True Worship (A Life Surrendered)

On. Oh there we are, Thank you Taylor. I am

good morning, afternoon, wherever we are. It's good to be

with you all. I was joking in the first service,

it's the first time that I've used this.

New, beautiful pulpit and it's a little taller.

So I first opened up my laptop and I was like, oh,

I can barely see over all of you, over this

to all of you.

So anyway, it's good to be with you.

Justin asked me to speak today, and as I was

asking the Lord, what do you want to speak about?

What do you have to say to us.

On Sunday, I instantly saw the word worship in front

of me, and I actually kind of dismissed it at first,

thinking it was just my own thought, not really pay

a whole lot of attention or heed it. And so

I continued about my day and I was going for

a walk and I was like, Lord, what do you

want to say.

On Sunday?

And I was just completely quiet, and I immediately went

back to, Oh, that was you speaking. You want to

talk about worship, So let me open us up in

prayer before we open the word, Father, thank you, thank

you for this family. If people gathered here. Thank you

for your presence. I thank you that you pursue us

and that you want to be with us. I thank

you for your word. I thank you for your truth.

I thank you that you are the bread of life.

Father Us said as we open your word today that

you would pour out deeper revelation of what you want

to say in regards to worship. Holy Spirit, we welcome

you here. We say, have your way and move in

our midst in Jesus Mighty name.

Amen. If you've been in the church for any length

of time, you've may have heard a sermon or two

about worship.

I'd like to invite you, though, today to be willing

to listen to it with new ears. The Lord designed

worship and he knows so much more about it. There

are so many more layers than I think that we

even are aware of, and so so I want to

invite him to and my prayer is that he would

just open up a new layer, a new realm, go deeper,

maybe something that you haven't heard in regards to worship

or maybe even experienced. I've mentioned before when I've shared

there's a gentleman that I really like.

His resources.

He does an extensive study on the original languages the Hebrew, Greek,

and Ara make that the Bible was written in.

And so when I want to dive deep into.

A particular topic or word, I like to go to

his resources.

His name is kim bink Tore.

So when the Lord gave me the word worship, I

immediately went to his resources. And he actually starts out

talking about worship in the Book of Judges, which is

in the Old Testament. If you want to go ahead

and turn there with me, we'll be in Judges chapter seven,

and we'll start in verse nine. Just a little bit

of a backstory. This has to do with Gideon. If

you're not familiar with who Gideon is. Gideon was chosen

by God to lead Israel into a battle against the

Midianites and the Amalekites. Gideon, though, is the unassumed person

because he tells the Lord that he was the least

in his family, and his family was the least in

the tribe. So when the Lord came to him, he

was hiding in the wine press if you're not familiar

with the story, and the Lord came to him and

called him out and said, man of mighty valor, I've

chosen you to lead my people into war, into battle

for freedom. So the Lord had to in that moment

undo Gideon's identity. Gideon told God who he is, and

God had to tell Gideon who he actually was, So

that was part of his process in raising Gideon up.

M So we'll jump down to verse nine. The war

is imminent, and the Lord says to Gideon. That same night,

the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp,

for I have given it into your hand. But if

you are afraid to go down, go down to the

camp with Pura, your servant, and you shall hear what

they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to

go down against the camp. Then he went down with Purah,

his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who

were in the camp. And the Midianites and the Amalekites

and all the people of the east lay along the

valley like locust and abundant, and their camels were without number,

as the sand is on the seashore, in abundance. When

Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to

his comrade, and he said, behold, I dreamed a dream,

and behold a cake of barley bread tumbled into the

camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck

it so that it fell, and turned it upside down,

so that the tent lay flat. And his comrade answered,

this is no other than the sword of Gideon, the

son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given

into his hand Midian in all the camp. As soon

as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation,

he worshiped, and he returned to the camp of Israel

and said, arise, for the Lord has given the host

of Midian into your hand. What I think is interesting

about this passage that we read is the Lord comes

to Gideon and he knows the wars and that it's coming.

In, and he says, hey, Gideon.

First of all, backstory, Gideon had gotten some several men.

The Lord told him to get an army together, and

he had around thirty three thousand men show up. Over

the process of weeding them out, he's down to three

hundred men to fight with him. Thirty three thousand to

three hundred. We can just about fit three hundred people

in this room. If that gives you an idea of

what he was fighting with. He goes to the camp

and he tells Gideon, Hey, Gideon, I want you to

do something. I want you to go into the enemy's camp,

just in the outposts, and I want you to hear

what they're saying. When you hear what they're saying, your

hand will be strengthened to win this war. The Bible

tells us that the men of Midian and the Amalekites

were vastly numbered, that even the camels were that of

the sand of the sea. Has anyone ever been to

the beach? Have you seen the sand? Can you count

the sand? Can you imagine going in knowing this is

your enemy's camp and even their camels are that of

the sand of the sea. That could be pretty intimidating.

But God sends him there. Of all the people that

Gideon could have been around at that time, he was

around the man that God gave a dream to. Of

all the people that Gideon could have been around at

that time, he was around the man who had the

interpretation of the dream. The timing and the placement was

divine for a purpose so that Gideon's hand would be

strengthened to go into battle. He had to walk at

the exact location where the man who had the dream

was also going to be with an earshot, and God

allowed Gideon to hear this dream and the interpretation. What

I think is interesting is the Lord gave the enemies

people the dream and the interpretation. He could have sent

a prophet to Gideon and said, the Lord told me,

the Lord gave me this vision. The Lord gave me

this dream. So I think there's a double effect here,

in my opinion, for the enemy to have had this

dream and to interpret it and say that is none

other that Gideon, the son of joe Ash.

They knew who he was. The Lord has surely.

Given midean into his hand that causes defeat in the

heart of an enemy. The Lord has given We're already done.

The Lord's already given it into his hand.

Not only does it cause defeat, but it causes encouragement

in Gideon's heart. As soon as Gideon heard it, he worshiped.

I'd like to talk about what worship is. A lot

of times in the church we imagine and associate singing

and dancing and praising and lifting our hands and speaking

and preaching the Word as worship. If Gideon had done

any of those things, he would have immediately been exposed.

So Tim looks into further way. Does the word worship

mean here? What is it that Gideon did when he worshiped?

So it's a Hebrew word that's used, and I'm going

to try really hard to pronounce it, but it is

a little challenging. Yesheta probably butchered that. But and it

comes from a root word shaka. And there's a Semitic

root here meaning to swim or to be surrounded by water.

In other words, it's being surrounded by the presence of God.

If you've ever been surrounded by the presence of God,

you know that you experience his holiness, which is the

word kodesh, and that has the idea of weightiness.

Have ever been in his presence? It's just heavy, and

all you can do is.

To bow, to lower yourself, to kneel, to lay prostrate

before him. His holy presence surrounds you and saturates you.

That's what Gideon experienced. The very God that sent him

down there went with him, surrounding him, dancing over him

in his presence. The Lord found Gideon hiding when he

first found him in the wine press. And so I

think it's interesting in this verse He's like, hey, Gideon,

I want you to go down to the camp. If

you're afraid, you can take Purah and who did he take?

Took Purra with him. He's like, I need to get

you to this point where your hand strengthened, and I

already know what's going on inside of you, and if

you need the crutch to get there, I can oversee.

I can overcome that. I can work with that. He's

not asking us to be perfect and to have it

all together for him to be able to use this.

If we have to come with the crutch, we can

come with the crutch until he works through us and

in us to cleanse and to place our true identity

and work that into us. No one is disqualified just

because you have a crutch. You need a support system.

I can work with that. You're not disqualified. Another thing

about worship that I've seen in the church but also

personally believed at one point, it seems to me that

you still see a lot of people struggle with the

idea that the Lord would sing over you like he

is a holy God, he is magnificent, he is the

King of kings, he is the Lord of lords. He

is righteous, he is our savior, that he is pure,

there is no fault.

Found in him.

So I don't want to take away from the reverential awe.

Of who he is.

All of that is true, But worship includes intimacy, and

intimacy is a two way street. Yes, when we say Lord,

I worship you, I give you everything.

You are holy, you are worthy. I love you.

I lay down my life to serve you, but we

can't when he wants to sing over us say no,

I'm not worthy.

No I can't receive that.

Then we're preventing him from being able to love on

us and join us in that intimate relationship with us.

I can have an intimate relationship with any friend here,

and I can be vulnerable and pour out my heart,

But if that's not reciprocated, then it's just a one

way street. As I was thinking about this, I had

I feel like the Holy Spirit gave me an illustration.

So I'm gonna share with you.

My mom is here, I'm gonna I already gave her

a heads up and she agreed to join me in

this illustry. Okay, so go here with me for a second.

When we view God as our father and holy and

He's an authority, and we can offer him worship and

praise and adoration, but we don't receive that from him.

We don't receive the intimacy from him. It would be

no different than if I had that type of relationship

with my mom. So my mom, let me back up

a little bit. Jesus paid it all right, he finished

the work. He owes us nothing right, So we could say,

you've done it all and you don't owe anything. My

mom carried me in her womb, she gave birth to

me and brought me into this earth. She cared for

me and raised me. So as I grow up and

I'm an adult and I can be on my own,

I could say you don't owe me anything.

At all.

In fact, I can't even hear you speak to me

because I'm unworthy. I need to be the one bringing

you everything. I don't even expect you to want to

be with me because I'm unworthy. You've done everything, but

I will come before you because I owe you everything

and I want that type of a relationship with you.

How many would say that that's a healthy relationship. Could

our relationship continue to thrive if that was the way

that she viewed her position, and I viewed mine. But

yet we put God in that box when we view worship.

One way, I have a son sitting right up there.

If he were to come down here to be with

me to tell me something, I wouldn't even wait for

him to get all the way here before I went

running to grab him, to pull him up in my

arms and give him a hug. And that is how

God sees us. You are his child. You are not

a burden. My children are not a burden. I love

being with my kids. I love spending time with them.

I love having conversation. I love when they want to

come pour out their heart to me and talk to

me and tell me what their day is or tell

me a silly story. I love watching them enjoy what

they're doing. And that is how God views us.

Thank you. Can you see how God views us?

They God muses as the father that wants to spend

time with his kids. And I was thinking about it today.

That must really frustrate the Spirit of Religion. Spirit of

Religion says, you have to work for it. We have

to check all the boxes. Time goes on to say

about this word, you grab a drink. Hime goes on

to say, be that as it may. There is one

thing I have discovered about the word worship as I

continue to research it out.

There is nothing that implies.

Music, singing, dancing, praying, repeating the name of Jesus over

and over. Nothing to do with reading the scriptures, nothing

to do with listening to a sermon, being in a church,

or even speaking catch this part. In fact, I am

beginning to realize that worship is a lot more of

allowing God to have his own way with us as

we just sit back, kneel, fall prostrate, or just stand

with arms lifted, letting him surround us with his presence

and love. Worship is allowing God to feel pleasure in

being with us. Have you ever thought of worship that way?

Have you ever thought about the fact that God feels

pleasure just being with you. Coming together corporately and having

a time of praise and singing is amazing. And we

have an amazing prison worship team every Sunday that leads.

Us right into the presence of God. And that's a

good thing to do.

That it's a good thing to come together and experience

His presence corporately. But this type of presence, this type

of worship we can experience out there in our everyday lives.

In fact, as we grow in our relationship with Him,

then this time becomes more strengthened. As we grow and mature,

as we've spent that time with Him, then this time

becomes more strengthened. We all have a part to bring

as we gather corporately. We all have something to offer.

God's given each one of you a gift, and he

just delights in the gift that he gives you. Him

was mentioning, this is the part that I think really

ticks off the religious spirit. And he said that he

met a priest who is very skilled in woodworking, and

he says he worships God. Let's see, he says he

worships God or feels God's pleasure as he works with wood.

And then he mentions Eric Liddell, he won the gold

medal in the nineteen twenty six Olympics and who was

also portrayed in the movie Chariots a Fire. And Eric said,

God made me for a purpose, but he also made

me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.

The thing I love about those two examples woodworking and running,

is there is no benefit for the person around them.

It is unfortunate that I personally don't benefit when Eric runs.

If he could run and I would benefit, I would

be amazing. But it's just something pleasurable to him. It's

that simple something that he does to earn it, to

work for it. He's not checking off boxes. He's just

doing something. He's using a gift God's given him. He's

finding pleasure in it because he knows that the Father

is finding pleasure in him using that gift. How many

have felt guilty when you have gone through the week

and you realize, Ah, I only had quiet time two

times this week. Oh, I fell asleep reading. I was

reading the world and I fall asleep. I don't even

know how to have quiet time with him. I don't

know what to do, how to hear him. Uh, I

was praying and I fall asleep. Can we just remove

that guilt and that shame? Just do showing up? Letting

your father have pleasure in being with you was enough.

We can shut down the religious spirit by not checking

boxes but just being. We often see in worship, and

I think it's reasonable because we have kind of created

this umbrella and said, you know, we raise our hands

or we clap or were singing, we dance before the Lord,

and that's our worship. I would propose to you that's

actually a response.

To him.

Yes, everyone here has a story, everyone has an experience.

I love to watch people worship because it tells a story.

When they're dancing before the Lord, they've had an experience

with him. When they're moved to tears, when they're clapping,

raising their hands, whatever it may be as a response

to his goodness and what he's done in their lives.

But we can't know those experiences because I can't know

him because you've experienced him. You hear people give the

illustration of I'm gonna use chocolate chip cookies. If I

came to you and I was like, there's this place

down the road that has amazing chocolate chip cookies. It's

brand new. You've never been there, but I've been there,

and they are fresh out of the oven when you

order them. They don't even hand them to you until

they're fresh out the oven, and they're gooey in the center,

they're warm, they're kind of crunching on the outside.

When you pull them.

Apart, the chocolate just drips, and they are phenomenal well

I can speak to you from that and tell you

exactly what it's like because I've experienced it, and hopefully

me speaking about my experience creates in you a desire

to have the same experience. When we speak about our

experiences in our relationship with God and worship, it creates

and the people around us to have those same experiences.

I need to know that this God that you're talking

about that pulled you out of the pit, I need

to know him from myself. I need to know this

God that you're talking about that healed you, that provided

for you when there was no way, can provide for

me too. I need to know that this God that

fills you with hope and a world that seems hopeless

can fill me with hope to these stories matter out

there in our everyday life. There's a place for corporate

there's a place for corporate worship, but everyday life is

where the people are that need to hear this.

I need to hear this.

I need to be able to feel his presence and

let him just take pleasure and being with us. We

sing about it in so many songs today. It's when

you for me, after having kind of done a study

and a deep dive into this word worship. I hear

songs differently. We probably should have, like maybe done the

sermon versus an enter indoorship into a time of song

and praise so you could feel the Father taking pleasure

in you. I realized that not everybody came from a

home where your parents took pleasure in you, and that

can provide a challenge to understand what it's like to

have a heavenly father who takes pleasure in us. Maybe

you never experienced your father wrapping you up in his

arms and swinging you around so delighted with a smile

from ear to ear, just because you were there.

I have good news for you. You've been adopted.

Into a new family, and your heavenly father wants to

show you that kind of love. Yes, none of us

grow up in a perfect family. We all do the

best we can with what we know. But he meets

us there. Whatever we didn't get in our family, in.

Our household, he can provide for us.

He can get to us. He's a good father, yes,

and he delights in you.

He just loves to be with you. I would I

would actually like to give an invitation.

See, I don't want you to walk out of these

doors the same way that you came. And I know

we say that a lot, and that can become a

real cliche in the church.

But I worship a God.

Who changes lives, and when we gather, our lives should

be changed. Here when anytime you encounter his presence, it

should change your life. So if there is a part

that's broken or wounded or confused, he wants to touch.

That part.

And see you mended and healed and have clarity. So

I want to move and make space for the Holy

Spirit to come in, for your Father God to come

in and to allow you to feel His pleasure over you.

Do you mind planning for me?

Thank you?

And I want to invite the prayer team to go

ahead and come up if you would please. As Wayne plays,

I just want you to if you didn't come from

a family that you felt loved and you don't know

what that looks like and you've never had an opportunity

to experience it, you're invited to come and let one

of these people pray for you, for you to experience

the Father's great pleasure and his great love for you.

If you have only understood worship in the box of religion,

and you haven't had the freedom to just live in

his presence and know what it feels like to have

him take.

Pleasure in you. I invite you to come forward and

allow the Lord.

To undo the thinking, the wrong thinking, the wrong understanding,

and instill in us a deeper revelation of what worship

actually is. To experience him, not just hear about him,

not just talk about him, not just sing the song,

not just slip your hands, truly be changed by experiencing

his presence. Gideon, in experiencing God's presence, was strengthened for war.

He was given boldness, he was strengthened with courage. It's

in his presence that we're equipped. What is before you today?

Do you have something before you today that you're standing

for that God's leading you to that you feel unqualified

for Get in his presence and let him lavish his

love on you. Just as the natural rain is saturating

the earth right now, let his presence saturate you.

So I invite you to come forward.

If that's any of you, I'm gonna pray over us

corporately as people boldly.

Come forward.

Wanting more of what He has to offer. Father, we

Thank you for the natural rain we asked for your

spirit to saturate our lives. Saturate us now. Thank you

for pursuing us and taking great pleasure in who you've

called and created us to be, wanting to be with us,

longing to be near us, longing for us to have

a deeper revolution of what it means to have relationship

with you, showing us another aspect of who you are. Father.

Thank you, Thank you for listening. For more messages and

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