Habitation School of Worship - Week 2 - The Enemies of Worship

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And usually the title of this, we're just kind of thinking about it, but the title of this is just uh the enemies of worship, but but we believe these three things can really just uh these three things uh I believe have really from just being with people, helping discipline people uh more and more.

Uh I really believe um I believe these three things uh can really attack people.

Shame, resprit shame and guilt together, uh fear and performance uh in the place of worship and our intimate life with Jesus.

And uh like I said, we're just gonna kind of dive into these three things of how they can attack us, how to identify them in our intimate place uh with how can we identify them and just help us grow in Jesus?

Uh like I said, but yeah, so anyway, shame, uh performance and fear, those are the three things, like I said, that we really wanted to highlight.

Me and my wife really wanted to highlight to help us grow to help us identify these things and to just break them off the bride and knowing we can go deeper in Jesus, you know, we can be free from these things.

And I believe these three things, like I said, really hinder us to go get closer to Jesus and kind of uh can stop our worship.

But uh anyway, the first one we're gonna talk about is uh shame, uh shame real quick, and uh Pastor Mercy's gonna share a little bit here, but like I said, this is the first one we just kind of want to share uh with our heart here about shame a little bit and just how that can you know hinder us and stuff like that, how to identify it.

Okay.

We're gonna jump right in, but um Romans 8 1, it says, Therefore, there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so, since we are in Christ Jesus, it means that we belong to him, because one translation also says um for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

And so it also reminds me of the verse um in Song of Solomon Song of Songs, I think 214, where the Shulamite woman says, like, hide me in the cliff of the rock, like I hide me in who you are, like I'm hidden in you.

And so shame will always try to separate us from him.

Shame creates a long-distance relationship with Jesus, and it will cause us to love him more at a distance.

Shame keeps us at a distance because we want to get closer to Jesus, and shame magnifies our mistakes and who we are not.

So shame will always tell us we are not worthy or valuable.

And one thing that the Lord was talking to me earlier about how shame, like we are separated from from shame, is when Jesus, when he died and he tore the veil, he tore it in two.

So, along with the the tearing of the veil, he also tore and ripped away shame and guilt so that like we no longer have any part of that.

Like that's not who we are, and that's not um who we identify ourselves as, but we are in him, we belong to him.

Thank you, Lord.

That's good.

Thank you, Jesus.

I love that how we're you were talking about just once again how it creates that long distance relationship, right?

Sometimes uh you see movies and stuff like that.

It's about just how it's funny, just you know, those long distance, you don't know who they are, really, stuff like that, and you'd be catfish or something.

Uh diving speaking of Genesis three, real quick.

Um, we love this.

Uh we hear this a lot, this story, actually.

Uh it's about Genesis 3, 7, uh, also 9 through 11.

I'm just gonna read these real quick and kind of dive into them.

But uh verse 7 says, At the moment their eyes were open and they suddenly felt shame of their nakedness, so they sewed fake leaves together to cover themselves.

Uh 9 through 11, it says, Then the Lord called to the man, Where are you?

He replied.

He replied, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.

I was afraid because I was naked.

Who told you you were naked?

The Lord God asked.

Oh man, uh, speaking once again of just how this is what shame does to us in our life.

This is truly like a perfect picture of what shame can do to us if we're wanting to get closer to Jesus.

If we're like, man, I want to get closer to Jesus.

This is what shame does.

Shame will always tell you to hide from God, not just hide from God, but also hide the things from him rather than letting God deal with it.

And I think sometimes that's a big problem.

You know, we don't I I believe that's a big problem because like we're talking about if we don't get close to him, it's not about, hey, you got to fix yourself up.

We always hear that, right?

You don't got to fix yourself up, right?

But it's about allowing Jesus to mold you and shape you and who he's called you to be, your identity.

But that's the thing, shame will only want you to hide.

Shame will tell you hide yourself or hide the things you've been going through from yourself, from him, from people, hide yourself, isolate yourself.

You see what I'm saying?

And that's what shame does.

Shame will tell you to isolate yourself in a bad way.

Because you know, Jesus I you know went to the wellness a lot to isolate himself, but for the good reason, shame will tell you to isolate yourself, hide yourself for the wrong reasons and for the you know the bad reasons.

And uh, like I said, just like how they try to make their clothes out of the leaves, we try to cover the things up and try to use other things to help us rather than letting him do it.

And shame will always tell you to do that.

Shame will always tell you, hey, cover it up with this, cut band-aid it with this, do this rather than going to him, rather than going to him and saying, Jesus, here's my heart.

See what shame, you can't do that.

You won't be able to do that with shame.

You're just gonna once again try to cover yourself up with a temporary fix rather than going to him and letting him deal with the problems that you're facing.

And I believe that's that's the thing.

Shame does that to us.

Like, like we always talk.

I said this before a long time ago.

Um I I said this before, uh, the Lord was showing me when I first started ever studying uh the woman at the well, uh, worshiping in spirit and in truth, you know, truth being like that authentic way, you know, not hiding nothing from him, no mask.

And the Lord told me, He's like, you would never be able to worship with an authentic heart if you don't understand what my blood did for you.

And and I that's the thing, all the shame is gone when you truly understand what the blood of Jesus has done for you.

Like my wife was saying, Pastor Marissa, the veil was torn when he died.

And that's what happened, that's what the blood did.

It tore that separation.

It said, hey, bro, the blood's here.

Now there's no separation between us.

That's like seriously, the veil was torn to let the people know physically with their eyes now, like, bro, there is no more separation.

But shame, because think about the only people that couldn't go past that veil were what?

The people who are sinful.

So that's the thing.

The veil, the people's shame is like a veil.

It would be there to tell us, you can't go any further, you can't go any further.

Hey, do a temporary fix, do whatever you can, you know.

And that's what sometimes shame does to us, man.

And I'm telling you, if you're going through that, you're watching this, man.

I'm telling you, you have to understand what the blood of Jesus has done for you.

You have to let the blood of Jesus to truly become a reality, not just something you you know take communion like third Sunday, whatever the month.

It has to become a reality you live by.

Like you were saying, the veil's torn, you know, it's completely gone.

And I think that's that's a shame.

Shame creates that veil.

The shame still says, hey, the veil's there, you can't go any further.

You can't go any further.

And uh Yeah, it reminds me of um something the Lord told me the other day, and he said, Shame will isolate you while my love brings freedom to you.

And so the longer we we continue to live in the shame that that that he paid the price for that we don't have to walk through, um, then we won't experience the fullness of of his nature and his character, you know, because his love brings freedom.

Yeah.

That's good.

So uh before we move on, uh the last thing we talk about here, that's awesome, it's true.

His love brings the freedom.

I mean, the cross, and that's it.

His love truly brings the freedom to our lives.

And uh the last thing, real quick about shame, uh, it talks about how when all this happened, it said their eyes were open to what the nakedness, you know, the shame that they had.

I love that because that's what shame does.

We talk a lot about worship, about beholding him.

Like we say that a lot, like behold Jesus.

And we say that a lot about you know what you're beholding.

And that's what shame does.

It opens your eyes to the mistakes and who you're not.

That is what shame would do to you in your life.

And I'm telling you, it's a big, big enemy wanting us to go deeper in Jesus.

Like I said, think about shame is the veil.

Like, literally, shame, that's really good you said that because literally shame is that veil, because it was there for one reason to say you can't go any further because of your mistakes.

That's what it was there for.

And uh, and now it's like now it's just like once again, Jesus tore to say, hey, the shame's gone, and you can come close to me, but shame again says, hey, go hide yourself, don't come any closer, you know.

But anyway, just know that.

One way you can know you're operating in shame, man.

How do I know I'm living in a shame lifestyle?

Is if you're only focusing on the what you've done wrong.

I'm not saying it's bad.

Sometimes I am like, God, I repent, I gotta do this, but at the same time, when you know his blood is there for you, you're once again, you're gonna boldly come in and say, God, I repent with joy.

Like, you know what I mean?

You ain't gonna be depressed, you ain't gonna be sad, you're not gonna be defeated, you're not gonna be beating yourself up.

One of them telling you the shame will beat yourself up when you're just growing tired, like, man, like, I can't do this anymore.

I'm I'm done with this, you know, whatever.

I I'm not that that's shame.

You know, it's like, man, this is who I'm not, this is who I'm not.

Oh my God, I can't do this.

That that's shame talking to you.

And I'm telling you, the blood of Jesus has come to tell you who you are, to open your eyes to the reality of the victory that you have.

It's to really show you the uh the veil that it's it's torn.

So anyway, uh just something right there, a little bit about shame and guilt.

I believe uh it is something that really does beat the body up sometimes and beat some believers up.

Uh, but I'm telling you, just understand.

You have if I were you, if you're watching and here tonight, if you're here also in person, uh seriously go home and just start declaring the blood of Jesus over your life.

Like start really saying, God, open my eyes up to the blood of Jesus.

Like, God, I want to, like, literally, if you have to take communion, that's really what that is.

That's why communion's there.

To what does he say?

Do this in remembrance of me.

Communion is like literally, if you want to say, the weapon to defeating shame in your life.

Uh, just keep taking communion, keep doing it by faith.

So, you know what?

This is the blood of Jesus.

I'm I'm the I'm right now.

I'm I'm more than a conqueror.

I'm loved by him.

I'm not separated by him, declare it over yourself.

Like I said, you have to go home and you've got to take action to this.

You've got to put the word of God to your life and apply it to your life.

Because I'm telling you, like this shame will keep eating you.

It will keep saying, isolate yourself, it'll keep ruining your feelings.

You won't have joy, anything.

But yeah, so I love how you said that the other video.

That was really good.

Uh, so anyway, yeah, it opens your ass to once again who you are not.

Uh, so that's good.

And the next one, real quick, just kind of diving into that.

But like we said, shame, Romans 8.1.

Uh, before you move on, real quick, uh, Romans 8.1, just uh just know that there's no combination.

You belong to Jesus, you belong to him.

I mean, that's it, right?

Like you said it, you belong to Jesus.

Like for real.

If you're battling that, watching this later, you belong to Jesus.

That's truly what you do.

And shame tries to uh hide it from you.

But I'm telling you right now, don't try to cover up your things, don't try to cover up your mistakes.

Because no matter what, they're gonna come back to haunt you.

Don't try to cover them up, go deal with them with Jesus.

And of course, I know there's people in your life that they're you know godly wisdom to you, do it.

But I'm telling you right now, go be alone with Jesus, go let Jesus once again cover those things up with the blood of Jesus and get them out of your life.

So, anyway, yeah.

Uh the next one, real quick, is performance.

I think that's a very big one.

Uh that can really attack our relationship with Jesus a lot.

And uh, I know one thing, um uh my wife here has been leading worship a lot for a while.

I remember you were telling me before, like since youth, you know, you've been leading worship a lot from the stage, of course.

Uh, and that's kind of some things I would like for you to talk about here in a bit, because how performance can sometimes creep in also if you know you're you're leading worship also, not just you know, in general about you just not doing anything, but I want to kind of talk a little bit about this real quick uh with you, uh Marissa, just about how sometimes you overcome the performance type stuff in your life as you've been leading worship for a long time on stage, but anyway.

Okay.

Um, so Ezekiel 28, 13, this is a really good passage, but it says the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes.

And so this story it talks about Lucifer and how um he fell from heaven.

So this is a story about Lucifer and in heaven falling from the throne because of pride.

Performance will magnify the instruments or our talents if we are not careful.

Also, if we aren't careful, we will pay more attention to the response of man instead of the response of the Lord.

I do real quick stuff right there.

I would like to uh kind of just share about that.

That's a big one.

Yeah, you know, as she was as she was just kind of re uh writing that and stuff like that in the notes we were taking.

Like, that's a big one, I do believe.

As like once again, you leading worship and worshippers out there, leaders that lead on stage, like seriously, like I believe that performance can attack our worship.

Uh if you're leading, and like literally, like if we're not careful, like once again, this passage of Ezekiel, it's talking about once again, just kind of giving that example of what it was, you know, the falling angel and stuff, Lucifer.

And I just love that because, like, once again, we all know that you felt for pride.

But one of the things I love sometimes, even like us, like if we're not careful, like these instruments and talents will become so much more magnified than the heart of Jesus.

Like, if we're not careful, performance will creep in, and literally that that stage, everything on that stage and everything we do on that stage will become bigger.

Like you were saying, it really will.

And I and I I love that.

And and not just that, the response of man can become greater than the response of Jesus, you know, and I think that's a big one.

Sometimes I know you've told me before, sometimes like you're leading worship, you're like sometimes you think people aren't moving, or you know, people aren't even, you know, sometimes you get discouraged.

You're saying about how, you know, you were singing a song or something and they're not moving or anything like that, whatever it is, you know, responding, you would think they would.

And sometimes they do, sometimes they're not, or sometimes they're just quiet, and it's in their heart.

But I just think there's not a performance that will discourage you though when you're leading, if you're not careful, because you're just gonna be like, man, all I care about is a responsive man.

I care about the responsive man.

And then we move on to this.

And if you do that, read this next part before you write down.

So in 2 Timothy 4, 3, it talks about teachings that will itch our ears if we aren't careful.

We will write songs that will itch the ears of the bride into what they want to hear versus what God is saying.

I just kind of like that because once again, uh I like that a lot because sometimes I look at that.

Sometimes you start singing songs of just once again that aren't on the heart of God, maybe, and you just start singing songs rather than truly being dictated by the Holy Spirit and being dictated by what God wants to do in the room, but you start just looking at what's a song that can pump people up, what's a song that like makes people weep?

What's a song that like it's a good soaking song?

You know what I mean?

And sometimes you can fall for that.

Sometimes you can fall.

And so that's why once again, you know, all these things, you know, and you you do that because you start fine, you start getting attacked by performance.

You start once again only wanting the instruments to become bigger, the talent to become bigger.

Uh, you want the response of the men to become bigger.

You know, I look at David again, one of the, you know, one of the best examples is like he could have stopped dancing wildly.

If you if he was someone that was driven by performance, if he was a worship leader that was driven by performance, he would have listened to his wife, wife right there.

He would have said, you know what, you're right.

I'm just gonna stop.

People, I'm gonna, I want a good response from the people I'm leading now.

You know, that he was king, he was leading.

And he could have been like, hey, I want a good response from these people that I'm leading now.

You're right.

I should stop doing this.

But of course, we all know David having the heart of true worship, he wasn't about performing.

He was about what?

Being obedient to the heart of God.

And I'm just saying, be careful.

Uh, performance will creep in if you're not careful.

Uh performance will creep in if you're not being alone with him.

Uh, but anyway, anything else.

Yeah, um I grew up uh knowing like we we had to pick three praise songs and two worship songs, and sometimes we kind of get in that culture of we have to go 30 minutes or each song is three minutes long, instead of it's the this is the routine, you know, the routine of what culture says rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to do what he wants in one song.

It could be singing the same line over and over and and the Lord just wrecking everyone, you know.

It's all about your heart and where where are your eyes in that moment.

There are times, um, even in the past, where I've been up here and I'm leading, and I'm like, Lord, I've got to just reset.

Like, I just I need to fix my eyes on you and not on myself.

So a lot of the times I will just turn around and I'll face the wall.

And I'm like, Lord, it is me and you right now.

What are you saying?

What are you wanting to do in the room right now?

Because this isn't about us.

This is all about him.

Like it's all about what he's wanting to do in the moment.

And so um, I've always found what worked for me was to turn around and just set my eyes on him for a few moments and just and get his heart for the room and get his heart for what he's wanting to do in the moment.

Um, instead of focusing on um, okay, I have to make sure that I'm in the key of A or I'm in the QC, which those things are great, they're they're good, but you don't want the the uh performance of what it's gonna sound like to overtake what he's wanting to do in the moment in the room.

Does that make sense?

That's good.

And once again, we're not saying anything about don't grow in your talent.

Right.

You know, we're not.

But once again, it's just once again when that talent becomes bigger than doing the heart of Jesus, you know, when that talent becomes bigger again than like you're performing, but at your house, you're doing nothing for Jesus.

You see what I'm saying?

And that's just what we're saying here.

Don't think like don't grow in your talent, no.

But we're just saying just be careful, don't allow that talent to be what you think is gonna help someone get breakthrough.

You know, uh, but also I love the way you said about real quick before we move on, just about routine.

I think that's a big one.

Like we never want to get, especially worshiply, we never want to get into a place of routine, you know, we never want to get into a place of just like once again coming, because I think what what routine performance builds and uh routine, Jesus becomes common.

You know, Jesus becomes common to what we're doing when you're leading ministry, he becomes common when we're just doing daily routine.

When you think like, oh, I'm just coming up here just to do this, but it's uh it becomes a daily routine sometimes when we allow performance to creep in.

Uh, but yeah, anyway, I love that.

Uh that's just some good things there.

Just once again, just about making sure it's just it's about Jesus.

Making sure everything you do is about Jesus having that heart.

But uh real quick, uh just kind of want to, if you don't lead worship, if you don't lead worship from a stage, but uh uh performance will always tell us that we have to earn his love.

You know, it always will tell us that no matter what.

It will always tell us.

So if you want to know how am I operating performance, not just leading on stage, but you just personally in your own life, you will always have a heart that says, I gotta earn the love of God.

Like you will have that work mindset, it's like, man, that's what's coming on, and and you know, and sometimes like that.

But uh here in Luke 15, 9, it's about the particle son and says, Please take me as a hired servant.

I love that because once again, the son says this to his father.

This is the son talking to the father when he comes back.

The son thinks he can regain the love of his father by working for him.

That is what performance would tell us in life.

We can just work to regain the love of Jesus.

Our salvation, our relationship will be based on what we can do rather than what rather than what just being accepted by him.

Uh, that's what starts happening.

So when you have this work mindset, what happens is I believe a performance mindset produces cycles in your life.

That's how cycles are birthed because once again, you start performing your life on what you can.

Do for him rather than saying what the finished work of Jesus has done.

And that's what starts happening.

I believe that's how cycles are birthed in our life because we start having a performance mindset.

Like, what can I do?

What can I do for him?

Or hey, I'm doing this, whatever it is, you know, you can take me back, you know, I can regain your love.

Uh, and I believe that's how cycles are there, because just a no-more cycle.

Why?

Because you're basing your relationship off what you can do rather than the finished work of the cross and what he's done.

And that is what we need to always focus on.

And I mean it's right here in the prodigal sense.

It's a true story.

People go through this, right?

You know, and people do this still, like him.

Hey, God will take me back if I go to search, maybe, or whatever.

God can take me back if I do this.

You know, all these things, you know, we we've been there, right?

We've been there before, right?

I know I have.

Um, so anyway, yeah, sometimes even the enemy can make us forget, forget it's all about what Jesus has done for us on the cross and try to take it about what we can do.

Uh then Luke 15, 29, but he replied, All these years I've slayed for you.

This is real quick about this.

Is now the brother real quick talking, the brother of the son that just came home.

He said, but he replied, All these years I've slayed for you, and never once and once refused to do a single thing you've told me.

And all that time you never gave me even one young go for a feast with my friends.

And if you don't know the story, uh, it's just about the product likes of the prodigal son coming home.

The father throws an amazing feast for him, amazing party for him.

Uh, then this is the jealous, offended brother.

I love this because the older brother got jealous and probably offended at what have happened.

Performance will give birth to jealousy and offense in our life.

Notice that the older brother says stuff like, I slaved, performed for you.

It was all about working to gain something from his father.

Then we see the father say, You have always been with me and everything is yours.

Performance would keep us blinded of our inheritance we have.

And that's exactly what happens in our life.

When we are work, when we have a performance heart, we will always be blinded to what we have already.

We already have victory, we already have joy, we already have freedom, we already have love.

But once again, that that mindset of performance, jealousy, offense, we forget about what we already have and start just once again.

What I don't have that, I don't have this.

You start thinking, I can work for it, I can work for it.

And we just sometimes forget about it.

And I believe that's a that's a big way performance can attack us is we forget what Jesus has done for us.

And we have to get out of that mindset sometimes.

Uh, we have to get out of that mindset of performance.

I know I used to be like that.

I used to have a lot of jealousy in my life because I did believe that, you know, my a lot of my life with Jesus was about what I did for him.

Rather than just accepting the fact that I'm a bride and I'm in love with Jesus, uh, offense would creep in.

All these things would creep in in my life.

Why?

Because, like I said, I would think that I had to do things for Jesus.

I think maturity was about doing things for Jesus.

That's a big thing in the body.

Maturity in the kingdom is not getting to preach.

Maturity in the kingdom is not about, hey, I have this title now.

Maturity in the kingdom truly is just accepting that you are loved by Jesus and that you and you start loving him with everything you have.

Um, but anyway, yeah, so just know you have the inheritance that you have already.

Uh don't be like the holder brother, jealous and offended and be blinded to what you have already.

I love how the father said that.

He didn't wasn't like, oh yeah, we can throw you a party now.

He's just like, bro, you have this already.

He's like, dude, like, son, you have it already.

Yeah, I love how he wasn't just like, hey, we can throw you a party next week, all right, make you happy.

But instead, he was like, You have it already.

You already have it.

You've been with me.

You you should know you have it.

And that's sometimes that's just what it's about with Jesus.

Like, bro, he's like, performance will keep you blinded from your inheritance.

And that's a big thing, it really is.

Because we're not just talking about inheritance as like money or something, you know, blessings.

We're talking about inheritance, like the fruits of the spirit, you know, the way you live your life.

That's your inheritance also, not just you know, money, whatever, blessings, which is all good, but also the fruits of the spirit.

But anyway, yeah.

I really believe that like that's why the Lord like calls us to be thankful, like to choose living out of a thankful heart and just even like out loud saying the things that we are thankful for.

I really believe that like once we start doing that and really living out of that, that offenses would break.

You know, like those things that uh were once strongholds over our life will just begin to crumble because of choosing a thankful heart and choosing gratefulness.

That's really good.

That's really good.

Yeah, if you think about that too, you can go like a whole new realm with that, honestly.

Like thankfulness does destroy performance.

Yeah, like if you're like, hey man, like how do I destroy performance in my life?

Be thankful.

Because if you're thankful, you know what you have, you know what God has given you, uh, you know who he is, you know everything you have is from him because you're thankful to him, you know.

So that's a good one right there.

I think thankfulness really is the key to destroying any performance in your life.

Uh, you're on stage, be thankful for what he has given you, be thankful for what you have, be thankful for who he is and what he's done in your life.

And you just always have that, you know, thankful heart and just know who he is.

Uh anyway, yeah.

Like we said, we hope this can help this can help you.

And I hope you know it can stir you up.

But like I said, I hope you can just kind of understanding these things.

And and like I said, if you're watching, uh if shame and guilt really get to your life, just know what the blood of Jesus has done.

If you know, if you deal with performance, be thankful.

Like she was saying, be thankful.

You know, don't let don't let performance think you gotta work for something and just forget the work that Jesus has done for you.

You know, don't and also like we talked about, don't be blinded to the inherit you have already.

You know, don't be blinded to like the victory you have already.

Don't be blinded to the blessings you have already.

Uh, but anyway, yeah, God, you're good, Jesus, you're amazing.

Uh, the next one, real quick, just to kind of uh the last one here is kind of talk about would be uh fear.

Uh fear is uh a big one, we think, and the fear of God, the fear of man, but also just the fear of in general.

Uh this is really a good one here, and I do believe the enemy, a big tactic he uses uh is fear.

I think I heard Bill John say this before, but he said something like fear is misled worship or something like that, misplaced worship.

I thought it was really cool, but it's true.

You know, sometimes the enemy can use anything, uh fear to try to make you focus, gaze, attention, your heart on something that's that shouldn't be on.

Uh but anyway, um I'll read this verse real quick and then you know you can read kind of what you you want to share.

But in Matthew 17, 6 through 8, when Jesus takes, you know, some of his disciples to be pretty much transformed before their eyes.

But the disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.

And then Jesus came over and touched them.

Get up, he said, Don't be afraid.

And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they only saw Jesus.

I love that because it's like when we allow the fear of the Lord to consume us, it will he'll be the only thing that we see.

You know, like when we allow that fear of the Lord, like all we'll see is his awe and his majesty and his wonder.

Um we'll just be captivated by it, like that he'll be the only thing that we see when we get up off the floor, you know.

Um, so this passage has a lot to do with transformation.

The enemy uses the wrong type of fear against us to try to transform us into something we are not.

The fear the enemy uses will keep us from going all in with Jesus or keep us from his feet.

I like how it says Jesus came over and touched them.

I look at it prophetically, how when we say someone touches our lives, it means we are influenced by them.

So what we fear is what will and what what will influence our life.

So we can either have the fear of God or we'll have the fear in what the enemy has.

Uh I'm gonna piggyback some off of this, but I I do love all of that.

I I just love uh some of the things I looked at this was man, like that kind of just blew me was I love how the enemy uses the wrong type of fear against us to try to transform us into something we're not.

No matter what happens in life, you're being transformed into something.

You know, it's the truth.

We're you know, we're being transformed into something, either more into his image or more into the enemy's image.

We're being transformed into something, and it's really dictated by what the enemy wants to throw fear into your life because it's gonna control you eventually.

If you're worried, if he controls you with the fear of worriedness, what happened?

You're gonna go out of your way to do things that aren't him.

You're gonna go get a job that's not of him, you're gonna do this or that, you're gonna do whatever it could be, you're worried about that.

You're gonna do things that are that's out of God's will because he has you entangled in the fear of worriness.

So what's gonna happen?

It's gonna transform you into something that you're not.

You're gonna have depression maybe, you're gonna have anxiety maybe, you're gonna, you know, whatever it could be.

You're gonna have anger, you're gonna have, you know, all these things.

Why?

Because he has you wrapped up in the fear of worriness, you know.

But when you have the fear of God, I believe that's just something, you know, we talk about a lot here, just fearing him in a good way, of knowing who he is, knowing how loving he is, you're gonna be obedient to him.

You know, you're gonna be obedient to him.

I'm gonna have the fear of God, which means I'm what does the word say the fear of us?

But the beginning of all wisdom.

And I think the reason why it's that a lot is why, because if I fear God, I'm gonna take his wisdom.

I'm gonna take his wisdom, not the wisdom from something else or a lie.

I'm gonna gain the wisdom from God if I have the fear of God.

And what does wisdom do?

It transforms me.

It gives me insight of life.

Like, okay, that's awesome.

I'm gonna do that instead, because that's wisdom.

And the fear of God, fearing him, he wants to give you wisdom that transforms you into his image more.

Uh and the one thing sorry.

I actually wrote that scripture down, so that's that's pretty awesome.

The fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom, it's everything.

But it also reminds me of that scripture where I I think it says the beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom.

And I always laugh at that because it's like beginning of wisdom is to get wisdom.

And so I really believe that, like he's saying, the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord.

Like, in order to get wisdom, is to see in all and the beauty of his face.

Like, gaze upon his face, there's your wisdom.

Yeah, come on.

I think that's really cool.

Thank you, Jesus.

And the other one, and the other one is just I love how we said how uh he touched them.

And I love it because once again, I love that because it's true.

Like, someone touches your life, you know, you're influenced by them.

You know, you you're influenced by them.

They they touched your life in a way, or either bad or good.

And I think once again, what you fear, the enemy wants to either touch your life with the lie and to once again influence you with the lie, or just once again, you can be touched by the truth of God and literally be influenced by Jesus.

I'm telling you, what you fear is once again, it's gonna influence your life.

Uh, let's have the fear of God and his wisdom influence us rather than the fear of the enemy and having his wisdom influence us.

Uh the last thing we I would like to share from this this passage uh that we see is uh I love it because it's it's very once again what we talk about a lot about worship is beholding him, seeing his face.

Uh, I love it because uh the very last thing is like they saw only Jesus, you know, and I just think that's what truly a lot of times we talk about.

Worship is about beholding Jesus, it's about seeing Jesus.

And I'm telling you right now, the enemy will try to make you fear life and try to dictate uh your life by what you want by what you can see.

And I think that's why it says we walk by faith and not by sight.

And I don't think that just means you walk blame eye, like just aimlessly and blinded.

I think that just means honestly, I walk by what Jesus says.

You know, I walk by and I'm seeing the truth, and I walk by what he says rather than this fear sometimes of life can say you're diagnosed with this, or your bank account says this, or whatever it could be, your your life says this, you know.

And sometimes the enemy can strike that with fear and just once again keep us so down to the point of like, man, I'm fear or whatever, I'm fearful, whatever it could be.

And it keeps us down.

Uh, and but it keeps us to the point when we don't see Jesus anymore in life.

And we don't, we stop seeing Jesus.

I'm telling you, we're going to be influenced by the enemy.

We're gonna stop seeing Jesus everywhere.

Sometimes I think that's why uh we talk sometimes about evangelizing, you know, it's worship.

I just want to say this, but sometimes I think that, and uh, and sometimes I just think, you know, uh what we see again can dictate, you know, it can dictate once again how our life is course.

And I love when they saw all they saw was Jesus.

And I just love that uh because once again, the enemy is trying to make you fear uh whatever it could be in life.

And I think one of the things I taught this before though, but I put like about the armor of God, uh, what they used to do with the flame and talks about, you know, your faith will quench the fiery darts of the enemy.

And one of the things they would do back in those days, you know, they would shoot fiery arrows, not just at the shields they had, you know, to try to catch their shield on fire, but they were actually shoot the fire darts around them to catch what's around them on fire.

And I look at that as like that's what the enemy does.

He just sometimes he doesn't just shoot directly at you, but he shoots around you so he can you can start seeing, like, oh my God, my life's falling apart, you know, whatever it could be.

And that's the thing, though.

It's like the fear he wants to use to dictate and influence your life.

We must have the fear of God.

We must say the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.

We have to be a bride of people who are influenced by him.

And we have to do that.

And I think the, like I said, these three things the enemy longs uh to attack us with shame, uh, performance, and fear.

Those three things I do believe the enemy longs to try to just keep us down.

We can't grow, we can't go home and worship, we can't go home and love him because he has shame and guilt.

We can't get closer to him because we're worried about our past.

We can't get close to him because we're trying to just hide the things, you know, in our heart.

We're trying to hide them and not really deal with them the right way.

And we don't we don't go to Jesus, we just try to cover them up with some leaves.

Uh performance, like we talked about.

We let the stage become bigger because we're not we're not intimate with Jesus at home.

And we allow performance, we allow the enemy to s uh uh put performance and then fear.

I mean, that's just one of the biggest ones.

We we let the enemy use fear because we're not looking at Jesus.

So, but anyway, there's anything you want to add uh before we kind of pray and close out, but yeah, just real quick about the performance, um, mainly for like the worship leaders out there and stuff.

But I encourage you to um make sure that your your secret place and your intimate worship with the Lord at home is an overflow of what you're bringing here.

Um I always like to, like when I'm playing on the keys, um like on a Sunday morning, I always like to start out and just tell the Lord, like, Lord, just come into my living room, you know, just invite him into your living room.

Like this is the place where I meet with you at home, you know.

So, so I encourage you to to make sure that your place, your secret place at home, is overflowing with oil to where the the oil it leaves a residue, it leaves a residue here on stage.

And so Yeah, thank you, Jesus.

That's good.

Thank you, Lord.

I was gonna say about performance.

I know uh Pastor Johnny here always has a heart of God.

Uh, I love how we always challenge our not really challenge our worship team, but always it almost sense keep us on our toes, right?

We always just joke about how God's just gonna switch things out of nowhere the Sunday when we're thinking like, hey, we're gonna be doing this, we believe, we're gonna have this game plan.

And sometimes then God comes to Pastor Johnny just like we're gonna do that, and we do, you know, at the last minute.

And I love it, and I love the worship team here just because of that reason.

Um, I think performance would leave you just so constructed, you know.

But when we have when we're not driven by performance, you really grow flexible in your spirit, in your spirit life, uh, and your leadership.

You grow really flexible in your leadership and you get stretched a lot.

But I love how we do that a lot and how God, we just want God to do whatever he wants to do, right?

Because we know it's not about music or any hype, it's just about Jesus.

What are you saying?

But anyway, uh I like I say I hope this can stir you up and I hope it can help you identify maybe if you're dealing with these three things, uh, if it can help you grow in your relationship with Jesus, but and more importantly, just go be with him.

Just go be with him.

Know what the blood of Jesus has done for you.

If you're battling anything in life, I'm telling you, the blood of Jesus is the answer.

The blood of Jesus is a solution.

Uh, it truly is.

Take communion for your family, you, whatever it could be, ministry.

Uh, but anyway, let's just pray.

Jesus, you're amazing.

We love you.

Um and we're just we're just so thankful for everything you've done on the cross, everything you've done for us, Jesus.

And I just pray, God, against any uh any shame in our life here, anyone watching later or now, if they have shame, God, I just pray, God, that they uh a revelation of the blood of Jesus comes alive in them like never before when they can just come so close to you uh every day of their life that all they want to do is just be kissed by you, Jesus, because you got to get close to be kissed.

He doesn't just want to blow you kisses, he wants to kiss you.

And uh, and I'm telling you, and shame will just hold you at a distance.

And Lord, we just pray, God, that shame is broken off anyone's life uh today.

And then we also just pray against any performance, God.

If there's worship leaders out there that kind of get uh pressure about performance, Lord, I just pray, God, that uh they're always just allowed the Holy Spirit to guide them.

And either way, whatever the Holy Spirit tells them, God, we just pray that, Lord.

Uh, but also in our life, that we don't have to perform a work to gain your love.

That we don't gotta say it's about my works, it's about no, it's about what Jesus has done for me.

Uh, but also, once again, fear.

Uh we want to have the fear of God.

We want to be in all wonder in you, Jesus.

We we want to have the fear of God and and we want to be influenced by your wisdom, not the wisdom of the enemy, not the temptations of the enemy, but the truth uh in your wisdom.

So in Jesus' name, yeah.

Uh once again, uh, if you're watching, you can watch you know later, whatever podcasts.

And uh also once again, just next Sunday, 6 30 here.

Uh, but all I can say, man, is just keep praying for the bride.

Uh, we talked about it last week, uh, foundations of worship.

Uh we talked about it, but uh yeah, but anyway, uh the foundations of worship, of how it's all about what man, I mean, all about what God sees rather than what man sees.

And I just feel like that's just a big prayer right now.

Just pray for the bride.

That the worship movement doesn't start in some big pack stadium.

It doesn't start when a music starts, it starts whenever our heart, the foundation is Jesus in our heart.

Uh, but anyway, anyway, we love y'all.

Y'all are amazing, but uh yeah, in Jesus' name.

Love y'all.