our battles. Be our healer today, Lord. Meet our needs, Lord. Be our peace, Lord. >> Oh, we love You. We love You. Jesus Jesus joy joy I To You I bring my praise. living life will [music and singing] have it all. Jesus below the glorious item. radian Jesus have Your word praise. to glorify Your name. Jesus have it all. Jesus have it all. Jesus blessing me. Jesus Jesus have it all. Jesus have it all. Majesty Jesus have it all. Jesus have it all. Jesus have it all. You can have it all. Jesus have it all. All my days, all my life, all my Oh All my days, all my life. Would you take it all? I don't want to lose my home. I don't want to gain no All my days, all my life, all my life. All my days, all my life have been. All my all my Hallelujah. It's Yours, Jesus. It's Yours, Jesus. Take this. Take this. Take this. Take this hurt. Take this hurt. Take this pain. I don't want to lose You. I don't want to bless me. More of You. More of You. Bless me. More of You. More of You. Less of me. So sick. The moment the cloud And now we get to live the wonder of the working of the working The work You did [music] is finished. All of our wonder of the working blood. The cross. You were the wonder of the working blood. The wonder of the working blood. The wonder of the working blood. The wonder of the work. The blood. The blood. The blood. For the blood. You love. You love the blood. The blood. The blood of the blood. Let the redeemed sing. The work You did is finished. All of our si the cross was Your decision. The death was not the end. You were the working blood. The wonder of the working blood. The wonder of the working blood. The wonder of the blood. The wonder of the working. The wonder of the working blood. Precious is the blue that makes me nothing but the Blood of Jesus. The precious is the blue that makes me white. Nothing but the blood. Oh, the wonder of the blood. Nothing but the blood. Oh, the wonder of the work. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. No other fountain I know. Nothing but [music] the blood of Jesus. Greatest detergent in all the universe. Amen. Gets out the toughest stains of sin. No matter what, no matter how deep, no matter how long they've been, doesn't matter. God can get it out with the blood. Hallelujah. Lord, we thank You for the blood today. We thank You for the blood of the lamb. And Father, we know how that blood came in contact with us. Our redemption, our forgiveness, our purification, our justification, our sanctification. Came only through the blood of Christ, freely given. But that blood had to be released. And we know how it was was released. Through Christ's sacrifice on our cross. That though my sins be as scarlet, He's made them white as snow. Sin had caused that crimson stain, but He made it whiter than snow. It only came through the shedding of blood. The shedding of that pure, sweet, precious blood of the lamb that our sins are washed. We won't be ignorant to that fact that it was through great pain and sacrifice and suffering that Jesus bought our salvation. Let us never forget, Lord, what it took for us to stand here today and worship You in liberty, in freedom, with reckless abandon, being sure about our salvation. That did not come the easy way. It came through the death of Your Son. Oh God, thank You for the blood of the lamb. Thank You for the blood of Jesus that washed us, that cleansed us, that purified us. Nothing we could have ever done. No good deeds were good enough, no vows great enough, but only what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary for my sins. That His love for me was so great that He gave of Himself that I could be set free. That we could be set free. Oh God, thank You. Can we just thank Him for the blood this morning? Come on. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Glory. We thank You for the blood, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You for Your great sacrifice, oh God. Oh, Father, that You gave Your Son, Jesus. You gave Yourself that we should have life and life more abundantly. Help us never to forget, but to every day remember and allow our lives that we live on this side of eternity be a tribute. And we dedicate our every breath, our every word, our every action to the glory of the Lord to build His kingdom and not kingdoms unto ourselves. Oh God, help us to shout Your name from the rooftops. Shout Your name from the streets, Lord God, to let the people know that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah. The only road to salvation. Glory, glory, glory, glory to Your matchless name. Help our words and our life to be a living testimony. A living, breathing, walking, talking sermon to the fact that Jesus, You are real. You are alive. Your love is for us. And that You desire all people to come to You. Oh Father, help us to be that light. Father, help us to be that light. And now, God, we pray as we've laid this foundation of worship and praise today that God, You'll build on that. That our hearts as You've captured our hearts in praise and in worship Lord God as we lifted these things up to You that our attention would be captured as well trained on You laser focused on You today that the word that You have prepared in my heart that You'll speak through these lips it's not mine it's Yours that God it would be given as such and it will be received as such that God Your people would be tuned in let nothing distract Nothing is that important [music] to distract us from the word of God. Father, let Your word speak deep into our soul and our spirit. Let it stir stir something deep within us. And let that something be a desire, a deeper desire to serve You to follow You, to live for You, to love You, and to worship You like we were designed to worship God. Oh hallelujah. Be with us today. Speak to our hearts and let us hold what is spoken dear, but let us apply it to our lives as well so we can do the things You've created us to do and we can be the people that You've called us to be. Oh, we thank You, Lord. We give You the praise. We give You the glory. And it's in the mighty and wonderful name of Jesus that we pray. And all of God's people said, "Amen and amen." Can we give Him some glory? Come on. Hallelujah. Glory. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Now, before you sit down, let's have a couple minutes of fellowship. Why don't you shake some hands, hug your neighbor's neck, tell somebody how glad you are to see him in the house of the house of the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. God is good all the time. All right. Now, hallelujah. [snorts] Amen. Amen. And amen. Thank you, worship team. God bless you guys. Great work as usual leading us into God's presence. Can you believe that it's already the 11th of January? Isn't that crazy? We were just shouting happy new year and banging pots and pans a couple days ago. It feels like and now we're already almost halfway through the month of January. Blink and it'll be summer. So, watch out, right? Don't miss out. Praise the Lord. If you're blessed, say amen. >> If you're very blessed, shout amen. >> All right. I'm amongst some blessed people this morning. I want to give you a few announcements before we get started. But as we do that, I'm going to ask our ushers to come forward. We're going to bless the Lord with His tithe and our offering. Amen. His tithe because it's required of us. Amen. That's what the Bible says. It's His tithe, our offering. Whatever you give this morning, give with gladness in your hearts as the Lord allows you to. Be it big or small or somewhere in between. Amen. As you give that tithe, as you give that above and beyond offering, that you would be blessed in the giving. God God already promised that He's going to open up the windows of heaven and pour pour a blessing out on your life that you can't contain. That's not Matt's word. That's God's word. That's what He says. So when you give today, have that gladness in your heart that He's already taking care of your needs. Somebody say amen. Amen. Uh so and you guys know you know the deal. You can give this way. You can also give online through our You can give through the Church Center app. You can give text to give and if you want some more information on how to do that to make it a little easier for you, please let me know or Pastor Sunshine. We would love to walk you through the steps of doing that digitally. But whatever you give, whichever way you give, may you be blessed. Amen. Let's pray.
Father, in Jesus name, we thank You for this opportunity to give to the work of the ministry and to walk in obedience in Your command to give the tithe. Lord, I pray that You bless Your people in the giving that they would know that they are following the Lord. They are being obedient to His command to Your word. And Father, I pray that those blessings wouldn't just be within the assurance of their heart, but those blessings would come to pass in all aspects and areas of their life, for their relationships, their family, their ministries, Lord, their work, and the and the product that comes from the work of their hand. That You would bless their finances, that You would give them that wouldn't have to stretch paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet. That God, You would bless them and that You would give to us so that we have a bigger storehouse to give to others out of, Lord God. That we would be a people like our heavenly Father who gives. Help us to do that. Bless Your people today. Whatever is given, may You multiply upon it, Lord God, so that it is useful to take care of the needs of the church, the building of Your kingdom right here. We thank You for it, Lord. We love You. We give You the praise. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus that we pray. And all of God's people said, "Amen and amen." So, give glad hearts as the Lord allows you this morning as they're distributing the plates. Go ahead, guys. Uh, I'm going to give you just a few announcements just so you know what's going on. First and foremost, next Saturday right here in the House of the Lord. Uh, starting at 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary is our our annual leadership conference. We have a guest speaker, uh, Pastor Joey Salas is going to be bringing a a leadership, a biblical leadership lesson to all of our leaders. Those of you who are currently in leadership right now, we're inviting you to come. And those who would like to be in leadership, we invite you to come. So, all are welcome. As long as you are want to be in leadership or already serving in that capacity, please come out. We're going to be having breakfast together. We're going to spend some time in worship and we're going to hear a great message and get receive some great lessons on leadership. So, make Make sure you come out again. That's next Saturday, January 17th, 2026. Man, that's weird to say, right? 2026, 11 a.m. right here at the church. We hope you can come through and be a part of that. I know that we had a a group go out yesterday with our evangelism and outreach team to the tiny homes and that are serving those who are homeless, who have been homeless and been blessed to have a roof over their head. They're going out ministering to people and praying for them, making connections and building networks and relationships. And uh they're going to be doing that again on the 24th 24th at 1 p.m. So you can see Pastor Dan Diaz or Sister Burn uh for any information on that. We would love for you to be a part of that. Uh our church believes in reaching out to those who are hurting, those who have been living on the streets, those who are dealing with with loss. So, this is an opportunity for us to be able to jump in hands on and be able to be a blessing uh to people. Amen. So, if you'd like to do that again, see uh Pastor Dan Diaz and let him know that you want to be a part of that. He would love to put you to work and God would love to put you to work as well helping those who are hurt. Amen. And then also just a reminder to our boys, Royal Rangers is back in action tonight. So, if you have uh any Ranger boys, make sure you bring them out 5:00 p.m. right here at Mount Christian Center. They are starting back tonight. If you have some some young little dudes in your in your family and they're not part of Royal Rangers yet, get them involved. Royal Rangers is a great ministry uh that trains up young boys to become men of God. Amen. So, I encourage you to do that. Maybe you have some neighbors, you got some family members who are young guys. I'd like them to be a part of that. Please, please, please make sure you bring them out. I know uh Commander Gino and all the rest of the commanders will be excited and ecstatic to have your voice. Ranger Ministry. Amen. All right. Look at your neighbor. Say, "Buckle up. Hold on. Get ready for a ride." Amen. You I lost you guys at the last part. Hey, you're gonna have to bear with me. I'm sick this morning. I'm a little under the weather. I think I'm getting a little bit of a cold. So, I'll try not to spit on you guys too much and breathe in your direction. I'll pray a wall wall of protection up in front of me. But, uh, but hey, if I can get excited in the midst of my my sickness, and I'm expecting you excited in the midst of your health. Amen. Oh, come on now. Amen. All right, there you are. Praise the Lord. And if I say anything weird, it's Nightwell speaking. All right, let's move on. Praise God. I already got myself in trouble in the back room. So, worship team, you are sworn to silence, so be quiet. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Last week, we started this new series on worship. And as you as you you heard me say, I really felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that that's what He wanted me to speak about. Teach on over these next couple of months. Worship. As Christians, we sometimes feel like we've got our finger on the pulse of what worship is. Most of us think that worship is about music, about songs. And if that is the end all and the be all of what worship is, pure awakened worship, then we're dead wrong. Because worship though music has a part of that, that's not the end all and be all of what worship is. Worship is deeper than that. It's bigger than that. It's more vast and and and all-encompassing than just some songs in the beginning of a church service on a Sunday or on a midnight. But that's what we've narrowed it down to. And that's why I believe that our worship in in this 21st century has become almost powerless. And let me tell you, the worship songs that are being written, some of them are feel so emotionally charged, but at the end of it, when true worship is not involved, they're just songs that move your heart. In fact, most of the songs that we sing in church can't even really be considered worship songs because and I said this last week and I know I ruffle some feathers and maybe pop some bubbles and that that's okay. That's what I'm here for. If I'm not challenging you, then I'm not doing my job. Most of the worship songs that we sing, especially in the American and the European churches, aren't even really worship songs. Songs more about how we feel about God than worship to God. You get me? You understand what I'm saying? Worship worth is us singing about the worth of God. And yes, that has to do with us because we make that choice. But it's not about us. Look at your neighbor. Say, "It's not about you." You remember that mantra? That's our mantra here at NPCC. It's not about you. It's not about us. It's about Him. Amen. So what we sing to Him needs to be worthy of Him. Our praise needs to be worthy of the God that we're praising, that we're worshiping. And it can't be about us. It has to be about Him. It's vertical worship rather than horizontal worship. Horizontal worship stays right here with us. And all it does is charge us emotionally. And we feel after we leave, if we've cried some tears on the altar and you know, we felt the the warm squishies during worship that we've, oh man, God really showed up, didn't He? Or did your emotions? Amen. Bible says that people will know us by our fruits. They'll know your worship, whether it's true or not, by its fruits. I I could care I care less how you feel. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's not how you feel in the moment. It's about what is true. You can give pure and awakened worship, true worship in spirit and in truth, whether you feel like it or not, as long as it's centered on glorifying the name of the Lord. It doesn't matter what you feel like. Amen. In fact, some of your best worship times is when you didn't want to because you understood it. It's not about motivation. It's about discipline. I don't feel like worshiping God today. Not that I don't think He's worthy, but I just don't I'm not there emotionally, but my worship is not given based on how I feel. It's given because He deserves it all. Amen. That's true awakened worship. That's what worship is all about. Has nothing to do with how we feel. It has everything to do with God. He deserves it. So last week I read an excerpt from that book Awakening Pure Worship by Jeff. Again Jeff Dale uh was a real popular worship singer from the late 90s early 2000s. Um Sonic Flood was the name of his his worship team. Did a lot of lot of music a generation uh came up in worship under guys like him. But there's been some time between then and now you're like hey what happened to Jeff Dale? It's like one of those Facebook, you know, sort of things where it pops up, where are these worship singers? You know, the worship singers of the late 90s and early 2000s. Well, he would be on that list. Like, what is he up to? Well, you don't need to guess because he's he's writing books. He's teaching on worship that it's more than just a song. It's more than a song sung about how you feel about God and more about giving praise to God. So, he wrote this book. I read an excerpt last week. We got three things from I'm not going to read it again. It was a real long passage. Barbecue was burning in the oven by the time we said the last amen. I'm not going to do that again. But we got three things from that that exerpt. And these were the three things that we're wired for worship. You were designed to be worshippers. It is in your DNA. You are a worshiper. You can't say, "Well, I'm just not really a big worship kind of person." Yes, you are. Don't lie to yourself. Don't lie to God. You are wired for worship. We were made for it, designed and purposed for it. It is in your DNA. Number two, if we don't worship God, we will worship something. Because if you're made to do something, if you don't put the one we're supposed to worship as the object of your worship, you will worship something or someone in His place. So because you're designed to worship, you will worship something. Question is, what are you worshiping? Are you worshiping God? Here's another one that'll fake your noodle. Or maybe you're worshiping an image of God. We're not supposed to worship any graven image, even a graven image of God. What you think God is. Well, I believe God. It's not what you believe, it's what's in the word. Are you worshiping God? Are you worshiping an image of God? And number three, we don't need to learn how to worship. You already know how to do that. We need to learn how to worship God. Period. Jesus talked about it to that woman, the Samaritan woman at the well. He said, "The time has come is now here that God is looking Worshippers who what? Worship in spirit and in truth. Real worship. More than a song, more than an action. More about your heart. So, we're wired for worship. If we don't worship God, we'll worship something or someone. We don't need to learn how to worship. We just need to learn how to worship God. And you need to learn why God is the only one who is worthy of our worship. Amen. In that Jeff says that worship is ascribing or attributing worth to something or someone. That's pretty much the definition that we got right here on the screen. We got that twofold definition. Number one, to honor or show reverence for as a divine or supernatural power. That's easy enough. He is God. He's the creator of all things. We worship Him. Number two, to regard with great or extravagant. Everybody say extravagant. Extravagant respect, honor, or devot. So your respect, your honor and devotion can't be regular respect, honor and devotion. It has to be extravagant. Amen. Your worship, your respect, your honor, your gratitude to God needs to come through in an extravagant way. Right? My wife gets exclusively my love as a husband. I love my daughters. I love my sisters. And I love my mama. But they don't get the love that my wife gets. She's my number one. The word of God tells me in Ephesians 5 that I have to love her like Christ loved the church, which means I would be willing to die for. I may not like her at that moment. She may have made me mad. Worship team, knock it off. We promise you be quiet. She may not like me at the moment, but love surpasses like. It's great when you have both, but there's going to be times where we're at odds with each other. And it's really in those moments that my love really comes into play. That's where my commitment comes in. That's where her commitment comes in. So we give each other exclusively love that only a husband and wife can give. So she's going to get the best out of that to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor or devotion. Bottom line, God is worthy. There's no question or doubt about it at all. But the question we asked last week is, is He worthy to you? God is worthy in the macro, but in the micro, you as an individual, is He worthy enough to you for you to devote pure spirit and in truth worship? Because at the end of the day, it is you who has to make that decision. I can preach this. I can put the ball in your hands, but you got to dunk it. You got to shoot it. It's up to you. Or you could pass the ball and be like, "Drop the ball and leave the game." You've got to make the decision. Is He worthy to you? Is worthy. That's the easy answer. But you have to make that determination in your mind, in your heart because that will determine the amount of worship that you give to the one who is worthy of worship. Amen. Is He worthy enough in your mind and in your heart? Worthy enough for you to devote your life to following Him, sharing His word, and building His kingdom. Is He worthy of your worship? And again, as I said last week, you're here this morning. So that tells me something. You're here for part two. You were here last week and you're here again for part two of this worship series. You got kicked in the teeth last week. You're like, I'm here for more. Lay it on me, pastor. So that says something. Either you believe it already or you're open to that belief. You're open to that suggestion, that truth. So that's a that's that's a blessing. That's a start, right? That's a start. Now remember, our worship to God brings us close to Him. So in the act of us laying it all out for God, giving Him the praise that He deserves and the glory and the honor and the worship that He deserves, that has a natural byproduct. And that byproduct is closeness with God. The more we worship Him in spirit and in truth, the closer we get to God. Amen. That's awesome. And guess what? The closer you get to God, the more like Him you become. Isn't that what we're supposed to be? Christlike Christian. So the more you worship, the closer you get, the closer you get, the more like Him you become. It's a beautiful, beautiful exchange, beautiful natural byproduct. So it brings us closer to Him as the creator of the universe. The one who made us, saved us, and gave us purpose. He who is love and life and eternity. We get close to Him. The one who made everything with a word and then shaped us with His hands. Our worship connects us to the true life. We looked at several examples last week of the power of our worship. No matter who we are or what circumstances we find ourselves in the midst of first person we talked about was Job. His worship to God brought a few things that brought honor from God's own lips to him. God bragged on Job in front of his friends who thought they knew everything about Job and God. Job's humility and his willingness to worship God in the midst of such great loss earned him that honor from God, but also a double portion at the end of his life. A double portion of blessing at the end of his life. Moses, his simple posture of praise on that mountain with his hands lifted up in praise ensured victory for God's armies against the Amalachites. King Jehoshaphat's command for God's people to worship instead of draws caused confusion and the enemy armies. They killed themselves and it took them four days to carry away the plunder. All because of worship. THAT'S POWER. Paul and Silas in prison. Instead of getting mad and banging the bars, they prayed and worshiped God. They sang songs of praise and the prison doors opened up. And not only were they set free physically from jail, but their jailer, the prison guard, was going to kill himself. He got set free spiritually, gave his life to Christ. His whole family got saved all because two men chose to worship God in the midst of their crisis rather than cry like babies and complain. They focus their worship, their most powerful weapon at that moment to God. God, regardless of where we are, You are still God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they they knew impending doom was upon them. The the the the heater, the the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal, killed the guards that were going to throw them in. God will save us. But even if He doesn't, oh king, we will never bow down to You. They'd already made up in their minds to worship God in the midst of their storm and in their case their furnace. And again, I ask this week like I asked last week, can anything or anyone else that we could ever choose to worship do that? Look at your neighbor say. Why? Because there is only one who can pull these kinds of miracles off. And for that and many other reasons, He's the only one that we should be worshiping. But we must worship Him the right way. Amen. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Folks, there is a right way. And it has less to do with the house, more to do with has less to do with the worship because we can worship Him in multiple ways. Has more to do with where that worship is coming. Amen. And I don't want to make the mistake of David and try to handle the presence of God, the ark of the covenant in a way that was uneducated and wrong. My intentions may have been pure, but you all know the saying about intentions, right? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Man lost his life because David chose to try to give worship to God in the wrong way. He had to stop, go back, learn, come back and do it right. The glory of God, the presence of God is not designed to be carried on a cart driven by oxen. Glory of God, the ark of the covenant was designed to be carried on the backs of men. I want to worship God the right way. Amen. Last week, we learned that pure worship must be willing. Number one, willing, never coerced. You can't make me worship. And that's true. Nobody can make you worship. You have to choose to give worship to God. Pure worship must be fueled by wonder and awe. We literally must look at God in awe. He is worthy of our worship and we should be willing to give that. We stand in awe of Him. So it should be awe inspiring. And lastly, pure worship must be wild. We must worship God like a wild man. Not caring what anybody else thinks. Not getting all crazy and growling and howling at the moon. That's not what I mean. Start writing letters to the district. Okay. That's not what I mean. With reckless abandon. You don't care. We need We need to worship like Hannah cried out at the altar. She had no children. Her worship was so intense and so pure. Even the man of God was like girl drinking this early in the morning. She's like, "No, I'm not drunk." Literally thought she was drunk. I'm not drunk. The worship that the 120 odd believers were given to God in the upper room overcome by the spirit as it was gifted them as Jesus promised. Everybody thought they were drunk. Peter had to tell them, "We're not drunk as you suppose unless you drunk the Holy Spirit because here we are." But their their worship was wild and free. Was reckless. It didn't it didn't care about anybody else except for God's opinion because at the end of the day, it's only God's matters. Amen. So, let's dive a little deeper today. I'm going to give you I got three more points. I'm gonna give you two today. We get those. Okay? Promise you I'm not gonna put a time up on here. We got good time. I'll have you out of here by two o'clock. Amen. Praise God. None of your guys' teams in the playoffs anyway, so be quiet. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. And Pastor Sunshine's up there going. The lone Seahawks fan in the whole building. Praise the Lord. All right, so let's dive in a little bit deeper. What else can we look to that can spell out pure worship for us? Give you two more. Number one, our worship be organic and original. Our worship should be organic and original. Let's tackle organic first. When I say organic, I mean natural, unmanufactured like chickens. Like you like your chickens. Free range, baby. Amen. Not cooped up in cages, right? Free range. We hear that word thrown around a lot, organic. It's a very like it's one of those it words, right? It's been around for a while. People love organic stuff. They're willing to pay top dollar just to see that word organic. That don't mean nothing. When it comes to our worship, it should be. Our worship needs to be organic. And what do I mean that? There's two things that we'll look at as far as that's concerned. Number one, it's not mechanical. It's not mechanical. Your worship's got flesh on it. It's got flesh on it. It should have flesh on it. And a real heart. Your worship is not mechanical. It's not an automaton. You are not a robot. You have been given one of the greatest gifts in the world besides your salvation, and that is free moral agency. You've heard me say it a 100 million times. You have the power to choose. So when I say organic, don't do it because you're pre-programmed to do it. Worship is in your DNA, but you make the choice to worship God. So that worship for God needs to be organic. It's not pre-programmed to do this or that in any particular order. In fact, your worship can be one of two things or both. Number one, it could be proactive. You know what proactive means, right? It means you're doing things beforehand to ensure that an outcome comes around. I'm being proactive with my car payment. I'm paying it before it comes due. So I know that I know I'm covered. Proactive. So your worship can be proactive. Meaning that we worship Him without having to be prompted by anything or anyone. That we worship God. We enact. We activate our worship regardless of whether God says come and worship me or not. Amen. You have the choice to worship God when you desire. We decide that we're going to worship Him through song or service or whatever and we just do it spontaneous. Spontaneous worship in in this day and age. Uh that definition consists of you know people coming together and playing just spontaneous songs. That that's great. That's part of it. You can do that. But that's not the end all be all. Worship. You could worship God in the middle of your job. YOU COULD WORSHIP GOD WHILE YOU'RE doing your job. When you do these things as if unto the Lord, you bless Him. You let your work be a a testimony of your love for God and your commitment to your job because of your commitment to God. So proactive means that you can worship Him on the spot. Without anybody telling you even God. And then the other way is reactive, right? We can we can worship reactively meaning we go with His flow. God shows up, we bow down. God shows up on the scene and we worship. We lift our hearts. We lift our heads. We come before Him with praise and adoration. We worship Him in response to His showing up. He calls our name out of nowhere and makes known His desire for time with us. And we respond by entering in call and response. Amen. Here I am, Lord. Here I am, Lord. When you hear Him call to you, there's times when you're doing something, you're in the middle of watching a movie or you're doing some work at your house or or something like that and God calls you by name. You hear it deep in your spirit. He's calling you. Stop what you're doing and worship Him at that moment. How do I do that? God, I give You praise. God, I recognize that You are calling me out right now, Father. I don't know why, but I'm going to bless You. I'm going to praise You. I'm going to glorify Your name. As I speak these words to You, as I pray this silent prayer in my heart, let the works of my hands be glorifying to You, Lord. Stop in that moment and just give Him praise. Give Him glory just like that. So, you can do it proactively. You can worship reactively. But the bottom line is worship. Be obedient and worship the Lord. Amen. So it's not mechanical. It's not pre-programmed. It doesn't come loaded with pre-made designs, pre-written songs, or ready plans and ideas. Our worship should be real time, organic, meaning it just kind of unravels. It just kind of opens up and presents itself. I'm going to worship God at 11:03 a.m. every single Tuesday. That's mechanical. That's pre-programmed. I'm going to worship God whenever I feel like it or when God calls me into worship with Him. That is organic worship. That is organic praise. Pastor Matt, what if He calls me in the middle of my class to worship Him? Look, I'm not saying you got to get all crazy, start speaking in tong, and fall down the power of God in front of your eight-year-old students. That's not what I'm saying. All right? Save the the Holy Holy Ghost for church on Sunday. Okay? But begin to honor Him and glorify Him in that moment. Again, you could do that with your spoken words or silently within your heart. Your mind just begins to come alive and blossoms to worship as you're thinking on God and let that infect your teaching as you instruct your students. You know, pastor teaching let the quality of your lessons come alive as you worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in your heart. Let it your teaching skills. Let it laser focus them and let your teaching, the lessons that you give to your students become a testimony, become a form of worship that you give to God. Amen. I know it's crazy when you think about it, but when worship when you're when you're engaged in true worship, active worship, you're activating it in every part of your life. Every part of your life. When we worship Him in spirit and in truth. So again organic in the meaning that it is not some I have to worship God like this God is one of those I mean He He's a God of order He loves order but at the same time think about this God came to Moses in the form of what in the desert a burning bush of God and speak to you through a burning bush. That's my point. It's not the mode in which He came. It's the fact that He came. He came to Moses in the way that Moses needed to receive Him and to respond to Him. He comes to us in the ways that we need to hear, see so that we can respond to Him. Worship is not just that little portion of service that we carve out to sing pretty songs. Worship is our life that we live before God Almighty. Amen. It's not pre-programmed. It's not cookie cutter. Worship in your day is going to be completely different from worship in my day, my 24-hour stretch. God's going to call me to worship in a different way. You're going to choose to worship in a totally different way through different things. Now, there are certain things that are set as far as worship is concerned. Music is one of them. Our alone time with God, honoring God with our words, absolutely. But that's going to spell out differently within your day with mine. It's no respector of person. He doesn't care where you're at. God can call out your name. Whether you're under the hood of your car teaching a lesson to your students or in the bathroom, God don't care where you are. It's that when He calls your name, you answer. You better because we sing songs like that. When God calls, you answer no matter where you are. And we give Him the worship. Worship is for God. So He will let us know what He wants when we're spending time in His presence. God will let you know this is what I want from you. This is how I want our worship time to go. We don't do what we want, but we do what He wants. It's like a dance. He leads. We follow. Amen. We flow with Him in His rhythm and according to His timing. You try to take over, you're stepping on God's feet. That's not hosting the Holy Ghost. Amen. God wants to lead, you let Him lead and you follow. Don't start to veer off. Follow His leading. Flow in His spirit as you're worshiping the way that He desires to be worshiped. Amen. If
It's for God, then it should be all about him, right? Amen. That's the truth. So, we can't dictate or determine how. Let God lead you.
Sometimes he'll want you to sing. Other times, he'll want you to be silent so that you can enjoy. He can just enjoy your company and you can be still and know that he is God like Psalm 46:10 tells us, right? While other times, he wants your worship to come through your service.
Did you know that as you serve others, you are worshiping God? That you are giving praise and adoration that you are telling the world, "God is dictating my actions. You think I want to be out here on a Saturday doing this, that, or the other? I'm I'm not here for my health. I'm not here for my good pleasure. I'm here because I love God. God loves you. So guess what? I love you. And I'm going to show this worship. I'm going to give this worship to God through the actions of my hands and the words that I speak to you today. That's worship. Don't don't want to underestimate the power of that type of worship."
The other thing we talk about when we say organic is is that it's not processed. Right? Somebody hears the word organic, they go, "Okay, it's it's it's unprocessed." You know, it's it's not gone through all that um homogenization, all that. cleansing purifications that they call with chemicals and all that stuff. So, it's not processed or storebought. It's homegrown.
How many of you guys got a vegetable garden in your backyard? Don't Don't you love eating your vegetables and your fruits that you grow in your backyard than you do? We don't ever buy lemons from a lemon store. We grew up We have a lemon tree in our front yard and our lemon tree for years gave good lemons. We had a pomegranate tree in our backyard until our dog peed on it to death. We never bingo was his name. Oh, I'm not kidding. We never had to go to the store and GET POMEGRANATES BECAUSE WE HAD A POMEGRANATE TREE IN THE BACKYARD. And it's crazy when you go from a house that has a lemon tree and you got lemon lemons anytime you want to not having a lemon tree in your backyard and you got to go to the store. Oh, come on. Right. I love it when somebody comes and says, "Hey, I got lemon tree in my backyard. I brought you Yes. Right. Tomatoes. My dad used to grow zucchini squash in the backyard. He used to grow I think peppers. Uh did he do tomatoes? He did tomatoes. Yeah. I think there's some jalapenos back there. He used to make he used to grow a lot of good stuff. He always had that that desire. And then I used to love it when he would take his homegrown zucchinis and make this fried zucchini and mozzarella kind of. Oh my gosh. That's that is where I fell in love with vegetables. My dad would pull those zucchinis out of the dirt of his own backyard that he grew with his own hands and make a meal out of it. And I love vegetables, folks. I love vegetables. I didn't I didn't At the beginning, I didn't like vegetables. My mom used to have to make me sit there spinach. I hated spinach, dude. I love spinach. I love all of the vegetables that probably some of you guys hate. Who hates Brussels sprouts? Anybody hate BRUSSELS SPROUTS? I LOVE BRUSSELS SPROUTS. ASPARAGUS. WHO HATES ASPARAGUS? I LOVE ASPARAGUS. OKRA. Anybody eat okra? Slimy old okra. I love okra. If somebody throws an heirloom tomato at me, boy, you want to see me dance in the Holy Spirit. You ever ate a heirloom tomato? Oh my gosh, that's the most tomato of the tomato. It's fancy. Give me an onion. Oh, you know, give me a shallot. A shallot so fancy and shaped all hobblong goods. I love vegetables, man. And I learned that love from my dad's love for gardening in the back. We had a family in the church one year. They were growing um they were growing uh cucumbers. I love cucumbers, right? Even the unpickable. I love cucumbers. Fresh cuc. They brought me the biggest cucumbers I'd ever seen in my entire life. And they gifted those to me. those cucumbers for like several days. Cucumbers don't last very long. We all love but they were humongous and they tasted so fresh and so delicious. Why? Because they did not go through a purification. They didn't go through any other hands but from grew them with love in their own backyard. They grew them at their house naturally. They didn't go through some crazy process, right? They were growing with love, with great care. They were checked on every day. They were fed, given the best sunlight. Maybe they were even talked to a little bit. Best cucumber ever. Some people talk to their plants. They say it's good. Kind of weird, but whatever. Whatever. Whatever does it. If it produces good vegetables, man, talk on. Go ahead. Do what you got to do, right? Who cares what the neighbor says, right? But but they were they were grown by people who were into it and it produced some of the best fruit of the ground that you could taste. They're usually bigger, better quality and taste way better than what you can buy in a store. That's the truth.
So that's how our worship should be organic. Okay. What else? Authentic, right? It should be original. Original means authentic. It means real, right? It should be authentic and personal. It should come from us, not from somebody else, but from us to God.
So, let's look at authentic first. It means the real deal. It means it's got to be authentic. It's got to be original. It's got to be real. It's not faked. Don't fake the funk because God will know. Amen. Do not fake on God. God will know. He knows your heart of hearts. He can see through our very convincing facade that we put up that is even good at convincing ourselves, fooling ourselves. God can see through all of that. He knows what's real.
In Matthew 15:8, Jesus says this, "This people, they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship." He says, "They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are miles away. They are vain in their worship of me." What does vain mean? Vain means that it's useless. Why? Because the root of that is vanity. And vanity has nothing to do with about the object of our worship. It has to do with us. When we suffer from vanity, we are the object of our worship. Did you know most of the time if you're not worshiping God, you are worshiping yourself? Because you're worshiping what you want. Come on, somebody. He said, "Their lips honor me, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship for me is in vain. God knows our hearts. He's the only one that can see past that facade. He's not just the light of the world. God is the divine X-ray. You know what X-rays do, right? It's a light powerful enough to penetrate your skin, all your tissues, and see deep into your skeletal area. God can see through the mask. He can see through the falsities. God knows. He always knows. We're literally naked and exposed before the Lord no matter how well we dress ourselves. Amen. Is that a crazy thought? God God knows when you're trying to fool or fake. He knows. Can't trick him. Absolutely not. Psalm 139:4. Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I get up, you understand my thought from far away. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before there was a word on my tongue, behold, Lord, you know it all. Come on. All the kids, they don't say that. They I love the word that it chose to use. I believe that this might be the uh English version. It's either the English or the NIV. He says, "You scrutinize, you scrutinize my scrutinize, right? To look at it very closely, to study it, to hold it under a microscope, God doesn't just see you. He sees." He sees when your actions don't match your heart. Vice versa. Amen. God knows when it's true and when you just lip service and are acquainted with all my even try to fake God out. He cannot be faked out. He knows.
So not just authentic but when we talk about original worship has to be personal as well. A double meaning authentic personal meaning it's your worship. Everybody say your your worship. Y O R M I N E. When I say your, it's yours. Has my worship has to be your worship that you give to God. There are times where we collectively worship. Sunday is a good time where we do that. Those moments before the word comes, we're standing together. We're lifting our hands. We're singing together the same song corporately coming before the Lord and worshiping. And that's good. But that is not the end all and the be all of your worship. You have to worship your God. He is personal to you. You are personal to him. You have a relationship with him. Not just we have a relationship with him. You exist outside of this body. You are an individual that God made for individualized worship. So you are called to worship him in your time just like we're called to worship God in our time here today. And if this is the only worship you give to God, you're doing it wrong. God deserves your worship 24/7, seven days a week, no days off. Amen. When you understand worship, you know that that can flow freely out of life that is pointed at God.
So again, personal means it's your worship. It's not a cheap knockoff or weak copy of someone else's worship. You worship God the way he designed you to worship him. It comes from you. It's from your heart. It's from your mind. It comes as your decision, from your gratefulness, from your experiences, from your hurts and your hopes and your hunger. It is your worship that you give to God. I can't give my wife's worship to God. It's not mine to give. I can only give mine. I can't force my children to worship God. Their worship only matters if they choose to give it to God. Meaning that they see him as worthy of their worship. I can make my kids stand up. I can even make them clap their hands on time if I want to, but I cannot make them worship. I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make them drink. They have to choose. They have to choose to drink of God. Amen. So guess what? I'm going to put them in a position where they that that option is always before them. In this household, we go to church on Sunday mornings. They're going to be here. And my hope is that as you hear the word, as you feel the presence of God, it enters inside of you and germinates and begins to flower and blossom into your relationship with God where you choose to worship God the way you were designed by your God. You feel me? You get me on this? This is your worship. You can't worship him like I worship him. I can't worship him like you worship him. You have to worry about your worship to God because you were designed for it. Romans 12:1 you know this scripture therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer what yourself your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your true this is who's yours your true and proper worship proper worship it's when we do this This is where we get transformed by the renewing of our mind and where we get to test and prove God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. This comes out of this. That comes out of this right here. When we choose to worship God in spirit and in truth, this is where it comes about. That's where that happens. where your mind becomes transformed and you get to see who God is and what he's doing that is pure and beautiful when you learn how to worship him. This is your true and proper worship.
So again, first and foremost, our worship should be organic and original. Let's look at the second one. We'll go through this quickly. Let our worship be outstanding. Everybody say outstanding. That's I like that. Say it with some of outstanding, right? IT'S GOT TO BE OUTSTANDING. NOW, I want to let you know that outstanding has two different definitions. Okay? One of them is negative, one of them is positive. So, let's cover the negative one first. Okay? What's the negative definition of outstanding? It's a bill not paid. How we've had to deal with those. Anybody got that letter in the mail? You got a bill that's outstanding, a payment that is outstanding. If you If you grew up in this world, living in this country in this day and age, you're you're getting those those letters. You got an outstanding bill, right? So again, not so good meaning of outstanding is a bill or debt that is unpaid. Here's the definition for Google and Webster right there on the screen. It's a remainder to be paid, done, or dealt with. It's something that has not been dealt with. Webster dictionary says simply unpaid, unresolved. I like that. Unresolved. There's no resolution to what's what's taking place. It's left open. It's outstanding. It means that you aren't taking care of your responsibility. We talked a lot about responsibility in the growing in grace series. We have a responsibility and part of our responsibility as a mature man and woman of God is understanding worship of God and giving him that worship. Amen. Knowing true worship is and being willing and able to give him that true worship. That is our responsibility. So when we say outstanding, it's left unpaid, unfulfilled. It's a responsibility that we haven't taken care of. Means that you aren't taking care of your responsibility. Whatever was owed, that was meant for you has been left unsettled. That's not good. And yes, I'll say it again. Worship is a responsibility. It is a responsibility left completely up to you. Again, I can't make you worship. You have to choose to do that on your own. Whether it's proactive, unprompted worship, or reactive, that calm response worship. Either way, God is expecting you to choose to worship him. Remember, it's a command from God. Matthew 4:10 says, "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." Period. Worship the Lord your God. It is a command from God, not a demand. not going to force you. You have free moral agency. You can choose, but he's expecting you to choose. Especially if you say that you're a follower of Christ and you don't follow what he commands you to do, you're not very much a follower of Christ. You're fake. Come on. If you're not worshiping God the way that he says, then we're not really serving him. We're serving our own needs. We're worshiping ourselves. Worship should play a huge part of our devotion life. It's a part of the of the devotion trifecta, right? Number one, prayer. Two-way communication with God. Talking or conversing with God. He hears your heart, you hear his. Bible study. Not just reading, but ingesting and digesting the word and putting the word into practice. Following its design because it comes from God. That's two. The third The trifecta of course is worship. Glorifying his name through words, songs of praise and or through acts of service for others. This is worship. That's the trifecta. Prayer, Bible study, and worship of God. If you don't have all three of those things in your life, your life, your spiritual life is unbalanced. It is unbalanced. A tripod has three legs. Take one of the pods away. Guess what? It's not a tripod anymore. It's a stick that's lying on the ground. You hear me? A tripod has three legs. If you take one of those legs, it's not a tripod anymore. It's a bipod. And it doesn't stand up. All it is is a metal pole laying on the ground doing what? Nothing. Not serving it purpose. Why? Because it's maimed. Worship is part of that. threefold devotional life that we're supposed to be living. The way we worship matters less to God than the fact that we are being obedient to him and actually worshiping him. Whichever way we choose or we're commanded to worship by God, let our sacrificial obedience be the part that is outstanding to God. Microba, some of you know him, some of you don't. Awesome man of God, close to myself, our family back in mid late 90s, early 2000s, Christian t-shirts were all the rage. You guys probably own one couple, right? Lord's gym. Jesus is bench pressing the cross, right? Those kind of shirts. He had one. I loved it. It was cool. I had to go out and buy myself one as well. It was had a guitar on the front, I think, and like people's hands praising. And it says that I play for an audience of one. Love that. I love that. Our worship is not for us. It's from us. My worship is not for Josh or for my wife or for for Sam or Paul. My worship is for God. I may sing off key and Josh will go, "Guess what? I don't care, Josh. It's not about you. It's about God." Again, you've heard me say it. God could care less whether you can carry a tune in a bucket. It's not about your tune. It's not about your V. It's not about whether you're on key or beat. God just wants your worship. And all worship, whether you can sing or not, sounds beautiful in the ears of God. Why? Because it's born out of sacrificial obedience. Amen. Now, singing, worship may not be your fa, but that doesn't mean you may not be able to sing up here. That's okay. These folks don't worship better than you do. They just lead you in. I'm gonna say it again. the folks up here, it's not about whether they sing better or worship better. All they do is lead you in. The best way that I always tell this in the worship team, so does brother Jason. Best way that you can be a worship leader is not by singing the right note. It's by releasing a heart of worship. When you see them worshiping God, you're like, "Oh man, God is in the house." And you just feel led to come in with them. I want to be where they're at, not on the platform, but in the Holy of Holies. Amen. So, Not that they sing better or have a greater talent, right? I think it's obvious that most of them up here do have a greater talent than us to sing. But as far as worship concerned, it's only to lead us into God's presence, not to show us how great they are in their art form. If that's all we're getting, then we're missing the point. Amen. We're missing the point. The way we worship matters less to God than the fact that we are being obedient to him and actually worshiping him. Whichever way we choose or that he commands us to worship, let our sacrificial obedience be the part out to God.
Lastly, this morning worship. Let's look at the positive definition. That's not the outstanding that we want. We don't want our responsibility left open and unsettled. When God makes a command of us, which he does, to worship him and worship him alone, guess what? We better worship. Look at your neighbor, say, "You better worship." Can I make you worship? No, I can't. You have to do that for yourself. But God is expecting us to. So again, we don't want that negative outstanding. We want the good outstanding. We don't want your bill is left outstanding. We want your worship is outstanding. That's what we want. And that's what we'll look at. this morning. The positive definition of outstanding. What does it mean? Outstanding is something that quite literally stands out. Pretty simple. Stands out. Remember, the Bible calls us a what type of people? A peculiar people. That's just a nice word for a bunch of weirdos. Amen. We all come together on one one day of the week on our rest day. We sing songs together. We get all excited. Someone has come to the altar and cry. Someone has fall down. Some of us speak in what other people would know as gibberish, right? Getting all crazy. Bunch of weirdos. It's okay. Paul said it. You want to call me a fool? Good. I'm a fool for Christ. Amen. I'm a fool for Christ. I believe in the full gospel. I believe in God's power to move. I believe in following the spirit. I believe in being overcome with the spirit. I believe in being spiritled. I believe in that, right? So, we're a peculiar people already. And even before that, before our Pentecostalism sets us apart, we're set apart just by our belief in an invisible yet all powerful God where a lot of the world does not believe. So, we stand out because of that. How could you put faith in this invisible force? Because I know he's real and he's worthy of my praise. He's worthy of of my life dedicated to him. So you're already weird because of that. We are a peculiar, a strange people. So we already stick out like a sore thumb and that is okay. That is what we should in sore thumb ministries. Amen. We need to stick out. The world needs to see Jesus in you. Not your Pentecostalism. Not how loud you can pray. Not how much you can say thus sayith the Lord and how many declarations and proclamations you make. That doesn't matter. It's the life that you live. It's the It's the the gospel that you preach through your words and your lifestyle that people will see and go, "That's what I want in my life." Your love for God is outstanding. Your testimony is outstanding. Your worship for God is so intense and so outstanding. It just lures me in. That's the thing about the worship team. Their worship is outstanding. It stands out. on this platform and it draws the rest of us in to the presence of God. That's what it needs to be. Our worship needs to be outstanding. Definition per Google. What does it say? It's something that is exceptionally good. Everybody say exceptionally. Exceptionally good. Clearly much better than what is usual. Clearly what is better than usual. Clearly better than what is usual. I love that. Exceptionally good. dictionary says it's marked by eminence. You know what eminence means? It means superior. It means superior. When we talk about having outstanding worship towards God, it means that your worship is superior. It doesn't mean that your worship is superior than anybody else's. It means that when you worship, it's superior to anything else that you do, anyone else that anything else that anyone else can do. It's not superior means it's better than somebody else. It's it's better than anything else. You worship God in eminence and it says it's marked by distinction. It is something that is not standard, run-of-the-mill or ordinary. No, it is something that is extraordinary. It is something that is distinct, notable, remarkable. That is how our worship for God should be. And it shouldn't be because we want people to say, "Wow, that guy knows how to worship." No, it should be God saying, "Wow, my child." No, they get it. They get it. Look at him in spirit and in truth, just like I commanded. They took a portion of a conversation I had with that woman at the at the side of that well, that Samaritan woman, and they based their life. They heard the truth in that little morsel of my word and they activated in their life. I get this image. It's like a like a proud dad like gathering all the heavenly host going, "Look at my boy. Look at look at my daughter. They get it. They're worshiping me with reckless abandoned spirit into truth, not worrying about anything. They're glorifying my name. Truly glorifying me in what they're doing." Now, I get this image of him like that, like a like a proud father. And it's such an amazing thing. That's what our worship should be towards God. Opulent, outrageous, and outstanding. Giving everything that is within us to worshiping God. Because if worship, true worship, draws us closer to God, then that closeness will transform us into being more like God. And the more like God we become, the less like the world we are. And the less like the world we are, the less trouble we have from the world, the less it stresses it out. It stresses us out and worries us and fills us with anxiety. The more we just go, God's got it. All I got to do is worship him. All I got to do is praise him. Look, if God if God can deliver his people from a three-nation army because they chose to worship him on his command rather than pull out their swords, if he can do that for them, he can do that for me. So, I'm going to focus my praise on God. I'm going to worship him in this circumstance. No matter what it is, how it goes, I'm going to glorify his name. And even if he doesn't come through me like Shadrach and and Abednego, I'm still going to praise him anyways because it can only mean my good at the end of the day. That's what our worship should be like. Opulent, outrageous, outstanding. Could you imagine bringing anything less than your best to God? The three wise men, you heard me talk about this last week, three wise men came went to great lengths, came from great distances away and gave him gifts that were meant for a king because they recognized through a star who he was going to be. It's the king of kings, the lord of lords. So we bring him gold meant for the king, frankincense and myrr, oil and incense, priestly, kingly. All of these things led a person to believe, man, this child who they're giving these gifts gifts to. He doesn't just matter. He's the one. They brought the best gifts and went great distance to bring those gifts to God. And we have an issue of getting up on Sunday morning and coming to church. Welcome to American Christianity, folks. We got to put that to bed. In fact, we got to put that in the grave. We got to kill it dead and never let it come back again. Our worship does not have to do with how we feel about God. Our worship is about him deserving all the praise that we have to give. We settled it. He's worthy. He's worthy. So we need to be willing to give him that worship, that extravagant extravagant worship. We need to be careful that we don't put too much emphasis on the what over the wear. Remember I mentioned that earlier. That was the sin of Cain. In Genesis 4, it tells us that Cain's sacrifice to God was rejected and his brother Abel's was received. Did you ever wonder why? Is it because God likes meat and not vegetables? I get that. But I love them both. Amen. And you know what? Listen, God does, too. God does, too. It wasn't what Cain brought. It was how he brought it. In fact, let's look at the word real quick before we end. Genesis 4, chapter 3 and chapter uh verse four. Uh verses three and four. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. Key word, some. Listen. also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. Two descriptions are important. Fat portions and firstborn. He didn't bring just some pieces of meat to God. He brought the best and the first, the choicest to God. It wasn't a matter of what Cain brought. It was a matter of his heart. I'm just going to bring God in the old thing where Abel spent time going over the pieces and he goes, "This is the best. That's the best. That's the fattest. Those are the ones that God deserves." Abel was blessed because he understood the heart of giving, the heart of worship. It was less about the letter and more about the heart. It wasn't about what Cain brought, nor was it about the condition of what he brought that God rejected. It was his heart. It doesn't matter what our worship looks like or sounds like, or how good it appears to be. If it doesn't come from our hearts, if it does come, it doesn't come from a place of love, appreciation, and deep rooted devotion, then it's not worthy of God's time, and he will not receive it. Folks, we need to make sure that we are giving glory to God out of a heart of worship. Not the how, but the where. Amen.
Let's stand to our feet. Father, I pray today as we end out this service, we've talked about what pure worship looks like. We talk about awakening that pure worship from our hearts. The worship that you described as spirit and in truth, real, authentic, personal, organic, extraordinary, deep from within our hearts. It's not about the how. We have many ways that you have given us how to worship you. And we can come to you spontaneously, proactively, or we can call. We can respond to you when you call on us to come and worship. But regardless of when, regardless of how, what form, it's the fact that we do that. When you command, we hear that command and we honor the command. [music] We obey the command and we give sacrificially because it doesn't matter how we feel. It doesn't matter about the circumstances where we find ourselves. There's never going to be a perfect moment to praise you and to worship you. The perfect moment is when we choose to if we're spontaneous with it. And the perfect moment is when you call out to us, when we're responding to your call. That's the perfect moment. And it doesn't matter about what's going on in the peripheral. It doesn't matter if the sun is shining and the clouds are gone or whether rain is pouring down in our parade. God, any moment is the moment to worship you. That is true, pure spirit and in truth worship. God, help us to do that. It doesn't matter whether we worship on a hill or in a cathedral. Doesn't matter or if we worship in a tiny little church nestled up [music] against the East Hills in San Jose, California, or in some big big church somewhere out in the Midwest. It doesn't matter whether we're singing songs of praise, serving in a soup kitchen, laying hands on somebody who's sick, praying for them. God, we worship you in every single way when you call out to us to do so. We will worship you in everything that we do. And everything that we do will be worshiped to you. God, help us to worship in our words, to worship with our actions, to worship with our songs, to worship in our deeds, and Lord, to even worship you in our thoughts. Then when our mouths can't speak, our minds come alive with worship to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Just as long as it's in spirit and in truth, because that's the type of worship that you require. So, Father, touch the heart of your people today as they're here in this house, as they receive this word. I pray that these things would be applied to their life. If you're here this morning, let's end with this. If you're here today and you say, "You know what, Pastor Matt? I want to be that worshiper. I want to be that person who understands authentic, pure, real worship, spirit and in truth worship that Jesus commanded that we give." That's what I want to be. If that's you today, come to this spend some time in God's presence. You say, "God, I want my heart to be awakened with pure worship. I want my worship to be authentic today. God, I want it to be the real deal. I want it to be organic and original. I want it to be outstanding. God, I want you to be up there in heaven hearing my worship, seeing what I'm doing in worship for you. And God, I want it to bless your heart. I want to be a blessing to you, God, and a blessing to others. I want to be I want my worship to be so outstanding that it draws other people in to your presence to glorify your name that it piqus others interest Lord as they see me worshiping you extravagantly in whichever way you call me to God that's me I want to be a worshipper who worships in spirit and truth our worship team is going to lead us in a song this morning and as they do you just cry out to God just cry out to God this is your time this is your mo moment of worship this is your altar time. Call out to your God in this moment and God will reach out and touch your heart and touch your life. Come on, right now in the name of Jesus. Worship team, would you lead us? Just seek the face of God. Spend time in his presence. Glorify him. God, we worship you. I say I am a you I am a yes Lord. I am aable you call. I am available. I say yes Lord I am available. I hear you call. I am available. Yes, Lord. I am the heat. Here I am. Here I am. You can all it You give it all. Here I am. Here I am. You can have it all. You can have it all. Here I am. Here I am. You have it all. You give up it all. Here I am. Here I am. You give it all. You give it all. You can have it all. You can have it all. You can have it all.