Who Will I Worship?

So next month, we're gonna start a series called The Whole Story.

And what we're gonna be attempting to do, we'll see if it's successful or not, is just go through the entire story of the Bible this year.

Like the whole thing.

Um, that's something that we're gonna start next month.

It's funny, I was I was praying about what I wanted to teach this year, and I love to teach scripture.

If you're new to his hands, like I'm look, I'm 39, I turned 40 this year, this calendar year.

I will be a 40-year-old.

Yes, it's awesome.

It's great.

I'm actually super excited to be 40.

I really, I think I'm looking forward to it.

I really am.

I've already got some gray hair.

I'm working on that, getting more of it, so it's it's great.

I've had a dad bod since I was 20, so I'm already there.

It's gonna be awesome.

But uh, but I was praying about what, like this year, what do I want to do?

I want to I want to teach scripture because, like I said, I'm 39, what do I know?

Like, I'm not a life expert.

I don't have enough, there's nothing that's like within me that's worthwhile.

In the sense that I can just, oh, let me tell you all the things that I've learned.

I don't know, I don't know half the stuff I need to know about myself.

But that's the thing, is it's not, I don't teach from me, it's from scripture.

And when we open up God's word, there's a wealth of powerful and practical and profound truth that has stood the test of time.

That's just as practical in our lives, it's just as relevant for our lives today as it was thousands of years ago.

And so I was praying, like, Lord, I just want to teach the Bible, but I didn't know what section, because we've covered a lot, you know, if you've been here for a long time, uh, we were in Romans for like, I don't know, two years, it's great.

It was everyone always talks about how much fun that was.

Um no one does, but it's all great.

But I couldn't figure out like what part of scripture.

So I just kept talking to God, like, what I want to teach the Bible, but just show me what part.

And I'm just like, God, I just want to teach the Bible.

And so finally it hit me, like, oh, well, let's do the Bible.

I was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.

So we're gonna attempt that.

And here's the cool thing about that.

If if you're someone that knows Scripture and you're like, ah, this is my jam, well, you're gonna love it because you already know these stories, but God, you know this.

If you study Scripture, if you're in the Word a lot, God always shows you something you never saw before.

He just does that.

But if you're like, man, one of the biggest desires I have is to just know the Bible better, well, good news.

We're gonna go through the whole thing-ish this year.

So that'll be fun.

And again, a year-ish, okay?

I'm not gonna commit to that, but I think we're gonna be able to do it.

This month, though, we're gonna have a conversation for the next few weeks that is really designed to help us frame our year in the best way possible so that we can have a 2023 that's everything that it could be.

And what we're gonna do is focus on one word.

One incredibly important word that if we can understand this word and get it right, it sets our year up as well as anything could, and it's the word who.

The word who.

Years ago, one of my mentors told me, gave me an incredible piece of advice.

He said, Don't worry so much about what, worry about who.

And the context of this was actually like work.

Here at the church, I have a lot of responsibility, and I'm always trying to figure out like what are we gonna do, what to do.

And this person said, Don't worry so much about the what, find the right who, and the what will tend to take care of itself.

And so now I'm so grateful for all the people that we have on our team, our staff, our volunteers, because I don't have to spend a lot of time worried about the what's.

I spend my time really focused on the people that we have, making sure I'm investing in them, that they have what they need.

And it's it's true, if you have the right people, a lot of those things do tend to take care of themselves, and we've all experienced that, right?

Because think about it this way: it's not about what, it's about who.

If I told you that you just won an all expenses paid trip, and you're gonna go to some exotic, amazing place, but then I told you that the person you have to go with is someone that you can't stand, all of a sudden that amazing experience is like torture.

You're like, because I would rather be in some like shanty with no air conditioning in the middle of the woods, and I'm not really an outdoorsy guy.

I'd rather be there with someone I love than be in the nicest place you can imagine with someone that I just, you know, I love, because you have to love everybody.

But Jesus never said you have to like everybody.

Okay?

There's freedom in that.

It's not about what, it's about who.

And here we are at the start of a year, and and you don't know what's going to happen.

None of us know what's going to happen this year.

That's why scripture is so clear in the book of James.

He says, Look here, you who say today or tomorrow, we're gonna go to a certain town, we'll stay there for a year, we'll do business there, we'll make a profit.

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog.

It's here a little while, then it's gone.

What you ought to say is if the Lord is willing, or if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.

Otherwise, you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil.

Now, James is a straight shooter.

But what he's saying is we don't really know what's going to happen.

We don't always get a lot of say in what happens to us, but we do have quite a bit of say, more than we might realize, in who.

And so we're gonna look at four whos to start our year.

And it's it's pretty simple.

Who do I worship?

This year, who will I worship?

Who will I walk behind?

Who am I gonna follow this year?

Who will I walk with?

Who will I surround myself with this year?

And who am I gonna work against?

If I'm gonna resist something, if something's gonna come against me, who's that going to be?

And I believe that if we start our year resolute, intentional, and purposeful about who we worship, who we walk behind, who we walk with, and who we work against, our 2023 is about as set up for success as it possibly could be.

We're gonna start with this idea of who am I going to worship this year?

Now that might sound like the dumbest question to ask uh on a Sunday morning in a church service.

Like, clearly, you know, probably Jesus.

I don't know, maybe some of you were like, you know, this year I was thinking about mixing it up a little bit.

I'm not really sure.

And and look, admittedly, there's definitely going to be people here, and you haven't really decided yet if you worship Jesus, if you follow God.

You're you're feeling that out, you're figuring that out.

By the way, if you're thinking that through, keep thinking that through because you should never be haphazard about who you worship.

If there's anything in the world you want to take your time on and really figure out, it should be who you worship.

But it can seem like an odd question to ask to a group of people who like showed up on a Sunday morning at the beginning of a year, probably to worship, who are we gonna worship this year?

I've always found it interesting that when God spoke to Moses on the top of this mountain in the Old Testament, shortly after, if you're familiar with the story, shortly after God has rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he brings them into the wilderness, and he's gotta teach them how to function as a society because now they've got to figure it out on their own.

And so he takes Moses up to this mountaintop, and Moses is like, hang, chill here, I'll be right back.

And he's gonna give Moses some laws, some guidelines so that they can function, so that the people know what to do.

And if you know the Ten Commandments, you know, they start with two that are all about idolatry.

He says, only worship God.

That's the first commandment, don't worship anyone other than God.

And number two is don't worship a classic phrase is a graven image.

In other words, don't worship a thing, don't worship a statue or some some image of something else.

That was really common in the ancient world.

And then the rest of the commandments get a little bit more practical, like don't kill each other.

That's a really good one to have.

Don't steal from each other, don't lie to each other.

And I remember just always being fascinated by the fact that the first two seem like such obvious no-brainer, duh, why would we do that types of things?

Why in the world would God start his list with those two?

And yet, if you know the story, as soon as Moses comes down the mountain, the very first thing he encounters are people preemptively breaking the first two.

Like it's crazy.

We get this in Exodus chapter 32, verses 1 through 5.

Exodus 32:1–5

It says, When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron, Moses' brother.

Come on, they said, make us some gods who can lead us.

We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses who brought us here from the land of Egypt.

So Aaron said, Alright, take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, bring them to me.

And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and they brought them to Aaron.

And then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf.

And when the people saw it, they exclaimed, Oh, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf.

Then he announced, Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord.

So it's funny, I think I can actually relate to the feeling Moses had just a little bit.

Because, you know, if you don't know this about me, I have four children.

I talk about them very often.

They give me so much material, and I'm grateful for it.

And so Megan and I will have this experience where we will work really hard to get our house in order.

And it's a lot, because we have four kids.

And there'll be these moments like on a Saturday where we have a few hours, and the house is it's great.

It's fairly clean, everything's nice and calm, and we'll say, hey guys, we're just gonna go in our room and watch a TV show, we're gonna watch a movie, just you know, hang here, please don't disturb us unless it's an emergency.

We just need a few minutes, you know, we need an hour, whatever it is, and we'll go and we'll hang out, and then we'll come out.

And we've only been gone for 45 minutes.

An hour.

We've only been in that room.

There's just a door, and and yet what we will experience when we walk out the door, and I'm not even like exaggerating, like all the couch cushions will have been pulled off.

One of our children is climbing on top of our countertops.

Someone's not wearing pants, like that's a guarantee.

Someone's pants have for some reason been they don't even know where their pants are.

They're not even sure what happened to their pants.

You're like, why aren't you wearing pants?

They look down as if they'd just discovered that they weren't wearing pants.

You know, there'll be like three bags of popcorn that were popped.

Doesn't really seem like they were eaten, they were just sort of thrown around like confetti, and we'll walk out and be like, what happened?

We were just here, and I think that's how Moses probably felt when he comes down the mountain, right?

He's got the Ten Commandments, everything was fine.

He's like, got to hang out with God, God gave me these cool tablets, I've got stuff to say, and what in the world are you people doing?

They're worshiping a gold cow that they made, pretending like it's God.

And it's crazy because if you read the scriptures, idolatry, worshiping something other than God, especially something you can see with your own eyes, that was the norm in the ancient world.

The Bible records ancient cultures like Egypt, Persia, Babylon, even Rome, and that was everywhere.

And it's something that, like, when God speaks to it, it almost, it's almost like God is confused, like he's baffled by the entire idea.

Isaiah chapter 44.

Isaiah 44 · chapter mention

It's really interesting.

This is a big chunk.

But this is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, and he says, How foolish are those who manufacture idols?

These prized objects are really worthless.

The people who worship idols don't know this, so they're all put to shame.

But who but a fool would make his own God?

An idol that cannot help him one bit.

All who worship idols will be disgraced, along with all these craftsmen, mere humans who claim they can make a god.

They may all stand together, but they will stand in terror and shame.

The blacksmith stands in his forge to make a sharp tool, pounding it and shaping it with all his might.

He his work makes him hungry and weak.

It makes him thirsty and faint.

Then the wood carver measures a block of wood and draws a pattern on it.

He works with chisel and plane and carves it into a human figure.

He gives it human beauty and puts it in a little shrine.

He cuts down cedars.

He selects the cypress and the oak, he plants the pine in the forest to be nourished by the rain.

And then he uses part of the wood to make a fire.

With it, he warms himself, he bakes his bread.

Then, yes, it's true.

He takes the rest of it and makes himself a god to worship.

He makes an idol and bows down in front of it.

He burns part of the tree to roast his meat and keep himself warm.

He says, Ah, that fire feels good.

And then he takes what's left and makes his God a carved idol.

He falls down in front of it, worshiping it and praying to it.

Rescue me, he says.

You are my God.

Such stupidity and ignorance.

Their eyes are closed, they cannot see, their minds are shut, and they cannot think.

The person who made the idol never stops to reflect why it's just a block of wood.

I burned half of it for heat, and I used it to bake my bread and roast my meat.

How can the rest of it be a god?

Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?

The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes.

He trusts something that can't help him at all, yet he cannot bring himself to ask, is this idol that I'm holding in my hand alive?

I think that the more I process it, the more I realize that maybe the reason that the first two commandments were about idolatry is that perhaps, as people, this is one of our biggest issues.

Our tendency to elevate something that isn't God into the place of God and put our trust in something that cannot help us at all.

That ultimately has no power because it's not bigger than we are.

See, we are not that different than the ancient people that we read about in scripture because we are wired to worship.

We are wired as human beings to worship.

We will all worship something or someone, and who we worship matters as much as anything.

Now, I'm not talking about just an intellectual worship, where if someone asks you, do you believe in God?

You say, Yeah, I believe in God, of course.

And if they said, okay, who do you believe God is?

You might explain that to them.

And intellectually, you're like, Yeah, that's my worship.

But I'm talking about in terms of practical day-to-day living, who am I most devoted to?

Whose opinion matters the most to me?

Who do I live to serve?

Who am I depending on?

Who am I truly counting on to give me everything I need this year?

When things get hard, who do I turn to?

Who or what do I put in that primary place in my life?

And if you watched me live, if you watched me go about my day, you would say that is clearly your God.

Because it's what you're most devoted to, it's what you most depend upon.

And the reality is for all of human history, including today, we have a tendency as people, sometimes even unknowingly, to elevate lesser things into the place of God.

And it's it's not for her good.

I mean, there's all kinds of obvious examples.

You know, money, it's easy to it's easy to worship money because money seems like it can solve all of our problems.

And it might be able to solve some, but money has this amazing tendency to go away.

Have you guys ever experienced that?

How easy it is to lose money?

It's amazing, right?

I mean, Jesus says as much.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 24.

Matthew 6:24

He says, No one can serve two masters.

You will hate one and love the other, you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

Like you're gonna serve one.

That's worship language.

It could be a physical experience.

There are people who worship sex, and really what they worship is just pleasure.

They worship the feeling of feeling good.

And they'll turn to that because that's what they need to get them through, that's how they cope.

We can worship relationships, we can worship other people.

We don't think about it in those terms, but we can be so devoted to certain people and so in need of certain people to give us what we think we need to feel good, to feel okay, that it's essentially worship because that's who we really depend on, that's who we really count on, that's really who we're most devoted to.

We can worship politicians and political parties.

Like that seems silly, but man, a lot of people have bowed at those altars in the last few years.

But there's so many options in terms of worship.

There's so many options of who you're gonna worship or what you're gonna treat like a who that you worship, they really are endless.

Like a huge one in our culture is the worship of self.

This might be the main worship that is constantly growing at a fever pitch in our world today.

It's the worship of self.

In fact, a few years ago, I think I shared this once last year, but a few years ago, I saw this ad campaign on TV, and it's to this day, it's my favorite ad campaign I've ever seen.

Like, you know how there's certain commercials that drive you insane?

Like, remember during COVID when every commercial was like a zoom call?

You know what I'm talking about?

Like every single commercial on TV was like a simulated Zoom call, and it's like, thank you for reminding us of how horrible this is right now.

Please stop.

Like I hated all those commercials, but every once in a while there'll be a commercial where you're like, that's amazing, that's incredible.

And I'm not the target market for this particular product, but it was the product Nair, which is like a hair removal thing, okay?

Yeah.

And there was this ad campaign.

And the ad campaign was worship yourself.

Nair.

You know, like there you go.

And I love this.

I love it, it's like one of my favorite things I've ever seen.

And the reason why is it's just so honest.

Like, I wasn't even offended by it.

I'm like, yes, thank you so much for just being honest.

That is what our culture begs us to do all the time.

We've grown up generation after generation being told that the pinnacle of human achievement is just being yourself.

You know, be yourself, believe in yourself, be true to yourself, do what makes you happy.

That's another word, another phrase for just serve yourself.

And what is someone that you believe in and you serve and you try everything you can to be true to?

And you're all about it, you're most devoted to it, that's worship, right?

Like our culture basically screams at us, worship yourself.

Do what makes you happy.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that a generation that's been taught to worship themselves happens to be a generation struggling with depression and anxiety like never before.

Because we actually don't end up being very good at being God.

Like I've tried to be God, I don't know if anyone else can admit that.

Like, I actually gave it a try.

I tried to be God for a while in my own life.

Turns out, not my thing.

Not good at it.

We're just wired to worship.

This is not me trying to critique culture.

Culture is always fair game, I guess, but but this is simply me helping all of us recognize the fact that we are wired to worship.

We will all worship something or someone.

Even modern-day atheism isn't really atheism, it's the it's the worship of the human intellect.

It's this idea that if something doesn't make sense to my brain, if I can't, if I can't fathom it, it must not be true, which is just the elevation of your own ability to think.

We are all worshipers, and make no mistake, this year we will worship someone.

Who is that going to be?

Jesus.

Who are we going to be most devoted to?

Who are we going to be most in love with, most obsessed with, most focused on, most dependent upon?

That's a choice I believe that even though it might seem like a no-brainer, even though it might be like, yeah, settled, I think that's something at the beginning of a year that we need to be resolute about.

Again, not just intellectually, but practically in my day-to-day life, who am I going to worship this year?

And what would it look like?

What would it actually look like if that was Jesus?

If this was a year dedicated to the worship of God.

Well, I think scripture speaks to a little bit of that.

Matthew chapter 16, verse 24, Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way.

Matthew 16:24

Take up your cross and follow me.

Give up your own way.

Take up your cross and follow me.

John 3.30, the words of John the Baptist, speaking of Jesus, he must become greater and greater.

And I must become less and less.

Romans 12:1.

Romans 12:1

Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice of the kind he will find acceptable.

This is truly the way to worship him.

What if those words and those ideas were what guided our approach to this year more than anything else?

Really think about this for a moment.

I like my way.

I have all kinds of thoughts and ideas about what I want to happen this year.

And that's not wrong, by the way.

Not bad to have some goals, that's fine.

But a way that I heard it said once that's always stuck with me is who wins the tie?

What if my way and God's way conflict?

Who wins that tiebreaker?

The context that I heard that in was really challenging for me personally because it was actually a pastor talking about parents of athletes.

I don't know if you guys know this, but my oldest son plays basketball.

Um, and now my middle son does too, so I am like, we're in the thick of that.

It's great, it's all it's fine.

Everything's great.

Actually, I will go ahead and update.

I have not said a word to a referee this year, not one single word.

So that's a lie.

Hold on.

I just remembered.

I am coaching my six-year-old son's team.

I said I wasn't gonna do that, but they needed coaches and they begged and begged, and I said, okay, I'll do it.

And I did talk to one ref once, but it was super respectful.

I actually called the timeout and said, hey ref, I just have a quick question.

Can you explain this to me?

So if you know me, that's like this is a miracle, basically, the sport.

Um, it's been great.

So what happens if if if things conflict?

Like I heard this person talking about youth sports and parents, and it was in the context of church, and he was being real direct, and he said, Look, I know a lot of families who it's like, yeah, we worship God, but if there's ever a game or even a practice that conflicts with church or something like that, it's like church always loses.

And he asked the question, what does it say to our children if we teach them that God always loses the tie?

And I was like, ooh.

You know, because there's lots of games on Sundays, and so we've kind of had to make this decision with our son where we say, hey, if there's ever a game that conflicts with this, like, you're gonna have to miss that game.

And that's been challenging at times.

You know, if there's one tournament, it's out of town or something once a year, that's fine.

But like we've had we've had, I've had to tell coaches, hey, I'm so sorry.

I know it's the championship game, but we're gonna try to make it.

I just can't make you any promises because you know we we can't leave until church is done.

And you know what, it's been great.

It's been fine.

But it's it's that idea of who wins the tie.

Because if God always loses the tie, then he's not, for all practical purposes, actually operating as God in our lives.

And so Jesus says, give up your own way.

It just means not that I don't get to do anything I enjoy, it just means, hey Lord, if there's ever a moment where my way, what I want, conflicts with what you want, you win.

What if you decided at the beginning of this year God will always win the tie?

And if I ever realize that he's not, I will change.

What would it look like to take John the Baptist's words?

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

Like I'm trying to become less and less weight-wise.

I've been trying for a while, and I hope that happens this year.

You know, I I know I have the ability to do that, it's just food is good.

But but what John the Baptist is essentially saying is I don't want to be the main character of this story.

And if you know the context, John the Baptist was a big deal.

He was a big deal, he was famous, everyone was coming to him to learn about God, and he was baptizing people like crazy, and then all of a sudden the spotlight shifted from him to Jesus, and now everyone's going to Jesus, and everyone's getting baptized by Jesus' followers, and John the Baptist's followers are like, What happened?

And they go to John the Baptist and say, hey man, I don't know if you've noticed, but like no one's really coming to us anymore, everyone's going to Jesus.

And John the Baptist says, Awesome.

That's exactly what I wanted to happen.

I must become less and less, he must become greater and greater.

In other words, John is saying, I don't want to be the main character in this story.

What if you dedicated yourself this year to not being the main character of your story in 2023?

But for that to be him.

Like for that to be him.

That you get to play a supporting role in your own story.

Because God is the one who's really doing the heavy lifting.

Because God is the one that you're really depending on.

Because it's his truth that you're living by, not your own version of truth.

What would it be like to live like that for a year?

So dedicated to God that you are totally okay going, I'm going to decrease a little bit.

Because I just want more of you.

To be a living sacrifice, to live with this mentality that I just want to present myself to you.

And you know, it's amazing.

It's not like you can impress God.

You can just go ahead, if you ever think about being a living sacrifice and God being like, mmm, yeah.

Next.

Like that's not gonna happen.

Because it's not like anything really impresses him.

Like, think about the things, if you know the story of Scripture, if you don't, we're gonna we're gonna learn it this year.

Um, think about the things that God asked people to bring him.

Like it's not, it's nothing that he's like, wow, you know, they they used to they used to like burn meat, and it was like a meat sacrifice, and it was just God taking something that was valuable to them, and honestly something that a lot of them worshipped, and saying, hey, offer this up to me.

Remind yourself that I'm God.

It's not like God is is going, wow, meat.

That's the most amazing.

And he invented the universe, right?

There's nothing that we can offer God that's gonna blow him away.

It's not about impressing God with how amazing we are, it's about a step of obedience and just offering ourselves to him in the first place, saying, This is me, I'm yours.

Being a living sacrifice.

What if we viewed ourselves this year like that?

I'm gonna live as a living sacrifice, meaning that everything that happens in my life, I want to be for his glory.

So people love him more, notice him more, even if that means less of me.

To truly worship God in 2023, to make the who of our worship, the one we depend on, the one we're devoted to, the one we focus on, the one our our minds obsess about to be the Lord?

Well, it would mean being willing to give up our own way.

It would mean dedicating ourselves to becoming less.

It would mean being a living sacrifice, and someone is definitely listening, going, that sounds terrible.

You're doing a horrible job selling this.

And maybe I am but have you ever come across something so great that you immediately know where you stand?

It's kind of like the song that Matt wrote and shared that we began with this morning.

You know, in the presence of greatness, I know where I stand.

Have you ever encountered something or someone so amazing that you could completely recognize in that moment that, you know what?

It's just more than me.

And I have this opportunity to live connected to this and be part of something bigger than myself.

We are wired to worship.

You are designed by God to be part of something bigger than yourself.

That's why worshiping yourself is so foolish, because you can never, by definition, be bigger than you.

But God is so big, and he's so incredible.

Isaiah chapter 55.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

This is not God strutting or bragging, this is just him telling us how it is.

He says that my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts.

My ways are far beyond anything you can imagine.

Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

God is big, God is huge, God is powerful, he's bigger than us, he's better than us, he's higher than us, and he loves us.

He loves us, he doesn't demand worship, he invites us into a life of service to him.

And it's a beautiful thing.

See, when you when you give your life to Jesus fully and you devote yourself to worshiping him on a day-to-day basis, you don't walk away with less.

I promise you.

You don't you don't walk away with less.

I mean, Paul in Philippians chapter 4, verse 19, says, The same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches who have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

Paul wrote this in prison.

And he's like, God's giving me everything I need.

Because there's nothing that we need more than him.

And that is why so many people in this world have more money than they ever really thought they would have, more access to immediate satisfaction and pleasure than pretty much anyone has ever had before, and yet they're empty and they feel lost.

But if you have him, if you have Jesus, you're never lost because you have the Holy Spirit who is the guide.

You're never in the dark because he is the light.

And so I guess what I'm just saying, and I'll I'll move on, and we'll wrap up.

I guess I'm just saying, guys, here we are at the start of a new year.

Be purposeful about who you're gonna worship this year.

Not just on Sundays, not just when you sing, not just intellectually, but in every aspect of life this year.

What if you decided that 2023 belongs to him and I'm going to worship Jesus with every bit of my being?

I'm gonna screw up, sure, fine.

I'm gonna fall short, who cares?

He doesn't, it's not like he doesn't expect that.

Jesus was never surprised by the failures of his disciples.

They were, but he wasn't.

But I will tell you, just honestly, I have worshiped all the wrong things.

I have had many years that were dedicated to myself, and they were not my best years.

I've absolutely worshiped money or the idea of money.

There have totally been times where I was like obsessed with can I can I make more, can I do more?

It leaves you lacking.

I've worshiped all the wrong things.

And it leaves you empty.

But when you worship God, he fills you.

And if you want to have a year that's full, Jesus said, I come to give them a full life.

He said, Life and full life, life and more abundant life.

Make it your heart's resolute decision right now to say, I live for God this year.

I worship God this year.

I'm gonna worship him at home, I'm gonna worship him at work, I'm gonna worship him at church, I'm gonna worship him when I'm talking to a referee in a basketball game.

I'm gonna worship him in every single moment that I can because he's God.

And he's amazing, and he's great, and he includes us in his kingdom.

How amazing is that?

We're gonna take Lord's Supper and worship team, you guys can make your way out.

And if you didn't grab a cup and juice, you can you can do that right now.

You're never gonna mess up by doing that.

Everyone's invited.

You guys having a good day, by the way?

I'm so glad you're here.

I'm enjoying this so much.

I think some people are grabbing some cups of juice.

I don't want to leave them out.

One of my favorite things about today is getting to worship alongside Matt and Courtney.

You know, if you don't know this, they both got COVID like two days before Christmas.

And they were supposed to be part of, obviously, you know, a big part of our Christmas gathering, so they didn't get to be here for that.

So I was I was really glad to have that.

So good to see you, Matt.

I'm gonna keep my distance, though.

I'm just joking, you're fine.

One of my favorite things about Jesus is that he never asks us to do something he doesn't demonstrate for us.

Honestly, usually in a more intense manner than he would ever ask of us.

But this idea of worshiping God, this idea of allowing God to always win the tie, that if our way and his way conflict, his way wins out because we worship him.

This is something Jesus demonstrated.

Jesus lived this out with the way that he engaged the Father.

And so there's a well-known saying of Jesus.

This is in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before he gets arrested and goes to the cross, Matthew chapter 26, verse 39.

Matthew 26:39

He went on a little further, a little farther, and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

He's praying, God, please don't let me go through with this.

Like this is insane.

Dying on a cross, being executed, being being tormented and tortured, please, Lord, take this away from me.

And then he pauses.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

This is Jesus saying, I worship you because you win the time.

So, Father, here's what I would like to see happen.

But look, if your plan is different, I submit to that.

That is worship.

That is becoming less so he can be more.

That is being a living sacrifice.

Jesus lived as a living sacrifice, and look what it did for us.

We have the ability to know God.

We have the ability to live in a relationship with God because of what Jesus did on the cross.

His death on the cross paid the price for our mistakes, our sins, our issues, whatever work you want to use.

It's covered, it's done, it's complete.

And now we have access to a relationship with God that is unencumbered by guilt or shame or anything else because Jesus was obedient, because he worshipped.

We get to be part of the family of God.

That's the kind of thing that happens when you worship God and give all of yourself to him.

And, you know, you're not going to have to be the savior of the world this year.

Thank God.

But make no mistake, you submitting to God and living a life surrendered to him, it will impact someone else's life in a way that you can't even anticipate.

That's what happens.

It's powerful to worship God.

That's what Jesus did when he gave himself up for us.

It was an act of worship, it was an act of obedience.

And it rescued us and it saved us.

And now we have the opportunity to live in response to that.

And if you follow Jesus, I just want to encourage you.

This year, live like this.

Offer yourself up as a living sacrifice.

See what God does with you.

He loves you so much.

You might be surprised at what he has in store.

So let's take this piece of bread, let's thank God for it.

Father, we thank you for your sacrifice.

You gave us your Son.

Jesus, you gave yourself up for us.

Thank you, Lord, for modeling for us what it means to worship God.

Help us be like you.

Help us be willing to live as a living sacrifice.

Giving all of ourselves for your glory, for your kingdom.

Thank you, Lord.

Let's take the breath.

Jesus, thank you for this cup of juice, for what it means to us.

Your blood spilled on our behalf.

Lord, if there's anyone here today that doesn't fully grasp what this means, and honestly, like I don't think any of us can fully grasp it, Lord, but if there's anyone here who's never truly recognized that this represents salvation, forgiveness, mercy, grace, a restored relationship with you because our sin and our shortcomings have already been dealt with by your sacrifice.

Lord, I pray.

I pray that anyone who's yet to receive that receives it today.

Not just symbolically, but Lord, in a real way.

Because you gave everything for us.

Lord, help us live in response to this.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much.

Lord, you are worthy of our worship.

We just want to say that as a church.

You are worthy of our worship this year.

Help us be intentional every single day of the week.

Help us be resolute in a commitment this year to begin every single day in submission to you.

To not be consumed like most people in this world are with how we can become more and more, more this, more that.

But instead, Lord, how can we become less and less so that you can become greater?

How can we serve you?

Lord, you have included us in something so much greater than anything we could ever achieve or be in our own right.

And we just want to live with you as the who that we worship.

You are who we worship, Jesus.

We say that as a church, we commit that to you this year.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.