Set Free To Worship | Pastor Paul McGee

Lord, Amen, forgot how to work one of these things from this

morning to the night. I guess it's bound to happen.

Amen. This evening, man, whenever she

hit me hard, whenever she said it was already the end of

February, next Sunday just goes too fast.

Services sometimes go so fast. I'm just saying, I mean, I'm,

I'm sitting over there worshipping through songs and

it's like at this moment just go so fast.

I just like want to hit the pause button sometimes.

And on life, on service, what's going, you know, there's some

moments you want to hit the pause button on and there's

other moments you want to Fast forward, right?

And then somewhere so good you want to rewind and relive,

right. And there's some that I want to

record for playback later. Yeah.

And there's other ports of my life, like the old cassette tape

ways I want to erase. And there's other times that

feels like I'm playing the good parts and it gets all wrapped up

and I got to take it out, straighten it back out, see if I

can get it to sound like it did before it got all tangled.

I don't know what all that's about.

It's about a 90 minute tape, I guess.

I don't know. Hey man, stand with me tonight.

Good to see so many here. I'm glad we was able to have

church tonight. It was really bad the back and

forth what to do, but I got out and drove some and look like the

wind rather than freezing things over or dried stuff up and so

happy about that. Amen.

This evening going to be turning to Exodus chapter 5 and also

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter #8, Exodus chapter #5 and Exodus chapter #8

Amen. And I apologize, I made a

statement toward the end this morning about that.

Maybe your interest level was low and I'm sorry for judging

you about where your interest was.

Maybe you was hoping I'd win another hour and so I I'm sorry

for misjudging maybe where you were in everything tonight.

Exodus chapter #5 and verse one. Exodus chapter #8 and verse one.

Go hit all the verse ones. All right.

The Bible says. And afterward Moses and Aaron

went in and told Pharaoh. Thus saith the Lord God of the

Israel. These are words that are come to

us, getting ready to come, that we should know from the story.

Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the

wilderness. Exodus 8 and verse 1.

And I really could have filled my texts with a lot of these

verses, right? OK, Exodus 8 and verse one.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, go into Pharaoh, saying to him,

Thus sayeth the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve

me. I need the help of the Holy

Ghost. I do every time I stand here,

but for sure do tonight I'm going to just minister this set

free to worship. Set free to worship.

Sometimes we concentrate heavily on the aspect of them needing be

set free and we forget the purpose why they were and in

some regards not to fulfill The second part is to betray the

privilege that was extended to us in the first part.

So set free to worship. Ask God to help me with this

little thought tonight. All right, I got scrawled on old

paper here too. Lord Jesus, we need you tonight.

Pray, O God, that you have an anoint my mind.

You have an anoint my lips. God to be bread.

Lord, for the feeding. I pray Jesus this evening, God

to lean upon you. God, I can't lean up on my own

understanding. God, Lord, be the words, God to

flow over my lips and my tongue. I pray Jesus touches God where

we need to be touched, instruct us, God, where we need to be

instructed. Help us.

So Lord, today to invite you, Lord, into this space.

God, I pray, Lord, in this very moment, God, that we would be

led by the Spirit of God. Lord Jesus here in the next

little while, and we'll praise you and honor you God, for what

you do and accomplish in this place.

In the lovely name of Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah in

the church, say Amen, Amen. You may be seated tonight in

Jesus name. I believe then this evening we

can all agree then that this verbiage that is used in chapter

5 and 8 and that we see continuously used in these

chapters and others that we're so familiar with that that very

command, that very instruction that God had given to Moses of

how to approach this and what to do concerning this as playing

the part of the deliverer for the nation of Israel.

Civic instructions. They were quite simple though.

At the same time enter into the court of that high power of

Egypt, Stand before Pharaoh and make a proclamation.

Make a proclamation to him of let my people go so that they

may. The Bible says it a few

different ways so that they can go into the wilderness and hold

a feast. Take a three day journey into

the wilderness and hold a feast into the Lord as chapter 8 says,

or as so that they could go and serve the Lord.

I think there's other ones that say so that they could go, let

my people go so they can take their journey into the

wilderness to sacrifice unto the Lord.

But Ness, it's in all of those things that we're talking about,

whether he's talking about so they can have a feast, or that

they can sacrifice, or that they can serve.

All of that falls underneath the umbrella really of worship.

It's even in Matthew chapter #4 whenever we see that the Lord is

spending his time in the wilderness and the different

temptations come to him from the adversary, and he's telling the

Lord, you know, fall down and worship me, that he recants with

the word of the Lord and says, without thou shalt not, you

know, they should worship anything else except God and

him. Only shalt thou serve.

And it really equates that to serve the Lord is to worship the

Lord. There's a parallel Amen that

takes place there. And so this was the repeated

command over and over again in the Scripture before Pharaoh,

before even the children of Israel, that they would be let

go so that they might serve, or that they might sacrifice so

that they might carry on a festival unto the Lord and

worship. It's important, I think then to

understand this, that the primary reason for their

deliverance, according to the Lord, was so that they would

worship it. This was not the primary reason,

and maybe sometimes we get clouded in the story, but his

primary reason was not let my people go so that they can

escape the hardship of Egypt, that that wasn't the plea.

It wasn't let my people go so they don't have to worry about

the rigors of the taskmasters or the making of the brick without

straw or all of that. No, the Lord made it very plain.

Let them go. My primary reason for their

deliverance is then that they will be free to worship me.

Amen to worship me. And so since that is the case,

since that is the equation, freedom then for worship.

We got to understand then if we get our escape, even as they did

from the, the, the thumb, if you will, of the Egyptian ruler and

the Pharaoh and the slavery that they had succumbed to.

To have that freedom then and to get to the mount of God, to have

that freedom and get away from what they had known for years

and generations had known them for years.

To do that and then not worship the Lord and not surrender

sacrifice to God and not surrender service to God.

In reality tonight folks, is just another form of bond.

To have the freedom to do it and not to do it is another form of

bondage. Because I've set you free for

the purpose of worship. I've set you free for the

purpose of honoring me with sacrifice and stuff.

But if, with if, if I've made you a Stewart being of that

freedom and you don't use that freedom for which I have

purposed it for, you have another a different set of

bondage really that's in your life.

Because now it's not that you can't do it because who is over

you is not allowing you to do it.

It's now it's not like you can't do it because Pharaoh says you

can't go. But now you're not doing it

because you're not allowing yourself to do it.

See that? That's a different form of

bondage. It's one thing for something to

be in your life that's going to prohibit you from do something,

and it's another thing for you not to do it.

I understand what I'm saying. It's one thing that that that my

life is so clouded maybe with sin and other things that I'm in

the House of God and so I can't render no worship to him.

But it's another thing for me to make a conscious choice to have

now the freedom in that aspect and just not do it, Amen.

It's colored differently. And so the purpose of our

freedom then, even for the children of Israel then, was for

the call to true worship. So, so, so salvation, when I

think of this being saved, Amen, from bondage, salvation, it is

not just something that I escaped from, but it's also

something that I enter into. You remember even the verbiage

of the Old Testament Scripture, it says that he brought them out

to bring them in. That's the word in the

Scripture. He brought them out to bring

them in. And so thank God for salvation.

Thank God for what I've been saved from, but I'm also

entering into now the second part of the plan, and that is to

worship and honor and magnify God.

And so whenever Israel left a man and their feet were going

out of the Egyptian territory, they were not just leaving

Egypt, but they were headed to the Mount of God.

They were headed to the mount of God where they were going to

receive the law God, where they were going to formulate a

covenant with God, a binding covenant with God.

They were being led to a covenant and they were being led

a man to worship. And I thank God for that because

I, I'm not just being saved in my earthly life here.

I'm not just being saved from sin, Brother Reese, although

that is true, I'm thankful I've been saved from sin.

The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ.

He came to save them from their sins, and I'm grateful for that.

I waved my hand, thank you, Jesus, but I'm not just been

saved from sin. I've been saved for God.

Amen. Someone say Amen.

The Bible says in first Peter 2 and verse #9 it's the words that

we adore and love. He said that ye are a chosen

generation and a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a

peculiar people. In the Old Testament he called

his people his treasure. Look, why, what?

What is this chosenness? What is this royalty, this

holiness, this set apartness, this peculiarity that God has

placed? He said that you should shoot

forth the praises of the one that has brought you out of

darkness into this marvelous light.

In other words, I chose you so that you might do something in

return. I've, I've made you royalty for

something. I've put you in that place, in

that position, Amen, To operate in something else near a set of

part nation, for the purpose that you would shoot off the

praises of the one that has brought you out of darkness into

His marvelous light. We all, through praise and

worship, have a testimony, Amen, about the free freedom that God

has extended to us. And I don't want to miss Amen,

exercising that to testify about my freedom, Amen.

To testify about what He's done for me, because deliverance in

my life really demands then a devotion from my life, Amen.

Our deliverance should lead to worship.

Have you ever been thankful when someone helped you in a jam or

out of a jam? You're just kind of over

yourself with gratitude. Amen about what took place for

you. It's almost like, and I'm

thinking about the even the prison system today and think

people that we have ran into, it's almost like if a prisoner

is being set free sentence up, maybe even if it's along those

lines, they're set free. They're set back into society,

which is always a very fearful thing for any prisoner.

You talk to them. If it's like I got three more

weeks before I get out of here, it's the most scariest time of

their life because they've spent all of their time in a different

atmosphere, different surroundings, so on and so

forth. And they get set back out into

the world. They're set free, but they're

set free with no direction. That's right.

They're set free with no direction.

Amen. In other words, they don't know

what to do with their freedom. They don't know what to do with

their freedom. And here's the fact of the

matter. If they don't get a plan as far

as a purpose of what to do with their freedom, you know what

happens? Many times they find themselves

back in the slammer again. They find themselves back in

bondage again because they didn't have a purpose for their

freedom. Can I tell you tonight?

He said. I have, I'm, I want my people to

be let go, but I got a purpose for it.

They're let go so they might worship.

It is a horrible thing to have been set free by the power of

God and not understand what your purpose is after he sets you

free. But if you don't have a go, if

you don't have a target, if you don't have a purpose of what God

has for you, you might find yourself enslaved again.

Hey man, many Christians have been set free, but they've never

truly entered into that place of worship.

Free, but still yet to a certain degree incarcerated because they

don't know what to do with their freedom.

Folks where we are, we are implored over and over again

various things that we can do after we've been born again of

the water and the Spirit. Several things that we can

involve ourself in adoration that we can give to God, Amen.

The fact of the matter is this Egypt through the journey of the

years that the children of Israel were enslaved by her had

influence in many regards had influence could have influence

on Israel's worship many times as we see them live their life

out in Egypt. It wasn't a, a being coerced or

being forced, Amen to do something like like serve their

false gods or their salt. They're, they're false idols,

but many times through means of persuasion, it's according

there, there were other kingdoms that rose and fell that would

take people in and actually force them.

I I think a good example of that would be in Daniel chapter #3

whenever we had Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego taken from

their land into a foreign country as captives.

And when the music sounds, you will bow down or else type of

scenario forced, if you will. Amen to bow to a golden image or

a idol. There's there's also, you know,

given to Daniel in in this space of time.

If you pray to any other except, you know, King Darius or any

other God, then you're going to meet the consequences.

So there's a forcing if you will.

But many times it's not a forcing the the the captive or

forcing the bound to serve idols or other gods.

Many times it happens by persuasion.

Many times that happens by persuasion that if an individual

would worship a, a a false God or the God of the country in

which they were enslaved in, then sometimes they could get

some perks and social and economic advantages if they did

do such. And so or, or you even see that

there's the, the reprogramming, if you will, that tries to

happen of an individual in a captive land.

It's, it's Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who that was not their

original names, their parent give and God included names that

there's the changing of the name and being educated by the system

in which they were in and all these different types of things,

their culture and the influence of the culture around them that

could get into their life and integrated into their life.

And as a matter of fact, from my understanding, many of these

people that had others captive, they wouldn't force them.

They just wanted them to accept whatever their gods were as a

part of their, their portfolio of gods.

In other words, their, their main mindset is this.

You can still worship your God and our gods.

You, you can still be honorable to your Lord and all of our

other Lords. You can just adopt all of these

along with yours, if you will, diluting and watering down.

Amen. Who they were and what they

were. And so when we talk about Israel

and we talk about Egypt, we're talking about really a strategy

of assimilation, a strategy of trying to water down and

infiltrate. Yes, there was the oppression.

Yes, there was all of the hard things that were happening to

them. But when we read in Exodus

chapter #1 the Bible says that the more that Egypt afflicted

them, the more the children of Israel grew.

And so that wasn't working. The affliction wasn't working.

They were rising above the fray of the affliction and the

oppression that was coming up on them, all of those type of

influences. But Egypt said there there's

only one way if we we can't afflict them to bow or afflict

them, to bend or afflict them to compromise, maybe we can

persuade them. Maybe we can persuade them.

They have their worldview. Here's Egypt.

They have their worldview of all these polytheistic, these other

gods. They have idolatry.

They they have human deification.

Pharaoh himself, what's considered a dog.

And Pharaoh never came right out and told the children Israel,

you never hear from Pharaoh him telling them don't worship

y'all. You never hear him say stop

worshipping God. That never comes from his lips.

But he sucked he in a subtle way.

He tried to discourage their worship because whenever Moses

showed up as the deliverer in Exodus 5 and he was telling the

children of Israel what God is asking what God was going to do,

and they stopped just for that moment to listen Amen to Moses

about his his his agenda and God's plan.

But Bible says the Pharaoh became a little bit irate.

He said because you made these people stop to listen to what

you had to say. And it was after that that he

increased their workload to what make it impossible for them to

get away to worship. Amen folks.

It is the same tactics that our adversary does for us today.

You might not here, do not worship, but the adversary will

try to keep people busy and distracted and exhausted with

everything else except God. He'll wear you after your work.

He'll wear you after your extracurricular activities.

He'll make you busy, occupy your time.

It's all a ploy and a plea to divert you from worship.

But you've been set free for the purpose of what you're doing

right here tonight. You've been set free for the

purpose of showing up where you are tonight.

Someone say Amen. He seeks to persuade.

Often times the persecution doesn't work.

He's noticed that persuasion all time works better even than

persecution. I won't stop them from serving

the Lord. I'll just dilute their service

to me to God by if I can get them to mix their their

influences of God mixed in with worldly influences.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just just if Israel can be

absorbed, I can get Israel just absorbed by the Egyptian value

system in that if they even ever get free from Egypt, they will

have had a taste of the value system of Egypt.

Someone say man. And then the values and the

priorities and the ideologies, if you will, of Egypt, if we can

just slip it in somehow, just imperceptible slip it in maybe

where they don't even recognize it, maybe they'll remember it

even after they are set free. And folks, we know the story to

be true that after Israel even had their freedom, they're

talking at different times Have we been brought into this

wilderness to die in this wilderness?

Did we not have the batter back in Egypt?

They get the man and they get disgusted with it.

They have the quail and they're disgusted with it and they're

saying, oh, if we could just have the the leeks and the

onions and the melons of Egypt, you know what that was?

That was all the ploy of Egypt from the beginning.

We're not going to tell you stop worshipping.

But if we can slip in the ideologies, if we can slip in,

if you will, the priorities and the values of Egypt, you can

even be set free and you'll still have a taste of that in

your mouth and alone, I guarantee you.

One thing God has not set us free to desire the very thing

that used to have this bound. That seems to be a quandary that

seems to be a contradiction. Why in the world would you

desire the thing that held you captive?

Why would you desire the thing that held you fast under labor?

It's all a ploy. That's good.

How in the world does it happen with a flip of a coin?

It doesn't happen by persecution.

It happens through subtle persuasion.

Yeah, it happens in our lives. It happens in the life of

Christianity, church life. Slowly but surely, people start

prioritizing entertainment over devotion.

Slowly but surely they'll they'll prioritize worldly

success over spiritual depth, comfort over consecration.

This is not comfortable sometimes to be consecrated.

Sacrifice isn't always appealing.

We're all about comfort. I just don't feel comfortable

doing that. We are.

We're living today. Today, man, we are all big about

not feeling uncomfortable or not, not not coming and standing

and meeting a challenge because that requires something

sometimes rather friend, that we're like the old proverbial,

the proverbial frog in the frying pan, right?

They're just turning the temperature up a little bit and

the frog's just there, you know, everything's cool, man.

I'm jamming, I'm a frog in a pan, everything's fine.

Turn the temperature up just a snap bit more.

Everything's good. Before you know what he's

boiling and he don't even realize it, because by small

increments did he get to the boiling point.

And I don't want to somehow become detached in this

generation that from generation to generation, the Dow's just

been turned up a little bit more.

And I'm getting used to what it feels like with that until I'm

boiling and maybe just the next generation in my life.

Amen. And everything that I've lived

for. Amen.

As if you will, on the rocks and about ready to be thrown

overboard because I've allowed overtime from one generation to

another generation. We used not to do that, but now

we do. And it's OK.

And then we used to do that, but now we we don't.

Now this is OK. And we just allow through little

increments and through dilution and if you will, through

assimilation, those things to move through.

And before it's all said and done, I'm a free person sitting

on the Pew. But I've lost my worship, I've

lost my consecration, I've lost my devotion.

That's another form of bondage. That right there.

Amen. I plead with you today, and I

think we are at a place sometimes in America, churches

that we have bound people on pews, Amen.

Because they've allowed things of Egypt to creep in.

They've allowed that taste to whet their appetite, and they're

satisfied with attending, but not with worshipping, not with

sacrificing, not with consecrating, but just mark my

name off as present whenever you're doing the chart that I

can say that I was there. And we're there in body, but

we're gone in mind. We're there in body, but we're

gone in devotion. We're there in ponded, but but

we're gone, if you will, as far as touching the hem of His

garment, making contact with the holies of holies.

We've been set free for worship. The golden calf.

Please note, they leave Egypt, they get their freedom.

We're at the Mount of God where this covenant's going to be

made, where the sacrifice and worship's going to take place.

And Moses goes up into the mount.

He's there hearing from God, the 10 commandments are being given

to him. He's going to come down with a

word for the people. But while that's taking place on

the mount, at the base of the mount, these people's getting

this hair rained idea. He's been up there for a long

time. We don't know what's happened to

this Moses. And he said they basically are

telling Aaron, saying, Aaron, we need us.

A God says you break off, break off the earrings and the gold

and stuff that you have on you. There's some we got to

understand about those things that they were breaking off of

them. That gold and that silver, Those

were the things that they had spoiled from the Egyptian.

And many times those things that they that the these Egyptians

wore, they were little demigods and Demi idols themselves that

they had. And they took those.

You read the scripture, they took those and they put them

upon themselves. And now Aaron says, you bring me

all of those, Bring me all of your little demigods and I'll

make you a big God. I'm always overwhelmed by here,

whenever he explains it, that he threw in those medals and out

came this calf like Abracadabra, the rabbit out of the hat.

I just kind of threw it in and he want, you know, that came

out. And it's just like there was no

fashioning to it or nothing like that, no laying a tool upon it.

But this is what he said then to the people in Exodus 32 and 4.

The people said they're all together and these are your

gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

That calf was not a random calf. Now, folks, it's made from the

goat. It's made from that which came

from Egypt. It's not, it's not random.

It's directly, if you will, link to Egypt's.

One of Egypt's idols was a bull, was a calf, a God of fertility

and a God of strength. And they're saying, here's the

God that they're supposed to be making devotion and sacrifice

and festival. Huh.

What did Aaron even say to them? He said tomorrow we're going to

have a feast. Exodus 3227 said tomorrow we're

going to have a festival. We're going to have a feast.

But the object of their affection was not the reason for

their deliverance from Egypt. Are you hearing me?

Moses says they're going to go 3 days for a feast to serve and

worship Aaron, saying that tomorrow we're going to have a

feast while Moses ain't here yet.

But what the object of their affection is is not the object

that God said their affection should be and the purpose for

what it should have been whenever they got their freedom

from Egypt. What do you say?

I don't want to get in the place in my relationship with God that

I'm bowing down to the very thing He freed me from, that I'm

worshiping the very thing He freed me from, that in the

sectors of my heart and life I'm holding to and I'm coddling the

very thing He freed me from. That's not the reason why He

freed me to have freedom to worship what I was bound by.

He freed me to worship the One who delivered me.

They're physically free, but they're spiritually bound.

Their first instinct when Moses is delayed coming down, help me,

Brother Reese. Their first instinct was then

just to revert back to what they once were.

When I thought he was a little long, when there was a little

delay, the first thing, let's just go back to what we used to

succumb to. Listen, people, there's going to

be talk about delays. There's going to be some real

times in your spiritual experience.

There's going to be delays, if you will.

There's going to be delays. There's going to be some

waiting. But if your first turn to

instinct always in those times is just revert back because that

was better, that was more feasible, then we're just going

to trip up all over our feet and we're going to be held in this

cycle of being delivered, being let go for worship, being

delivered, let go for worship. Because there's going to be

delays in life. But how we handle the delays, I

wonder, Brother Alex Mason, what have happened instead of getting

the jewelry and the rings in the fire and that calf brought out.

If on the Morrow that they went on and held a feast, but they

didn't hold it for some golden bull.

They didn't hold it for some golden calf and dance around

that and have all of this illicit things going on around

that. I wonder instead if they bowed

down their heads, if they bowed down their postures and they

gained worship and adoration and glory to the God that was

meeting with Moses on the mouth, that in their waiting they would

worship that in their waiting, they would honor that in their

waiting. I wonder how do you handle the

delays? How do you handle the delays in

your life? And this was this whole golden

calf scenario was a very devastating sin for the children

of Israel because in essence, they were crediting their

deliverance to an idol instead of worshipping the God who

rescued them. They were worshipping what Egypt

had valued, what their captors had valued.

They they were exchanging the invisible power of the Almighty

God for something more tangible. I can see that I can touch that

we get in our mind that only the tangible things can be seen in

touch. Bible says I have not seen here,

have not heard neither. It's entered the heart of man,

the things that God has prepared for us, but He's revealed things

to us by the Spirit. What's that mean?

When I get into the Spirit, I can touch things, hear things,

and handle things that may be invisible and untouchable in the

physical realm. But whenever I enter the realm

where it is, it becomes clear. It becomes something I can

handle and I can feel and I can experience.

Amen in the moment. Amen.

And so they traded all these things.

Sometimes we struggle. I know it's so sometimes people

struggle in their faith with the unseen God.

Amen. And because he's seen, and

because he's not just like a friend, Amen, that's going to

show up in person at your house and eat a meal with you or go

somewhere with you, Amen, that's literally there and you can

touch. As a result of him being unseen,

then sometimes we displace our trust, Amen, and our faith in

things that are seen in other people or in status or in money

or in all these things. But those things, Amen, did not

redeem you. Those things did not set you

free. Those things things are not

worthy of your worship. So they redefined worship on

their terms. God gave them clear instruction

about what it should be, but they wanted a version that they

would be familiar with that would be convenient for them.

We might not be marching around voting calf per SE today, but we

still have our calves already mentioned.

We still have some of our calves, our comforts, our self

validation, social validation. We got our calves.

So the essence of it as a fact is this.

We know worship is a part of the created, created longing inside

of man. Every man, whether they're in

this church, outside this church, whoever they may be from

the White House, praise God to the poor, how it doesn't matter,

whoever they may be, humanity worships.

The question is not do you worship?

The question is, what do you worship?

That's right, that's right, that's right.

The Scotland cap became such a lasting reference point for them

that as you read forward in Scripture, it's always the point

of reference that the nation and leadership would always point

back to. You can read in Deuteronomy 9,

and I'm keeping eye here on your time in Deuteronomy 9.

Moses even begins to remind them Deuteronomy is the book of

remembrance. He's recalling some things that

have already had. You read Deuteronomy and you

read it Deja Vu. It seems like I read this before

you go back and just make sure I did.

I read that right. Oh yeah.

It's again, This is the book of remembrance.

This is what he's doing. He's recalling and reminds him

how, how quickly, right? Because the three days journey,

if you will, not the amount of God and they're already turning

back away from God. How quickly this took place.

And it's then you read in the book of Nehemiah chapter #9

again, when Nehemiah is there standing with the people and

they're confessing the sins of the people that he even recalls

again, he recalls and Israel recalls that the Taf incident as

a major failure of their people on their part.

When you read the Psalmist and Psalms 106, the Bible even

states it in so many words that they change their glory into the

similitude of an ox that eats grass.

That's a reference back to the golden altar, that golden ox,

that golden calf in Genesis chapter 32, even Stephen in

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

Acts, in the New Testament, acts #7 Stephen is rebuking, He's

speaking to Israel, Amen, for their continual rejection of

God, and he links their continual rejection of God with

a reference point. It all started.

He's like back at the base of the Mount when you should have

worshipped God, but instead you worshipped the very things that

your captors had worshipped to make a mistake.

If you don't think it's a vice to get freedom and then not to

follow through with the purpose that you got your freedom for,

then look whenever the tribes of Israel were split between the

north and the South and remember how the king at that time in

First Kings 12 was king of Jeroboam and you'll remember

what he did. You remember he set up a golden

calf in the north and he set up a golden calf in the South of

that district of the land. And his words to them were the

same words that the people and Aaron had in their day.

He said to them concerning these, these two calves.

Here are your gods, O Israel. And you know what, for the

Reese, those that were in that Kingdom would go pay homage and

sacrifice to those gods. Listen to me.

Because it was more convenient for them to travel there than it

was for them to travel to Jerusalem.

Let me say it was more comfortable.

It was more convenient. It was more within their space.

It didn't require as much to visit one of those, the golden

calves that he had set up. And so they entered in the area

of idolatry again, and it becomes a cycle for them.

We need to honor the Lord with that which has been given to us

through our freedom by the Lord. One thing I've learned in my

Christian experience that if I'm not intentional about worship,

I'll drift into a cultural worship situation rather than a

true worship situation. What I'm saying, it's almost

like a vacuum brother. And I'm not talking about that

type of vacuum brother. He's a vacuum, brother Zach.

That the void must be filled. It's, it's sucking, it's pulling

in. And it's either going to be

pulled in, it's either going to be pulling in that which is

true, that leaves no more room for anything else, or it's going

to pull in all these other little things, cultural things.

Amen. And we're going to pull it into

our life of worship, true worship.

Everybody say true worship. True worship requires not a

isolation from the world, but a separation from the world.

He told him in Romans. Be not conformed to this world,

but be ye transformed. For the trout.

Worship is just not a moment of a song in the worship service.

Worships not the clicking of the heel as I round the corner in a

run. Worships not some boisters.

Oh Hallelujah. Praise God, thou mighty

magnificent. Only one.

No worship. Worship is a lifestyle that

refuses to conform to its culture, that acknowledges him

when there's all these other things that's vying for your

attention, that's wanting to be acknowledged.

It's turning face and saying I see you, but I'm not going to

acknowledge someone say man, true worship.

Everybody say true worship requires sacrifice.

Jesus when he met the lady at the well and he told her, she

says, well our fathers have worshiped in this mountain.

They had this conversation about worship until he spoke there and

said, he said, well, the Father, he said, is seeking true

worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth.

We like the spiritual side of worship, but sometimes we buck

against the truth side of worship.

But worship, to be a balanced coin, absolutely involves both

spirit and truth because, again, worship requires sacrifice.

It's not about convenience. It's about commitment.

True worship, true worship. The test of true worship, then,

is this. When we left Egypt, did we leave

Egypt? When we left Egypt, did we leave

Egypt? Am I totally devoted to what he

set me free for or I'm toddling some of the ideals of what I was

incarcerated by? You'll stand with me tonight.

What are you saying? The night, pastor?

I'm saying this. You've been set free for

worship, so don't waste your deliverance.

Come on, don't waste your deliverance again.

God sets you free from sin so that he would free you for

himself. Red McGee, are you saying, and

it's almost possible, at least for the Egyptians or the

children of Israel that they were delivered in the physical

sense but still enslaved in the spiritual sense.

Absolutely. So maybe reflection is

important, this point of the road tonight and I need to start

questioning myself this what do I esteem most of my life?

Have I left Egypt behind? Is it in the rearview mirror or

am I entertaining the appetites of Egypt and my spirit?

Am I holding on with some things that I'd rather not let go?

What's taking place? I want to find myself in the

year 2025. I want to worship the God who

delivered me because that's what He delivered me more more so

than worship the culture that he delivered me from because I've

been set free to worship. I'm not God and it's good that

none of us are. There's some days it's really

good. I'm not God according to what

mood I'm in. Let's start stacking up bodies.

I just start stacking them up. I never know.

There's no way for me to totally understand the mind of God.

His ways are higher in my ways. His thoughts are higher in my

thoughts. But sometimes, Brother Fred, I

do think what I wonder what God is thinking about when He set

his people, has set his people free and they bowed down to the

very thing he said, the free throne.

I mean, I wonder what's really going through his mind.

Would we even prioritize things over him that we were once so

engrossed in and he called us out of, but now we allow it to

seep back in and we've assimilated.

I can have my Jesus and all this to I just wonder sometimes God,

what's going through your mind? And he's probably thinking I'm

not God. Do you take these words?

He's probably thinking what's it going to take to convince them?

There's no test masker over their back now, but they're

saying let's go back. I gave them manna from heaven

and they're saying I'd like to have an onion quell from the

throne of God. Oh, a leek really Taint would be

great right now. Little garlic.

This is in your Bible. The leeks, the onions, the

garlic. Oh, I'd really like to have

something like that right now. Food from heaven.

And he was consistent to deliver.

How? How do we confuse those things?

Getting freedom and losing our purpose?

Would we get freedom and don't have no direction of what we're

to do with what we've been given?

I'm telling you what to do with it.

We need to worship Him. We need to be at all struck by

who He is, by what He's done, what He's accomplished, and what

He will accomplish in a life that stays devoted, stays God

honoring, stays God separated, stay God, acknowledging you've

been set free to worship. So let my people go so that they

can serve me. These altars are open tonight if

anybody would just like to practice some of that homage of

worship to your King tonight. If you've been set free, you've

been delivered from the clutches, as we said this

morning, of trespasses and sins. Perhaps you would like to

reciprocate tonight with gratitude and Thanksgiving of of

worship. Hold loosely what used to hold

you tightly. Hear me, Hold loosely what used

to incarcerate and hold you tightly.

No, what you need to hold on to is that unchanging hand of God,

the one who delivered you and set you free, and saw that you

know what? They were not a people.

But I'll make them a people, I'll make them mine.

I'll call them chosen, I'll call them royal, I'll call them

peculiar, I'll call them holy. I'll call them so that they

might shoot forth the praises. But the one that brought him out

of tartness, It too this marvelous light set free for who

come. Find your purpose to your

freedom tonight. Find your purpose to your

freedom tonight. Holy God.