Come, Now is the Time to Worship

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Amen.

That was good worship this morning, wasn't it?

Amen.

Good job, worship team.

If you can take your Bible and turn it to Psalms 95.

And uh Psalms 95.

This is the last of our summer song series.

Next week we're gonna come together and we're gonna uh see the ordination service of Pastor Dave Roper.

And uh want you all all to be here.

Make sure that you tell anybody you see missing.

It's an honor that we get to have that privilege that's been carried on for generations in the church body to ordain a man called by God.

And uh Pastor Dave has been with this church for near 10 years, I think, and been pastoring with the church over five years.

Um so we want to honor that call, and um he's done an awesome job of uh working with the church at Chelsea Westover, he and his family.

And today I want you to join me in celebrating.

They have a birthday in their home, Luke Roper, the greatest center in Chelsea football history in the making.

So, Luke, I think uh Don Cochrane had a birthday this week.

I won't share the age or anything, but he had a birthday.

And uh we Silas had a birthday.

And I if I start going, I'm gonna keep going all service.

But anyway, happy birthday to you all in uh Psalms 95.

We're gonna jump in this morning.

Let me read verses one through three.

The message title is Come.

Now is the time to worship.

It says this: O come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to him with psalms.

For the Lord is the great God and the great king above all gods.

The first point this morning is this worship with rejoicing.

Rejoicing, the Greek word is shamach, and that word shemak is an action, a joyful feeling involving an external response prompted by something, a stimulus.

How many of you in psychology class remember learning about Pavlov's dog?

Remember this?

Pavlov's dog and the bell.

It interjected that if you ring a bell at a certain time every day, you'll be training a dog, and that bell means it's lunchtime.

Therefore, because of the stimulus of a bell, a dog will be trained and begin to salivate when it hears a bell.

A response to the stimulus of a bell.

And so he knows that bell means feed time.

That dog's been conditioned.

This happens to some of y'all around 11:30 every Sunday.

Salvation.

Or it might be a blink of your eye because of sermon.

All right, Pastor, I know, I know, I understand.

But I want to ask you a question.

Does coming together for a worship service result in inward joy for you?

In inward joy.

Letter A this morning is this come to Jesus' presence.

And as we start into that point, I wanted you to join me, if you would stand.

Now that we understand that we need to rejoice, and let's sing together.

Come, now is the time to worship.

Right now is that time.

Join me in prayer.

Father, we come together to worship you.

God, we worship you in service, we worship you with music, we worship you with the reading of your word and the response to it.

God, this entire service, Lord, is a dedication of worship to you.

And God, we pray, God, that we are ministering to the heart of God.

And God, as we empty ourselves, we know that you will fill us.

So God, I pray that you would move, speak, and God, that you would rebuke any act of the enemy during this message.

We love you, Jesus, in your name.

Amen.

Letter A says, Come to Jesus' presence.

Oh come.

That word is Yalok, and it is to carry or literally walk to a designated place.

Three times in Psalms 95, it says to come.

That means that we are Yalok.

That is, we're literally moving.

We're going from somewhere to somewhere else.

It's movement.

See, God is omnipresent, but you are where you are, and He says, Come.

God is present in every place, but we're going to a place.

Sometimes that's a physical place.

That means we have to literally go.

Sometimes it is a mental ascent.

We're getting away from all distractions and mentally going to a place, and it's always a spiritual invitation.

The invitation for us today is clear to come.

I remember growing up in an old Baptist church.

I can remember a lot of things about that church.

Green seat pews, wooden pews, you would leave hurt from sitting in church service.

And at the end of service, often we would sing a song, Just As I Am.

And as that song played, the invitation, Just as I am, without one plea, that thy blood was shed for me, that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God.

I come.

It says, I come.

Jesus gives three clear invitations in the New Testament.

In Matthew 11, 28, he says, Come to me, all ye who have labored and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He invites us to come to him and in exchange for rest.

In Mark 1, 17, he says, follow me.

And in John 15, 4, he says, abide in me.

He says, Come, follow, and abide.

David Jeremiah said about this passage that let us reveals a corporate emphasis.

Praising the Lord by oneself is not sufficient, according to this Psalm.

God's people also need to praise him in community.

Six times in this small passage, it says, Let us, let us.

That's corporately, let us praise and worship him.

In Psalms 100, verse 2, it says, Come before his presence, enter into his gates.

Psalms 100:2

In Psalms 84, it says, We come together, and better is one day in his courts.

What does that mean, Pastor?

Gates and courts?

Well, I want to show you the Old Testament tabernacle picture and what David would be referring to when he says, Oh, come.

In the Old Testament, coming into the presence of God was a process.

As you can see, this picture, it's a placement of the tabernacle that moved.

But on the outer courts, you would come and it says, Enter into his gates, enter into the courts with thanksgiving in your heart.

It was a process.

We would come with thanksgiving, and then you confess.

You can see the labor there.

You come to the laver and you would wash and cleanse your hands.

You would come and you would bring yourself to a place of confession.

Before you can worship God, before you can get to the center place, you had to wash yourself.

It's interesting, scripture will tell you before you worship, before you come to an altar, go get things right with somebody.

It says, Cleanse yourself.

You can't worship God, be right with God and wrong with others.

And so he says, confess, wash.

Then you would take communion to be reminding of all that Jesus did.

You would continue on.

And only the high priest would enter that holy of holies.

You see that curtain, that place towards the end of the picture, and he would come in and he would bring a sacrificial blood atonement for sin.

It was to get to the heart, to the center, to the place of God that was found at the Ark of the Covenant.

And praise God in Matthew 27, 50 and 51.

Jesus died on the cross, and when he died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, allowing us access to that holy of holies.

And in Hebrews it says, now we therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.

We can enter because of the grace of the blood of Jesus Christ.

We can enter through prayer to that place, that holy of holies.

But I need you to, I wanted you to see in the Old Testament, it was a high and reverent process to come into the presence of God.

And so when David says, Come, when they say to his courts and to uh his gates, it was more than just a nice poem.

We get to do this when we come together at church.

When we come corporately, we get to meet together for the worship of God, to get to the heart of God.

Pastor Steve Gaines, some of you will know that name, First Baptist Gardendale in his book on revival, said in corporate worship, each member needs to intentionally engage with the Lord.

You don't just show up to church, warm a seat, give an offering, listen to a sermon, and go home.

Pastor Gaines said, Your goal is to connect with God every time that you meet.

So he said some things, and I want you to take some practical thoughts here.

He said, So prepare.

When we come to a place of worship, come and be prepared.

He says, number one, we should read the Word of God before we come to a place of worship.

Ready our heart.

Number two, confess known sin.

Number three, make things right.

Before you come to a place or to a moment of worship, try all that you can to make things right.

Number four, prepare physically.

That means rest.

Mentally, be ready.

Have your mind in a place when you come to worship God that you're ready to meet with Him.

Listen to what he said further.

Real worship is ministering to God.

We shouldn't leave church today saying, Did you enjoy church today?

Did you like the music today?

Did you like the sermon today?

Did you like this or did you like that?

We should leave church today saying, Do you think God was worshipped by me today?

Worship is coming to give and not coming to get.

You didn't come today as a consumer, you came as a worshiper.

That is why it says, Come, let us.

Paul said it this way in Philippians 3 10, that most important thing that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.

When Jesus found Mary and Martha, remember when he said, Martha, Martha, one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that one thing to sit at Jesus' feet.

And so when you leave today, will you be able to say, I emptied myself of me, so that I could feel my God.

You'll leave full if you'll empty yourself today.

Letter B as this it says, to sing and to shout to Jesus praise.

Look at what it said.

Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Again, in verse 2, it says, Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms.

Sing and shout with joy.

Can I tell you, some of you today did not do that?

Psalms 100, verse 1 says, make a joyful noise.

Psalms 100:1

It again says in Psalms 100 to shout, and it says to give thanksgiving right next to this passage in Psalms 96.

It says, Sing to the Lord.

Verse 2 says, Sing, bless his name.

We see words like this, the action words throughout that psalm.

Proclaim, declare, honor, praise, fear, give, bring, worship, and tremble all to our God.

We're to come to him to minister, worship to him, rejoicing, that word rejoicing is to be given to joy and jubilation.

That is, church is a reverent party before our God.

Anybody here ever just have a moment in worship?

Maybe just to yourself, or you just something strikes you on the radio.

Um I had to quit.

Okay, I had to quit treadmill worship.

I was listening to the song I can only imagine, and began to cry about minute 32, and then I began to lose my leg.

And when I did, I hit my leg down, boom, boom.

Okay, I don't I I I you may think this is sinful, but that was the last time I listened to worship music on an electric object that can nearly kill me.

If you see me in the gym, I am sorry, I confess there's no worship music on in my ears.

I'm trying not to die, I'm trying not to cry.

Okay.

Psalms 150.

Hear me, church.

Boy, have we missed this.

Decades of people missed this.

And I want you to hear it.

Psalms 150 said, Praise him with loud sounding cymbals.

See why, that is in the drums.

Woo! Harp, trumpet, and in Psalms 150, you can find all these instruments.

Harp, trumpet, horn, timbrel, strings, pipe, tambourine, dulcimer, and lyre.

Now, I don't know what some of those are, but it sounds like a party.

Are you with me?

All of these instruments.

Now, if y'all come in here with a tambourine and think you're gonna start while I'm preaching next week, okay?

We've had I've been in a church one time and the person showed up and just started shaking the thing.

Okay.

Meet with Benji.

We'll find out what you can do.

Ephesians 5 19, New Testament said this way encourage one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Pastor Danny used to say it this way.

Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors, and he would say, I like them all.

And when it comes to music and worship, I love hymns and choruses and contemporary music.

Whatever gives the opportunity to sing and shout joyfully the name of Jesus.

But David said this, you can be assured, corporately sing and shout.

He said, Let us.

And so there's something powerful about the people of God, the organism, the living, the vitality of the people of God coming together in unity, singing worship before God.

Come, let us worship.

The second point I want you to see this morning is this worship God with reverence.

Look at verses three through seven.

For the Lord is the great God and the great king above all gods.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth, the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

Letter A this morning is this the reality of God's position.

I want you to think about a question that I want you to take to the end of this sermon in regards to worship.

Who is God to you?

When you think on God and the aspects of who he is, how is it defined in your mind space?

The reality of God's position in verse 3, David says this, interestingly, no word is a mishap in Scripture.

The great God and the great king, not a great God or a great king.

He says he is the great God and great king.

We just got finished watching the greatest in all of the land, right?

The Olympics.

The greatest in every field and the top in their game, except for maybe break dancing.

I don't know.

I mean, maybe it was the greatest.

It was entertaining, if nothing.

That kangaroo hop I've been working on for the kids.

But we watch these things and we see the best.

And I want to tell you, there's people all throughout that worship the greatest in these fields.

Today people worship brands, they worship cars, they worship trends, they worship sports athletes and heroes, and it's election year, and people certainly worship politicians.

I'm gonna tell you this all of these things are fallible and finite.

Unlike what David's talking about, he said, the great God and the great king.

Well, how great is God?

David goes on and he tries to explain it.

Look at what he says.

He says in verse 4, in his hand are the deep place of the earth, and the heights of the hills are his, the sea is his, he made it, and his hands form the dry land.

Worship is to attempt to ascribe worth to something.

It is giving and honoring something for its worth.

That is what we're doing when we worship.

And he says, David says, the heights of the hills are in God's hands.

How many of you have ever been to a place in the smoky mountains called Klingman's Dome?

Anybody been to this place?

I thought a few would be there.

We've got a picture of it.

I want to talk about it for a moment.

It's the highest point in the smoky mountains.

You can see seven states from Klingman's Dome.

From the strip in Gatlinburg to this place, which is about 11 miles.

It's so steep that it'll take you near an hour to drive to the parking lot.

It stands at 6,643 feet.

Well, we went there one time.

We get to the parking lot, and it's Heather, myself, the kids, it's her mom, it's Frank, her stepdad at the time.

And we're going to Klingman's Dome.

And what you see, it takes a big steep ascent.

And we get going up this thing.

15 steps.

And I'm like, is anyone else losing oxygen here?

I took a stop.

Several benches along the way.

So we get to this first, and I'm like, I'm serious, 15 steps, and I'm like, woo, y'all okay?

Well, Frank, again, Heather's stepdad, he had ALS.

The typical ALS patient had a wheelchair, and on that wheelchair, it says, by the time they reach the point of death, they've put 12 to 15 miles on their wheelchair.

Frank, in one wheelchair, had put 35,000 miles on his wheelchair.

Took expeditions to Alaska, all kinds of crazy stuff.

Anyway, he's uh I can't remember if this is a first or second wheelchair since we know, but his wheelchair, we start going up, and all of a sudden, and why am I saying that?

Because it's a mega chair.

This chair is a go-kart with a NASCAR engine.

I mean, we had to move it before, and it was massively heavy.

And so we're going up further past that 15-step point, and all of a sudden the chair starts malfunctioning.

It starts beeping like on a movie when something's about to blow up.

Like, you know, we'll self-destruct, and I'm like, I seen smoke coming from Frank's chair, it's beeping, and I'm like, if the NASCAR mega chair can't make it, I don't know if Rick can make it.

And so we continue going up.

Frank had to stay there.

And listen, I looked it up.

The web page says, this path may be moderate to difficult.

Like, that is the biggest lie on the internet.

It is most certainly difficult to more difficult.

And so we continue on.

Literally, it did say this, and this is true.

It said it's breathtaking.

That it was.

We are, it is one mile from parking lot to peak.

Round trip.

Okay.

About 30 minutes in.

We're a little over halfway.

Okay, I'm serious, we're a little over halfway.

And a little old lady that's about 80 years old comes walking down, and she looks at me, and I said, It's okay, you're gonna make it, son.

Like, I can't believe this.

But I'll never, ever forget when we got to the top of Klingman's Dome, looking around at the heights and the hills of all that I could see, and feeling the closeness of God.

We started this year talking about stand on the mountain, the place of the glory, voice, and touch of God.

You can't listen to me.

Take an atheist to the mountains.

I cannot see all this and not be moved.

The heavens, the Bible says, declares the glory of God.

It says that the heights of the hills are in his hand.

How great is this great God?

I'll never forget that.

You remember singing the old song as a kid in church?

He's got the whole world in his hands.

And he does, church.

That is how great he is.

It goes on to talk about the depths of the sea.

Now, I haven't been to this place, but the Challenger Deep is a place in the ocean, the deepest part of the ocean.

35,876 feet deep.

I almost drowned in 170 feet of Lake Nickajak.

Can you imagine the depths?

Does who God is when it pertains to worship become elevator noise for you?

Do you come into that place and you're hurried and you're busy and I know you're trying to get there, but when you come into his house, do you realize this is a place where God has rescued lives?

Where he's rescued marriages?

Where God has saved lost sinners who, apart from their salvation, would head to a real place called hell?

Does it become background noise?

He has built families, he has changed lives, he's changed your life, most certainly.

This is a place of God's work.

And so I know you see a gym and you see runners on the ground and you see wooden stage, but I'm telling you, there's a place of hallowed ground where God has met with people.

Do you come here with a worshipful spirit, or do we come and just it's background noise?

It's what I do.

It's just another week.

I want to tell you, God wants it to be more than that.

And if you're in love with Christ, you ought to be in love with the body of Christ that He died for the local New Testament church and our gathering.

This is centuries that believers have been doing this and meeting, and they've been coming together, saying what Psalms 95 says, Come, now is the time to worship.

The God of the mountains and the deep.

So I say again this morning, your worship experience can be summed up by this.

The answer to your question, who is God to you?

David said, He's got the hills and the ocean deep right in his hand.

He is the great God.

He is my everything, he is my sustainer, he's my all-in-all.

Is he that to you?

Let her be the humility of our posture.

It said, Come let us worship and bow.

Don't miss that word, bow down and kneel before the Lord God our Maker, our action.

In Exodus 20, we see how important it is to God.

He says, You shall not make an image.

You shall not bow down to any other God.

The word for bow down is evoda in Hebrew, and it literally means, or the word worship is evoda in Hebrew, and it literally means bow down.

Worship, what do we bow down before is what we worship.

A.W.

Tozer said the goal of every Christian should be to live in a state of unbroken worship.

When that is the goal of our lives, kneeling, bowing, lying prostrate, and walking down the street are all postures of worship that are pleasing to God.

This posture epitomizes the relationship of servant and our master.

Once you think about some Old Testament scenarios, there were three Hebrew boys who put their life on the line and they said this we will not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar.

Why would that be so important to them when thousands bow down?

Do you remember Mordecai, cousin to Esther?

He said, I will not bow down before a man.

I will not bow down before Haman.

You see, bowing is yes, a physical posture, but I want to tell you it's an internal posture as well.

If you walked into a house and you saw your friend get on their knees before a statue, you'd say something ain't right here.

If you saw them get on their knees before a statue of Nick Sabin, you'd say, or Bo Jackson for my Auburn people.

You'd say, Well, that's no, that ain't right.

You probably won't see that outwardly.

But let me remind you, 1 Samuel 16, 7.

The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

This won't be popular, but the largest worship gatherings I've ever been to are two college football games.

I know this time of the year that's not popular.

It's coming up, but I gotta tell you who I'm going for.

Auburn, Alabama.

Here you go.

Blue hands.

Y'all ready?

Who's with me?

That's what I thought.

Nobody.

Silas, thank you.

Thank you for the clap.

That just shows you that I don't care.

What is our heart?

You say, Pastor Rig, I people don't really worship those things.

Well, let me ask you this what the Bible says.

The Bible says, where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.

Let me ask you, what does the checkbook and your schedule say?

Are you giving to the work of the Lord?

Are you faithful to tithing and building the kingdom of God?

I started at 18 years old giving a tithe before God.

And God has been faithful in my life.

I begin to have that conviction.

Where is your treasure being invested?

Matthew 6, 19 and 20 says, Lay not up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves can break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

You should be giving something to the work of God.

But Satan seeks to get the hearts of people to worshiping through their schedule, their checkbook, their time, their talent, their treasure.

And it's not a new idea, it's a repackaged idea.

Satan has been trying to steal the worship of man from God ever since his fall.

He even stooped so low with Jesus in the wilderness, he said, Everything you see can be yours if you will just bow down and worship me.

Can you imagine?

To Jesus Himself.

If our heart is in it, our bowel is in it, church.

Our posture.

And I come with a group of believers, almost 400 people, and I'm so uplifted because many hearts here are postured before their king.

And many hearts here are seeking and wanting to adore their king.

And so we become before God, and the Spirit of God is present because of the longing and yearning of hearts.

I love when I get to talk to people about our church and I talk about our worship services.

But I want to ask you a question: what is the posture of your heart?

David said, Let us kneel and let us bow before God.

Third thing this morning I want us to look at.

Worship God with response.

Look at verse 7 through eleven.

Says, For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work.

For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know my ways.

So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest.

I would highlight that word rest.

Letter A, this morning is this, respond by hearing and heeding.

It says, If you will, the second part of verse 7, today, if you will hear his voice, hearing him.

John 10, 27 said, My sheep know my voice, the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.

If my sheep are listening for my voice, when you come to worship, is this a habit, a tradition, a check mark in the box of a week?

Are you coming to hear from God?

Your maker, your creator.

When I was 16, my friend and myself, it was our third year, we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

And as we were doing what we did every day, we were up and down that if you've ever been to Myrtle Beach, there's a strip that runs on the side of the ocean.

On the other side, there was a pavilion like theme park and all the shops and all this, and me and my friend, I mean we were we were so cool.

Let me tell you, 1999, 1998, we were running up and down that strip, shirts off, and I was wearing roller skates, which was out for about 10 years at that point, but I couldn't rollerblade.

And he was rollerblading up and down that strip, and we were back and forth.

Listen to me, I spent$1,200 that summer on the strip, and I came home with two t-shirts and a Hannah tattoo.

I have no idea what I did, but I was having a good time.

Well, as we were back and forth on that strip on this particular day, I noticed it was sort of overcast, and all of a sudden I started hearing a sound that wasn't familiar to me.

We continued on.

We noticed the weather quickly darkened.

We're on this strip, and people are going frantically in directions, and they're getting away from the beach, and the rain begins to pick up, and I keep hearing this noise.

Well, finally, we get back to the hotel we were staying at, and my friend's parents said, Didn't you hear the sirens?

I don't know what that means.

In Delaware, I was not trained to understand what sirens meant.

They were like, the sirens have been going off.

We have got to get out of here.

There was a hurricane that had hit land, and let me tell you, we got in a car, we were following them.

It took us three and a half hours to get from where we were in Myrtle Beach to Myrtle Beach High School, which is where we were sent to.

And then we had two days of staying because we got there so late there was no room in the high school.

Me and my friend stayed in his car for two days through a hurricane, Hurricane Bonnie.

It's interesting when I think back on those times, time before cell phones.

My parents did not come to rescue me at Myrtle Beach.

I could not call them.

I did not get a hold of them.

For all they knew, I got swept up and I was in Kansas.

Nothing.

That was one of the things I brought back, a t-shirt that said I survived, Hurricane Bonnie.

I gave it to my mom.

Funny, I'm telling all myself here, we got back and the beach was back open.

I didn't call her that day.

I called her the next day.

Mom, I'm okay.

But I remember this.

I have learned since that point what it means to listen to and heed the sound of a siren.

If you hear the siren go off, listen, I'm gonna tell you, maybe kids are in here, you don't know.

Sirens go off.

That means you need to get to a safe place quickly.

Hearing and heeding.

Are you hearing his voice today?

John chapter 4 says, the Father seeks such as will worship him in spirit and in truth.

John 4 · chapter mention

John Piper said spirit and truth mean that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God.

Worship must have heart, and worship must have head.

Worship engages emotions, but worship should engage your thoughts.

The Father is seeking those who would worship him in this way, who will hear.

Hear me.

It's not just about the hearing.

Yes, hear.

But we must then heed.

We hear and respond in spirit and in truth.

We're moved by what he's speaking.

Who today will hear and respond?

This is not merely a feeding and filling service.

It's an emptying and filling.

If I will empty myself of all that I am to worship him, then will I be filled.

For 15 years, Heather and I would lead youth group to camp trips.

We go to Camp Gotel, and I have a Camp Gotel speech that right before we leave, almost every student, every time for 15 years have heard.

And we're all ready and we're all anticipating this week.

And I'll say something like this you guys are all here.

And somebody, whether it be you, a sponsor, your parents, somebody has paid your$350 fee.

The money has been spent.

And the moments that are upcoming that have been planned, it has been planned for great activity and fun.

I mean, it is already planned that you can be involved in some of the most fun opportunities you'll get all summer.

There are great speakers anointed by God, pre-planned.

There are worship leaders that have been pre-planned for this place that you can come into.

And I'll say something like this with all that being said, there are some over the years that have chosen to come and have a bad time.

And you, listen, I don't believe you should.

I don't believe it, I don't believe it's easy, but you can have a bad time.

And I'll say to them before we leave, it's all coming.

The next five days are here.

What you put into this is what you're gonna get out of this.

So give all that you have so that you will leave this thing having the greatest week that you can have.

And Jesus said, I seek such as would worship me in spirit and truth.

Would you give everything so that you can leave having been filled and emptied?

Letter B is this.

We respond by not hardening our heart.

By not hardening our heart.

Verse 8, he said, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work.

And forty years I was grieved with that generation.

Church, he says, Today, if you will hear my voice, if you will hear it, and know my work and not harden your heart, there is a heart that is here that will not worship.

In other words, there are people today that because of the state of what's in here, currently it is most difficult for this heart to worship.

There is a heart that has grieved God.

Listen to what it says.

It says they go astray in heart, and when they go astray, God lets them.

They chose their way, and God lets them.

You may be right here today, and church for you has been ice cold.

I mean, I am unmoved.

I am, I just really got nothing.

I can get up and try to sing the words, but it's just bleak.

Maybe you can remember a time, but it's been a long time ago.

Oh, to move me to emotion, to worship him in spirit, I'm just blocked up.

David Jeremiah said a hardened heart is intellectually rigid, willfully, hear that, willfully obstinate, and un and emotionally unresponsive.

That type of heart blocks what God wants to say.

That type of heart puts up a blockade.

And listen, what happened to Israel?

When Israel believed the report of ten spies and did not trust God, they were sentenced to die instead of entering into God's promise.

God said go, and they hardened their heart because of fear, and instead of going, they stayed.

Instead of going, when God said go, they said no.

Church, I believe today there are people here, and God is calling your heart, and He's saying, Go, change, surrender, give that thing up, start this thing new, go.

And because of the condition of our heart, we say, Not this time.

And there is a type of heart that grieves God.

And I want to tell you, if God is calling you today, then He's calling you to have a worshipful heart.

And in opposition to that hardened heart, that means a heart that is wholly surrendered.

He said, 40, can you hear?

40 years.

I said, go, they said no, and for 40 years it grieved him.

And they received the reward of that and wandered and wandered.

And wondered when God had a plan, a promise.

Remember Matthew 28, Jesus' invitation?

He said, Come to me.

His invitation, come, and I'll give you rest.

Did you see the end of this verse number 11?

So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest.

They will not have rest.

We can leave this earth having been used and having magnified the name of the great God, the great king, and having experienced him, or we can go throughout this life actually being the elevator noise, ending our life having no impact for the kingdom of God.

There's a story about a man named Effie Meyer that I wanted to share with you in closing.

Effie Meyer went to a revival meeting and there was a well-known speaker there.

Effie Meyer was a great, very well-known speaker.

He went and heard a man named C.T.

Studd.

And after the meeting, listening to C.T.

Stud, Meyer went up to him and said, Sir, I perceive from your preaching and from what's coming from you that you have something that I lack.

And he said, What is it?

And C.T.

Studd, as was his manner, looked him straight in the eyes.

F.

B.

Meyer, well known, he said, has there ever been a point in a place where you truly surrendered everything to God?

F.

B.

Meyer thought for a moment and he said, Yes, yes, I have.

But there was a voice inside of his head that day, and it said, No, that's not true.

You have not surrendered everything.

Troubled about it, F.

B.

Meyer hurried home.

He knelt at his bedside and he began to pray.

And he said, as he prayed, it felt as if the Lord came to him and said, Meyer, I want all the keys to your heart.

And F.B.

Meyer began to argue with the Lord in that moment.

He said, Lord, you want all of the keys?

Every one of the keys?

And he said, Yes, Meyer, I want all of the keys to your heart.

And as a visioneth in the prayer, Meyer said, He took a ring of keys and handed them to the Lord.

And the Lord took the keys and began to count them.

And when he was done, he said, Meyer, there's still one key missing.

And he said this, If I am not Lord of all, then I am not Lord at all.

And he began for the door.

And Meyer hurriedly jumped up and he said, No wait, Lord.

And he cried to him, he said, Why are you leaving me?

And he said, Meyer, if I am not Lord of all, I'm not Lord of all.

And he began to open the door in desperation, not wanting to lose the presence of the Lord.

He ran to him and knelt down and he said, Lord, here is the last key.

Meyer said of the experience that I had to build an altar that night before the Lord.

And I had to place F.

B.

Meyer on the altar.

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