The Garments We Choose

Thank you. Yeah. Good job, guys.

And now Pastor Jonathan has a week to learn that for you all for

next week. Just

kidding. Is that not the most fabulous.

How can you not have joy with that? How can

you. That is what a garment of praise looks like.

That's what a garment of praise looks like. It just. You know, every parent in

here is grinning. You know, grandparents are grinning. Everybody's like, that is

just so cool. If they would just be like that at home. No, I did

not say that. I'm excited about what

the Lord has. This is important. Muy

importante. Because this

is one of the things the Lord's been dealing with me about this week is

choosing the garment of praise instead of a

spirit of heaviness. Does anybody understand that?

Anybody understand how sometimes we

have to make a choice and we have to choose to put

on the garment of praise? It doesn't just, like, automatically

happen. You. You know, I know that's what happened in the Jetsons. But we're not

there, and the kids are going, who are the Jetsons? Anyway?

There are things that we have to choose in our life and

in our spiritual walk. We make so many choices.

And my prayer would be, I'm just gonna do with you what I did

last week. I'm gonna walk you through where the Lord took me this

week and worked me through some of my problems and

my issues. And. And I

trust he will do the same with you. Because what I believe, he's calling us

all to do that. He wants to give us beauty for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for

the spirit of heaviness.

Worship is a garment we must intentionally put on.

We have to intentionally put on. I was so tickled today

when I walked in and other people were wearing the Worship Anyway T

shirt. Amazon link. Guys,

let's see how many we can get in here next week. You want to. And

here's the other thing. If you should take it in your heart to

get one for yourself, get one for one of the teens, one

of the kids. Cause you know, they ain't got no money. And

let's get them to worship anyway. Cause they're working through this, too.

So, Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your truth. I

thank you for the hope that we find in you

continually. Continually. I'm so

grateful that we serve a God who does not change. So, Father,

I ask that you just hover over this place.

May your holy Spirit just penetrate our hearts.

Teach us, Lord. We've come to learn from you not from me,

Lord, I ask that my stuff fall in your stand. In Jesus

name. In Jesus name.

We'll start where we should always start, with Scripture.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with. Now, I'm gonna pause right there. There's this

show used to be on. I guess it's still on, but it's called what not

to Wear. I'm getting ready to share with you what you

should wear and what you shouldn't wear. It has nothing to do with

your clothing, but it has everything to do with the decision that we make every

single, single day in how we walk on the

planet and how we choose to carry out our lives in such

a way that it glorifies our Father. So therefore,

as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,

gentleness, and patience. Now, he twisted this one on me

a little bit, or actually, the Holy Spirit impacted me a little bit with this.

And he had me, as I was reading this aloud over and over in my

office to go, Now I want you to add the

word you. Okay? So instead, I was like,

therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly

loved, you clothe yourself with

compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

You bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, you forgive

me. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And

over all these virtues, you put on love,

which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Say it with me now. You let the peace of Christ

rule in your heart, since as members of one body, you were called

to peace. And you be thankful.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach

and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns,

and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude

in your heart. And you and me,

whatever we do, whether in word or deed, we do it all

in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through

him. These are the clothes that we are

to wear. These are the things that we are to clothe ourselves

with. And so I was like, okay, Lord. You know, there's a

couple of those I'm okay with, and there's a couple of them I can really

grow. Need a new T shirt there, because that one's not

really working. People are gonna come in and gonna say, compassion,

you know, kindness. They're like, oh, I see what the struggle is here.

Okay.

In contrast, what to wear this,

it says. Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of

the Lord and Satan standing at his right side to what,

accuse him? The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you,

Satan. The angel said to those who were standing before him, take

off his filthy clothes. Then he said to Joshua,

see, I have taken away your sin, and I will put

fine garments on you. We have the contrast here.

We have what we've been told to put on, and then we have this

thing that's being referred to as filthy garments. And filthy

garments have everything to do with what it said right here. We. When it

said the accuser. The accuser,

we often put on garments that the

accuser has told us to wear, Right? You're not

worth it. They're not worth it. That one to me is even worse. When

we stand and we're going, oh, we're gonna judge somebody else's sin when our

rags are filthy? But to go the

accuser, anytime you hear that voice in your spirit towards yourself

or if you're using that voice toward anyone else, you need a spirit

check. Because God is the judge. Amen. And we

are not the sons of Satan. We are not the sons of an

accuser. We are of a father who

loves and is compassionate and kind. And he

takes off those garments. He doesn't

just go, I'm going to cover your filthy garments.

He says, take them away. Get rid of them.

Take them off. Those things, those accusations,

those dark places, the sin that you carry.

Because God has new garments for us. God has new

garments for us. He has something that we are supposed to

wear that doesn't look like that. Therefore, we

also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let

us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily

ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

What does that have to do with this? Sometimes the weights we are

wearing, we are so acquainted with those

weights. And not every weight is a sin. Some things

just weigh us down, some things just weigh us down. We're carrying

around things that we were never intended to carry. Like, for

example, confusion. It's not a

sin to be confused. But the Word says God is not the author

of confusion. So we know if we're feeling that that's a

weight, right? That's something heavy that we have chosen to take

on judgment. The Word tells me that God is the judge and

that God will judge us. So when we take on the role of judging

others in that sense, that's a weight that we were not

intended to carry. God is sovereign God is good and he is

sovereign and he is just. There's a passage that says,

justice and mercy have kissed. That's what

he does. God looks and he judges with mercy

and justice. Only he knows how to do that.

Disappointment, frustration, comparison.

Well, I wouldn't have done that. That's what Absalom

said. Comparison,

regret, fear, offense.

And sometimes just exhaustion. Sometimes you are so

weary, and that's just what you're carrying is that weariness,

that weightiness, because you're dealing with these things and God's going,

wait a minute, I have a different garment for you. See, God never

intended his people to carry what only his shoulders were built to bear.

You know what's so cool about this? I had been studying this in my office

and having a kind of pretty tough day, and

one of the elders in the house sent me a message. And he said, I

just felt like the Lord wanted me to tell you that, that your shoulders were

not intended to carry the weight, that it's his

weight to carry. And I had just written that down in my notes. And

I'm like, I love. Scripture tells us that he is a God who confirms the

word of his servant. And I love when he steps in and he confirms

something in our spirits. Here's what he was

reminding me of this week. Some people have

worn their weights for so long that they mistake it for identity.

The weights are not who you are. They are only the garments you have

chosen. They're the garments that you have chosen. You're like,

I'm just an angry human. I'm just. I am just. I

am just. I am just. And every

time you add that weight to you, and according to the Bible that I

read, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Before even one of your days came to be, they were written in his book.

All the days ordained for you were written in his book before even one of

them came to be. He knew you before you were knit

together in your mother's womb. And he said, you are

fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, sometimes I can look at my

kids if they're going through something or they're having a struggle, and maybe

sometimes all they see is the struggle. But as a parent, you know what you've

put in those kids. You know that even though they struggle,

there's a foundation in them that they can draw from. And even

when they're struggling, you can see the other side of it and go,

no, I know what is in there. And I believe that for

many of us, that's what God is Doing, going. I realize

I see you in this struggle, but I also see what's on the other side

of this, because I know what I've put in you. And he is

so faithful. Here's this. I thought this was so cool. A garment of

praise that translates to a garment of praise has been bestowed

to you. And it means by pure grace,

God has draped his joy over your shoulders.

By pure grace, he has draped his joy

over your shoulders. But we get a choice in whether

we carry that if we decide to wear that or

not. And it changes everything when we

do that. Worship changes the atmosphere before

it changes the circumstances. This is what I believe. When the Lord said,

I want for three weeks, I want you guys to worship anyway

for three weeks. I know it's gonna be a little bit hard, you know,

but I want you to worship anyway. And I truly believe that

on the other side of these three weeks, if we will do what God has

called us to do, it doesn't mean that everything's gonna change. But worship will

shift the atmosphere. It always does. It always does. Have

you ever gotten here to service early? Oh, wait, wait a minute.

No. Sometimes you get here a little early because,

you know, our service times can be a little bit different. And you walk in

the back of the room and worship's still taking place, and it

just feels different. It just feels different when you walk

in, because worship shifts an atmosphere. I

love that he does that. And we get the choice before it changes the

circumstances. Worship changes the atmosphere. That's where I believe we are.

I believe that the Lord is going, worship anyway. Worship anyway.

Worship anyway. Somebody else who saw that they were in a battle,

Jehoshaphat. There were all of these mighty armies coming against

Jehoshaphat. He didn't have enough men. He didn't have enough

strength to go and fight that battle. But this is what he did.

King Jehoshaphat didn't answer. An overwhelming army with

overwhelming strength, but with overwhelming worship.

That's what he did. He decided. I got tickled. I

was thinking about. He decided to send the worship team first

and send them to sing. Don't you think the worship team was like, what?

All of these guys have metal on, they

have spears, and we've got a liar. I

mean, seriously, it had to be, like, a little bit of a shakeup to go.

You guys are going first. And then I was thinking, you know,

there are probably many times when the worship team comes out and

maybe feels that way. They know they've got to plow some ground

for us. To go. But you know what happened here. As they began to sing

and praise, the Lord set

ambushes for the enemy, the Lord went ahead

of them. One version says, while they sang, God fought.

While they worshiped, God fought on their behalf.

They began to sing and praise, and the Lord said, ambushes.

And they were completely defeated. See,

they didn't go in going, oh, well, if we worship, there will not be

an army coming against us. They will not be greater

numbers. They didn't deny what? Worship doesn't deny what is true. It

declares a greater truth that God is sovereign over all of it.

Regardless of what you're facing, regardless of what's coming at you,

it isn't that you're going, oh, this is not happening. The stages of

denial and the stages of grief. You're not going, this isn't happening.

You're going, God is greater than this. God is better than

this. He is sovereign over all of this. I love

this. Tozier says, praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song.

And when we worship, we come into agreement with the heavens.

When we worship. Sometimes, you know, especially sometimes in first

gathering, you know, the numbers will be low or whatever, and you're like. And there

aren't a lot of people singing here. Oh, but there is a

host. There is a host that we have

joined when we sing Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord

God Almighty. Don't you know, we are just the sweet, smallest echo

of worship that's going to continue to take place. And we

just come into agreement with it. See, here's the thing. Breakthrough begins the moment

our worship enthrones God above every circumstance. It

begins the moment that worship enters the room. It begins

the moment that you make a decision to worship anyway and

begin to worship the Lord. When you decide to

go vertical, when you decide to take

your worship to the feet of Christ. When you decided.

See, here's the thing that I do, guys, and

it's just me when I'm struggling and I don't know quite how

to get there with the Lord, you know, when I don't know quite how to

push things, I will close my eyes, I will enter into that

place of worship. And in my worship, in my mind, I

go right to his feet. I go right to his

feet. And the words that are coming out of my mouth,

I'm singing to him. And I can see it in my

spirit. I can see it in my spirit. That's why it's so

important, the songs that we sing from the platform. If I can't

sing it to him, then I'm not gonna sing it to you. But

to go there in your spirit and trust him and to just

worship him. And I can tell you something, something shifts

in you when you do that, that the heaviness

begins to leave. All of the things that you carry into that

space, you have the opportunity to leave. And at his feet.

In this season and in all of our seasons, we need to remember that our

worship preaches before our words ever do our

worship preaches. There's a message in our worship

before we ever open our mouth. And here's the thing that the Lord

keeps driving home to me right now. Never

underestimate your worship in hard places. Someone else is learning how

to worship there by watching you.

Someone else is learning how to worship in the hard places

by knowing that you, our family, are going through hard

places and how you're dealing with this, how you're dealing

with the hard places. And this could have nothing to do with anything going

on here. I know some of you guys are going through some hard times,

going through some difficult seasons. And here's what the Lord reminded me.

Wear worship loudly enough that your family learns where peace comes from.

Wear it loudly enough. When you don't feel like worshiping, turn it

on anyway. When you don't feel like dancing, do it anyway

because he's worthy and he's good. It's not denying your situation.

And here's the thing that just like I said, these are things,

places. He's been ministering to me, and he took me here.

Jesus exchanged garments so we could wear praise.

Jesus exchanged his garments. Let's see what that looked like.

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his

clothes, dividing them into four shares, one

for each of them. With the undergarment remaining, this garment was

seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Boy, that'll

preach right there. Does that sound like a veil?

Let's not tear it, they said to one another. Let's decide by lot who will

get it. This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled. That said, they

divided my cloth among them and cast lots for my

garments. So this is what the soldiers did.

And here's the paraphrase. They stripped Jesus of his garments,

and he took on ours. He took on our

grief. He wore our sorrows.

He wore our punishment. He took our shame.

All of those filthy garments that brought

him to that place. Jesus chose.

He chose to exchange that for all

of this that we carry and wear. Jesus chose to

exchange his majesty.

His majesty for our filthy

garments. That's what he did.

The royal robes that he wore when with his

father, all that he possessed, all that he was. He

made the choice to exchange

that majesty for our mess. He

chose that. And now, because he chose that, we get to

choose a garment of praise instead of a spirit of

heaviness, because he has provided it. But the

instruction is, remove the filthy garments. Which

ones? The shame, the judgment, the anger,

the frustration, the confusion. All of the things that

the enemy would love, the accuser would love to robe us in

now and in all seasons. We choose to take those

off because we have been given a garment of praise. And I

can give you a shirt, I can give you a dress, and you will

have it, and you can lay it across your lap. Or. Or you can choose

to put it on. God has given this to us, and we have a choice

whether or not we put it on. He tells us this. Rather,

clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about

how to gratify the desires of the flesh. What? Clothe

yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. So I tell you this and

insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the

Gentiles do. This is what the clothes look like, guys, in the futility

of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life

of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening

of their hearts. Boy, can our hearts go there fast.

And when your hearts get hard, you shut him out and

you're like, I don't hear the Lord. Well, sometimes our hearts get so hard

that we shut down the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Having lost all

sensitivity, they have given themselves over to the sensuality so

as to indulge in every kind of impurity. And they are full of greed.

That, however, is not the way of life. You

learned when you heard about Christ and were

taught in him accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You

were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off.

Put off your old self. Take it off, throw it away, get rid

of it, don't hang out with it. Don't put it back in your closet, which

is being corrupted by deceitful desires to be made new in the

attitudes of your minds and to put on the new self

created to be like God in righteousness and holiness.

It's a choice. We get to choose because everything has

been provided for us. Everything has been provided. Christ took our

grave clothes and exchanged them for robes of righteousness. And

how weird would it be for you to wear both?

Seriously, grave clothes belong in Graves.

That's not you. That's not now.

That's not ever Death. Hell and the grave were defeated

by what Jesus did. God

demonstrates his own love for us while we were still sinners. Christ died

for us. Can worship Team come out.

You cannot wear both grave clothes and robes of righteousness. They don't fit.

They don't fit. It makes you double minded. You either. You know, it's like

you gotta set your face like flint toward him. This pilgrimage that we are

on in him, our eyes are supposed to be on him, right?

Not everything else that's going on. We can't start to focus

on the fact that we have no more garlic. You know, the things that they

mourned over and grieved over in Egypt and they had to keep their eyes on

him. They were getting ready to go through some water. They needed to be pay

attention to where the Holy Spirit was leading and what he was doing.

When facing a battle, a storm, an enemy,

a barren or hard place, what garments

do you choose?

I got up one morning and I was just like,

lord, I don't want to. I just, I don't want to. That's usually

a clue right there, right? I don't wanna.

I don't wanna. I don't feel like. I don't

think I will. I. Most sentences that start with

I can create issues, but anyway. And all of

this was rumbling through my head and rumbling through my spirit. Rumbling

through. And I felt like the Holy Spirit goes,

choose, choose.

And I knew what he meant. I get to choose how

I walk this day. See, on one side of this

closet hangs the filthy garments. Anger, bitterness, frustration, fear,

anxiety, judgment, gossip,

shame, blame, comparison and

discouragement. And this is a closet that we can all draw from if

we choose to draw from it. Or

on the other side, garments of praise,

gratitude, worship, honor, faith,

joy, thanksgiving, hope, love, and a peace

that passes all understanding.

And here's the thing, guys. The garment you choose determines the atmosphere that

you carry into a room, into a

space. You wear and carry the fragrance.

Your choice. You wear and carry the fragrance of your

choice. I have to read this to you because I have read this so

many times. It's in Second Corinthians,

but for some reason, man, this time.

Corinthians. I love

that sound. Babel Bible page

is turning, but listen to this. Second Corinthians 2, starting at

verse 14. But thanks be to God

who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ. And

through us, through us spreads everywhere

the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. Now this is the part that I want

you to pay attention to. For we are.

For we are. Are

to God. We are

to God the aroma of Christ

among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

See, I've always known

and enjoyed that we are the fragrance of Christ.

But we are the fragrance of Christ. To

God. To God. Have you ever

just put your nose against your kid's head?

After bath time is important. And

you just put your nose right there and you smell that child,

and it's like, that's my baby. That's my baby.

And you could pick him out of anything. Or you put on your husband's T

shirt or his jacket and you can smell the cologne that

he wears. And there's this intimacy, there's this connection that

comes through fragrance. Or on the opposite side of it,

you get anywhere near a school bus and you step on there and you're like,

all of a sudden have flashbacks to when you were kids. But anyway, because

the fragrance takes you there.

And when I read that, this tells me that we

are to God the fragrance

of his son. The fragrance of his

son. So that when healing's over and we are

walking among the ones that are headed toward death or headed

toward life, he sees we are the fragrance

of Christ. And when it says, put on Christ,

it's all of the above. It's all of the

above. We are the fragrance of

Christ.

Choose. Choose the garment

of praise. Scripture says, choose you this day. Who you

will serve as for me and my house. We will

serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. And you get to choose.

And he's given us everything. And

my hope would be that we all decide to allow him

to drape that garment of joy

by grace alone over our shoulders

in this season and in all seasons to come. Can we just

do that? Can we do that together? As the body of Christ,

as one unit? As the fragrance of

Christ. To the Lord. To our Lord

God. We are going to this week and

next week as well. Those are the three weeks I told you about.

We are going to end with praise.

However, I do realize that there are some who probably need prayer

tonight or today. What month is this?

And so I will ask the elders and the prayer warriors, after

we have praised our way through, if you all would gather

over here so that anyone who needs prayer can come for prayer. But for the

rest of you, can you come praise with me? Can you

come with me for just about 4 minutes and 8 seconds? Isn't

that about what the song is? You got 4 minutes and 8 seconds. In.

You.

Come on down here with me. And we are going to. Here's the

thing. We are teaching somebody how to worship their way

through, just like the kids taught us. We are going to

worship our way through. And my prayer would be that it is a

declaration of joy taking on that garment of praise. And

if you've got any spirits of heaviness or filthy garments

that you've been carrying around, now would be a perfect time to throw

them off, because we are going to worship him.

Let's go ahead, guys.