Transcription
Welcome YouTube family. My name is Joanna and thank you for tuning in today. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube to stay uptodate each week. We believe God has a powerful word for you today. So, let's dive into this amazing message.
Got a powerful message to share with you today. The title of my message is you are worthy. You are worthy. And I'm talking about God. God is worthy.
He's worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be worshiped. He should be held in high esteem. Who in this room believe God is worthy? Come on. Has God been good to you? Is he worthy? Has he been good to your family? Has he protected you? Has he protected your family? Has God showed up for you? Come on. Even if you just got salvation, he's still worthy. Come on. Even if you just woke up this morning and you're still worthy. Even if you have breath in your lungs, he's still worthy. God is worthy. And he's worthy to be worshiped.
So today, my sermon is you are worthy. And we're talking about God. He is worthy. And I want you to know that in life you have an enemy. The Bible calls him an adversary. It's sat uh the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is an adversary. And sadly, he's not talked about much in churches. We live in a day and age where people don't even believe the devil is real. They don't believe hell is real. That they believe the devil is a fairy tale and no one goes to hell and everyone goes to heaven. And it's cute. But Jesus talked more about heaven than he talked about Jesus talked more about hell than he talked about heaven.
Hell is real and hell is hot. I'm not trying to be a fire and brimstone preacher, but what I'm telling you is hell is real. The devil is real. And the devil hates you. And he hates you because he ain't you. And he hates you because you're everything he's always wanted to be.
And you are in a spiritual war with the devil. And whenever you're in spiritual warfare or any type of warfare, if one nation is warned against another nation, the most important piece of information inside of war is what does your enemy want?
What does your enemy want? So you have to ask the question, what does the devil want? What does he want? Like like why is the devil bothering you? Like devil, why are you so obsessed with me? Like I'm living my life. I'm doing my thing and everywhere I turn, the devil's obsessed with me. He's trying to attack my family. He's trying to attack my kids. He's trying to attack everything. You feel like, man, I'm going to work and I'm trying to do well. The devil's attacking my job. He's attacking my marriage. He's attacking everything connected to me. Devil, why are you so obsessed with me?
And I want to tell you why the devil is so obsessed with you. I want to tell you why the devil hates you. I want to tell you why the devil is so bothered by you and why he's so disturbed by you. The devil has a desire. And the devil's greatest desire is not for you to just come and disobey God, though he would like that. The devil's greatest desire is not just so you not just so you would sin, though he would would appreciate that. It's not that you would not go to church, though he would appreciate that. It's not even to get you to hell, though he probably would appreciate that. But that's not the devil's greatest desire. He has something that he desires that he wants more than anything. And you must know the devil's greatest desire because if you're going to defeat Satan, you have to know what Satan wants.
And I want to tell you what he wants more than anything else. He wants your worship.
The devil wants you to worship him. I'm going to expose him today. I'm going to strip him naked. He wants you to worship him. He wants your worship. Why would the devil want your worship? Because once upon a time, he was a worship leader in heaven. And he was the morning star of God. He was Lucifer. And he was the morning star of God. He would usher in the presence of God. And he experienced worship. He experienced adoration. He experienced the angels singing and bowing before God and everyone bowing in the presence of God. And he ushered these moments in worship. And his greatest desire is that you would worship him. When we see wars in our world, it's because the devil wants worship. When we see murder in our world, it's because the devil wants worship. When we see rumors of war, it's because the devil wants worship. Everything that's happening, the destruction of the world is happening because an insecure little devil, he's a punk. I'm going to call him what he is. He wants your worship.
And the issue is your worship is reserved for God. Only God gets your worship. Only God is worthy of your worship. Only God deserves your worship. So you are called to worship God and you don't just worship God for what he does. You worship God because of who he is. You don't just worship God for the blessing. You worship the blesser. You don't just worship God for the healing. You worship the healer. You don't just worship God for the redemption. You worship the redeemer. You don't just worship God for what he can do. You worship God for who he is. I don't just worship God because he's good. I worship God because he's God.
And he is worthy of my worship. And Satan wants your worship. He wants you to worship him. He wants you to bow before him. That is his greatest desire. And he would destroy everything until you bow the knee to him instead of God. That's his plan. That's his will. And he's causing havoc in the world because he wants to get worship. And I'm going to use your Bible to prove it to you.
If you have your Bible, go to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28. We'll start at verse 12. I give you guys a second to get there. Ezekiel 28. Okay. When you guys are ready, say ready.
Okay. Let's do it. Very important scripture I'm going to read right here. It says, "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyrie." Now, it's not speaking to the king of Tyrie. It's speaking through the king of Tyrie, to the spirit that's inspiring him, which is Satan. And when you see the language, you'll know it's not about a physical person. It's about an angel, a cherub, which is Satan. It says, "Son of man, take up lamentations for the king of Tyrie and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the seal of perfection." No man was the sill of perfection. This is an angel. You were the sill of perfection. Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. So it's covered by every precious stone. The sardius, the topaz, diamonds, burls, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald, with gold. The workmanship of your timbros and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers. He was anointed. I establish you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stone. I don't even know what that mean, but it sounds cool. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within and you sin. Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, oh covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stone, which means the cool fiery stones he walked in. He was he was removed from the midst of those. Okay. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. Wow. He must have been beautiful. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of splendor. I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they may gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading. Therefore, I brought you Therefore, I brought fire from your midst. I devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth. In the sight of all who saw you, all who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you. You have become a horror and shall be no more forever. No more forever. Whenever the devil reminds you of your past, we're going to remind him of his future. Come on, let's read his future.
All who knew you among the people were astonished at you. You have become a horror and shall be no more forever. Devil, that is your future. [Applause] Okay, chapstick is on. Let's preach.
All right. So, the devil was created and he was created beautiful. You see how the Bible kept referencing him as beautiful? It's one thing if a man call you beautiful, but if the Bible say you beautiful, you're beautiful. Like the Bible said he beautiful. Like he could be like, "Man, the scripture said I'm beautiful. The truth said I'm beautiful." He was beautiful. He was exquisite, maleifuous. He was perfect. He was He had grandeur, splendor. He was phenomenal. You had never seen nothing like him. Nothing as exotic, nothing nothing as beautiful and as and as wholesome as Satan. The Bible bragged on him. Let me show you how beautiful the devil was. He was so beautiful that he was actually made out of precious stone. He was made out of emerald, sapphire, onyx, gold, diamonds. These are the things he was made out of. Let me tell you what you was made out of. I don't want to pop your bubble, but you was made out of dirt. Okay?
You was made out of dirt. He was made out of gold. You was made out of dirt. He was made out of sapphire. You were made out of go dirt. He was made out of onyx and and emerald. He was beautiful. He was made out of the most beautiful things. Your skin is dirt. His skin was gold.
He didn't wear jewelry. He was jewelry. You got a diamond ring. He had a diamond ear. Literally his ear. Like he's that beautiful. He was beautiful. His splendor, his glory. And not only was he beautiful, the Bible says he was full of wisdom, which means he possessed the wisdom of God. He was wise. He was intelligent. He had the wisdom of God. He had splendor. He had majesty. He was phenomenal. If you would have saw the devil, you would have been like, "Wow, what is that? That is beautiful."
He was amazing. And what happened is he looked in the mirror too long one day and he saw how beautiful he was and he was like, "I should be the one getting worship. Look how beautiful I am. Worship should come to me." And then he wanted to be like God. He wanted to be worshiped because of his beauty. But let me tell you something about the devil. He's not beautiful no more.
He's not beautiful no more because his beauty has become horror.
His perfection has become perversion.
And his wisdom is now ignorance. He's not wise no more. The devil is a fool. He's not good no more. He's not beautiful no more. He's not perfect. He's perverted. The devil is not good. He's not amazing. He's not beautiful. He's not wise no more. He's ignorant. He lost all of that because he wanted to be like God. He wanted to ascend above God. And he was designed in such a beautiful way that if you seen the best worship team you ever seen, it had nothing on him. The devil didn't have to play drums. He was the drums. He didn't play a keyboard, he was a keyboard. He didn't play a guitar, he was the guitar. He didn't play a bass, he was the bass. He He when he moved, songs came out of him. He was a one-man band. Beautiful music came out of him. Beautiful sounds. Pipes and timberalss was inside of him. There was nothing like him. He was made of gold, diamonds, and instruments. When he moved, he was the morning star of God. He ushered in the praise and worship. He ushered in the spirit of God. He was anointed by God. When he went forth, people responded. When he did praise songs, angels danced and they flew around the throne of God. When he did intimate songs, angels dropped on their knees and they bowed before God and they sang out holy, holy, holy before God. He was phenomenal. And all of a sudden, when these angels would bow and everything would bow and creation would bow and the angels would bow and the mountains would bow and the earth would bow and everything would bow and give God reverence. He said, "I don't want to do this for God. I want to do it for me." And at that point, iniquity was found in him. And he said, "I don't want worship to flow through me. I want worship to come to me. I want to be worshiped. I want to be the one that's worshiped. I want to be number one. and I don't want to be number two no more.
And that was his heart and that was his posture and iniquity was found in him. Now we're going to go to Isaiah 14 and I'm I'm going to read this and then we're going to preach. Cool.
Let's do it. Isaiah 14 verse 12. And it says how you are fallen from heaven. Now it's talking about him as he fell. How you are fallen from heaven. This is talking about the devil. Oh Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground. You who weaken the nations. So whenever a nation is being weakened, I just want you to know who's behind it. It's this guy. is this guy. He's the one that weakens the nation and divides the nation.
You who weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, this is the devil. He said this in his heart. So, so he never even said this out loud, I believe, because the Bible says he said it in his heart, but this is how he felt. He said, "I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high yet. The Bible says yet like like translation you shall be brought down to sh to the lowest depths of the pit. Oh, I love your God.
Your God is a OG. That just means original gangster. I'm just saying like God is just just too amazing. But I want you to look at this. We're going to go to verse 13. And I want you to look because everything he says has an ascension connotation. He says, "I will ascend." That's upward. "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." stars. This is upward. I will sit on the mount, the high point of the congregation. Upward, on the farthest side of the north, upward, I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. Upwards, I will be like the most high God upward. And God says, you have all this desire, this perverted desire to ascend, to ascend, to ascend. And God says, Psych, you ain't ascending nowhere. You're actually going to be brought down to sh I'm going to bring you down to the lowest place of the pit. You will not ascend. You will be brought down to the lowest place.
He will not ascend. The devil wants to ascend. Which means he wants to be exalted. He wants to be lifted high. What does worship do? Worship exalts. It exalts God and it lifts it lifts God's high because the devil can't exalt himself in heaven. He can't sit on the mount of the congregation. He can't sit in the north. Where does he want to be exalted? He wants to be exalted in the hearts of men. He wants to be exalted inside of you. The only way the devil can be put in a high place is if you put him in a high place because God has put him in a low place. He's been brought down to co. He's been brought down to the low place and he cannot ascend unless you ascend him.
Wow.
Now, here is what your Bible says. The devil wants to be exalted. Now, we've lived our life believing that there was a war between God and Satan. There's God on one side and there's Satan. You know, you get on Facebook and it says, "Heart this post for God and keep scrolling for the devil." As if they're in like a wrestling match and they got the devil and Jesus arm wrestling. The devil and God is not in a wrestling match. Okay? They're not. God defeated the devil in a moment, in a flash, in an instant. The devil is nothing to God. The Bible says the devil is your adversary. He ain't God's adversary because God has no rival and he has no equal. There is none beside God.
All the way to the point, here's what the devil said. Here's what Jesus said about the devil. He said, "I saw you fall like lightning."
Do you know how fast lightning fall? You might not. I Googled it for you. At 186,000 m a second. At 186,000 m a second. Faster than a bullet. Faster than a missile. Faster than a jet. At 186,000 m a second. Like lightning, he was gone. Like lightning, he fell. Like lightning, he was cast out of heaven. Like vat, he was gone. The devil got whiplashed. He was like, "Where am I?"
He was gone like that. You think there's a war between him and God?
No.
Like lightning, he was gone
that quick because God don't play.
But I want you to know something about this devil. He was so beautiful, so wise, and he had so much splendor that a third of the angels saw God and they saw this guy and they said, "You know what? We'll leave God and follow this guy." How beautiful would he have to be? How wise would he have to be for the third of the angels to see God
and to see him and say, "Peace, God. We rolling with this guy.
The devil's defeated, but I don't want you to underestimate your enemy.
He's under your feet, but I don't want you to underestimate him and his mission statement. I want you to know what he wants so you can know how to fight him and defeat him in spiritual warfare. Because I'm going to teach you some tools today that the devil won't have you on the run. You're going to put him on the run. The devil won't have you on defense. You're going to go on offense against the devil. And I'm going to give you tools. But in order to defeat your enemy, you have to know what your enemy wants. Here's the devil's mission statement. His mission statement is this. I will be like the most high God. That's his mission. He will be like God. Now God is many things, right? But from the devil's perspective, what would God be like? Two things that the devil would see from his perspective of being Lucifer. the morning started that would usher worship. He would see everything in creation bow to God and worship God. So when he say I will be like God he's saying I will be worshiped.
And the second thing when he said he would be like the most high God everything had a had a upward connotation. I will exalt. I will sit. I will ascend above the mount above the clouds. Above the stars which means God is high. And the Bible calls God the most high God. And devil, I just want to prophesy to you for one second. I don't care how much you smoke. You will never be like the most high God. You will never be like the most high God. And God is high. God is exalted. He's lifted up. He's worshiped. And God is the most high God. He's bigger than everything. He's above everything. So when the devil says, "I'll be like him." That is his heart. That is his state. And here's the issue that you have to understand is when the devil got cast out of heaven down to the earth, do you know that his mission statement hasn't changed? It's still the same. The Bible says when you remember Satan, remember Lot's wife. Lot and his family was leaving Sodom and Gomorrah. As they was leaving, Lot's wife turned around and God froze her into a pillar of assault. People thought God was cruel. Why would God freeze her into a pillar of assault? It's because God was judging Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, "Leave the city and don't look back." Because when you look back, it showed that even though you wasn't there physically, you were still tied to Sodom and Gomor Gomorrah mentally. And God says, "I'm not just charging. I'm not just judging the people that's there physically. I'm judging the people that's there mentally." And when she turned around, God froze her into a pillar of salt because it was a symbol of her being unrepentant. God said, "When you see her, remember Satan." In other words, he's frozen in a state of damnation. He's unrepentant. He don't want to repent. He can't repent. There is no hope. He's been g given over to a spirit of lasciviousness, which means he can never come back from it.
So the devil can never come back from this iniquity that was found in him that said he would be like the most high God. He can't repent. He doesn't want to repent. He's unrepentant. So he fell down to earth and he said, "If I couldn't rule heaven, I'm going to rule earth." And if I want to be like God, God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And if I want to be like God, God created man to worship him on the earth. So if I want to be like God, what do I need? Man to worship me on the earth.
But God says, "No, no, no. I don't need your worship devil. I'm going to create humanity and they're going to worship me." And God formed us from the dust of the ground and he breathed the breath of life inside of our nostrils. And all of a sudden the devil would come and this is just my imagination and be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You created them from dirt, but look at me. I'm made of diamonds and gold and sapphire. They can't give you worship. Look, I got pipes and timbros inside of me. They can't give you worship like I can give you worship." And I believe God would tell the devil, "Yeah, you gave me great worship, but they can give me breathtaking worship because I made you with my hands, but I made them with my spirit. I put my very breath inside of them." So they can give me breathtaking worship because when they worship, they give me my breath back. And the reason they can give me breathtaking worship is because they're the only thing in the world that took my breath away. When God created you, you took his breath away. And when you worship God, you give him a breathtaking worship that only you can give him. The devil can't give breathtaking worship because he was made from the hands of God. But you was made from the breath of God. Oh, give him a shout of praise in this place. You was made from God's breath, which means you can give him a breathtaking worship. You can give him a a phenomenal worship that no one else can give him. So now Satan's agenda is to be worshiped. So how is Satan worshiped? Because there is very few people in the world that would be like, "I'll worship the devil." Come on. If you worship the devil, lift your hands in here. Come on. Someone was scratching their head. They was like, "Let me put my hand put this down here." You know what I'm saying? Who's going to willingly worship the devil? Nobody's going to worship the devil. And he knows that. So the the crazy thing is he he m he he he he transforms into an angel of light.
The devil is worshiped indirectly not directly.
God needs direct worship. The devil can have indirect worship.
In other words, how do you worship the devil? Real easy. You just worship yourself.
You anything you worship that's not God indirectly goes to Satan. No,
anytime something is exalted in worship that's not God, it goes to Satan. Why? Because Satan is antichrist, which means opposite of Christ, which means anything that Christ gets out of anything that gets Christ worship, the opposite gives the devil worship. Which means if Jesus gets the worship out of your faith, Satan gets the worship out of your fear. If Jesus get the worship out of your trust, then Satan gets the worship out of your worry. If Jesus gets the worship out of your breakthrough, Satan gets the worship out of your breakdown. If Jesus gets the worship when you stand up strong and bold, then Satan gets the worship out of your bow. Anything that's opposite of what God wants indirectly worships the devil. Which means if you say, "I don't worship God. I just worship me." No, you don't worship you. You worship Satan indirectly
because he's antichrist. Anything that's opposite of Christ is automatically vetoed to the devil.
Wow.
And he wants your worship. And he would destroy our planet. He would destroy our world. The Bible says you that weaken the nations. He would destroy nations. You start seeing them horrible things that happened in the world. Assassinations. Even what happened with Charlie Kirk and all these different things that start happening. The devil would bring havoc. He would he would slaughter people. He would kill people. He would kill babies. He would destroy nations. He would destroy all kind of things for one reason and one reason only. I will be like God and I will be worshiped. But you will not be like God. You will not be worshiped. You will be brought down the sh and you are under our feet. Oh, give God a praise break in this place.
You will not be worshiped. Only God is worthy of our worship. Can I go deeper?
All right. Let's go. Let's go a little bit deeper. Let's go a little bit deeper. So, how does Satan get you to worship him? It's real easy. He gets you to worship him by beholding him
and beholding his ways and beholding his systems because you become what you behold. You become what you behold. Anything you behold, you will become. If you behold the presence of God, you will become like God. If you behold the presence of sin, you will become like sin. If you behold the things of this world, you will become like this world. But if you behold the things of God, you will become like God. Whatever you behold, you will become. And that's what Satan always tries to do. He tries to get you to build idols. God doesn't want you to build idols, but Satan tries to get you to build idols because once the man m the idol, the idol m the man.
Wow.
Any idol you mold will eventually mold you. Any idol you make will eventually make you. Any idol you create will eventually create you. So Satan wants you to make an idol because the moment you mold the idol, the idol molds you
and you are now in the image of the idol. You are now in the image of the thing that you made. And God doesn't like idols.
If you read the Bible from the front to the back, there is one thing in the Bible that makes God mad. It runs God hot. It runs them high. You got David, Bashibba. Yeah. Okay. God forgave that. You You got all kind of stuff. Yeah. God forgave that. But when somebody make an idol, God's hot. He say, "I will have no other god before me."
In other words, your worship is reserved for me.
You won't bow to anything that's not me. And all throughout the Bible, if you look at it closely, even through Kings, the devil is always trying to make kings do one thing throughout the Bible in the world is to get humanity to bow their knee because he's obsessed with us. He's obsessed with God. He wants to be like God and he wants your knee to bow. All the way to Shad, Reshack, and Abedneo. Neb King Nebuchadnezzar came and he said, "Hey, I'm going to need you to bow down to my golden image and if you're not, I'm going to throw you in a fiery furnace. I'm going to turn it up seven times hotter." And they said, "We respect you, King Nebuchadnezzar, but going to throw us in a furnace because we only bow to God and we bow to God alone. And if you have to burn us, do what you got to do. Our bow is reserved to God."
Daniel, you're worshiping our God. You worshiping your God, we're going to need you to stop and pray to our idol. And if you won't, guess what we're going to do? We're going to throw you inside of a lion's den because we need you to bow to our idol.
And Daniel said, "Throw me in there then.
Throw me in there with Simba, Mufasa, everybody. I don't care. Coar, put me in there.
Put Rafiki, I don't care who in there. Put me in there.
Put me in, coach.
Why? Because I ain't bowing.
And if I'm lunch dinner, I'm just If I'm If I'm lying dinner, I'm just lying down there. I ain't bowing.
All throughout the Bible,
every time, Satan's agenda was to get the people of God to bow to something that wasn't God.
It didn't have to be him. It just couldn't be God. Yeah.
And even Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness, first he was tempted to turn stones into bread. Then he was tempted to cast himself off the pinnacle. But the third, Satan's best temptation, his strongest temptation, he said, "I will give you all the kingdoms of this world in their glory."
If you what? Bow down and worship me.
And what did Jesus say? Jesus said, "I will worship the Lord thy God, and him only will I serve." translation, devil, you won't get my bow. Only God gets my bow.
And all throughout the Bible, Satan is fighting and he is looking and he's coercing to try to give people to try to get people to bow to him. And that's why you have to be careful because the enemy wants you to bow. He wants you to bow. He wants you to bow. Today, enemy wants you to bow, but your bow is reserved to God. It is your worship. Your bow is your worship because the bow means to worship. Whatever you bow to, you worship to. Whatever you bow to, you worship to. So your job is to worship God and God alone. But what does it mean to worship God? How can we truly worship God if we don't know what worship is? What is worship? Well, worship is composed of two words. It's composed of the word worth and ship. Worth and ship. Worthship. So we have to break down these two words to get an understanding of what worship is. Worth means to hold something in high esteem. Hold something in high regard, to honor something, to exalt something, to love something, to put value and honor and esteem upon something. That's what it means to have worth. You are worthy. You are worth it. To put honor, to put esteem, to hold in high regard, that's worth. What does mean? means the state of being. the the the the it means the state of being. Which means if I says Jesus Christ lordship, it's the state of him being Lord. If I say walk in disciplehip, it's the state of you being a disciple. If I say these two people are in relationship, it's the state of these two people relating. If I say we have a friendship, it's the state of us being friends. So to have worship means to put God in a perpetual state of worth. God, you are worthy. God, you are worth it. God, I love you. I hold you in high esteem. I give you adoration. I give you praise. There is none like you. There's none beside you. I give you perpetual worth. I hold you in esteem. I hold you in high worth. That is worthhship, which is your reasonable worship.
And we are called to worship God, to hold him in high esteem, to put him in this place of worth. This is our call. And the thing is, you have to be careful what you fear because what you fear, you begin to hold in worth.
And what you hold in high worth, you eventually begin to worship. And what you worship, you become because you become what you behold. So you have to be careful what you fear because what you fear, you attach worth to it. And when you attach worth to it, worth morphs into worship.
Which means if you fear failing, you're going to put a high worth on success. And now you got to be so successful you can't come to church. You can't be there for your family. You can't pray no more. You can't read your Bible. You don't have time because you fear failure so much. You put success at such a worth you begin to worship success. Ah
pastor.
So you be careful what you fear because what happens is even in the past the way they would get people to bow the knee is they would make them fear losing their life. and you loved your life so much, you was willing to bend a knee to the devil to save your own life. But Jesus said, "Whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it." My worth isn't even in my life. My worth is in God. And I bow to God and I bow to him alone.
I bow to God and I bow to God alone. I ain't bowing to this world. I'm not bowing to the things of this world. I'm not bound to the agendas of this world. I stand to against everything and I only bow towards God.
I only bow towards God. He's the only person that will get my bow.
Now, the Bible declares, "Every mouth will confess and every knee will bow." Yeah.
Which means
it's not a question of if you will bow. If you're in this room, you're not a believer. It's not if you will bow.
You will bow.
The question is when will you bow?
Come on, pastor.
And my advice to you would be bow while there's still time. Because if you bow your knee, you get salvation. If he has to bow your knee, you get damnation.
Don't make God bow your knee. You bow your own knee. God, I bow before you. I worship you. I hold you in high esteem. I hold you in high worth. Lord, I bow before you. I will confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. And I will bow my knee to God, saying, "You are my King. You are my Lord. You are my God. I'm going to bow while there's still breath in my lungs and there's still time on my clock. Oh, give God a 10-second praise break in this place. [Applause] So, you have to bow while there's still time. Bow while there's still time. Bow before God. Surrender your life. To bow means to worship. To bow means to worship. I want to show you something. John chapter 4 verse 23. I got two points to make and I'll close. I know this sermon is a little deep. I'm always preach these super deep sermons, but we're in a day and we're in an hour right now. We don't need messages that's going to tickle our ears. We need the word of God, the truth of God. And we got to preach the hard stuff in this hour
because Satan is trying to take ground. And we're saying, "No, you're not taking ground. Satan is trying to bow the knee of the church. And we're not bowing to the things of this world. We will stand tall. We only bow to God. Give him a praise break, guys. John chapter 4, verse 23. Like I said, next week I'm preaching on the power of perspective, but we got to get your knee bowed first. Once we get your knee bowed, we can get to the other stuff. But we got to bow that knee. We got to get your knee bowed.
Because if you don't bow it, God will bow it.
And even the things you bow to at the end, they will even bow to God.
Even Satan's knee will hit that floor.
Okay. John chapter 4:23 says, "But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him." God is spirit and those who worship him must must worship him in spirit and truth. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Now, why would a God who knows everything, who has everything, who is everything, be looking for anything?
Why would a God who has everything, who knows everything, who is everything, be looking for anything
unless it was hard to find. Amen.
And God is saying true worshippers is hard to find. And it didn't even use the word he was looking for true worshippers. It said he was seeking for true worshippers. To seek means to earnestly look. You know, you got to be to work in 15 minutes and you can't find your car keys. You in the cabinet, you in the microwave. You turning shoes over. Like you everywhere. You under the bathroom sink. Like how the keys going to be in there? You in a fish tank. Like you looking everywhere for these keys cuz you got 15 minutes to get to work. That's how God is looking for worshippers. True worshippers. Yeah.
True worship. He's looking. He's looking. He's looking. Why? Because worshippers ain't hard to find, but true worshippers is.
Worshippers are everywhere. They're at every church. But where are the true worshippers?
True worshippers are hard to find. Which means, what is a true worshipper? A true worshipper is one that worships in spirit, not in flesh.
Why don't God want fleshly worships? Because flesh is a symbol of condition and temporal. Conditioned and temporal. God don't want just conditional worshippers. He don't want people that's just going to worship when they get the job. Worship when the bill's paid. Worship when they get the car. Worship when everything goes their way. He wants people that's going to say, "God, I worship you when the bill ain't paid. I worship you when I didn't get the car. I worship you when you said no to my prayer request. I worship you when it didn't go my way. I worship you when everything fell apart. Why? Because I'm not worshiping you for what you do. I'm worshiping you for who you are.
God, I'm worshiping you in the night. I'm worshiping you in the dark hour. I'm worshiping you when everything else is falling into disarray. Why? Because I'm a true worshipper. Which means my worship isn't temporary. It's eternal. I want to worship in spirit. Which means I worship from the deepest part of me. And I worship in such a spiritual way, such an unconditional way that when I go to heaven, my worship don't have to change.
Because it's a spiritual worship.
See, if you just got a fleshly work worship, that's not going to work in heaven. That's temporal. But if you have an eternal worship where you say, "God, I worship you because of who you are. I worship you because you're worthy. And if you never do anything else for me, you are still worthy to be praised." When you worship God like that, that my friend is true worship.
True worship.
Now I have a question. I got everyone's attention. That's awesome. I have a question. Why does God want your worship? Why? Why is it worship out of everything? Why does God want your worship? Why? I'm going to tell you. Because worship is the only thing you can truly give to God.
Do you know if you give God honor, he's not more esteemed? If you give God your love, he's not more loved. If you give God if if you if you give God um your respect, he's not more respected. If you give God a tithe, he's not richer. If you give God your service, he's not more served. But if you give God your worship, he is exalted high in the heavens. The Bible says he inhabits the praises of his people, which means he enters inside of our praise. He inhabits it. He lives inside of our praise. That's why we come to his gates with thanksgiving. We enter his courts, his kingdom, his palace with praise. He lives in our praise.
Which means that you can exalt God. You can't esteem him. You can't honor him. You can't make him more lovable, but you can exalt him. You can magnify him. You can make him big with your worship. You can make him highly exalted inside of the heavens. This is why God wants your worship. And the second reason why God wants your worship is because worship is the only thing that God can't give himself.
It's the only thing he can't give himself.
And thirdly, worship is the only thing that you can give God that God hasn't already given you. [Music] God, here's my produce. God gave you the field. God, here's my service. God gave you activity of your limbs. Whatever you give God, it's just a fraction of what God already gave you. But the one thing God never gave you was worship. [Applause] And God can't give you worship. And God can't give himself worship. God can't worship.
God can do everything except for one thing. God can't worship.
He can't do it. He don't He's not capable of worship.
He can receive it, but he cannot worship. Why can't God worship? Because the worship means to bow.
Which means when you bow to something, what do you do? You come under it. Yeah.
Well, if you're the most high God,
what can you come under?
What can you come under? So, God can't come under anything cuz he's above everything. And if he's above everything, he can't bow. And if he can't bow, guess what? He can't worship.
Which means that when you worship God, you give God the one thing he can't give himself. Oh, give him a shout of praise. So he's worthy of your worship. He's worthy. He's worthy of your worship. And this is why Satan sees that it's the only thing we can give to God. He sees it's the only thing that angels can give to God. He wants to be like God. And he wants your worship so God can never get it.
And I want to tell you some things about worship. It ain't just the third song of Radiant Church. It is the surrendered abandoned lifestyle before God.
Worship is a condition of your heart. Because when it comes to worship, God doesn't hear songs, he hear hearts.
It's a surrender heart unto God and he wants your worship. So the Bible says worship him in spirit. We covered that. Then it says worship him in truth. In other words, when you come to worship, the Bible is saying don't come to worship with a mask on. Don't come to worship God with a mask. Why? Because God can't bless who you pretend to be. He can only bless who you really be. I know it ain't proper English, but it'll preach. He can't bless who you pretend to be. He can only bless who you really be. He cannot bless your mass. He can only bless your face. And you could come to God and he's saying even in his worship, he don't want it to be fake. He don't want it to be superficial. He wants it to be true. He wants it to be real. Sometimes we come to church and we ask, "Man, how you doing?" Blessing, holy favor. No, you not. I can see it in your face. just just trusting God. No, you're not. You trusting the government.
Just just seeking the Lord. No, you not.
And we come with all this Christianes and all these phrases and our hearts is far from God.
And God is saying, "I want the truth. I want your real." You could come to me with tension. You could come and you could say, "Lord, I've been fighting, but I'm still going to worship. I've been struggling, but I'm still going to worship. I've been confused, but I'm still going to worship. I don't know which way I was going, but I found you, God. I'm going to worship. I'm going to worship you in the good times and the bad times. In the mountain highs and the valley lows. When it goes my way and when it don't. When I get the good renews, when I
Get the bad news. When I get the good report, when I get the bad report, I worship you because you're God. I worship you because you're worthy. I worship you because I love you. I worship you because you're worth it. If you say, "God is worth it." Come on, give him a shout of praise. God, you are worthy of my worship. You are exalted high in the heavens. There's none like you. There's none beside you. God, I give you my worship. God, I give you my bow. I bow before you, Jesus.
I bow before you. Preacher, is it really that dramatic? I don't know, but I'm going to bow. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, but I bow before God. That's right. I bow before him. I love God. I honor God. I reverence God. I reverence him. He is worthy of our worship.
I got one last point I want to make and we'll close. We'll close. You have your Bibles. Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans 12 verse one and it reads therefore I was taught that whenever you see therefore in the Bible you need to see what it's there for. Okay. Therefore, I urge you brothers in the view of the mercy of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. So, this is where we're going to get a revelation of what worship is. Worship can start with a song, but it doesn't end with a song. It ends with surrender. Therefore, I urge you, which means I implore you, this is important, brothers and sisters, in the view of God's mercy. So, in view, in perspective of God's mercy, like the mercy, the mercy that he has had on you and upon you, here's your response to the mercy and the goodness of your God is to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. That is your spiritual act of worship.
Wait one minute. A living sacrifice, the term is actually a contradiction because a sacrifice is something you kill. So when you brought God a sacrifice, you slaughtered an animal. You you killed the animal. So how do you bring God a living sacrifice? Because in order for it to be a sacrifice, it has to be dead. So how can you be dead and alive at the same time? Oh, well maybe this is when Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me."
You can be alive. Just make sure you're pinned to your cross. What is Jesus saying? He's saying, "I need you dead to your will so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your ways so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your plan so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your purpose so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your way so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your feelings so you can be alive to mine. I need you dead to your perspective so you can be alive to mine. You're a living sacrifice. You're sacrificed you so you can live for me." This is what it means to be a living sacrifice. God said, "I want you to be a living sacrifice."
So what did they do to sacrifice? They burnt them. Sacrifices was set on fire. So this takes us back. This scripture ties to scripture in Leviticus. It takes us back to the Old Testament. And this and and this goes back to Leviticus. And in Leviticus, Aaron's sons, the high priestess, they would take to the holy place. They would take flour, they would take oil, and they would take frankincense. Flour, oil, and frankincense. And they would add those three things together inside of a sacrifice. And the flower represents man, the oil represents the spirit of God, and the frankincense represent worship, true worship that ascends up to God. So God is saying that man and and the high priest, they could actually eat the flour and the oil, but they could not eat the incense. Why? Because God was saying, "Man, you can have the spirit of God. You can be anointed, but the incense is reserved for me. It's preserved for me."
Why is the incense preserved to God? Because it's a sweet aroma in the nostrils of God. When God responds to worship in a church, God doesn't look at worship based on what he sees. He doesn't look at worship based on what he hears. He looks at worship based on what he smells. Worship is the sweet smelling aroma in the nostrils of God. And when God can smell the worship, he says that is true worship. That is spiritual worship. And that's a worship that the father seek. Not a worship that he can see. Not a worship that he can hear, but a worship that he can smell, which is a sweet smell of a burnt sacrifice.
And the frankincense was such a beautiful thing because God said, "When you get ready to bring the frankincense, I need you to do one thing for me. Don't bring honey." And he said, "Don't bring honey." Why did God say, "Don't bring honey?" Because it's sweet and and it looks good and it's sweet and it tastes good until you burn it. When you burn honey, honey stinks. And God said, "Don't bring something burnt to me that stinks. I need you to bring frankincense because when you burn it, it smells good. When you burn it, it smells sweet. When you burn it, it's a sweet aroma into the nostrils of God."
God says, "How is your worship? Does it get better under fire? Does it get better under persecution? Does it get better when it's lit on the fire?" Though they slay you, do you still trust God? Though you're being pushed against, do you still trust God? Though you're being wared against, do you still trust God? Because true believers get better under fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had blazing faith. They got better under fire. Daniel got better under fire. Joseph got better under fire. David got better under fire. Do you get better under fire?
Are you frankincense or are you honey? Because when honey's burnt, it gets bitter. When frankincense are burnt, it gets bitter. How do you get pastor? True worship under fire gets better in persecution. I get better in the storm. I gets better in the valley. I gets better. God says you can have the flower and the oil, but the frankincense is for me. The sweet aroma is for me. That is your true and reasonable worship.
This is your true worship. This is the worship that God has asked you to give him. I have a question as my band comes up. Do you give God your worship? Do you give God your worship? And we talked about the part of your worship that's you being a living sacrifice. You being a living sacrifice. That means that you have surrendered your life to God. And you being like a frankincense that when you're under fire, you actually smell better. That's how you know you have true worship. If you have a fleshy worship, it's like honey. When you get under fire, you get bitter. You get mad at God. You get offended at the church. You quit coming. That's when you know that you're not the kind of worshipper that God seeks.
There's a lot of honey worshippers, but very few frankincense worshippers. Honey likes to look the part until it's under fire. But frankincense gets better under fire. You know if you're a true worshipper because it's spiritual. Which means when my flesh is burning, my spirit is actually activated. That's why the Apostle Paul said, "We glory in tribulation." Why? We're frankincense. We're better under fire.
So, do you gripe under fire or do you glory under fire? Do you gripe under under tribulation or do you glory? Because that's going to reveal of your honey or of your frankincense. So good. So you living a sacrificial life to God saying, "God, I surrender all to you. I get better under fire." Worship isn't a song, but it can't start with a song, but it ends in surrender.
Now, we talked about the surrender part. I want to talk about the song part. Women and men, really men, I want to talk to you deeply. For years I went to church and I considered myself the word guy. Late during the worship set, mad cuz they singing too long. J the Bible. I like the word of God. Glory to God. I need the word of God. And I was like, all that emotional stuff is for my wife. I'm a man. I ain't emotional like that. I primarily got one emotion. That's anger. And the rest of it is I'm hungry. Other than that, that's all I got. I'm mad or I'm hungry. Um, and then the Holy Spirit convicted me. You don't skip worship. Real men worship. Real men worship God. It's not worship wasn't preserved for women or emotion. That's honey stuff. God said, "Worship me in spirit and truth." Worship comes from your spirit.
Which means men and women should worship God. And as leaders, men, we should lead in this place of worship. And I get it, man. I'm not trying to condemn you. I know what it's like. I was too cool for school and worship. Horns folded. You know, I may tap my foot a little bit if they if the beat was good. They sang good. I may even rock a little bit. But this far as I'm going, you know what I'm saying? just do the rock away. Ain't bad. No, I'm playing. If you don't know it, good. And if you do know it, don't judge me. Um, so that's as far as I can go in worship. And then I remember when it was brought to my attention and my excuse was, I do worship God, but I ain't got to do it in front of everybody. I do it in private when it's just me and God. But I want to challenge you with this. The groom was stripped naked in public. He bled in public and he died for you in public. He showed his love for you in public.
But then the bride can say, "Oh, I just worship in private." The bride says, "I'll show my love in private." When the groom showed his love in public, the the groom died in front of a crowd, but the bride says, "Oh, I can't worship in front of a crowd." Cuz maybe someone's looking at me. That's not worship. That's conceit. You're conceited because no matter who's around you, you worship for an audience of one. I don't see you. I see God. I don't see you looking at me. I'm too busy looking at God. I'm beholding him. I can't see you watching me. And if my God can publicly, love me, die for me, be stripped naked, then at his then as his bride, I can publicly worship him and honor him and show him love.
David, the Bible says David danced out his clothes. Don't do that here. You can do that in private. But he was a mighty man of valor and he danced out his clothes. You can lift your hand. You can clap your hands. You can stomp your feet for God. And if you think it's not biblical, give me a call or email. I'll walk you through the scripture. Worship was always expressive. They danced. They shouted. They screamed and walls fell down. I'll walk you through the Bible. Worship was always loud. It was expressive. Heaven is loud. Angels wings is flapping. People are jumping. They're crying. Angels crying out, "Holy, holy, holy." I will walk you through every chapter of the Bible and show you that worship is responsive and real man worship and worshiping God is going to unlock some of you man of God is going to give you a greater capacity to love your wife to love your children to love your family something unlocks when you begin to worship God and you show God that love and you give God that place of worth and all since we were little boys we was taught don't show emotion don't show feelings you look weak but I want you to know God is worthy to be praised.
Wow, what a powerful message. We hope it blessed you. Make sure to share with your friends, your family members, and your co-workers so that they can be blessed as well.