Why Worship - Leaders' Talks

You're listening to this week's edition of The Road.

So we know that God created us for his purpose, for his glory.

That's why we worship.

That's why we gather like we did and we're doing tonight.

It's for his glory.

And it's for everyone.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

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

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

Father God, we just pray your spirit here over our worship, Father God.

I pray your special blessing anointing on our brother Mark.

Father God, as he brings a message and word tonight, open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears, Father God.

We thank you and just invite your spirit here.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

So I've asked the teen if they would stay up here with me because I'm I'm like, ooh, this is a little awkward, you know.

So uh so they've agreed kindly to oblige me and get a bar stool and kind of hang out.

So I talked to Steve about this and I said, what if I just talked tonight to you guys about worship?

If we just kind of unpacked worship.

So I'm gonna cover three different points, but what we're gonna do is, like I said, it's gonna be a little interactive if that's okay with you.

It's a smaller crowd tonight.

So did you guys bring your scripture to bring your words tonight?

Anyone to bring your Bible?

Okay, there's three people.

Okay, that's good.

So you guys can just scrunch together and share with those three Bibles.

The rest of you can just, you know, I don't know, whatever you want to do.

You're and also don't tell Steve I told you you can do this, but but I like sometimes, like if I get a text or whatever or something, or you know, if you want to check Facebook, you're more than welcome to, okay?

There's no rules here tonight.

That's probably broken every rule that Steve laid out, but but um this is a social, this is a social network tonight, okay?

And we're social people, so we're gonna just talk about God's worship tonight.

We're gonna worship him, we're gonna respond, and then we're gonna teach, and we're gonna respond and teach, and then we're gonna respond at the very end, okay?

So the first question that we're gonna ask tonight, and as I said, this is really interactive, why worship?

Why do we worship?

Why do we actually come together on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning and come together in a building and sit in chairs for like an hour and a half and do this thing we call worship?

So I guess the best way to unpack that would be to maybe ask you a question.

What would be, and I want you to talk to me, okay?

What would be your definition of worship?

If you could describe worship, what would that be?

Can some somebody talk to me?

And I need I need you to say aloud so we can all hear, okay?

Right.

Just interacting with the Father.

It's awesome.

It's very tender, it's a very tender approach.

Anybody else?

Definition of worship?

Coming into presence.

Okay?

Coming into the presence of God.

There's a lot in that.

If you think about coming into, you walk in a door, you come into his throne, you walk into his room, you walk into his presence, you you come near to him, you draw near to God.

Anybody else?

Loving God.

It's huge.

It's wonderful.

Descriptions of worship.

Anybody else?

Obedience?

It's wonderful.

Those are all great definitions of worship.

And it's it's like occasionally I I go back, I'm a worship leader, and so I and I I lead worship both locally and internationally.

And I have to come back to this question quite frequently.

Why do I worship?

Why do I worship him?

And you probably thinking, why you're a worship leader?

You ask that question?

Yeah, I do.

I'm just being honest with you.

Because sometimes I lose the plot in life.

I lose my focus, and I have to refocus my attention on who this is about.

It's not about me.

It's not about what I do, playing an instrument, it's not about where I go, it's not about being behind a microphone and playing a guitar, or it's not about having a band up here.

It's about what you just said.

It's unpacking this obedience, this loving God, this whole aspect of his worth.

And I kind of, my definition is kind of like what you were saying about Louis Giglio's.

It's kind of a smaller version of that.

That was pretty huge, though, by the way.

Nice job.

But um, this one, I just said worship is my life's response to everything that God is and everything that God does for me.

And so we're gonna we're gonna actually do that tonight.

We're gonna respond live in worship tonight.

So there's three things I'm gonna I'm gonna present to you tonight, and I'm gonna ask some of you to read some scripture if you don't mind, so keep your Bible handy.

So, number one, why worship?

It's it's for everyone.

Worship is for everyone.

Who can look up really quickly Genesis 2, chapter verse 15, and then stay in Genesis around there and look up chapter 3, verse 8.

So Genesis 2, 15, and 3, 8.

Somebody look that up real quick.

You got it?

Bible drill.

First person with their hand up in the arrogus to read it.

Oh, Adam.

Wow, the boy scout, nice.

Can you stand up and read it really loud for us?

So Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, and then chapter 3, verse 8.

Genesis 2:15

Thanks, Adam.

Okay, so he just read two critical verses in Genesis.

One is that God put Adam and Eve, or man and woman, in the garden.

He had created all these things in the world for his glory.

Then he said, but I'll now want to make, I want to make man.

I want to make man in my image.

So if you look around, can you just look around at people next to you?

Just look around the room, just real quickly, kind of glance at people.

Okay, I know it's a little awkward.

It's okay.

It's all good.

Okay, think about this.

Those people that you just looked at are made in the image of God.

So God kind of looks like that person that you just looked at.

So when I go to places like China, we've been to North Korea, we go to Asia, we've been to Africa, all over Europe.

When I look at people in the face and see their uniqueness, I go, God, you've there's something about that person that has your identity.

So there's something about an African that has God's identity, something about an Asian.

But I I just I see all these faces and I go, God is so unique that He created us so different from one another, yet we're very much the same.

But God put man or woman in the garden to do what?

Adam just read it.

Why did he put them in the garden?

To tend or steward the garden.

As far as God was concerned, that was worship to him.

He put them in the garden to take charge and to lead and direct and can and and pretty much attend all of creation.

But then worship was disturbed.

Adam read the second part of that, chapter 3, verse 8.

Worship was disturbed when man and woman had taken from the fruit of the tree that they knew they shouldn't have, worship was disturbed.

And they turned their back on God and wandered and walked away from him.

And as a result of that, sin entered the heart of man.

So his original intent was to steward intend creation, and he blew it really quickly after chapter two.

Bam! He just blew it.

He took, and we do that, don't we?

We do the same thing.

We feel really good and we've had a great service, and we go home, and then we we kind of approach our week.

We get into Monday and we turn around and we blow it, and we're like, man, Saturday night was just like two days ago, and I've blown it already, God.

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me.

Has anybody ever done that?

I have.

Like, very yeah, I mean, so so remember that God created all of us.

It's for everyone.

Worship is for everyone.

That's why we worship.

Matthew 22, 37.

Can somebody read that real quick?

Psalm 150, verse 6.

Psalms 150:6

Somebody look that one up.

Matthew 22, 37, Psalm 150, verse 6.

Psalms 150:6

Who's got the Psalm chapter?

Psalm verse.

You got it, Ryan?

You don't have it.

Who's got the Psalm 150 verse 6?

Psalms 150:6

Okay, can you read that really loud, really loud for everybody?

Amen.

Amen.

Who's got Matthew 22, verse 37?

Matthew 22:37

Okay, front row?

Read it one more time.

That's pretty much your entirety.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind.

That pretty much includes every bit of you.

Okay?

So you can see God's intent from the very beginning was that we were created to worship Him.

And you guys just shouted out little sort of phrases and ways in which the descriptions and definitions of worship.

John Piper said this God is the greatest thing that exists, ever has existed, or ever will exist.

Therefore, for us to glory in anything else would be sin, as there is nothing greater than God.

There is no calling greater than praising God.

This is true not only for us, but surprisingly also for God Himself, He being the greatest.

To glory in anything else would be idolatry.

That's what happened in the garden.

Man thought, hey, we're in control of this thing.

We can totally rule creation and do our own thing at the same time, and we'll be okay.

God doesn't mind.

This is why he put us there.

And as soon as they did that, they became idols unto themselves.

They worshiped themselves, actually, is what happened.

And so our tendency, men and women of God, men and women of Colorado Springs, is to worship ourselves.

You're saying, What?

I don't, you know, I don't think that highly of myself.

Oh, I don't think so.

I think we all do occasionally.

So when we leave this place, just remember that anything you do to serve yourself, you're actually worshiping yourself in a way.

So God placed us here for his worship.

That's why we exist.

John Papper goes on to say this.

Therefore, if the greatest thing God can do is give himself glory, and no created thing can be greater than God, the greatest thing that we can do, our purpose, you might say, is to glorify him.

And then he nails it with this last sentence.

Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's sing together.

Stronger than the power of the gray.

Your love never fails.

Never fails, it never gives up.

You sing it.

Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.

Your love never fails, never runs out on me.

Your love.

Thank you, Lord, for your love.

It overwhelms our souls.

Thank you for your love.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's be seated together.

So we know that God created us for his purpose, for his glory.

That's why we worship.

That's why we gather like we did and we're doing tonight.

It's for his glory.

And it's for everyone.

The second thing that I want to say to you tonight is that worship gives glory to God.

That's the second reason we worship.

It gives him glory.

Or it's kind of the how.

It puts the how underneath worship.

So people say, well, it's good, good and well that you know that I was created to worship and that I was intended by God to steward the land or steward creation, even steward my own life, which I have no control over anyway.

But thank God that he's given us his grace.

But how do I worship him?

And many of us tonight, um, can I just ask for a raise of hand?

I've always been curious.

Every time I come to the road, I'm curious as to who you are.

Because you're a different group of people.

You know that?

You're very no, it's it's true.

It's a it's a great different, not like a weird different.

Although you could put it in the weird category, but I think you're just different because it's so cool.

But you come from so many different places.

So let me ask, background-wise, okay, how many of you come from a more of a like a Catholic background?

Anybody?

Okay?

All right, hands down.

How about Lutheran?

Lutheran background, okay?

Presbyterian?

Presbyteries.

The elect.

No, I'm kidding.

Uh Assemblies of God.

Okay.

Um sort of non-denom non-denom charismatic background.

Baptist.

Ooh.

I'm gonna tell you a pastor.

Do what?

Okay, what about let's see, what did I miss?

Oh, Methodist.

Methodist background.

Okay.

Nazarenes.

My mama was a Nazarene.

Okay.

Uh non-denominant.

Just basically you're kind of like, okay?

If you're non-denominational, okay.

Did I miss anybody?

Mormons.

Mormon background.

Okay?

Okay.

Um JW.

Any can anybody come from the Jehovah's Witness background?

Okay.

Okay, see what I mean?

See how many differences we have, yet we're all one body of Christ.

I think that's so cool the way God has brought us together to worship Him from so many varieties of backgrounds and so many differences and so many opinions and so many ways of doing church, the kind of how we worship.

And it's interesting too that the first time I came to the road, there was an antiphonal reading that Steve did.

And I thought, wow, dude, I mean, because I lead worship regularly for a Presbyterian church.

We have a contemporary service and we do uh a confession of sin and an assurance of pardon pretty much every week.

And um so when I came here and there's an antiphonal reading, I'm like, and I asked Steve, I said, Steve, you're doing liturgy at the road.

He said, Yeah, man.

He said, We're embracing the full gospel of our faith.

It's it's part of our foundation.

So I said, that's really cool.

So the the blueprint that we have, you guys, of the how we worship that gives glory to God, God actually gave Moses, he gave his church a blueprint, and it was called the tabernacle.

There it is.

Okay, and the tabernacle is so interesting.

If you go to uh Exodus 25 and read basically verse chapters 25 through 31, you'll learn about the tabernacle of God.

And it's fascinating because God was so specific with Moses when he said, Here's what I want you to do.

Take your pen and get a bit of rock or something, and I want you to write down this.

Here's exactly what you're gonna do.

And he gave specific instructions on the tabernacle and how it was to be designed.

Why?

Because of his glory.

It was for God's glory exclusively.

I think somebody, who was it that came a few weeks ago uh with like a priest's robe on?

Jay.

I when you walked in, dude, I was like, whoa, who's the guy with the jewels on his chest?

Because if you weren't here, you totally missed it.

But but the priest, there was even down to the priest who would go into the holiest of holies to present the sacrifice to God, had to have a certain kind of robon with certain elements, right, Jay?

All kinds of stuff that God specified as worship to him.

And Moses didn't dare waver one inch from exactly what God told him to do.

And that tabernacle was created for the sacrifice and the sins of many.

And in a minute, we're gonna talk about what happened as a result of that.

But at the very beginning, God said, I've got to do something to get people focusing back on me and away from themselves.

And so the tabernacle was created as a place or a sanctuary for God's worship.

Guys, that's one reason.

It's so crazy.

Okay, so this happened in Exodus.

That's actually one reason we're here tonight.

We're following a blueprint that happened thousands and thousands of years ago tonight.

This is a type of a tabernacle, in a sense.

We're following God's blueprint, it's just packaged a little bit differently, right?

But we're here in this sanctuary to worship God and to give Him glory corporately.

And we come corporately and we confess our sins.

We come and we receive forgiveness, not from some priest or from some human, some man.

We see receive forgiveness because of the cross, right?

That's why we come, because we know that the cross, everything begins and ends at the cross.

And so we're grateful for that.

God gave Moses the blueprints for this place of worship.

Can somebody read Revelation 5, verse 9?

Revelation 5:9

I need somebody to read Psalm 95, 1 to 3.

Can you guys be a little quicker?

You're really slow tonight.

Sorry about that.

If this was a Bible bee, you would all be losing.

Um, but the kids are over there, Adam's over there, got it.

Okay, so Revelation 5 9, Psalm 95, 1 to 3, and I need somebody to look up numbers 624 to 26.

624 to 26.

Numbers.

Okay, yes, sir.

Thank you.

That Revelation passage, you guys, is real important because when he said they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain.

Jesus was slain.

In the tabernacle, they had to slay or cut an animal and present it to God.

Jesus became the lamb that was slain for our sin forever and ever.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Wow.

Thank you, Jesus, for that bit of revelation that gives me comfort to know that worthy are you who took the scrolls and the lamb that was slain for our redemption.

Okay, who's got Psalm 95 1 to 3?

Can you read that out really loud for us?

Okay.

That actually, Psalm 95 1 to 3, is a call to worship.

Did you notice what she said?

Listen to this.

She said, Oh come.

Oh come, people.

Let us sing aloud with shouts of joy.

Oh come.

So it's like an invitation.

If someone says, Hey, can you come over to my house for dinner?

Hey, can you meet me a Starbucks?

Let's come come to Starbucks and let's have you know a Bible study or whatever.

It's an invitation to come and participate in something, an activity.

She just read this out.

Oh come.

Let us sing to the Lord and make joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Okay, some of you who grew up Presbyterians and Lutherans back in the day, okay, because I go to a Presbyterian church, to make joyful noise to shout in a service or to make a joyful noise is kind of one of those awkward things that you will kind of PC wouldn't do in a Lutheran church.

You know what I'm saying?

Hey, Jesus, we love you!

That just wouldn't go down tomorrow morning, I don't think, in my church.

If I just now, I mean I can do it during worship because our pastor says just do what you feel you need to do, just go for it.

But there are some churches that wouldn't allow you to do that.

That would be like people would look at you like, what are they doing?

They're weirdos.

Okay.

But this is a call to worship.

We've been called to worship.

Okay, who's got Numbers chapter 6, 24 to 26?

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

You have that one.

Okay, on the front row.

Wow.

It doesn't get any better than that.

It really doesn't.

Listen to this, you guys.

I don't know if you're hearing these words of life.

Listen to this.

The Lord bless you.

The Lord keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.

I'm telling you guys, I can go to bed right now and be totally happy because I know that his face is shining on me, and that that makes me glad, but it makes him even more glad.

In the South, we say gladder.

It just makes him gladder.

You know?

So these that that often is read out.

The man with the beard on the front row read out numbers.

And basically, a lot of churches we use that as a benediction.

At the close of a service, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

In other words, it's sending out as we go from this place.

In fact, remind me, Deborah, and we'll do that benediction before we leave tonight.

Is that okay?

Just as it's sending out.

It just kind of makes you want to go to bed and go, thank you, God.

It's all done.

Okay, so there are, that's a benediction.

Okay, who can read Psalm 95, 6?

Really short one.

Psalm chapter 95, verse 6.

Psalms 95:6

I need somebody to read Nehemiah 8, verse 6.

Nehemiah 8:6

And I need somebody to read Psalm 47, 1.

These are little sound bites from scripture.

And then I need one more person to read Psalm 104.33.

So who has Psalm 95, 6?

Okay, can you read that, ma'am, please, really loud for us?

Thank you.

Okay, so that's that is that's one of the that's answering the question.

Worship gives glory to God, and there are many ways in which we can give God glory.

And one of them is we bow before Him.

Many times in Scripture, you're gonna find that bowing thing happen.

And I want to encourage you here at the road, I encourage my people at my church, I just say, listen, if God prompts you, if his spirit prompts you to bow before him, the Almighty, you need to do it.

It's not like this thing that we just take lightly.

But there is, when you bow, you're humbling your humiliating yourself before the Almighty, and you're saying, God, to you be the glory and honor.

I'm not worthy.

You are worthy, O Most High.

Receive praise and glory through the bowing of my knee.

And you know, when I was a kid, we used to have um nightly prayers.

My parents would make us religiously pray every night as a family before.

I was the youngest of four kids, and we'd have to pray.

And every time they'd say, Come on, kids, let's pray.

I'm like, oh gosh.

Do we have to?

And we had this little family altar set up in our house in the living room.

And literally, I mean, my dad and mom would, and they were serious about it, and I get it now.

But they would, we would all kneel around this family little altar kind of thing.

It was probably about six feet long.

We would kneel on, you know, and and kind of bow on the altar, and dad would read a scripture, and we would pray together, and then we'd go to bed.

And I'll never forget those times because they were so special as a kid growing up.

Now I understand how important it was.

Back then I was like, I just want to go to bed, or I just want to go play the drums in my room or whatever.

I didn't want to pray.

But the discipline of that was worship, and it built something in me way down deep inside that I can't get away from, and that is consistent obedience, like you said, sir, on the second row with a red shirt.

Earlier, when you described worship, you said it's obedience to God, very one word.

And it was something that's lived with me to this day.

So, how do we worship God?

Ryan earlier did a corporate antiphonal reading.

Normally, this is a reading and a response or an alternating reading of scripture where the leader, pastor, reads a portion and the congregation follows with a response.

Okay?

Bow your knees.

Oh, come let us worship before God.

Let us bow before the Lord, our Maker.

Okay, Nehemiah 8.6, who's got that one?

Can you read it, sir, in the back with the red shirt on?

Okay, when Ezra read the word, we don't do this anymore.

It's kind of crazy.

We've gotten so used in American culture, we just hear the word read and we're just like, okay, that's that's a beautiful scripture, neat.

But when Ezra read the word of the Lord, people lifted their heads and bowed on their faces before God and they raised their hands before him.

Why do you think?

Can I just get some response here?

Why do you think they did that?

Was it different then than it is now?

This is a dialogue.

Why, why, why, when Ezra blessed the Lord, all the people answered, Amen.

Okay, that's fair enough.

Lifting up their hands and they bow their heads and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Why is it different that we come into this sanctuary, this tabernacle, and worship God and we're just like, oh, I can't wait till this is over so I can go to Denny's and get a four by four before?

You know, I mean, or whatever.

I don't know.

Why do we not, like, why do we not have this focus?

Like, what's what's happened?

Can somebody kind of unpack that for me?

Okay.

She thinks it's because of all that they had gone through.

So this was a time of just gratitude to God.

Okay.

Right.

Exactly.

Because now we we are the tabernacle.

Does that make sense to y'all now?

So it's just like Jay said, that was very eloquently, but I can't say it that eloquently.

But essentially, because Christ is in us, he now fills the temple, and the light goes out.

The light shines out from us.

We don't keep it in.

It's it's because he lives in us, he shines out through our response and worship.

Okay.

Uh, who's got Psalm 47.1?

Amen.

So clap your hands.

This is another response.

I mean, some people, some of you Methodists and and uh not the Nazarenes, my mom was a Nazarene, but some of you more liturgical people, Catholic people, you you never clapped your hands in the sanctuary or the the church, did you?

Rarely.

I mean, I don't probably never.

Okay, yeah, I'm getting big big time no's.

So yeah, so I mean you just it just is not happening.

But it's very clear scripture, Psalm 47, 1, clap your hands, all you people, shout to God with loud songs of joy.

There's a freedom when you've experienced the fullness of Christ and you've actually understood, as Jay said, this tabernacle, God's Spirit fills us and we shine out his glory.

Okay, last one, Psalm 104.33.

Who's got that one?

Amen.

So as long as I live, I'm gonna sing.

So singing is a natural response of worship to God.

I bet you Adam and Eve sang.

It doesn't really talk about them singing, but I would imagine that they tried out their vocal cords.

I just think it would be cool to hear those first people sing.

Isn't that good?

I just I don't know.

I just there's something about that.

Okay.

What we're gonna do now is a response in the second part.

Basically, number two is worship gives glory to God in many ways, or the how of worship.

What we're gonna do is a response to worship now is we're gonna have a responsive reading.

And at different times throughout the history of the church, and many of you from a liturgical background will understand this.

Christians have sought to explain the core essentials of faith in summaries called catechisms, which means summary.

They've been used for corporate worship as well as tools for building a foundation of faith.

The following readings that we're gonna do, the responsive reading, are from the Heidelberg Catechism, written in 1563, and the Westminster Shorter Confession of Faith in 1647.

So essentially, our forefathers of the faith got together and compiled something that actually says, This is what we believe as Christ followers.

So why don't we stand?

We're gonna read this, and then we're gonna go into a time of worship.

Here we go.

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.

In fact, all things must work together for my salvation, because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

So, what is the chief end of men and women?

Men and women's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Hallelujah.

Father, we praise you because you're worthy of our praise.

Yes, it's true, you created us to worship you.

And yes, it's true, you've given us the blueprint of how to worship you.

And God, this final moment we want to just look at the aspect of the fact that worship is part of the now.

It's not something that was just created ages ago that we kind of like have the residue of here.

It's the now because of what you did on the cross.

And so we want to worship you in spirit and truth, and we want you to unpack for that what it what it means to us as Christ followers here in Colorado Springs.

And so, Father, we as we sang that old hymn, it brought up and raised up in some of us years past.

And we sang that hymn back in the day, and it's still true today.

All creation was made to worship you and give you glory.

And so tonight we humble ourselves before you, Father, and we say, please receive our worship in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's be seated one more time.

So, yes, we were created to worship, it's it's why we exist.

And also, worship was created to glorify God.

And again, we talked about the blueprint of that that God set up, and now we kind of adapted that to the 21st century in which we live.

And now the third bit of this little teaching is worship is part of the New Testament now life.

Not yesterday, now, right now.

Now is just right now.

Okay, it doesn't get any more now than now.

So it's part of now, it's part of you, it's part of, it's part of when you leave here.

You don't you don't leave this thing that we call worship behind in this tabernacle and go home and get in your car and do something else.

You take Christ with you.

Therefore, you are worshiping.

Okay?

So you your life, we just we talked about it at the very beginning.

So some of it, some of you said, a couple of you said, yeah, it's it's it's what we're born to do.

It's it's it's who we are, whatever.

And it is, it's true.

We were created to worship, but we are worshiping people.

So let me end let me just kind of describe it this way.

When you go out to eat tonight, if you go out to a restaurant, you're worshiping.

When you go home and you sleep, you are worshiping.

When you go to work on Monday, you are worshiping.

When you play with your kids on the playground, when you go to school, when you study, when you are working on that problem, you are worshiping.

Why?

Because all of life, we've we read this in scripture a few minutes ago, everything we are, all we have, heart, mind, and soul, and our bodies exist to worship.

Therefore, everything we do is worship to God.

Now, you say, Well, what if I sin?

Is that worship to God?

No, it's not, because you've turned your face on God and walked away because you you're doing this thing on your own.

We talked about it in the garden how the stewardship happened with man and woman to steward the garden and steward creation, and they blew it one chapter later.

Now I don't know how long that was between chapter two and three, but if it was a couple of days, it probably makes sense that it was a couple of days because that's us.

It's just kind of how we are now.

You know, we just kind of can't help it, but we we do, we fall.

But because of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross, and a minute ago I said it, it's where everything is even and equal at the foot of the cross.

So if you came here tonight and you're thinking, I'm the worst, I've done stuff you don't even know.

I can't, you can't, no one can save me from what I've done.

Oh yeah, they can.

The cross was enough.

No, but you don't know, you you don't know what kind of life I've had in the past.

You you don't know what I've done to people, you don't know how I've hurt people.

Yeah, but the cross is enough.

But I I I'm divorced, I've been married three times, I've got kids all over the world.

I don't even know the names of some of my kids, but the cross is enough.

But I've cheated on my taxes this year recently.

And uh and I know I did.

I know I cheated on my taxes.

But the cross is enough.

To him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, and to him it is sin.

But the cross is enough.

Through remembering Christ's sacrifice on the cross, I'm gonna read this out of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 to 28.

1 Corinthians 11:23–28

And I want you to close your eyes because I'm gonna read this out of the message version of the Bible, so it's not the ESV or the King James, it's it's the message.

So I want you to bear with the lingo, but uh, but to me, this is kind of how we would talk to one another if we were out having a four by four before at Denny's.

Okay, check this out.

So everybody close your eyes.

I just want to read this over you.

Okay, I want you to receive these words.

This is the words of Christ.

Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord's Supper and why it's so centrally important.

I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you.

The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread.

Having given thanks, he broke it and he said, This is my body broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

After supper, he did the same thing with the cup.

This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.

Each time you drink this cup, remember me.

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink of this cup, you're reenacting in your words and your actions the death of the master.

You'll be drawn back to this meal again and again until the master returns.

You must never let familiarity breed contempt.

Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death.

It's that kind of remembrance you want to be part of.

So examine your motives and test your heart and come to this meal in holy awe.

We remember Christ and the sacrifice he made on the cross, and the cross is enough.

Amen.

Okay, God knows, God knows that worship was disturbed in the beginning.

Remember we we talked about that?

I loved the way the writer put that, because worship was beautiful until it was disturbed.

John 4, 23, 24 says this, but the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

We're living sacrifices to God every day.

Remember when I said a minute ago that when you go to sleep, when you work, when you play, when you study, you're worshiping God?

Check this out Romans 12, 1 and 2.

So here's what I want you to do God helping you.

Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for Him.

Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into It without even thinking.

Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity.

Has that ever happened to anybody?

Oh, just a couple of people.

Okay.

So, unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you.

And lastly, the final thing I want to say tonight, and this is this is like this is like the bronch, this is better than the Broncos winning the Super Bowl, okay?

This is hardcore amazing stuff.

We, you, are part of an everlasting kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Amen?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we hold on to.

The kingdom we belong to and the one we serve, the master, cannot be shaken.

It will never die.

It will never pass away.

It will live forever.

And that's the kingdom I belong to.

And I pray to God that's the kingdom you belong to tonight.

That's the one that cannot be shaken.

Everything around you can shake politics, earthquakes, hurricanes, three feet of snow, doesn't matter.

His kingdom will never be shaken.

Last scripture I want to read over you tonight, Hebrews 12, 28 and 29 says this.

Again, it's out of the message.

Do you see what we've got?

An unshakable kingdom.

And do you see how thankful we must be?

Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.

For God is not an indifferent bystander.

No, he's actively cleaning house.

He's torching all that needs to be burned, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed.

God himself is a fire.

I love that.

Because you can't get away from the fire.

And God's burning right now in people's hearts in this room, in this tabernacle, in this sanctuary.

He's burning people's hearts.

And he's convicting of sin and he's turning the searchlight on the areas that we've talked about earlier.

Because the Bible says, we just read it, he's an all-consuming fire.

And that fire, once it burns up all the crap in your life, you know what rises to the top?

Gold.

Gold rises to the top.

And that's the thing that he wants.

He wants the gold.

He burns away the chaff.

He burns away all the dross, all the junk.

Because he's a consuming fire.

And when his spirit, as Jay said earlier, his spirit comes in and completely starts to burn away all that junk in your life that you feel bad about yourself.

And he puts a new heart in you.

He takes the heart of stone and he replaces it with a heart of flesh.

A beating heart.

Isn't that awesome?

That's the God we serve.

It's an unshakable kingdom.

So, guys, we have got something.

I don't want you to get comfortable and go, oh, that's nice.

See ya.

You know what?

You belong to something that's magnanimous.

It's beyond even comprehension and understanding.

And so when you leave this place, I want Monday to be a time when you actually attack the day and you wake up and you go, you know what?

God, me and you today are going to take on this day, and you're going to guide me to people, and you're going to open my mouth, and I'm going to say things to people that I that aren't even from me, they're from you.

Because I want you to speak through me to people.

I want you to be healing to people through me.

I want you to touch people's lives through me and through my testimony in my life.

And I want you to clean me up and make me new.

I want you to push restart in my heart and let me start again from tonight.

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