Sanity Through Worship - Leaders' Talks

You're listening to this week's edition of the road.

This is what the scriptures say.

Matthew 22, 37.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength.

So that's inviting us to do what?

To run face headlong into the wall.

That we give everything.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up whole-hearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

Good morning, church.

Let's pray this morning if we you'll do that with me.

Pray.

State if we can.

That that first song, it feels like it's kind of the warm-up song, doesn't it?

It's like the warm-up to transition you from the parking lot into the sanctuary.

And that we need uh whatever whatever you left in your parking lot to come in here and we try to have as short a time as possible for it to move from ah to yeah.

So can we let's let's do that.

Let's breathe in.

So, what I'd like to do is pray for the churches in the city that are gathering or preparing to gather.

At one point nationwide, Colorado Springs was known people were coming from the east, the west, the north, and the south to somehow get more Jesus.

They didn't have jobs, they would just come here and hope to get hired by focus in the family, and because that felt like a little bit like heaven, you know.

And I think that over some time it's changed a little bit.

But can we be a church that raises the water level back?

So let's breathe this in this morning.

But let's have all of our area city churches.

So if, again, we want you to be comfortable, but if you are willing to put a hand out, either the east, the west, the north, and the south, because there's churches all over.

And just let's just pray.

So, Father God, in Jesus' name, we pray this morning as representatives of you, as you fill us today, as you give us your anointing, as you take us from the uh to the let the water level of your spirit go up in this city.

Father, we pray a blessing over the churches that are meeting today.

Thank you still, God, for the freedom, the freedom to worship in this capacity.

Thank you, God, that we had cars to drive here.

We didn't have to worry or look underneath our car to see if there was a bomb.

God, let us never forget the freedom that we have to be able to come today and worship you.

And we pray, Father, that your spirit would fall hard today in this place, in this city.

We come before you, God, because we are it's so in love with you and we need you, and we want you, saints.

Let's breathe it in.

And Marcus, if you can just sing a couple of you are goods, and we will join you.

So just stay right there.

Can we tell him?

Come on, church.

You are good, come on, good, oh you are good, good, oh you are good, good church.

Just stay there if you don't quite believe it this morning.

You just stay there till you do.

You are good.

All right, feel better?

Don't you feel better?

Amen.

Don't you feel better?

All right, you can sit down for about three minutes.

So this morning, yes, I have an agenda.

But that's what it was.

That's what it is.

I spoke here in October.

This is our church.

My wife sends her greetings.

Robin sends her greetings.

She's leading worship at a church this morning.

And you know, I texted her.

I said, I'm praying for you.

And I said, I'm still so surprised that God uses us this way.

I mean, like surprised.

So part of my story last time, if you remember, was this is the building.

I was on staff here 20 plus years ago.

I walked past my office this morning, kind of peeked in.

It all happened here.

We left off that talk with the topic of shame.

Remember?

And I hope that you've done something with that since October.

That you've begun to talk about that, to push back against that, to get with people and have them pray it off of you.

Because shame, you know, it's it's a bummer.

This is what the scriptures say.

Matthew 22, 37.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

So that's inviting us to do what?

To run face headlong into the wall that we give everything.

And I really think that's the easiest way to do it, actually.

Like if I'm pulling back, it's harder.

But if we can run towards and love the Lord your God with all your heart, we're gonna talk about heart today.

With all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

Oh, and then also, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Which is, I love that.

Oh, and by the way, love your neighbor as yourself.

I love that.

Deuteronomy 429.

If from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.

So once again, it feels like he's saying, be a verb, be V-E-R, B, move towards it, move towards it, move towards it, move.

James 4 talks about coming near to God.

If we come near, the King James called it nigh, remember?

Draw nigh to God, and God will draw nigh to you.

I grew up with the King James, never knew what a lot of those words meant.

So this morning, hello again.

It's good to see you, my friends.

I'm a friend of Steve's, I'm a friend of yours.

Marcus and I are new friends.

We had burgers on Friday, and you know what that means?

Now we're friends.

We had burgers.

But you know what's really the most important thing today?

I'm a friend of Jesus.

Jesus is a friend of mine, and I don't want that to sound like churchy or like that.

I just want to say, I'm so grateful that Jesus is a friend of mine.

And I've had some conversations with a couple of folks, and they kind of think, this is what they said, it's fun.

Isn't it fun?

You sit with with friends of, they go to different churches in the city, and this one friend of mine said, you know, you guys sing these like Jesus is my girlfriend songs, or Jesus is my boyfriend songs, those are the songs you get.

Jesus, we love you, we live you, we love you.

You're my boyfriend, Jesus.

But you know what?

Jesus is our friend.

I'm a friend of Jesus, and I believe these songs reflect that.

Because Jesus is my friend.

So I pick up at the story from last October.

And we'll go to that next slide.

Hopefully you can read it.

Yeah, I thought that'd be tough.

Okay.

Why don't you stand again with me, if you will, please?

And if your brain is going, God I don't want to stand again, please just just forgive, just forgive me.

Okay.

We're gonna do this.

I'm gonna say that first part.

I'm gonna say, Holy God, and then where it says people, you don't have to say the word people, so you say you say the word after that.

But let's, but I want you to concentrate a little bit.

Maybe we'll read it twice.

Holy God, we confess that we often believe in and rehearse other stories that contain less love, less goodness, less life.

Help us to treasure your divine story and our part in it, that we may follow you and live in you and abound to you, creator of heaven and earth, now and forevermore.

Amen.

So you know that I'm the keeper of people's stories.

And you can go ahead and sit down.

Sorry.

I'd like you to stand with me actually, but it's that's harder.

So I'm the keeper of people's stories, and so what I like to try to do is even though there's a lot of you, I'd like to say, I like to think about it as if it was just one of you, and you are sitting in my office and you're coming in, and I always say, What do you want to talk about?

And most of the time, people want to talk about something that's been painful, or something that's been hurtful, or they've been hurt.

A husband hurts a wife a lot, by the way.

A husband hurts a wife, a wife hurts a husband, a parent hurts a kid, a kid hurts a parent.

I hurt a friend, a friend hurts me.

We carry.

So I say to you this morning, if you could do that, what would you say to me?

What would be what would it be?

What's the story you want to tell?

We'll go to that next slide.

We'll go to the next slide.

Sorry, I'm gonna have to have you bounce back after that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So when people come into the office, it's because most of the time we came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Have you ever heard that before?

Heard it before?

Alright, it's step number two of the 12 steps, and right there is where a lot of churches in the 12-step stuff kind of got they they pounded each other a little bit because most churches wanted it to say, came to believe that God, but it wasn't because they were eliminating God, it was because they wanted everybody to feel included, like everyone's welcome.

And we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

I had to look up the word sanity this week because I don't think sanity is like the opposite of insanity.

Sanity is just saying I can clearly, I can think well, I can make good decisions.

Sane.

So you remember my story.

Out of the back side of my story, I didn't feel very sane.

And I do truly believe that today there are some of you that don't feel that sane.

And so I was committed to finding God in a way so that my sanity could be restored.

The way that I did that, or the way that God and I partnered to do that, was music, was worship.

That's that's what I want to talk about today.

It may not be that way for you, but here's the deal.

Steve said I could say whatever I wanted to say about how I did it, and when you have a chance, you can say how you did it.

Fair?

Music, worship, worship, music, music, worship.

So this morning, that's what we want to do.

We don't want to just talk about it, we want to do it.

We want to do it.

Okay, so I'm gonna sing you a song.

Marcus, I didn't really prepare you for this.

But we'll figure it out.

If you guys will just be quiet just for a second, I wanna, and it's not even the slide.

You're gonna have to look at my lips.

But it's an old hymn.

It talks about that friend thing with God, that friend thing with Jesus.

You ready?

And if you know it, it's so little, you'll you'll get it.

Jesus knows all about our struggles.

We will guide the day.

No, not one.

No, not one.

Remember again.

No, not one.

No, not one.

Jesus knows all about we believe it or not.

Step number two.

We came to believe a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

So if you remember my story, I needed, I needed that.

Because it felt like not only had I done what I had done, if you remember that story, it all happened right here in this building.

I I heard from from Roy that my good friend Bill Lighty was here, I guess, a couple weeks ago.

He and I were 30 years old when we planted this church.

We restarted this church.

30 years old.

That was 30 years ago.

Remember, I told you in October I was going to turn 60.

I turned 60, and the sun did come up the next day.

It's amazing because I'm thinking I'm just now beginning to kind of like myself at 60.

It's weird.

Okay.

So, how was I going to be able to restore with the power greater than myself to a place of sanity?

I'm a Bible guy, was raised with the Bible.

Remember, I've already said that.

But I felt like, man, I gotta I gotta add, I gotta add a piece.

I gotta I gotta make God not small.

So I knew some of the disciplines of the Christian life.

What we know the disciplines, right?

You know kind of what the disciplines are: scripture, um, fellowship, do some do some connecting with people.

So, and I had uh grown up in a culture that believed in fasting.

Um, and so I want to I want to say a word about fasting.

First of all, I don't like it.

So got that out of the way.

Secondly, it's really important.

It's a discipline.

It's a discipline, it's not easy.

You can buy some books on things about fasting.

Let's encourage each other to fast.

Maybe you fast one thing or another.

I just fast food.

Fast, I fast food.

I get a headache every time.

Without fail, I get grumpy.

Uh my wife's ready for me to break my fast, you know, anytime.

So I began to fast.

And uh I fasted every Sunday from the noon meal to the following evening, and that evening.

Um, it always feels weird to talk about that, right?

Because you don't know if you're supposed to talk about that.

Like the prayer closet thing, you don't know.

But I I was I fasted and I wanted that.

I wanted it.

Because why?

Because I wanted Jesus.

I wanted Jesus.

I was hungry for Jesus, and I felt like if I fast from food, maybe I will become hungrier for Jesus.

Again, why?

Because I needed some power greater than myself to restore me to sanity.

So I fasted.

And then on Monday nights I'd put my kids to bed because they were little then.

They're not little any longer, but they were little then.

And I would get in my car and then drive to the World Prayer Center.

And at that time it was open 24/7.

You could come in and go.

There, people would just say hi to you, and you could roll in.

It's just not like that any longer.

But it was then, so I'd roll in about 10 o'clock at night with my guitar and a few songs and find a room.

I'd find a room, I'd shut the door, make sure nobody was around, and I would start to sing, I would start to play.

Why?

Because I believed that worship, music, singing to God, singing to God, that there would be this ecosystem that would happen, that when I would sing songs to God, to Jesus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that there would be a return on my investment because I wanted more Jesus.

It was 1998.

Now what I did this week was I thought, hmm, what songs were those?

What was happening in 1998 with music?

Do you remember?

Everything like a year old now feels old.

Doesn't it?

Like we're doing that one again?

Right?

The songs today don't have the shelf life of the hymns.

They don't.

That's okay.

Because creative, anointed men and women are writing new things all the time.

So what was that year, 1997, 1998?

What was it?

Ready?

Because we're gonna sing them.

Go ahead, Marcus.

Shout to the Lord all the earth, let us sing.

Come on, church.

Power and just work to the kingdom.

From heaven to earth, to go away, from the earth to the cross, my death, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky.

From the earth to the club.

From the cards to the crack, from the cray to the sky.

Can you help me out with the verses here?

I'm so glad that's a good one.

From to the cross from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky.

Lord, I lift your name on high.

Amen.

You can sit down for a minute.

Church, a power greater than me.

I came to believe a power greater than me.

Your eyes were brighter.

Your brain didn't go to that place that so many times got this song again.

You entered into a place that was sacred.

And honestly, sometimes that takes it takes a little time.

It takes a bit of time to get there.

To kind of get that other stuff out, that not sanity side.

So truly, I could do this like I could do this all day.

I could do this all day.

So I am one of those guys that when we're kind of thinking about what heaven might be like, and I know that there's like hoop yeah, I don't know.

But people that go, are you kidding me?

We're gonna be like sitting around singing all the time.

I go, yeah, yeah, we are.

That sounds great to me.

Because it was that that not just restored me to sanity, keeps me sane.

Church, I do this all week long, all week long, all week long, because I must have it.

So I have headphones and a device, and I have YouTube, and I run through about four or five songs.

I've got the four sacred places close to my office that I get in my car and I go, and then I open the door and sit.

It's green, there's a river.

You'd know where that is then, because there's only one river in town.

We really call it a creek here.

And I put the headphones in, block the world out, assume a position of submission, and allow the work of my friend Jesus to penetrate me.

And I would love to invite you.

So Marcus, share with us kind of the what's happening.

Like I went to the World Prayer Center.

So, Marcus, where can people go?

I'm a goer, by the way.

So, where can people go for that?

Well, we have a we have a prayer room down the road at Everyone for Christ, and it's very similar, but smaller in size than what you get used to later.

And I think you can still go to the world person.

I think there's live worship, and I think there's 24-7, but most of the day you can go and minister to the Lord.

But right down the room, we have about 10 hours of life sets a day, and uh we pray for the nation, and we sing worship songs to the Lord, but also in devotional settings.

We have prayer grottos, we have 12 little prayer rooms like Kenya.

You can take a guitar and you can get in there, and you can minister to the Lord.

And uh but there is something that you know Ken is saying about music, worship, and uh and it's the way Paul led his Greek churches.

You know, he he led Colossi and Ephesus, and he said, You want the Word to dwell in you richly.

I'm paraphrasing Colossians 3.

He says, You want the word to dwell in you richly.

He says then sing, sing songs, sing hymns, and sing spiritual songs, making melody and faithfulness in your heart.

So he says that in Colossians, you want the word to dwell richly, sing the word.

And then he says in Ephesus, you want the word spirit to fill you, he says, the the word there is like a continual feeling, an ongoing feeling.

And uh and he tells the Ephesian church, he says, You don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.

And he says, and how is and how do you do that?

He says, sing, sing and admonish one another.

And most translations kind of put that back on sing and admonish one another, and and then kind of and sing the psalms, hands and spiritual songs.

Um but I I like I like that there's this there's this Greek guy, and he said it should be translated.

Sing and admonish one another by or or or or teach and admonish one another by singing psalms and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

So there's this there's this word dwelling richly in us and the spirit filling us, and that's what Ken is describing.

So that's that's down the road at Every Home for Christ, and and and and the live sets go 10 hours a day, and you can get the schedule online, but the but the room is open, the and the grottos are open, those prayer rooms are open, uh 18 hours a day from 6 a.m.

to midnight.

So you can go and put your kids down, like Ken said, or you can get up in the morning and put early before work and have a have a little time of prayer before work.

Thank you.

I encourage it.

Encourage it.

We'll go to the let's go to slide number seven.

Thank you.

I won't, but if I did, and I said, how many of you need healing today?

You'd all you all should raise your hand.

Yeah.

You all should raise your hand.

We have broken stories.

Some of us need healing in our bodies.

We love healing in our bodies.

Some of us need healing in our minds.

Some of us need healing in our hearts.

Some of us need to forgive somebody.

Some of us need to be forgiven.

We all need more Jesus.

Jesus is a friend who knows all of our struggles.

He will guide till the day is done.

There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus.

No not one, no not one.

Alright, healing worship.

Team, you can come on up if you want to.

Healing worship.

Remember Job?

Remember Job?

He laid in the dust and worshiped in affliction.

You remember Isaiah?

He trembled and he worshiped in awe.

Jehosaphat worshiped in warfare.

David danced and worshipped in abandon and lament.

Hannah worshipped in perseverance through barrenness.

John the revelator got to see the worship of heaven.

The Israelites worshiped as they marched around Jericho.

This morning, church.

What do you want your worship to reflect?

What do you want to say about your worship?

As a church, the road, how do we want our worship to be?

If we've added one more line, the road worshiped, to make impact on Colorado Springs, to be light, to heal the brokenhearted, to bind up the captive, to set the captives free.

So wherever you were last Sunday with your worship, let's sing it.

Will you do this?

Let's up it a notch.

So if you are already one of these, let's go a little higher.

And if you're one of these, let's go a little higher.

Let's just go a little higher.

Let's ask the Holy Spirit.

Why not?

Come.

Let's worship.

You might not know the songs.

You know what though?

You can still worship.

I would invite you.

I would invite, we invite you.

You do not have to stay where you are.

You can move.

You can walk.

You can pray.

You can get on your face, or you can stay where you are.

Church.

Shall we worship?

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