When Do You Not Worship | Special Guest Pastor Brian Wallace

Um, I am so grateful and honored to be able to be here.

Um, I just want to say first that uh your pastor, Pastor Chris, is amazing.

Can we can we praise God uh for him?

Um and just the entire team.

Uh they've been such gracious hosts, and I've been so honored to be able to be here.

One of the things that I'm I'm really grateful for is that as I do come here, I don't feel like I'm an outsider.

I don't feel like this is this feels like family.

Um, and that it really speaks of just you, your church, and what God is doing here, but it also speaks of the opportunity that I've had to really build relationships, strong relationships with some of your leaders.

And so we've had um uh Pastor Daniel come, uh Pastor uh JT come.

We've we've been able to have uh a team of those.

I don't know, is there anybody here that had a chance to actually come to our church in Fontana uh that's here right now?

So so good to see you.

All right, there's a couple others, and so um so it's just really great to be here.

Um and I'm so honored.

One of the things that I do want to share is I want to give a big thank you.

Um you are a major part, and so I think I don't know if I have one of the pictures up there.

Yeah, you are a major part.

So this was the the team that came out uh last time as we were doing VBS, but you are a major part of what God is doing um in Fontana.

And so I know that sounds like you know, it sounds like a country, you know, as you guys are in Texas, right?

So yes, that's that's still um California.

It's it's the LA area, but it's it's maybe about 45 minutes from LA.

But God is doing a work there, and we are so grateful because you, um, even though maybe you've never been there, this is the first time you even heard about City Connect Church.

You are a major part of what God is doing there because of not only your generosity and giving, which allows us to do the ministry and the things that we do, but also just through your partnerships, through your prayer.

Um, Dave, he he's he's been reaching out to me for at least a year now.

Every single uh Monday, I'm probably sure he's like, no, I don't want this acknowledgement.

But but I'm just so grateful because there's so many things that are happening that you are a part of that you may not be aware of.

And so I want to celebrate because I I have some some great news as we uh through last year, last year we were able to see from our church 39 commitments to Christ.

All right, all right.

So we're family now, right?

And so as family, I had to encourage um the 830 group, and I had to say, hey, one of the things that we talk about at City Connect Church is when it comes to what God is doing, and we're talking about salvation, we're talking about baptisms, we don't do golf claps, right?

Right?

Because go ahead and let your favorite basketball team win the championship.

Go ahead and let Texas AM win the national championship.

Right?

I already heard, I heard, I did, I did.

You're not gonna give a golf clap, you're gonna get on your feet, you're gonna yell at the top of your lungs because that is your favorite team.

But what is greater?

Your basketball team or your football team winning, or somebody coming to Christ.

So I want to start this over again.

We're gonna say this one more time.

So we saw last year 39 commitments to Christ.

There we go.

There we go.

We were able to baptize 13 people.

Come on, let's begin to praise God.

Here we go, there we go.

There we go, there we go, we got a couple.

And God is continuing to work.

We we've seen uh 24 commitments already this year.

Come on, let's praise God.

And we've been able to do seven baptisms this year.

I mentioned that because it's so important that you understand that we are one body, many members.

And what you give and what you do, and this whole concept of church planting and helping church plants is is biblical.

It goes back to Acts.

See, disciples make disciples, and churches plant churches, and it is our commission, is what we're doing, and so it's called kingdom expansion, and you are part of that.

And so um from City Connect Church, we want to say thank you.

Today, our scripture is coming from Romans chapter 11 and chapter 12.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

I'll be starting off from verse 33 and then go into verse 1 of chapter 12.

It says this, it says, Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be the glory forever.

Amen.

And then he says in verse one of chapter 12 I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this time, we thank you for this word.

Father, I pray that you will take me out of self.

And Father, may the words that speak not be of me, but of you, and may they go forth with power.

Father, encourage us in areas we need to be encouraged.

Father, strengthen us in areas we need to be strengthened, and may we walk out of here refreshed and renewed in your spirit.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I'm grateful because I have the opportunity to talk about worship.

And as we're talking about worship, we're talking about the greatest hits.

How many of us enjoy some of those great hits, right?

And and and so the worship was amazing.

And so let's begin to praise God for our worship team, right?

And so they did a great job.

And and Pastor JT, he did a wonderful job talking about last week the the what of worship and what worship is.

But today I have this opportunity to talk about the win of worship.

And what does that look like?

And I was praying and I'm saying, God, what what would you have me to say?

God, what would you have me to say in this area of the win of worship?

And God began to speak to me, and and and I want to share that with you.

But I need two uh uh helpers, I need two volunteers.

Do I have any volunteers?

I have somebody that would help me really quick.

Um, so not everybody jump off all at once.

Okay, we got one.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

We got two.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I appreciate that.

So we can I need you to come on stage, yes.

I don't know how much how much does Pastor Chris have people come on stage?

Um I I'm constantly doing something.

I'm I'm always having people so as as they're they're they're making their way up.

What I'm gonna have them do is when they come up here, I'm gonna have them do a little bit of a contest, right?

We're gonna see uh who's competitive, who's the more competitive person?

I'm not okay.

Okay, we got we got two competitors.

I love it, I love it.

All right, so what I'm gonna uh have them do is what I want you to do is on the count of three, I want you to hold your breath as long as you can.

Hey, in the name of Jesus, you know.

She said, she said, I have asthma.

Well, you know, man, God is able to work.

All right.

So, so we're we're gonna hold our breath as long as we can.

Now, mind you, you can go ahead and play along if you want to, if you want to hold your breath and see if you can hold it longer than they can.

You certainly can do that.

So, on the count of three, what I want you to do is hold your breath, okay?

And we're gonna see who can win.

All right.

One, two, three.

All right, so as they are holding their breath, first off, because they're on stage and she's trying not to laugh.

Oh, then they make it even harder because they're they have they're having jokes.

And so that's gonna make it really hard for them to hold their breath, right?

But what's happening is there's a signal that's starting to be sit to their brain saying something is wrong.

There's a signal, it's beginning to say, I I I need what?

Oxygen, I I need to breathe.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, you won?

We got we got a winner, right?

Right?

See, they can only hold their breath for so long because they need air, they need to breathe in order to live.

I bring that up because if I was to ask you, when do you breathe?

What would you say?

All the time.

Let's give them a hand of applause.

I was really reflecting on this, and as we were talking about worship, and we're talking about the window worship, I'm I'm I'm asking God, I'm saying, well, wait a minute, that's the wrong question.

The question isn't necessarily when do we worship?

The question actually should be when don't we?

Because just like breathing, worship is critical to life, it's critical to living.

But what we can do is we can begin to minimize worship to just a win, to just a time and to just a place, and we lose sight of the power and the purpose and the impact of worship.

Today I want to talk about one point and I want to build on this point, and this point is this worship is our reasonable service, not merely a ritual, but a way of life.

I'll say that one more time.

Worship is our reasonable service, not merely a ritual, but a way of life.

As we begin to look at our scripture, as we begin to try to understand what God is speaking through Paul in Romans chapter 12, we we first have to go back and we have to look a little bit at what was happening in Romans chapter 11.

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 11 · chapter mention

And in Romans chapter 11, we find that that Paul is talking to the believers in Rome, and as he's talking to the believers in Rome, he's beginning to share with them and and about the mercies of God.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

And he's helping them to understand that that God is so gracious and God is so merciful, and you once were outsiders of that grace.

You were once not participants of this grace, but because of Christ, and because you have found mercy, you are now participants of God's grace because of what Christ did on the cross.

But then he begins to warn them, he shifts his attention, he says, Wait a minute, but I have a warning, don't become arrogant, don't begin to think that you're all that.

Don't you dare begin to look down on the Israelites and and the Israel.

Because although at this time maybe they have rejected Christ, and they are on the outside now, and you're on the inside, don't you don't you look down upon them because God is not done with Israel.

God is left the door open for Israel, and mercy is still open for them, and God is gonna do a great work.

You just just wait.

And so, in this moment, as he's beginning to talk about God's mercy in chapter 11, we find that in verse 33, he begins to pause his discussion, he actually begins to go into what I would call like a praise break.

Well, what I'm saying here is that have you ever just began to just dwell on God's goodness in your life?

Have you ever begun to just talk about man?

God saved me from this.

God worked in my life in this way.

And as you begin to talk about God's goodness and God's grace in your life, you just begin to just pause, get off topic, and begin to just praise God in that moment.

You begin to just say, Thank you, Jesus.

You begin to say, Hallelujah.

I don't know if anybody ever had a shout in their life.

Y'all being really quiet about here.

Has anybody here ever had a shout because of God's work in your life?

And you can't help but to pause as you begin to think about what God is doing in your life.

And that's what we find that Paul did is Paul had to pause and went into a worship moment and began to talk about oh, the depths, oh, how wonderful, oh how great, oh, how how high and lifted up he is.

And as he begins to worship, he comes back in chapter 12 of verse 1, and he focuses attention back to the believers, and he says, I beseech you, therefore.

This word, therefore, it helps us understand that he's connecting the two thoughts.

This isn't a separate thought, but rather it's a conjunction where it's connecting the two thoughts.

And so he's saying, wait a minute, as I'm talking about how God is merciful to you and how God's mercy is extended to Israel, oh, how wonderful his mercies are.

Therefore, in light of his mercy, therefore, in view of his mercy, I beseech you, I beg of you, I implore of you.

Present yourself, offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

And then he goes on to say, which is your reasonable service.

I want to first deal with this whole topic, this idea of your reasonable service.

As we look at this whole idea of your reasonable service, the first thing is this word reasonable here in the Greek, it is talking about that which is rational.

It actually, the root word of this Greek word comes from logos.

And so we find that it's talking about that which is rational or that which is logical, it is what is proper.

So he comes and begins to say, wait a minute, your logical conclusion, the only logical conclusion as you begin to come face to face with the mercies of God is to worship.

Pastor JT did an amazing job talking about that.

Our worship is a response to God.

Here, Paul is only echoing that.

Paul is saying, wait a minute, as you've come face to face, as you've come to understand, in view of God's mercy, the only lack, he goes a step further.

He says, the only logical conclusion, the only proper conclusion is that you give of yourself in service of worship.

This word service, it has some nuances to it because it's actually talking about a type of service, but it's specifically talking about like a priestly duty.

And so it might talk about a priest and their sacred duty in the act of worship.

And so it brings this element of saying, wait a minute, I my only act of my only role, my the only proper response is my worship, my duty unto God.

I mentioned this because I want to build on this as we begin to talk about the win of worship.

And as we begin to talk about the win of worship, it's important that we understand that we were created for worship.

You were created with a purpose, and that purpose was to give glory to God.

The scripture tells us and it reminds us in Colossians, it says, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

Each of us were created for God's purpose, for his glory.

And our only reasonable response, our only reasonable service is an act of worship.

Because you did not create yourself, you did not give yourself purpose.

God gave you purpose, and so therefore, as we become to understand that purpose and the fact that he gave us life, our only reasonable service is to worship.

As we look at Genesis in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth, he created everything on the earth, he created Adam and Eve, and as he looked at it all, he said, Good.

He said, It's good.

But what's interesting is you didn't see a church in the garden.

Anybody, I don't know, did anybody read about a church being in the garden?

Did anybody read about a temple being in the garden?

Did anybody read maybe about there being uh offerings of lambs and offering of ghosts anybody see any offerings happening in the garden?

It wasn't there because as they worshiped, they tended to the garden.

All right, this might be going over somebody's head.

Their act of worship was not going to church, their act of worship when they worship is when they did what God had called them to do, when they did what God had created them to do.

That is living worship, that is the essence of when we worship.

That was their reasonable service.

But we find that something began to happen as they began to live out their purpose and began to worship, sin interrupts our purpose of worship.

Even now, sin will interrupt your purpose of worship, and sin interrupted in this situation because we find that it says that in the scriptures that sin had come, that they had disobeyed God.

Now, I want to build on this because it's interesting because oftentimes when we think about the original sin, we immediately think of disobedience.

But I want to highlight for us today that there was a disobedience, but it was a result of idol worship.

Well, you might say, How?

Let's go into our scripture.

And as we go into our scripture, we find it says in Genesis chapter 3, verse 4, it says, Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.

Genesis 3:4

Number one, he began to put question to God's truth.

He began to put question into God's purpose for them.

Just as maybe Satan tries to put question into God's purpose for you today.

It goes on and says in verse 5, For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God.

See, Satan was pulling on their ego.

And the ego was saying, wait a minute, I want to be like God, I can be God.

But that was a perversion, that was a twisting of their purpose.

That was not their purpose, it was to attend to the garden.

Their purpose was not to be like God.

And so, in essence, as they ate of the fruit of the tree, they stopped living out their purpose, and in essence, stopped worshiping.

What I'm trying to help us to understand is that as we live God's purpose, that is worship.

That's what it was in the beginning in the garden.

I have uh JT, JT's gonna help me out.

I want to build on this particular example.

I have a light here.

The scripture tells us that we are the light of the world.

And as we are the light of the world, what I what I want you to do, uh JT, is I want you to kind of hold this.

Now, this is your purpose.

Your purpose is to stand here, okay?

And to hold this and to be a light to all these people so that way as they're seeking direction, right?

Go ahead, you can face them.

As they're seeking direction, I want you to stand right here.

Don't move, but I want you to stand here and I want you to be a light so people can see the light.

Now, as he is doing this, he is doing what?

Y'all being really quiet.

As he's doing this, as he is doing what he was created to do, he is doing what?

Worship.

Now go ahead, JC, and just start.

JT, where are you going?

No, no, you're supposed to be a light over here.

No, no, no, you no, no, not not.

It's not what I want.

You got to do what I want you to do.

That's what which but no, not the light down.

But you put the, put the, they can't see the light.

JT, take the light off your shirt.

Why is the light in your shirt, JT?

So you can begin to see that he began to do what he wanted to do.

And this happens in our own lives, is where we begin to stop worshiping because we have an agenda.

Let's give JT a hand of applause on the table.

Romans 1 says this.

Verse 21, it says, Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Although they knew God, they were not thankful.

They did not glorify him, but became futile in our thoughts, in their thoughts.

And so as we began to talk about this worship, sin, interrupted worship, and then ritual came in.

As we talk about a ritual, we're talking about that which is religious, that which is something that you do over and over again.

It could be an event, it could be in a service.

I find this interesting because as I was really reflecting on this, one of the things that we can understand and we can see is that there wasn't offerings in the garden, but immediately after the fall, there was now a presentation of offerings.

The offering was a result of sin.

And the ritual and the practice of giving of the offering came afterwards.

We find that it says that Cain and Abel, right after the fall, they they came with their what?

Offering.

That wasn't the case.

In Genesis, in the Garden, that wasn't the case.

But it was after the fall that we have this ritual of this offering coming in.

I'm building on this.

I want you to see.

So, as they began to give that, this ritual, as they're going through this process, it began to get worse.

It began to build where all of a sudden you began to have the offerings, you had the keeping of the Sabbaths, you had the full moons, you had the priestly ceremonies, you began to have temples coming through the biblical law.

And so worship, the reasonable service, began to shift from that which is living to that which is ritual.

And we have to be careful because worship is more than just the ritual, it's more than just going through the process.

How does this relate to you today?

It's because today we get caught up more in the ritual.

Well, I'm gonna go to church today.

It's Sunday, and Sunday is the day that it's the Lord's day.

Well, actually, every day is the Lord's day.

But what we've done is we've gone into the ritual of things.

And to where it's like worship becomes a time.

And don't let them go more than 20 minutes over their time because this wait a minute, that was way too long.

Worship becomes this this moment, worship becomes my favorite song.

Worship becomes these rituals and these events.

But when's the last time you scheduled breathing?

When's the last time that you begin to say, okay, I'm gonna breathe now?

Okay, I'm gonna breathe now.

No, no, it'd be breathing is a way of life, and so should worship be.

But we get caught up in the ritual of it, and there's this tension.

We find that that after the fall, there's this tension between true and living worship and that which is ritual.

It's not saying that the the ritual was bad, the ritual was necessary because of the fall and because of sin, but it was only temporary.

Turn to somebody to say it was temporary because Christ ushered in a better covenant.

It's interesting because one of the scriptures that that really jumps out to me is the scripture in Genesis 22.

And in Genesis 22, we find that Abraham is there, and Abraham had been commissioned by God that I want you to go and I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac.

And so we have this as they leave and they're going, and he's going to sacrifice his only son Isaac.

It comes to a point where he tells them, he says, Look, I want the servants, I want you to stay here.

And then he goes on to say, While me and my son, we go and worship.

This is actually the first time that we see the word worship in the scripture.

The word worship here is actually shekah in Hebrew, and it means to bow down, it means to posture oneself, it means to get low.

So it's actually talking about your posture.

Now you can look at this and you can begin to see the tension between ritual and that which is of the heart, and begin to only look at the fact that they went and they began to build an altar, that they went and they were gonna actually sacrifice an animal, or in this case it was supposed to be his son.

But that actually wasn't the worship that was taking place, that actually wasn't the shaka, that was not the posturing of the heart that was taking place, the posturing of the heart that was actually taking place in the scripture was one of obedience.

The worship that he expressed was not about the ritual, the worship he expressed was one of giving of his life and one of obedience.

I say this because there's a tension that we are fighting, there's a tension that we're having to fight against.

We find that it says in Samuel 15, it says, So Samuel said to Saul, has the Lord as a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Why?

Because I'd rather have obedience than sacrifice.

I'd rather have you be obedient than come in here and lift your hands and hallelujah.

Praise the Lord, brother, and hallelujah.

Because worship is more than a ritual, it's more than just going through the process, it's more than just singing a song.

Worship is how we live our lives every single day.

Therefore, you have to fight from limiting worship to just a service, from limiting worship just to a time that I come on a Sunday.

And it's a fight, it's a struggle because we have something in us that wants to make it an event, that wants to make it a certain time, so we can put it in a box and say, okay, okay, now is my time to worship, but all the other time is my time for myself.

But that's not the case.

Because as we live life, that is worship, and that's what Paul is trying to say here in Romans.

Paul is saying, wait a minute, because of what Christ did, because of the mercy that we were able to see, receive, and what he did on the cross, it is through Christ and what he did on the cross that I beseech you, I beg of you, I plead with you.

Present yourself.

That word present talks about an offering.

But he says, I don't want you to do the offering that you're used to.

I don't want you to do the offering of just just just an animal, something, something that's just a ritual, but I want you to do an offering of yourself that is living, that is ongoing, that doesn't stop.

Will you offer yourself as a living sacrifice?

Worship is my reasonable service, not merely a ritual, but a way of life.

You worship as you live Christ every single day.

You worship as you get up, you worship as you lay down, you worship as you come, you worship as you go.

1 Corinthians 10 says, so whether you eat or drink, or whether you do whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 6 19 says, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price.

Therefore, worship, therefore, glorify God in your body.

Every day you live out worship.

You're not waiting for a moment, you're not, you're not waiting for a time, you live out worship every single day.

Worship is a way of life.

Worship is like breath to your lungs, it's like oxygen to your lungs, and you begin to worship as you are seeking to be obedient.

You worship as you give yourself unto God, as you surrender, as your shaka.

You don't just have a posturing, just going through the motions.

I can hold this.

Alright, I'm I'm here.

Okay, how long?

Okay, okay.

You got about another 10 minutes for me to hold this because I got other things I need to do.

And that's sometimes our worship.

Or you can look at this and say, This isn't something I'm holding.

Rather, it's who I am.

I am the light of the world.

I am the salt of the earth.

And as I begin to live that out, as I begin to be salty, as I begin to be that light in dark situations.

That's worship.

I said in the in the first service, I I said it's it's it's an act of worship as your wife is getting on your nerves.

And you really want to say something back.

But you show love and you show forgiveness.

I talked about how it's worship when when you told your husband that, hey, are you gonna fix this?

And and and he said he would fix it, but that was like 10 months ago, and you're trying really hard not not to mention it anymore.

But you're showing mercy, you're showing that's that's worship.

When you share the gospel, and I know sometimes you're like, well, I what am I gonna say?

And I don't really want to share, but as you share the gospel with others, that is worship, as you walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, that is worship, as you talk about God's mercy, that is worship.

It's not when life gets easy that your worship shines, your worship shines even brighter when life gets harder.

I I have an example.

I want to give this example.

I didn't uh do this uh in the first service.

Consider for a moment that um you have some flowers, right?

And so, what's your name?

Renee.

Renee.

Consider for a moment, I'm assuming this is your husband next to you.

Okay, wonderful.

Okay, I don't want to get in trouble.

All right, so um, so Renee, your your husband, he's gonna go get you some flowers.

You love some flowers, and so on his way home from work, he sees some flowers just sitting there, he picks those flowers up and he says, Here you go, baby.

I don't know if he calls you baby, but here you go.

How do you feel?

Love.

You feel loved, you feel appreciated, right?

But now consider for a moment that your favorite flowers were nowhere in town, and so he had to drive all the way up to the woodlands.

I've I'm I'm see, I've never really been to Houston, but I'm starting to kind of understand some of the geography.

So he had to drive all the way up to the woodlands, to the marketplace, and he went and bought the most of these expensive flowers that you can only get in the woodlands.

Woodlands is pretty expensive.

Uh and he comes back after driving there in the traffic on the 45, 45 minutes, came back, there was more traffic, an hour just to get back to give you these special flowers that were just for you.

How do you feel now?

What I'm trying to illuminate for us and help us to understand is that when it was hard, but yet he still went out and drove up there.

That was an act of love.

If we only worship God when it's easy, if you only worship God when it's convenient, when you only worship God when it's on your time, it's just a limited form of the worship that God desires from us.

But that worship is magnified when it's not easy, that worship is magnified when you begin to step outside of yourself and it begins to stretch you.

Will you let God stretch you in everyday life?

See, because it is worship as you begin to go through life in the journey and in that process of life.

Some of the greatest worship you can express is in the valley, not on the mountaintop.

As we are seeking to worship God in spirit and in truth, don't limit that worship to just a ritual.

Don't limit the worship to just a Sunday.

We have something greater.

It's not about when we worship, but rather when don't I worship.

Because I'm going to commit every single day and every single moment as an act of worship.

My obedience, my surrendering, my sacrifice.

Let's stand together.

Father, thank you for your love.

Thank you for Christ.

Thank you for mercy.

Thank you for a second chance.

Now, Father, I pray that you will just use this time for your glory.

Father, as we're talking about worship, Father, you're you're desiring more from some of us here.

Father, you've you've called some of us here to to a greater level of where we're currently at.

But we just want to stick with the ritual.

We just want to stick with giving you a space of our week rather than giving you all of our week.

Because that's convenient.

Father, we will be obedient when it's convenient.

Father, you've called us to live in wish.

Father, you've called us to be a living self.

So we give up ourselves to you.

And we hold nothing back, but your eyes still close.

If you're here this morning, and you want to come to know the mercy of God that I'm talking about, it's as simple as giving your heart to Christ.

It's as simple as believing that He loves you and that He He died on the cross for you and that He rose on the third day.

But the hard part is surrendering.

The hard part is Shaka, it's the posturing of the heart and saying, Not my will, but your will be done in my life.

I surrender myself to you.

That is the greatest and first act of worship that we can ever give.

You're here this morning, and you've never committed your life to Christ, and you would like to do that today.

I want to give you that opportunity to come forward.

Maybe you're here this morning, and and and you've grown up in church, you've gone through the ritual, you've been coming here, somebody's invited you, you've been coming here, and and there's something about coming here, there's something about this community, that something is Christ, but you've never made that commitment, saying, God, I surrendered to you.

If you're here this morning, and God is putting that on your heart, I just want you to raise me.

Stop speaking to you.

If you're here this morning, as you come to better understand worship, what God is calling to you in worship.

That you want to present yourself with a living sacrifice, but but you understand it's hard.

You're in the valley right now, and you're saying, God, I don't know how I'm gonna make it out.

God, I don't know how I can praise you, God, I don't know how I can rejoice, God, I don't know how my life can give you glory right now.

I want you to know it can't.

But you can't do it by yourself.

So maybe you're here this morning and you just want some prayer.

The prayer of the righteous felleth much, that's worship.

Oh, it's worship when you begin to say, God, I can't do it by myself.

God, I need you.

That's worship.

It's worship as you begin to confess and you begin to say, God, I'll take this burden.

Why?

He says, Cast your cares upon me.

Why?

Because I care for you.

That's worship.

If you raise your hand, if you want prayer, if you want to commit your life to Christ today, I want to ask that you come forward.

This is that time.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espanol at 1 o'clock.