Worship | More Than a Rulebook | Sunday Service

The third key that we're looking at to our crossover today is the key of worship.

I really felt like this morning in worship there was a sound of crossover happening, that as you worship this morning you were in the process of crossing over into the destiny of God for your life and I just find it incredibly interesting that that sound is resonating.

And I'm talking about the power of worship to help you cross over to the destiny of God for your life.

Stand with me where you are this morning as we read God's word.

We're going to be at Joshua, chapter 4 this morning.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

Joshua, chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

It says when the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua choose 12 men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan River, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at a place, arrange them at a place, stack them at a place where you stay tonight.

Let me just pause you here.

You realize what Joshua is doing and what God's instructing him.

God is instructing Joshua to take some stones from the middle of the river where they crossed over from the wilderness into the promised land, take some stones and build an altar.

Everybody say build an altar.

So Joshua is being instructed by the Lord as you cross over, you need to build an altar.

Verse 4,.

So Joshua called together the 12 men he had appointed, one from each tribe, and he said to them go over before the ark of the Lord, your God, into the middle of the Jordan.

Each one of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, and we're to set these things up and they're to serve as a sign among you.

They're to serve as a sign among you in the future, when your children ask you what do these stones mean?

What does this altar mean?

Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the Lord and when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.

And these stones, this altar, will be a memorial of thanksgiving, a memorial of remembrance, a memorial of worship to the people of Israel forever.

Jump down to verse 19.

So, on the 10th day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan.

They camped at Gilgal.

Can I pause here for a second Gilgal literally means the place of stones.

Second Gilgal literally means the place of stones, a place where stones of remembrance and thanksgiving and worship were placed, where Israel crossed over Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho, and Joshua set up the stones at Gilgal that they had taken out of the Jordan.

He said to the Israelites in the future, when your descendants ask what are these stones, what does this altar mean, tell them this is where Israel crossed over.

Everybody say cross over.

This is where these stones are a place of worship, a place of remembrance, a place of thanksgiving, a place of remembrance, a place of thanksgiving, for where we crossed over into the promises of God.

The Jordan was dried up verse 23.

For the Lord, your God, dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, and when it had dried up before us until we crossed over verse 24.

He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful.

How many of you guys know we serve a powerful God, so that you might always fear the Lord, your God.

The title of my message this morning is very simply this let's cook, let's cook.

Say that after me this morning, let's cook.

Turn to your neighbor and say, let's cook.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, let's cook.

Turn around the person behind you and say, let's cook.

I'm going to get you hungry before we're done today.

I'm going to tell you what we're going to do this morning we're going to cook.

Father, we thank you for your word.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and it shows us the way to go there and how to arrive safely.

And I pray, lord, this morning that we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but that we'd be the sense of smell.

One of the unintended positive effects of the COVID virus is an awakening that we have experienced to the power of the sense of smell.

I mean, anybody that had the COVID virus knows what I'm talking about, because a very, very real indicator that you had it was that you lost the sense of.

We lost the sense of smell.

Some of you still haven't recovered it yet and we can smell you because of.

It Just got interesting.

So, as a result of the loss of this sense that so many people experienced, there's been this awakening and there's been new research on the power of the sense of smell, which is interesting because, historically, when people are surveyed about what the most important sense is of the five senses, vision is always number one, hearing is number two, touch is number three, taste is number four and, finally, the sense of smell always ranks.

Get that ranks that's a dad joke, in case you were wondering.

Ranks last, but the research that is coming out about the power of the sense of smell is incredibly interesting.

Look at this.

I have this for you this morning.

We see in several million colors, we hear in about half a million frequencies, but listen to this we smell in over 12 million, 12 trillion, if I can get it right, I'm not even saying it right one trillion different odors.

Did you see that?

I didn't say it very clearly, but I think you see it that we see in several million colors, we hear in about half a million frequencies, half a million frequencies, but we smell in one trillion different odors.

That's amazing, and some of you said, yeah, I smell every one of them.

What's interesting is that when you study the sense of smell, what you find is that, unlike the other senses, the sense of smell has a direct highway to our brain, that it doesn't have to go through any other intermediary, it goes straight to our brain.

That's why, when you smell something, it can spark a memory that takes you all the way back to a different place in time.

How many of you guys know, how many of you guys remember what grandma's house smelled like?

And if you ever, wherever you are, and you smell that smell, you go back to grandma's house.

Anybody know what I'm talking about this morning.

I know what my parents' backyard smelled like because my dad loves to barbecue, he loves to grill, and so the smell of a grill takes me to my parents' backyard.

My grandmother was incredible at frying fish, jesus, and the smell of frying fish does two things in my life it takes me to my grandmother's house and it also takes me to Pastor Hobbs' house.

It takes me to my grandmother's house and it also takes me to Pastor Hobbs' house Because he is as close and it's really really close at frying fish as my grandmother was.

I love it.

So you guys know what I'm talking about.

There's these memories that are connected to our sense of smell, and the most interesting thing most recently is that smell is a predictor for your mate.

Everybody's like oh, my goodness, so it's.

What's interesting is it's totally subconscious.

You don't even realize that it's happening, but there is a subconscious smell that connects you to another person that ultimately predicts who you're going to marry.

You didn't even know it don't have anything to do with your sight.

It has everything to do with your smell.

Smell has this powerful indicator in our lives and even if you look in the animal kingdom it's even more pronounced.

I mean, listen to this.

An African elephant can smell water 12 miles away.

It's crazy.

Bloodhounds can see odor profiles in more details than humans can see a picture.

It's crazy.

Polar bears.

Polar bears can smell a seal over 20 miles away.

Deer can smell bud seal over 20 miles away.

Deer can smell budding roses 100 yards away.

This is really disturbing that a shark can smell a drop of blood three miles away.

Listen, it just ain't worth it.

I don't care how much you like to boogie board, it ain't worth it.

Three miles away and this one blows my mind Moths smell their mates up to six miles away.

That's pretty pungent.

Why do I go into this detail?

Because what's interesting is that when you study Scripture, in particular you study the Old Testament and the practices that God established for the nation of Israel is that the call to worship for ancient Hebrews wasn't a sight and it wasn't a sound.

It was a smell.

It was a smell that was the call to worship for the nation of Israel.

See, every day, twice a day, sacrifices had to be made at the temple At 9 am in the morning and at 3 pm in the afternoon.

A lamb had to be sacrificed every day, twice a day, for the nation of Israel and as these sacrifices were made, a smell of barbecue would begin to fill the city of Jerusalem and it would enter homes and it would be a call to worship.

The smell of barbecue was the call to worship for ancient Hebrews, and that's the reason that I think God's a southerner.

He loves a good barbecue.

He has to be a southerner.

He loves a good barbecue.

Think about that.

Twice a day, every day, that a sacrifice had to be made, and the smell and the aroma of this sacrifice would fill the city of Jerusalem and it would be a call to worship.

Israel believed that the smell of the altar was a sweet fragrance to God.

In fact, you find that it was the smell of an altar that provoked the promise of a rainbow.

In Genesis, chapter 8, we have the account of Noah coming out of the ark after the earth had been purified by the flood, and in verse 20, as Noah comes out of the ark.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

Listen to this this is the first thing that Noah did.

The first thing Noah did when he came out of the ark is Noah built an altar to the Lord and he took some of the animals and he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

So he built an altar and he sacrificed upon it.

You know what he did?

He cooked.

Noah built an altar and he sacrificed on it.

And then look what verse 21 says the Lord smelt the pleasing aroma and said in his heart never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood, and never again will I destroy all the living creatures as I have done.

What sparked this from the heart of God was the smell of an aroma arising from the altar.

That was a sweet fragrance to him.

First thing Noah did when he came out of the ark he built an altar and he made a sacrifice.

He cooked.

When you talk about worship, there's two things that are always connected to worship, from Genesis to Revelation, and those two things are altar and sacrifice.

When we talk about worship and worship being a key to our crossover, we have to understand what we're really talking about is building an altar and making a sacrifice.

This is worship.

As a matter of fact, the first time that the word worship is recorded in Scripture is in Genesis, chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

And the word worship is connected with Abraham going to Mount Moriah and building an altar and sacrificing his son upon it.

And when his servants asked him, abraham, what are you getting ready to do?

He says me and the boy Isaac.

We're going to worship.

I'm going to build an altar and to make a sacrifice.

The first thing Noah did when he came out of the ark was to build an altar and to make a sacrifice build an altar and to make a sacrifice.

The first thing that the children of Israel did when they crossed the Jordan River and began to step foot upon the promised land is they built an altar, they went to worship and then, twice a day, every day, a day, every day, there was the sacrifice of a lamb upon the altar.

What's the point?

The point that I'm trying to make to you this morning is that worship is a key to your crossover.

It was a key for Noah's crossover.

It was a key for Noah's crossover.

It was a key for Abraham's crossover.

It was a key for the children of Israel's crossover.

It was a key every day for the nation's crossover.

That worship isn't just something that we do.

Obligatory Worship is a key to our crossing over into the promises of God for our lives.

You cannot inhabit the land that God is calling you to live in without having a heart of worship From beginning to end.

The Bible is painting a picture to us that if you want to live in the best that God has for your life, then you need to learn how to live a lifestyle of worship.

So I want to give you four ways this morning that our worship cooks, four ways that our worship demonstrates that God is first in our life and it ushers us in to the promises that he has for our lives.

Here's the first way that our worship cooks.

It cooks through the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

It cooks through the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

The first way that we build an altar and make a sacrifice unto the Lord is with our words.

How many of you guys know your words matter.

Your words carry weight.

The Bible tells us that life and death lie in the power of the tongue, so I need to be very, very careful with my words.

And the Bible says the best use of our words is to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God.

It says this in Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 15,.

Hebrews 13:15

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips, that openly profess his name.

Our words need to profess his name, and one of the ways that our words profess his name is through praise and thanksgiving.

And you say, well, pastor, what exactly is that?

Well, let me break it down for you what praise and thanksgiving really is.

When we say the word praise in English, it's one word, but in ancient Hebrew the word praise could be translated seven different ways, and those seven different ways are a reflection of how we are to offer God the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips.

And I have them for you this morning.

The first word Hebrew word for praise is the word halel, and it means to boast, to rave, to celebrate and to clamor foolishly.

Let me translate that it isn't a golf clap.

Let me translate that it isn't a golf clap, it isn't a timid thank you, Jesus.

Listen, when you really understand who your God is and all that he has done for you, and you really understand I live and I move and I have my being, not because of Jeremy but because of the grace of God.

You can't help but allow a praise that might even look a little bit foolishly to those around you to rise up from the depths of your being and you say thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.

Everything that I have is because of you.

I'm gonna tell you what Hillel is.

Hillel looks a whole lot more like a football game on Saturday than a golf game on Sunday.

It looks like getting up on your feet, raising your hands in the air and your voice and declaring praise be to the one who was and is and is to come, because he and he alone is worthy.

So that's what Hallel means.

It means to rave and to celebrate Yadah, means to raise hands towards heaven and acknowledge the greatness of your God.

It's appropriate maybe not in every church, but I'm gonna tell you what it's appropriate in this church to raise your hands and say God, you are great and greatly to be praised.

Another word is the word barak, and it means to convey blessings, to give thanks, to bow down and even knee as a sign of humility and gratitude to the Lord.

Are you getting a picture of praise this morning?

Another word is the word zamar and it means to make music to God.

Shabbat means to shout, to address in a loud tone.

It even means to holler.

I told you God was a southerner.

I told you God was a southerner.

Can I tell you, what we do every Sunday is not spiritual calisthenics, this is worship, this is praise and thanksgiving to God.

And you say, pastor, that makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

Well, maybe you need to be uncomfortable.

Maybe your praise isn't about how it makes you feel, but how it makes God feel.

Maybe we're more praising ourselves and how we like to praise than praising God and how he wants to receive it.

This is what the Bible is telling us.

Praise looks like.

Tadah means to praise God by lifting up hands towards heaven in adoration.

Telah means exuberant singing Church.

This is how we offer God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Do we do it because God needs it?

No, we do it because we need it.

We do it because when I praise God this way, there's a shift in my perspective.

What happens is I put God in his rightful position in my life and everything else will come into alignment then.

See, that's why we praise this way.

We praise not because it's comfortable and because it makes us feel good.

No, it's praising God for who he is and when he's put in the proper place in my life, everything else is right.

This is the way we offer God our sacrifice and praise Church.

Let's learn Church.

Let's learn to cook with our words.

Turn to your neighbor and say let's cook with our words.

The second way that we offer God our praise, our worship, is through the sacrifice of giving.

Our praise, our worship is through the sacrifice of giving.

In Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 9 and 10, solomon says Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all of your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Proverbs 3:9

Honor the Lord with your wealth.

The word honor means to glorify, and to glorify is to worship, and when I worship, I honor.

So Solomon is pointing us to the sacrifice of giving.

He's pointing us to the practice of worship in our giving.

Listen, our worship can't just be with our words.

It has to be with our life, and there are a few things that we demonstrate worship with more practically than with our giving.

Solomon says honor God first, not second, not third, not when it's convenient.

No, I need to honor the Lord with my wealth, the first.

Everybody say first, the first fruits of all of your crops.

Why do I need to worship God first with my giving?

Because when I worship God first with my giving, because when I worship God first, it does three things.

It demonstrates God is the priority in my life and I recognize that everything that I have and everything that I hope to be is because of him.

Come on somebody when I worship the Lord.

Number two it demonstrates my gratitude, my thanksgiving, my acknowledgement that I don't earn it.

I don't work for it.

Yes, god calls me to work, but my work's not enough.

Everything that I have is a gift from God.

And then, number three, it demonstrates my faith.

I want to give first because I believe that if I give God first, that I'll worship him first with my finances, that I honor him and glorify him first, that if I do that there's such a blessing on that 10% it'll make the 90% more than enough, because it takes faith to give the first.

But God says it's impossible to please me without faith.

But if you'll take a step of faith, I'll put a blessing on the 90 that the 10 produced.

That'll give you more than enough for what you need.

So I need to learn how to worship, not just with my words, but with my wealth.

And he says and if you do this, if you give me your first, then your barns will be filled to overflowing, your vats will brim over with new wine.

I'm gonna tell you what the enemy wants to steal the resources that God has blessed you with from your life.

And one of the ways that he steals the resources is by lying to you that you don't have enough to tithe.

He's saying you ain't got enough to do it.

And when you buy into that lie, what you don't realize that you're doing is that you're nullifying the blessing of God by operating in doubt rather than faith.

Turn to your neighbor and say let's cook with our wealth.

Third way we worship, third way we cook, is through the sacrifice of obedience.

1 Samuel, chapter 15, verse 22, is a story of King Saul and how he was unwilling to wait on God, wait on the prophet Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice before they went to war.

1 Samuel 15:22

And so because he wasn't willing to wait, because he wasn't willing to walk in obedience, he made the sacrifice himself that only Samuel was commanded to offer.

And this is what God said commanded to offer.

And this is what God said to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

See, what we need to understand is we're not called just to worship with our words or to worship with our wealth.

We're to worship with our way.

That how we honor God with our obedience, that we heed the word of God and say it's not about my way, it's about your way and I'm gonna honor you by living your way.

Lord, I'm gonna submit to your way.

Can I tell you, one of the quickest ways to nullify the power of your worship is to compartmentalize your faith and say well, I'll live God's way in an area, but not every area.

I just want to encourage you in 2025, take this book and go whole hog, go all the way.

Don't pick and choose what you like and what you don't like.

See when we pick and choose the pieces and parts that we like and we don't pick and choose what you like and what you don't like.

See when we pick and choose the pieces and parts that we like and we don't like, and we dismiss the parts that we don't like.

What we don't realize that we're doing is we're really worshiping ourselves rather than God.

And he says, hey, obedience, well, obedience, well, what does it look like to obey?

Does it mean that I have to follow the letter of the law?

You know there's 613 laws in the Old Testament and Jesus was asked what's the greatest commandment?

He boiled it down to these two things.

He said love God and love people.

Can I tell you, if you want to walk in obedience to the way of the Lord in 2025, make it your ambition just to love God and love people.

That's what Jesus boiled it down to.

Listen, you can't go wrong.

Loving God and loving people, and one of the ways that the apostle Paul most readily demonstrated that in his letters in the New Testament was this word, the word consideration.

Over and over and over again in the New Testament, as Paul has given instruction to the churches, he said hey, here's how you need to live, this is the way.

This is how you walk in obedience.

Consider others above yourselves.

Consider others first.

Don't make it all about you, but how about live for others.

And when I do that, I'm living a lifestyle of love.

That's a sweet fragrance unto the Lord.

Church, we need to love God and love others.

I don't care how many things you don't do, I don't care that you may not lie, you may not cuss, you may not cheat, you can do none of those things.

But if you're a hateful, mean ugly, cuss, it don't matter.

That's not obedience, that's selfishness, it's self-righteousness.

Listen, you can't say I love you, god, but I can't stand those people.

You can't say I love you God, but I can't stand those people.

I mean, you can say that, but you nullify the power of your worship.

We need to learn in our obedience to be like Jesus and allow love and grace and mercy to flow through our lives to others, and when we do that, we're offering worship.

That's a sweet fragrance unto the Lord.

Say this after me, church let's cook with our way.

Let's cook with our way.

Let's cook with our way.

And finally, number four, we cook through the sacrifice of our whole life.

Romans, chapter 12, verse 1, says Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Romans 12:1

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Offer all that you are mind, body, spirit, soul.

Offer all that you are as a living sacrifice, and this is holy and pleasing to the Lord.

And what you need to understand that you're doing when you do this, this is your worship.

This when I offer everything that I am to the Lord.

See, worship can't just be a Sunday morning thing.

It needs to be a Monday morning thing.

Worship needs to be a Tuesday morning thing.

It needs to be a Wednesday morning thing.

It needs to be a Thursday morning thing.

It needs to be a Wednesday morning thing.

It needs to be a Thursday morning thing.

It needs to be a Friday morning thing.

It needs to be a Saturday.

Worship is my life.

It's how I live.

It shapes and it forms every perspective in my life.

Worship isn't just what I do when I pray or read the word or lift up my voice.

Worship is what I do when I do relationships right.

Worship is what I do when I try to represent Jesus at my work and through my work.

Listen, work can be worship.

Worship is what I do when I'm enjoying time with my family.

Worship is what I do when I'm enjoying time with friends.

See, worship needs to pervade every area of your life.

One of the greatest mistakes that we make in our faith is that we too often compartmentalize it to specific areas and don't allow it to pervade every area.

Offer your bodies, all that you are, as a sacrifice and this is your worship and so that you know it's holy and pleasing to the Lord.

You know what happens when worship pervades every area of our life we begin to smell like Jesus.

I want to smell like Jesus.

I want to smell like love and grace and mercy and compassion.

I want to smell like goodness and beauty.

I want to smell like kindness and generosity.

I want to smell like hospitality.

I want to smell like consideration.

I want to smell like forgiveness.

I want my life to smell like Jesus.

And it begins to do that when worship becomes the totality of my life, that every morning that I get up, I'm going to worship, and I'm going to worship with my words.

I'm going to, I'm going to worship with my wealth.

I'm going to worship with my wealth.

I'm going to worship with my way.

I'm going to worship with everything that I am.

And all of a sudden, there's a fragrance that begins to get on us.

That's of a heavenly origin and it's the fragrance of Jesus that begins to emanate through our lives, to every person that we touch.

And they get around us and they say there's something different about you, there's a different aroma on your life, there's a different fragrance on your life and you get to smile and it's the fragrance of Jesus.

I remember reading a story years ago about a lady by the name of Catherine Kuhlman.

How many of you guys know that name?

Some of the older generation will recognize that name.

Catherine Kuhlman was a prophetess of the Lord back in the 60s and the 70s and God used her mightily in great movements during the Jesus Revolution.

When her time had come, she was in a hotel room excuse me, a hospital room and they knew that death was imminent.

They were checking on her continually, but there was a change in the nurse's station and so about an hour went by and during that time she passed on to go to glory.

The interesting thing about the account of her passing is that that floor of that hospital, as she passed, was filled with the fragrant of roses.

As she passed, was filled with the fragrant of roses.

That the fragrance of roses filled that room and actually it was what got the attention of the nurses and they're like what's that smell?

What's that smell?

Has anybody brought roses in to one of our patients?

No, no.

And they went to check on Catherine and she had passed and her room absolutely was emanating with a smell of roses.

You know what I tell you what I think happened?

I think it was the fragrance of Jesus that was flowing out of her life.

As a witness to everybody that is there, can I ask you a question this morning?

My question is what's your life cooking?

Because what you're cooking, everybody else is smelling and if you're not cooking the right things, that you're emanating a smell that's pugnant to everybody else.

It's a stench in the nostrils of God.

But when my life is filled with worship, when I'm cooking, with my wealth and my words and my way, it's undeniable to everybody around me who's first and foremost in my life.

You stand with me where you are.

This morning, I've asked the worship team to join me on the stage here at the conclusion today and asked them to lead us in a song of worship, and this is how I would like for us to respond together today.

There's really four ways.

The Bible tells us that we worshiped, and this is how I would like for us to respond together today.

There's really four ways the Bible tells us that we worshiped, and I went through those four ways this morning, and I'm guessing that one of those ways hit you a little bit stronger than the others.

And as a demonstration of worship in 2025, I want you to take the connection card from the seat in front of you.

On the backside of it is a prayer section and I want you to write God, in 2025, I'm gonna worship you this way.

Maybe it's with my words, like I've never done before.

Maybe it's with my wealth, in a way that I've never done before.

Maybe it's with my words, like I've never done before.

Maybe it's with my wealth, in a way that I've never done before.

Maybe it's with my way.

Maybe it's with the everything in my life.

I want you to write it down on a prayer card and, as they lead us in worship this morning, I want you to come and lay it on the altar and turn the front of our stage into your personal altar and offer God your sacrifice this morning, a sweet fragrance unto him.

I'm telling you, church, you're about to cross over into the best that God has for your life, and if you're gonna cross over and experience it.

We gotta learn how to worship at a new level.

And as they lead us, let's respond.

I'm gonna pray, father, in the name of Jesus.

We come before you today.

We declare you and you alone are worthy of our worship.

You and you alone deserve all of the praise, all of the thanksgiving.

You deserve our giving.

You deserve God, our way.

You deserve everything in our lives and we've come this morning to worship you today Because there is no God like you.

God, we thank you.

Speak to every heart and may we respond in Jesus' mighty name.

Come on, guys, let's worship.