When Looking Crazy is The Most Sane Thing You Can Do!

Oh my goodness, I love this place and I love what God is

doing here and I believe if he hasn't done it in you yet, he

sure can. I'm so thankful that you guys

are here. I want to welcome those of you

joining at all of our different locations, those of you watching

online, and those of you who are part of the Crossing Inside.

Special shout out to The Crossing Inside in Pike County.

Got a chance to spend some time with you this past Wednesday.

And it's just so cool to see people that are a part of our

church that are brothers in Christ with us.

Everybody that I got to meet with has been baptized.

And they're trying to work on the other 22 people that are

serving time. And even though they don't have

the same opportunities that we have, because the decisions that

they've made, they're trying to make the Pike County Jail the

hardest place on planet earth to get the hell from.

And I love that. I love it.

So whether it's your first time or your first time in a long

time, we're so glad that you're here.

And I want to encourage you to swing by the new here booth that

is in the lobby at all of our different locations.

We are in a sermon series called Some Assembly Required, and this

sermon series is part what we believe is a church, part why we

do what we do as a church, and part how to build a meaningful

encounter with God. And I believe one of the best

ways to build a meaningful encounter with God is through

worship. And what I want to do today is

I'm going to answer a couple questions and then I'm going to

do a book report slash teaching. All right, so a couple

questions. You guys have probably been

asked this before. Why does the crossing church

have a light show during worship?

Are you guys just trying to be super hip and cool?

No, it all goes back to church architecture.

When church buildings were built back in the day, they were

designed with huge ceiling heights and massive windows to

allow the maximum amount of light into the space.

And then in the 10th century, churches invented and

popularized stained glass windows to bring into the

worship space different glorious colors.

Then, in the 1800s, churches were some of the very first

buildings electrified in their communities.

In fact, Thomas Edison donated the very first bulb to a

Presbyterian Church in New Jersey.

Why? Because they wanted the church

to always be associated with light.

So instead of the crossing, having to spend tons of money to

build really high ceiling auditoriums and expensive

ceilings, we leverage technology to create a multi colored

experience. And you might be going, why do

Christians like light so much? Let me tell you.

Because all throughout Scripture, light and fire which

produces light are closely associated with God, Jesus,

heaven, and the Bible. You know what The very first

thing God created was light. Let there be light.

God spoke to Moses in a burning Bush.

He led the people in Israel with a pillar of fire.

When the temple was constructed, they put in the lamp stands.

God promises to make His face shine upon us in Numbers chapter

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

6. God's word is described as a

light for our path in Psalm 119, Jesus is described as the light

of the world, and he came to a world that was covered in

darkness. Later, Jesus says that his

followers will be like a lamp on a stand.

In First Thessalonians chapter 5, Christians are called

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

children of the You guys are getting it.

First Peter chapter 29 says that we are people who have been

called out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We're told in First Timothy chapter 6 that God dwells in

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

unapproachable light. So that is why when the church

has always gathered, light has always been part of it.

Now you might also ask, what is the purpose of worship?

Why is worship important? The purpose of worship is to

direct our affection and our attention to God.

It is not about feeling His presence.

Sometimes you'll say, man, I really felt God during that

worship experience. I want you to know that is not

important. It is not about what you get out

of worship. It is about what you give in

worship and if you make whether or not you feel something about

worship, you have started to worship you because now it is

about how you felt about the worship.

Worship is not about you, worship is about Him.

Why does the Crossing sing all kinds of new songs instead of

them old school good songs? I get it.

I've told you before, I like an old song here and there.

I just need you to know this. All worship was contemporary

worship at one point in time. So for those of you who are

wanting the hymns, I want you to know there was a time when there

was a pastor getting nasty emails about these new hymns

everybody's singing. All worship was new worship at

one point in time. But let me just allow God to

speak to this for a second. Psalm 96 one says, sing to the

Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.

In fact, over and over again in Scripture, God commanded people

to sing a new song to Him. He commands it in Psalm 98 and

Psalm 40 and Psalm 33. He says it again in Isaiah 44,

and He described it in Revelation chapter 5 verse nine.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Since God is always moving, His Spirit is always directing our

knowledge and appreciation is always growing.

There will always be a new song being written on the hearts of

His people. Now what I'd like to do for the

remainder of the message, and I'm going to move the lightning

fast, is I want to do a book report.

A while back I was in a Zoom meeting with a pastor from

Nashville by the name of Darren Whitehead, and he gave the

devotional for the day. And later on in that year, I had

an opportunity to attend a conference that he spoke at.

And he has written several books.

And one of these books is the book called Holy Roar.

You can go buy it if you want to, but I could save you the 15

bucks if you just paid attention to my sermon.

In his book, what he does is he unpacks the beauty of worship

hidden in the Old Testament. And my hope is that it will be a

blessing to you today. One of the problems that we

experience as Christians, or more importantly as American

Christians, is our vocab is limited.

For instance, when we read in the Greek text, the Old

Testament or the New Testament, there are different words for

love that is directed in different areas.

But here in for those of us in America, when we talk about

love, we use one word, love. So let me ask you this question.

Do you love your wife? Yeah.

Do you love your kids? Yeah.

Is your love for your wife a little bit different than your

love for your kids? Yeah.

Do you love your dog? Yeah, kinda.

You say you love it. So you mean to tell me that you

love your dogs the same way you love your wife and your kids?

That seems weird. Do you love the Kansas City

Chiefs? Yeah.

Do you love them at the same amount that you love?

And for those of you who are Cubs fans, if you loved your

family the way you love the Cubs, you'd be a way better

father. I can guarantee you that much.

You love rooting for losers. OK, so when we get into the Old

Testament, when it talks about worship, there are 7 different

words for worship. And I believe locked inside of

these 7 words is something that is unexpected and something

that'll change what you experience and what you do in

worship. And my hope is that when you

know these words and the power contained in them, you will

begin to build a meaningful encounter with God through

worship. The first word is yada.

Everybody say yada yada, to Revere or worship with extended

hands, to hold out the hand, to throw a stone, to shoot an

arrow. I went to church with my grandma

one time and the church that I grew up in, there was not a

whole lot of hand raising. All the lights were up way high

and everybody kind of worshiped God like this.

We were so thankful for everything he did.

We did this. Sometimes we might do this.

And I went to my grandma's church and my grandma had her

hand up and I'm like, they're going to call on you.

Like, you better put your hand down.

Now you got to know this. My grandpa's name was Oronnell.

My grandma's name was Cleata. If you're named Cleata, you

probably don't care what other people think about you.

OK. And my name's Clayton.

Like, I'm a generation of people who we need no last name.

Nobody's been like, you know, there's a lot of Matt's, there's

a lot of Brian's, tons of Brads and Bob's, but nobody goes

Clayton who? But like, I think I know who

we're talking about. Cleata was one-of-a-kind.

She was a one off and there she was in the middle of this

Presbyterian Church, both hands up, praising Jesus like this is

you keep doing what you're doing, I'm fine, she's OK.

You die means to extend your hand in worship.

It's used 111 times in the Old Testament.

It's used to describe people coming together and lifting

their hands together in God's presence.

Hear me. It is the natural expression of

excitement, wonder, aw, it's what we do when our team wins,

scores the touchdown. We yada, it's it'd be and it

crosses all geographical boundaries and all language

barriers. If you see somebody in another

nation, in another country going woo, you don't ask yourself, I

wonder what he's thinking. It translates and it is

something that you never have to teach your kids.

Did you ever have to teach your kids how to celebrate?

Now this when we're really excited, here's what we do.

Your kids naturally do it. The first time your kid makes a

basket, what does he do? He you does Psalm 145, verse 10

Psalms 145:10

says all your works. You die.

You, Lord, your faithful people extol you.

The things that God does, you die.

They lift their hands in victory.

Psalm 67, three says May the peoples you die.

You God, may all the peoples you die, you.

In the movies, when you see people shooting their guns in

the air in victory, they are you dying.

When people are launching arrows into the air with joy, they are

you dying. And maybe today, for the first

time, you would. You da the Lord you see you.

Da is an eternal verb, which means that one day we will you

da God forever and ever. So if we're going to do it for

all eternity, we might as well start practicing now.

Interesting devotional. The Bible says that when we are

in heaven, we will see God face to face, then we will have

perfect knowledge of who he is. And when the Bible describes God

in heaven and it describes his presence, this is what the Bible

communicates, that God is surrounded by angels and living

creatures who never stop worshipping him.

They never stop. That means pay attention here,

that as our knowledge of God increases, as our understanding

of God increases, so does our desire to worship him.

The more you know about him, the more you want to you da him.

Word to halal. Everybody say halal.

You guys are learning Hebrew. It means to boast, to rave, to

shine, to celebrate, to act clamorously foolish.

This is the primary word for praise in the Old Testament.

It is from this word that we get the word Hallelujah.

The Oh yeah, the the is Jehovah is Yahweh.

Praise Hallelujah is praise God when you it is the laying aside

of your inhibitions. It is the kind of worship where

you kill yourself conscious. You care nothing about what

other people think. You just want to praise the

Lord. Think of your family at a

wedding. You're at a wedding, everybody's

hanging out and having fun and the DJ comes out and he starts

getting it going and everybody's like, OK, let's go up there

after everybody does their little dance and they get

everybody to do the chicken dance.

They loosen everybody up with the chicken dance and then they

do YMCA and everybody's kind of getting a little bit more

loosened up. Then they do the Electric Slide

and you got grandma with her busted up hip.

OK. And then about 30 minutes later,

while everybody kind of goes back to eat and the cool kids

are being too cool, you'll look across the dance floor and

you'll see a couple old people and a couple young people.

They're no longer doing choreography.

They're just, they're just having fun.

You know what they're doing? They're halaling.

They don't care what other people think.

They are just clamorously foolish.

I have a question for you. How much of your worship to God

has been restrained by your fear of how other people see you?

Psalm 149 verse 3 says let them halal His name with dancing and

Psalms 149:3

make music to Him with timbrel and harp.

When you think about the Lord and you think about all that He

has done for you and you get so focused on Him that you stop

thinking or caring about what others think, you just might be

on your way to what the Bible calls worship, a special kind of

worship. Halal word 3 Zamar.

Everybody say zamar to make music, to celebrate in song and

music, to touch the strings or the parts of a musical

instrument. Praise and worship Music can be

a powerful tool to draw us in to a personal experience with God.

Music is more powerful than we can even understand.

It can soften our hearts. It can soothe our troubled

souls. It opens a door to the spiritual

world that paves the road for the spirits coming into our

lives. Why do we put on music when

we're driving with a loved one? Why do couples have a song?

There is something that happens in us when music underscores a

preaching moment. Immediately we start to relax a

little bit, lean in a little bit more.

Over 40 times in the Bible, zamar is used to praise the Lord

with the instruments to get the music going, to get your heart

directed in the right way. Psalm 144 verse 9 says I will

Psalms 144:9

sing a new song to you, O God, on a harp of 10 strings, I will

zamar you. Psalm 7 or Psalm 7 verse 17

Psalms 7:17

says, I will you die the Lord according to his righteousness,

and I will sing zamar to the name of the Most High.

Psalm 57 verse 7 says My heart is fixed, Oh God, my heart is

Psalms 57:7

fixed, I will sing and give zamar to you.

Music can bolster the human heart and fill us with the

courage to live out our faith as we cling to the promises of God.

Think of the walk out music for a basketball team, the hype

music for a football team. We're getting ready to go to

war. And you know what?

We need a soundtrack. That's why presidential

candidates fight over the rights to certain music to be played

during their campaign. Because they know that the music

moves you, changes you, that there's something that happens

to the human heart. There's something that happens

in worship when an instrument gets played and God gets his

zamar #4 toda. Everybody say Toda, this is an

extension of the hand. You're going to notice something

when God talks about worship. He doesn't spend a whole lot of

time talking about this. There's an awful lot of this.

It is Thanksgiving, a confession, a sacrifice of

praise, Thanksgiving for things not yet received, a choir of

worshippers. Toda in Hebrew is a word that

means an extension of the hand in Thanksgiving to God, not just

for what he's done, but it is a sacrifice of praise for things

not yet received. It is praising God in

expectation. It is a way for us in our hearts

to convey trust in the goodness of our God when things aren't

going right. It's not just praising God for

what He's done. It's praising God for what you

believe He could do. In Psalm 56, David writes this

Psalm while he is experiencing hardship on absolutely every

side. His enemies are attacking him

continually. Let me tell you what he he says

death is staring him in the face.

Earlier in Psalm 56, this is what he writes.

Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit.

All day long they press their attack.

My adversaries pursue me all day long in their pride.

Many are attacking me when I am afraid.

I will put my trust in you, God, whose word I praise.

In God I trust and I am not afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me? All day long they twist my

words. Their schemes are all for my

ruin. They conspire, they learn, they

watch my steps, hoping to take my life.

But look how he ends the song in Psalm 56.

In God I trust and am not afraid.

What can man do to me? I am under vows to you, God.

I will present my toda to you. Believe in all right, for You

have delivered me from death, my feet from stumbling, that I may

walk before God in the light of life.

He writes that song while he is being oppressed, claiming in

advance that God will deliver him.

Hear me. When you todah, you are choosing

to worship over your worry. Instead of focusing on the

things that are out of your control, you are focusing all of

your attention to the One who is in control.

When you Todah, the things of this world get smaller and you

start. To see your God for how big He

really is. Hear me, I got a devotional

thought for somebody today. If you are here today and things

are not up and to the right. If you are walking with some

worry, if there's some pain in your stride, if there's a

marital hardship, you're navigating a parenting pinch

point. If you are listening to my voice

right now and you are still waiting and praying for the

salvation of a loved one. If you're here today and you're

beat down. If you're tired, if you're sick,

if you're sad, you're depressed, you're overwhelmed, stressed

out, needing some guidance, in search of direction, longing for

peace, you have all of the necessary ingredients to Da Da,

the name of the Lord, Lord Most High.

Remember the song Do it again. To do it again is a todah song.

When you sing that song and your heart moves in the middle of

that song, it's because your heart is saying todah.

Stupid Todah. Look at me walking around these

walls. I thought by now they fall.

But you have never failed me yet, Todah.

Waiting for change to come, knowing the battles won for you

have never failed me yet, Toda. I've seen you move, You move the

mountains, and I believe I'll see you do it again.

Toda, you made a way when there was no way, and I believe I'll

see you do it again. Toda some 121 verse one through

2 says I lift my eyes to the mountains.

Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the

Maker of heaven and earth. When you're in it, you can look

at your problem, or you can look to the hills, knowing that God

is on his way. And you can todah #5 Barack.

Barack means to kneel to bless God as an act of adoration, to

praise, to salute, to thank. This word is commonly translated

as praise is a word of humility. Barack embodies the notion of

kneeling before God, blessing God, adoring God, recognizing

your position in relationship to God.

This word is used 289 times in the Psalms on each occurrence.

It is used to describe worshippers falling on their

face before God in reverence, adoration, and thanks.

Scholars of the ancient Hebrew provide additional insights into

the word Barack. They believe that in the

original context, the term did not simply mean just to kneel,

but to kneel down and keeping your eyes fixed on the King.

That when we Barack, we are recognizing that he's in charge

and we are not taking our eyes off the King.

Psalm 72 verse 11 and 15 says, May all the kings bow down to

Psalms 72:11

him, and all nations serve him. Long may he live.

May gold from Sheba be given him.

May people ever pray for him and Barack him all day long.

When Barack takes place, even the most powerful lay aside

their egos, their power, their desires.

They give all they have to him. Their gold, their prayer, their

honor, their gaze. They have an understanding of

who they're worshipping. If we've experienced the

goodness of God, if we've seen him work in our lives, in the

lives of our friends, in the life of our church, how can we

not, Barack, how can we not fall to our knees in gratitude with

our eyes fixed on him? Because when the king walks in

the room, everybody kneels Number six, Tequila.

Some of you said tequila, and that's why you choose the

crossing. Tequila means laudation, a hymn,

a song of praise, a new song, a spontaneous song.

The Old Testament psalmist were masters of incorporating the

stories of their history into songs of praise.

And their story praise is captured by the word tequila.

In fact, tehila is a Hebrew word meaning hymn, song of praise,

new spontaneous song. The book of Psalms is actually a

collection of these kinds of songs.

And in fact, in the Hebrew language, the book of Psalms is

called the tehilam. Tehilam is a word that is used

57 times in the scripture with over half of those occurrences

being found in Psalm. Psalm 22 verse 3 says you, yet

Psalms 22:3

you are enthroned as the holy 1 You are the one Israel Tehilas.

Songs of Tehila may not rhyme, they may not even be the

catchiest tune. But these songs, even though

they're not the most polished, they come from the worshippers

heart and the moment. Songs of Tehila flow from the

depth of our intimacy with God, singing a made-up song to God.

Follow this with me. Some of you have probably sang a

song to your wife. It's probably not in the same

stratosphere as what we're talking about here, but you have

been so moved that you sang her a little song made-up a little

Jingle. When you did that, you were to

heal him. There's something that happens

to us when we sing a made-up song to God.

Full disclosure, I had never to heal him until recently, but

when I was working on the Storm was like, I got to start giving

it a try. So there's been a couple times

that I've been driving and I just try to like, OK, God, I'm

going to try this to heal him thing out.

And can I tell you, it's been special every time.

If I can come up with a cool little Jingle for my wife, I can

probably come up with a Jingle for God.

And it's not a song for everybody else.

It's a song for me, and it's a song for him.

Even if the words don't rhyme, even if you can't carry a tune,

even if you don't know quite yet what to sing, practice raising a

spontaneous song of praise to God.

It may be awkward at first. It may even be uncomfortable.

But if you do, there's a gift for you.

The Bible says that God dwells into helium.

Some of you may have grown up in church and you have heard this

verse before. God inhabits the praises of His

people. There's a certain type of praise

that He inhabits. In fact, I already read you the

verse. I just read it to you in a

different version. Psalm 22 three is God is

enthroned and inhabits your tehila.

When you sing a made-up song about the goodness of God out of

the overflow of your heart, God says I'm coming into the middle

of that. I will inhabit your tahila.

He does not inhabit your Barack, he inhabits your tahila.

He doesn't inhabit your yadah. He inhabits when you just start

singing to him, saying no one can do stuff like you, no one's

better than you. No one's loving me like you do.

He's like I'm on my way. That's my living room.

That's where I like to be in your tahila #7 Shabak to address

in a loud tone, to shout, to commend, glory and triumph.

Psalm 117 one says praise the Lord, all you nations, Shabak

him, all you peoples. What he's doing is it is our the

final Hebrew word of praise. It means to address in this loud

tone quite literally, it means to raise a holy roar.

The word is used sparsely in the Old Testament, but these 11

times that it shows up, each time it has a powerful effect,

similar to fans at a sporting event, joining together in a

thunderous sound, all cheering, all yelling, all declaring the

celebration. This corporate celebration, this

shout of praise that erupts in a stadium during a match of soccer

or during the game of football is Shavak.

And every time we gather with God's people to praise him with

one voice uniting with another voice, these songs become

anthems. These anthems become

declarations. These declarations become a holy

roar. Psalm 145, verse 4 says One

Psalms 145:4

generation shall box your works to another.

They tell of your mighty acts. Shabbat transcends time and

geography. It is this holy roar that

reaches from one generation to the next generation.

And this shout of praise needs your voice because no one can

Shabbat God for you. Only you can do that.

But when you Shabbat and I Shabbat and we Shabbat, when we

gather as a church, we are lifting a holy, triumphant roar.

Why? Because we have won through

Jesus. We are celebrating the victory

that was won on our behalf when Jesus was crucified on the cross

and rose from the grave. You see, the reason we gather to

celebrate is because sin has been destroyed, guilt has been

cast off, shame has been dismantled, Satan has been

crushed, Hell has been defeated. So how can we not show up and

Shabbat with everything we have? And here's what I'm wondering

What would happen to our worship if we started worshiping?

Not how we feel, but how God commands and how God deserves.

We're moving to a time of decision, Tyler McKenzie, who

preaches here a couple of times a year, recently wrote in a

Christian Standard article. These words hang with me.

In 1947, African American theologian Howard Thurman.

He gave a famous speech for the Ingersoll Lecture Series at

Harvard. He explored how worship songs of

slaves gave them hope amid chaos and suffering.

He referenced their songs that spoke of Chariots swinging, low,

trumpets resounding, tombstones bursting, and sinners trembling.

The popular critics of African American spirituals was that

they were too heavenly minded and that this sort of thinking

made slaves passive and too other worldly to fight back

against slavery. But Thurman used his lecture to

challenge this critique. He argued that their hope and

divine judgement and eternal heaven empowered them to trust

God's sovereignty, endure pain, and conquer evil with good, that

their songs of hope were fuel for the ultimate fight.

They knew that they would outlive all of the chaos they

experienced in this world with God and eternity, and that

enabled them to look evil and hardship in the face and sing.

To experience unthinkable hardships and write songs about

God is on his way. That they could be separated

from their families, abused and beaten, but because their mind

was so focused on the God who reigned supreme, they could

sing. Swing low, Sweet chariot coming

forth to carry me home. And times like these and the

times that you're living in right now, this sort of hopeful

theology sung with a spiritual family can be just the medicine

we need. So to those of you who don't

have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus, you

don't have anything to sing about yet, but heaven is waiting

for you to join the triumphant chorus.

And so in just a few moments, when the people around you stand

and sing and a lot more of them start worshipping and some of

them come to the steps and pray, I want to encourage you to talk

to somebody. Or if you want, walk right over

there underneath that screen next to the baptistry and talk

to somebody about how you can begin an intimate, personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. So you can understand why we are

so excited to sing about the goodness of our God.

And to those of you who do have an intimate, personal

relationship with Jesus, it is time for our worship to join the

heavens. That this is not about how you

feel right now. This is not about how your week

was. This is not about whether or not

you feel the best or don't feel the best.

This is about is God worthy of worship and are we willing to

give Him what He desires, what He requires, and what He

deserves. Would you stand with me?

I think probably the right thing for me to do, God, is to

apologize for all the times we've done it wrong, to

apologize for all the times we made worship about us.

And instead of making it about you, I'm incredibly thankful

that you are long-suffering and patient with us.

God, I pray that you would release a culture of genuine,

authentic, obedient worship in this church, not just here, but

at all of our locations, but not just at all of our locations.

Release it in May Release it in US.

Hear my pray. Amen.