Responding in Worship with Awe and Surrender | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, what a morning, Inglewood,

Amen. What a morning.

Praise the Lord, so thankful. Thankful for a worship team

helping us to do that. Don't forget they have put

together ACD that would help you worship.

You can download that. You can buy a bunch of those at

the bookstore. They'd love for you to share in

that with them. Don't forget that.

Listen, I want to I want to thank our connect groups for

reaching out, doing reach and reaching our community.

Keep hearing story after story every week of people who are

encouraged. In fact, this last week, Teresa

and I were visiting with a a member who had recently joined a

connect group, one of our small groups, and they had suffered a

loss in their family. And we were just talking about

that. And they were just testifying.

And I need you, I want you to hear this, how thankful they

were that this small group that they belong to had reached out

to them and loved them and prayed for them and encouraged

them. And we were just talking about

the way that that's the way the church is supposed to work.

And yesterday Jonathan Taylor and I were sharing with a young

man and we were talking about what the church is supposed to

do and how he needed to be a part of it.

He was talking about some issues in his life and how the church

needed to surround him. And, and I was just saying to

him that sometimes church church doesn't do that, but that's what

the church is supposed to do. So it's really nice when it

works. She, she also this church member

was sharing with me that, you know, I, I, I don't know if I've

realized that I've asked you all to be in connect groups that

much, but but she was in, she was talking about, you know, my,

my spiritual gift of aggravation.

So it was really powerful. And then she was, she was being

very loving and kidding with, but then she was sharing about

how she was inviting and encouraging people to come to.

And so I told her that the spirit of aggravation had come

to her too and that it had overwhelmed her.

So I just pray the spirit of aggravation fills you all and

you invite people to come be a part of what we're doing here.

Listen, I appreciate so much. Listen, this series that we're

doing and I told the students, it's nice to see these students

down Friday, man. And so I I told them last night,

Teresa and I had the privilege of going to the retreat and

sharing with him a little bit. I told him I was going to throw

down a little bit this morning and that they had to be my Amen

and Hallelujah section. So, so the rest of y'all join

them. Thank you very much.

So we're going to have to get after it a little bit.

Listen, we're trying to define this all we're trying to do.

We're trying to define what it means to be like Jesus.

That's what we're trying to do. How do, how do we be like Jesus?

Who do I need to be? What do I need to know?

What do I need to be doing to be like Jesus?

Right. So piece by piece, we're putting

this vision together takes time. There's a specific process

involved. This, this ain't my first rodeo.

And and so the journey together is valuable.

We can't rush it because we might miss its intended value.

It's kind of like some nights at my house, at my house.

If you come to my house at 7:30, you're most welcome.

But we're going to be watching Wheel of Fortune almost every

night now. That's that My wife loves Wheel

of Fortune. I, I will blame you for that.

Our daughter was actually on Wheel of Fortune a few years ago

and won like $70,000, just decimated the competition.

I mean, it was fantastic and, and so most nights were there

and we tend to talk to Wheel of Fortune.

I don't know if any of you all ever talked to the TVI was doing

that a lot yesterday to Oklahoma Sooners.

But another story. We won't go there, but you know,

but it's kind of like it's kind of like rushing stuff.

It's kind of like that person who solves the puzzle too early

on Wheel of Fortune. I mean, you got 4 DS up there

and you could have made 3000 more dollars and you solve the

stinking puzzle. You know I'm talking about we're

screaming at our house throwing things.

So please just note our objective, Our objective here.

It's not that you simply check off some To Do List.

That's not it. That's not what these 7

essentials are about. Our goal is intimacy with Jesus

Christ. That's what we're after here at

Inglewood. So to love him, to love others,

to fulfill his mission, that's part of it.

So these essentials help us to do that.

So we believe every member needs to grow in these areas.

All of us, all of us have a growth to do.

But it not only defines who we need to be as people, it's also

going to define what we plan as a church and how we do things

together. So please, come live the

church's vision comes learn about the seven essentials of

discipleship. And this morning you might sense

that there's a theme called worship because our fifth

essential is a disciple responds in worship with all and

surrender. So last night, as I mentioned,

we were blessed to go to camp Willow Run, beautiful place on

the lake reminded us of home and had a chance just to share with

the students for a few minutes. So I want to thank you all for

being back here. I thank you for being awake.

I'm impressed after a week long retreat.

The adults aren't, but the students are.

Good job. And we're going to talk about

and their theme all weekend was worship.

There was a study done recently in churches, United States of

America. It was really interesting to me

because of what they concluded. They said here's what's absent

from most congregations in the US when it comes to worship.

They said what's absent is a sense of awe.

And that was that was interesting to me.

They even went on to say that only one in four worshippers

said they always or usually experience all during worship.

And I thought to myself, how do you measure all you know?

And so, you know, the definition of all in one of the

dictionaries would be a feeling of reverential respect mixed

with fear and wonder. So this idea of a mix of fear

and wonder, I get that part. How do you measure that, you

know? And then I got to thinking, are

we ever awed by God anymore? Is coming to church such a

routine? I, I pray that people seeing

baptized on a regular basis is not just a routine.

You know, it's just become so routine.

We're not awed by it anymore because in worship, what we're

doing is we're affirming God's worth by honouring and

glorifying him both through words but also through actions.

This isn't just about what we say.

So we love God by exalted him and everything we do both

corporately and individually. So life is an act of worship.

The students heard about that from Pastor Jordan this weekend.

Life should be an act of worship in response to God's love for

us. So are we really devoted to

exalting and surrendering to God in authentic, awe inspiring

worship or not? That's the question.

Do we even know what that is? And so have you ever really ever

experienced worship before? And that may sound like a weird

thing. You may be here every week.

That doesn't. That doesn't answer the question

because worship is a verb in the Bible.

Note that every time there's a word used for worship, it's a

verb. This is something that we do.

It refers to both action and attitude, right?

And so many today describe it only in terms, I'm afraid of

this thing, this Sunday morning church service thing.

That's worship, right? And I'm not.

And it certainly is. Or they might even more

specifically refer to the music or to the singing as the worship

part. And, and sometimes they'll even

attach their understanding and appreciation of what they think

worship is to a specific style based on, even based more on

personal preference than on theological content.

And so This is why I like worship.

It's because I like the style, whether it glorifies God or not.

So sometimes with human beings, it's a problem for us, part of

our sin nature. We often confuse preference with

what's right. I mean, if I don't like it, it

must be wrong, right? And so personal preference often

becomes a part of of how we think.

But it's really a part of our individual culture.

It's a part of our individual experience.

You like things. They evoke memories.

They evoke certain feelings and emotions that make you

comfortable, comfortable that make you happy because they

remind you of something else that was positive back when.

But friends, be careful because there are some people, not

necessarily here at Inglewood, but some people who want to

create a, a personal Amish type expectation where they push

pause and stick to a certain historical time period and

preference when it comes to worship.

I understand that that's what you like.

That's what you remember, That's what gives you the warm fuzzy.

And so so that's what you want. But but some people also base

their entire church participation on stuff like

that. They allow certain style that

that maybe is not their personal favorite to determine their

ability to worship into the their relationship to the body

of Christ. Listen, I'm sure there's some

people today that wouldn't like the way David sang the Psalms.

I mean, that young man needs to quit plucking that harp so fast.

That's way too loud. He's plucking that harp too

fast. You with me, everybody say Amen.

Thank you very much. Now, that would be OK if worship

was for us. But is worship for us?

No, thank you very much. Worship is not directed toward

us. So this way of judging or

defining worship results in a very immature, very chaotic

ecclesiology. It it actually results in a very

incomplete discipleship idea. I mean, in a church like this

where there are hundreds of people who gather every single

week. I don't know if you realize

this. I'm glad you're all sitting down

because you might be shocked to know there are hundreds of

opinions in here. Did you know that?

If you looked around you, and I'm telling you the truth, if

you looked around you right now, there are people in this room,

you ready for this that disagree with you?

That's right. See, now, fortunately, most of

you don't get to hear that. Just me.

I get to hear all of it, but most of you all don't.

But we got to we, we want to grow beyond that as a church,

right? That's not who we are.

So true worship has to be something more than this.

True worship has to be more than just style.

It has to be more than just this service we attend, although

we're supposed to attend, we need to attend on Sunday

morning. So worship is for God, not

primarily for us, right? So, so we need to recognize true

worship is also not about the performance of others.

It's it's not about it's not about how the people up here on

the platform did. So put the scorecards I talked

about last week, just take them away.

It's not about that. It's also not just about now

listen to this one. This is important to you all

like it. This is, it's not just about

what you got out of it. It's much more about what did

you put into it? What sacrifice did you bring to

worship this morning? Think about the Old Testament

worship. What sacrifice do you bring to

God in worship this morning out of your personal life and offer

on the altar? See, so it's not what we get,

It's about what we put into. So worship involves our full

focus. It involves our full focus upon

the recognition of who God is. And So what worship really does

is it requires us taking the focus off of us and putting it

where it belongs on Him. And so we place it fully upon

him because He deserves it. Listen to Revelation 5I Read

some of this last night to the students.

Revelation 512 So sing with a loud voice.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and

wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under

the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying to

him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and

honour and glory and might forever and ever.

He deserves worship. Turn to your neighbor right now

and say Jesus deserves our worship.

Listen to me, I don't, and neither do you.

But He does. So worship is based upon the

truth of who God is. It's our spirit, our hearts

reaching out to the very heart of God.

So do I truly worship or do I simply attend services?

Right. Have you worshiped this morning

yet or simply gone through this week's motion of rituals?

You know, in the 10 commandments, the first four

commandments are about worship. They're about worship because

God knew we would be selfish about it.

But here's the trick. So is he.

He's selfish about it and, and he will not share true worship

with anyone or anything else, right?

And so we will be worshippers in heaven forever.

So we better learn how to do this.

We better learn to love it. We better learn to enjoy it

because this is a heaven like activity, one of the few we get

to do on earth. And so it's recognizing and

declaring His worth through our hearts, our words and our deeds.

So we exist to glorify Jesus in everything.

We're testimonies of His grace like these testimonies you heard

this morning. These are testimonies of grace

and His gifts of grace should lead us to acknowledge Him,

which is one of the reasons why Paul wrote to the church at Rome

in chapter 12 the way he did. Pastor Jordan was sharing from

this passage to the students yesterday morning.

It says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the

mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Now listen, there's not a mention of a Sunday morning

worship service. There is there?

Because it's more than that. It's life service.

It's your whole existence. And note the verb usage.

This is really important. You present, you have a personal

individual responsibility to pursue worship and to pursue

your own discipleship. Now, over the years, certainly

not in Inglewood, but over the years, I've heard folks complain

about their church leaders. You know, he just doesn't feed

me. Now, listen, there are certainly

weak preachers. I've worked with a ton of them.

They're weak preachers and teachers out there.

And there's some Sundays I'm not as good as others.

I recognize all that. But I have to ask you a

question. How old are you?

Are you a new baby Christian? Amen. 5, we got a testimony.

I mean, are you a new baby Christian?

If so, you need help. You you need help.

And we're here for you. That that's what we want to help

you, right? But if not, why do you always

need someone else to spoon feed you?

What's your responsibility? See, this is a shared load.

That doesn't mean I don't have a responsibility.

Doesn't mean you're connect. Group leaders don't have a

responsibility. But what's the shared load,

right? Learn and engage in these

essentials. Feed from your church

discipleship experiences, and then also feed yourself from

your personal spiritual discipline experiences and then

go feed others. That's what's supposed to

happen. You choose to be a disciple.

It's not just going to happen to you.

You choose to be a disciple. You choose to engage His word.

You choose to abide in prayer. You choose to unite in

fellowship. You choose to commit to service.

You choose to respond in worship with all insurrender.

You have a responsibility of these choices, and you must also

choose to feed others. So intentionally choose to

present yourself as a living sacrifice that you might

worship. And remember, only the people of

God can truly worship. Only those who know Him can

fully appreciate Him and all that He's done for us and lift

Him up and exalt Him. So we seek an intimate

relationship and fellowship with Him that leads us to this sense

of awe and surrender. So our corporate worship

experience where we present God's truth also serves as a

testimony even to those who don't know him.

And that may be some of you here today.

You may not have ever trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior.

You're a guest or you're visiting with somebody else.

And so, you know, maybe you're just kind of watching to see all

this. What Paul writes about that to

the church at Corinth in First Corinthians 14, he says, but if

all prophecy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is

convicted by all, he's called to account, by all the secrets of

his heart are disclosed. And so falling on his face, he

will worship God and declare that God is really among you,

that you know, that's my prayer for you visitors.

Thank you for being here. But I pray you fall on your face

and recognize God. I mean, I really do.

And I want to help you do that any way we can, any way we can

to help you recognize who he is. See.

So invite your friends to view and observe us as we worship, as

we worship him and surrender and respond to Him this way because

this is how this is how human beings ought to interact with

Yahweh. This, this is what he deserves.

So, so maybe they'll experience that testimony and God will use

it to draw them to him. In fact, think about that.

That's what our friends overseas are doing even in the midst of

such darkness and difficulty. That's what they're doing.

God is using them and their worship as a testimony to draw

people to him. Pretty amazing.

Now I want you to see a biblical example.

Now that I'm done with the introduction, turn to Isaiah

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. We're going to spend just a few

minutes here, I promise. So here's the background.

The king of Judah, King Uzziah, has died.

He'd been a good king until he acted like the high priest and

disgraced God and died. He sinned.

He failed. So the threat of Assyria, these

outside forces are rising. They're under a great threat

from the outside. So the king is dead.

There are problems all around them.

What in the world are we going to do?

It's a dark and scary place. So what do we do in dark and

scary times? That's where Isaiah is.

So he goes to the temple to seek answers from God.

Now, Isaiah was different than the other prophets because he

actually had access to the Royal Court.

He was probably a relative of the king and so he's a little

different. So he's also personally probably

hurting. So he's overwhelmed by the days

around him. Days can be overwhelming, huh?

Turn to your neighbor and say overwhelming.

Are you with me? You all say Amen.

Some of you say Hallelujah. Thank you very much.

Now, Isaiah chapter 6, verse one says this.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Don't make me laugh, Dylan. In the year that King Uzziah

died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted

up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings.

With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his

feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and

said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of

him who called, And the house was filled with smoke.

And I said, woe is me, for I'm lost.

For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a

people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King,

the Lord of hosts. Why must we as his disciples

respond in worship with all and surrender?

Well, the first thing is because we want to seek God.

He says I saw the Lord. Well, I mean what a picture of

power, what a picture of awesomeness.

I mean the King's dead. Who's going to be your king?

Who's going to lead us? What are we going to do?

How are we going to survive? I saw the Lord high and lifted

up sitting on a throne. Who our Lord where high and

lifted up sitting on the throne. Now, friends, we stake our very

lives upon this. We stake our eternities upon the

fact that our King is sitting on a throne.

He's never leaving that throne. He'll always sit on that throne.

He reigns forever on that throne, and we stake our very

existence upon that. He is the King of kings, for my

eyes have seen who the King now. Earthly kings failed the Hebrews

time and time and time and time again.

Earthly leaders will do that. And this may shock you, but I

may too. You may not always like what I

have to say. I might not say the right thing

sometime. I might say the wrong thing.

Maybe I didn't say something I should have said.

Maybe I said too much. Sometimes I don't know.

Connect group, connect group, connect group.

Who knows? But it would.

I have incredible hope for you today.

God is on his throne and He is King and He rules over this

church. So before we can live out his

vision for us, we He has to be the true Lord of our lives.

He has to be our King. So God reveals himself to his

people this way. We hold him at high esteem and

honor, but it takes surrendered, seeking eyes to actually see

him. So what do you seek this

morning? Do you seek hope, peace,

purpose, salvation, forgiveness, direction?

We need Him. Listen to what the Proverbs say.

Proverbs 817 I love those who love me, and those who seek me

diligently find me. Now Isaiah went to the temple to

pray. He was seeking God, and those

who seek him that way will find Him.

Those who do not, those who seek their own way, you're going to

miss him. And you could miss him right

here. You could come week after week

after week and miss him because you're not really seeking Him.

In fact, years later, the Romans come and conquer Jerusalem.

Jesus actually predicts this. He prophesized about this and

they come and they destroy Jerusalem.

And General Pompeii, who led the Romans doing that, He goes to

the temple and he pours pig blood, which is unclean to the

Jewish people all over the temple, just desecrates the

whole temple with pig blood. Then he storms in, rips open the

curtain to the Holy of Holies and says this.

It's empty. There's nothing but darkness

because that's what he knew and what he sought.

But Jesus, the King, my friends, it's right here.

We don't have to ask for his presence.

He's right here. And if you'll seek him honestly,

you, you'll, you'll meet him. If you don't do that, you're

going to miss him and you'll walk out again.

Go get your burrito or whatever you all get.

That was nice. We worship to seek Him.

Isaiah did, and he saw him so. So how did he respond?

How did Isaiah respond after this?

Why must we respond in worship with all and surrender?

Secondly, because we've got to humble ourselves.

So that's what true worship leads to.

True worship leads to humility. Why?

Well, when we honestly worship God, we're going to recognize

two things. First of all, we will recognize

who God truly is. I mean, there was no doubt to

Isaiah who he saw, for my eyes have seen the king.

Look at verse 2 again. It says above him stood the

seraphim. Each had six wings with two.

He covered his face. With two, He covered his feet.

With two. He flew and one called to

another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of

him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

You know, it's the only time Seraphin or Seraphim are

mentioned in the Bible. This is it, the one and only

these. This is an unusual high order of

heavenly creature. I can't wait to see them.

I can't wait to see this. They had 6 wings.

One pair covered their face, one pair covered their feet or body.

The Hebrew word could mean neither and the And so this

covering represents deep humility.

They know who God is. They don't have any question

about the angelic believer, the creatures.

They all know who God is. And they covered their faces and

their bodies and their feet in deep humility before their Lord

and Master. And then the other pair was

ready to carry out God's command.

And the whole time they're praising God.

I mean, what an awesome example of worship this is, humbly

praising God, ready to serve him.

That's it. So these powerful heavenly

creatures recognized who God truly was.

Do we do we see his place on the throne?

AW Tozier, famous writer, author for many.

He once said the simple statement, God saves us to

become worshippers. One of the reasons you're saved

is so that you can truly worship God.

So if we cover ourselves in humility, we're ready to carry

out His command at a moment's no notice, with our mouths filled

with His praise, surrendering to who He is.

Oh, I pray that if we would do that, that the thresholds of our

lives would be shaken, that we would shake at the power of His

voice, that we would feel the smoke envelope us.

The psalmist wrote In Psalm 99. The Lord reigns.

Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned upon the

cherubim. Let the earthquake.

The Lord is great in Zion. He's exalted over all the

peoples. Let them praise your great and

awesome name. Holy is he.

Please let us hear your voice. Lord, please envelope us with

your presence. Do we ever tremble anymore?

Is it getting smoky and a little shaky in here?

Do you feel the smoke? Do you feel His presence?

In authentic worship we realize who God truly is.

But the second thing we recognize is that we also have

to admit who we truly are. Verse five goes on and it says

and I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean

lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning

coal that had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched

your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and

your sin atoned for. Isaiah immediately recognized

his own sinfulness. He recognized his unworthiness.

That that ought to be a response to us when we stand in the

presence of the perfect Lord. So true worship leads to

conviction, true worship leads to confession, true worship

leads to repentance. I mean, you got to listen to

when the apostle Peter first encountered Christ's power in

the Gospels. He had seen Jesus perform a

miracle. Luke 58 says when Simon Peter

saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees saying, depart from me for

I'm a sinful man. Oh Lord, there was no doubt

about how he had to respond. The great evangelist DL Moody

once said, we may easily become too big for God to use us, but

never too small. How dare we stand before God?

How dare we stand before God? We are sinners.

We don't deserve his presence. We don't deserve to tremble.

We don't deserve to be cleansed. We don't deserve his smoke.

We must be cleansed. The coal that you see in this

passage was taken from the sacrificial altar where blood

was shed for sacrifice. My friends, we're cleansed by

the blood from another altar when shaped like a cross.

So when we truly seek the Lord in worship, confession,

conviction, and cleansing result, how can I stand before

God? I can tell you grace.

That's it, that's all. It's the only answer.

How could I ever be clean enough grace?

How does that work, Jesus? It's the only way, the only one.

A sacrifice on a cross and a risen victory for me and for

you. It's amazing.

So to leave a corporate worship service focused on anything or

anyone other than him is to miss the whole point entirely.

You just blew it. Not recognizing the presence and

power of God is short sighted. It's likely sinful.

We need to respond to humility and surrender to be ready to

receive God's vision to be used by him.

So we respond and worship with all and surrender to seek God to

humble ourselves. But then thirdly, lastly, we

also worship God in order to serve in obedience.

Look at verse 8. It says and I heard the voice of

the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Then I said, here I am, send me. And he says, go and say to this

people. And then he shares with him a

message. Isaiah found the answers that

he'd been looking for. He found the King's mission.

He found the King's vision for his life.

He entered God's house anxious. He entered it worried, and he

left with a new challenge. Now maybe you've come here today

completely distraught, completely burdened, completely

overwhelmed, or maybe just bored out of your mind.

Allow the overwhelming presence of the Lord to relieve the

burden of your overwhelming life.

Be renewed by His power. Be awed by His thunderous voice.

Surrender to His will. Recognize who He is.

Isaiah sought the Lord amid crisis, was willing to listen.

That's part of it. And God revealed himself to him,

but that didn't mean the challenges were over.

Life didn't get easier. If you read verses 9 through 13,

we won't do it this morning. But if you read verses 9 through

13, God also says, now nobody's going to listen to you.

Here's the message I want you to share to these people now.

They're going to ignore you. They're going to be apathetic.

They're going to be complacent. They're going to reject you.

And so it's interesting. Welcome to the life of a

prophet, huh? I might even say, welcome to the

life of a local pastor because I'm telling you, every single

Sunday I expect the altar to be full.

Every single Sunday, I expect the next steps room to be full.

It's always fascinating to me what does or doesn't happen.

But that didn't change Isaiah's responsibility, nor does it

change ours. When whether anyone listens to

us or not does not change our responsibility to worship and to

share and to serve. We go and say to this people, I

want you to know that personal evangelism training will start

right here on Wednesday night, October 29th, in our midweek.

I'll be curious to see if the crowd still holds.

That was an evil laugh, by the way.

But I want to share with you, even those of you who've never

shared your faith. I don't want to share my faith.

I'm scared to share my faith. This is perfect for you.

It's exactly how we're going to share.

I want to share how you develop the relationship.

How do you move from talking about the weather to talking

about something important and getting to Jesus step by step in

a natural, relational way to share about Jesus that'll make

sense out there won't make you look crazy, and what your

friends will actually respond to.

So you be here for that and you can still go sign up from last

week and serve. If you were here last week, our

core ministries still need you to serve.

In fact, I thought it was great. I walked in my office.

I don't know who did this. I love you, whoever did it.

This is one of my favorite gifts I've ever received.

I cherish this. Not my favorite because my wife

has given me those, my grandkids.

So this is like my fourth favorite gift I've ever received

and it was sitting on my desk and it says caution, 100%

participation church, join at your own risk.

Isn't that fantastic? That's great.

Listen, not only am I going to cherish this, I was thinking we

need gigantic billboard size at every entrance to the property.

Listen, 100%, get involved. You can still serve.

Think about the four things I've talked about.

Think about the seven things, four by seven, 100%.

See what you can do. Listen, if God promised you

would fail every single time by earthly standards, would you

still obey? That's what Isaiah faced.

Isaiah said yes because he believed right and so awesome

and surrendered. Worship places the focus where

it belongs, off of us and on the one who sits on the throne.

There's a great quote often attributed to John Wesley, even

though most of historians don't believe he actually ever said

it. But it basically says catch on

fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you

burn. Where's our passion?

Where's the smoke? We're called a holy stewardship

of obedience, whether anyone else worships Him or not.

Let's not change our personal choice.

We choose to worship, so our motivation for serving God is

our recognition of who God is, as well as a recognition of who

we are and how gracious and faithful He is to us, not what

anybody else does or does not do.

So worship has got to be more than just a corporate gathering.

It is that, and this is essential for us to come

together to encourage one another.

That's what I talked to the students about last night, how

thrilled we are when we're together and it encourages one

another. But this is also about what

we're doing alone with God, how much we're showing our adoration

and appreciation for him. So in all honesty, how's your

worship? Who's your king?

So I invite you to join us here as we worship Jesus Christ, the

King of kings with awe and surrender, the psalmist wrote in

Psalm 95-O. Come, let us worship and bow

down. Let us kneel before the Lord our

Maker. And it's now time to do that.

Right now we're going to kneel before him.

We're going to bow before him in awe and surrender because we

must seek the Lord high and lifted up, sitting upon His

throne. Amen.

Hallelujah. Let's pray.

Father, we come to you to worship you.

We come to you today to honor you.

We come to you today because we know we don't deserve you.

But Father, in your incredible grace, in your incredible love,

you have reached out to us. So Father, help us to

acknowledge that this morning. For some people in the room,

they can't do that well because they don't know you.

They've never trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

And so, Father, that's the first step.

That's the sacrifice they bring to the altar this morning.

That's their act of worship. They need to be saved.

Father, maybe there was a student at the retreat this week

who made a decision for you. They need to come and, and make

sure that Pastor Dylan knows about that.

There are others here who recognize that, that they've,

they've trusted in you in the past, but they recognize their

walk with you is not right. And this is a moment of

recommitment. Maybe, maybe they've heard the

testimonies of baptism and they say I need to do that.

Or maybe they need to join the church.

I need to do that. I need to get involved.

I need to serve. So today's the day of commitment

for others. It's going to be a time of

prayer. You can come and and Father,

they can come and just pray to you at these steps as an altar.

Some of them lifting up our friends overseas, some lifting

up issues in their life, some asking you to forgive them and

cleanse them. So Father, whatever we need to

do to take the next step of worship, let us bow down and

kneel before you and be obedient to do that right now as we sing

in Christ's name, Amen. Stand with me if you would.

There'll be some pastors here. We'd love to pray with you.

You can also just come and pray at these steps.

There's also a room right over here called the Next Steps Room.

And we have people who would love to visit with you

privately, discreetly pray with you about things in your life,

lift you up, encourage you, and share with you.

You can go straight there or you can come here, but you come as

we sing. Thank you so much for listening

today, and I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.