A Better Worship - October 4, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast. I have made the

Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

Well, good morning again.

I want to start off by saying something that's controversial. Awesome. Are you ready?

Are you ready? All right. So you can either get your rocks ready or you can,

get your hands ready to cheer. I don't know.

What I want you to know is this, though.

That worship is not just what happens on Sunday morning, but it's how we treat

people on Monday morning.

No rocks getting chucked at me all right maybe it wasn't as controversial as i thought,

you know as we've been in the book of hebrews here we've been talking about

things that are better a better covenant a better mediator a better sacrifice,

and today i want to talk to you about a better worship,

and when you really think about what is this word worship you know,

In the simplest form, it's honoring, it's paying respects, it's being humble

before someone that is greater than you.

And in the case of why we're here today, it is worshiping God who is greater

than all of us put together.

And we think about what worship is all about. It's powerful.

Now, some of you, if you've already read this passage in Hebrews 13,

you're maybe saying, well, how does this connect? you know?

The writer of Hebrews is getting ready to tell you what better worship looks like in everyday life.

And when you look back at the text, it kind of stems from the last sermon I

preached from the end of chapter 12, when it says, therefore,

we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and let us be thankful.

And so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God's a consuming fire.

So I think it's a continuation of that.

At first reading, if you just picked up chapter 13 and started reading.

It looks like just final instructions. Hey, do this, do that,

do this. Don't forget this.

You know, kind of like if you were getting ready to go on a trip and someone

was going to take care of your place and you gave them a list of things,

but then you're like, oh, don't forget on Tuesdays, the trash comes. So put the can out.

Oh, don't forget, you know, don't feed the neighbor's raccoon.

So make sure you put the lid on the trash can. I mean, it's just some final things.

But really, when we look to scripture today is just a continuation of the theme

and the thought of what is better.

And now the author of Hebrews is going to tell us what a better worship looks like.

Now, I love when we come together as God's people to worship.

Melanie and I went to One Hope Church last week, which used to be Denver first.

It merged with Columbine Church of the Nazarene, and now they're One Hope Church.

And I can't remember the city, but it's just south of Denver there.

It was, yeah, in Columbine. And we just had such a good time.

We walked in, and it's like we're not strangers.

Did we know anybody? No, we didn't know anyone. We parked in guest parking, praise the Lord.

It was right there, man. And we pulled in, and we were treated just like we

would treat people when they come here. You're family.

And we worshiped together, and we praised God together. We heard from everything we do here.

The worship continues, not just in this building, but when we go out.

And the same thing there.

You know, when we think about this, and in just a minute we're going to read

the first six verses of chapter 13.

The question becomes for us, how can we move our focus of worship from just

the songs that we sing to how we live when we walk out the door and what that looks like?

And you know, in the past there's been wars over worship music, right?

The hymns, the traditional, the contemporary. I mean, there'll be worship wars

in the future because those are based on our style preferences,

on what we like to hear and what we like to listen to.

And each and every one of us has a different style that we like.

Some, maybe like mine, it's pretty eclectic. I love everything. Well, within reason.

As long as I can understand it, as long as it's glorifying the Lord, then yeah, yeah.

But when we can break out of that and really see what is true worship,

what does better worship look like?

I think then we can truly live out what the author of Hebrews is saying,

what Scripture is telling us.

And as we read this this morning, you're going to see that better worship is lived out.

It's lived out in love that continues, in fidelity that honors, and in contentment.

And we're going to read this, contentment that trusts. And so I just want to

invite you, if you're willing and able, would you stand with me as we read Hebrews

Hebrews 13:1–6

chapter 13, verses 1 through 6.

Hear the word of the Lord this morning again. Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing,

some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison,

and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure,

for God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have,

because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, and thank you for the opportunity

we have to learn how to worship you better.

Lord, not just in what we do here, but Father, what we do in our everyday lives,

where we go, what we do, what we say, how we live. God, may we honor you every

single day of every single week.

And Lord, we love you. Bless this word to our heart today, we pray in Jesus'

name. Amen. Thank you. You could be seated.

Again, worship's not just about what we sing with our lips, but it's about what

we live and how we live that out. And so today, the question I want to attempt

to answer with you today is, what does better worship look like in everyday life?

And the first thing I'll submit to you as looking at the scripture is that better

worship begins with love.

With love. Worship of anything, of anyone that doesn't turn into love,

but especially of God, is incomplete.

So you can say you love God, you can say you come here, but if it doesn't draw

you closer into his love, do you really love him?

Do you really have that commitment to him?

You see, the first thing that we see in the scripture in verse 1,

let brotherly love continue, or as the NIV says, keep on loving one another

as brothers and sisters.

Let brotherly love continue. It's the old Greek word that we all know that a

city in Pennsylvania is named after, and that is Philadelphia,

from the philos kind of love.

The city of brotherly love is Philadelphia, right, in Pennsylvania.

But they just ripped that off from the Scripture. They ripped it off from the

Bible. It's talking about family love.

We've got to continue to love our brothers and sisters, to love our family.

And man, it's hard sometimes because we're not all the same people.

If you ever had trouble growing up loving your own brother and sister,

boy, that's amplified when you get to the church and you have people that aren't

even in your same family, blood family line that we're called to love.

Now, I'm not saying you have trouble with that here. That's another church down the road, right?

But guess what? The other church down the road, there still are brothers and

sisters. And so we're still called to love them.

When we think about this brotherly love, we think about the church,

Especially this Hebrew church These Hebrews that this letter is written to Now

we already know they suffered persecution Because they would not return To the

Jewish rituals and rites.

That they were pressured to. We already know that they suffered,

that they had been persecuted, that they lost their possessions,

that they lost their status, maybe even in society.

And you know what? When you go through hardships, that can make your love just tank.

It can just make your love sink. Why am I trying so hard if I get all this grief in return?

Sometimes you might see this exemplified when you have a brand new believer,

and life gets hard for them and the temptations, they just can't shake and they

keep coming back and they do these great things for God, take these steps.

It's like, you know, three steps forward and two steps back and they're just struggling.

And sometimes their love for the Lord wanes because why do I want all this grief?

I'm just going to go back into my sin because it was easier.

They don't realize the goal that lies ahead of them.

But I want to tell you that better worship keeps love alive when life gets hard. It keeps it going.

I remember Melanie and I married 30 years this last March, working on 31, keep praying.

She knew that she was marrying a pastor when we got married.

And so she knew that there wasn't going to be a lot of money in the bank.

She knew that we would serve small churches together, that times would be tough,

that things would be said, that our children wouldn't always be treated maybe

like kids that weren't pastors' kids would be treated.

But it's through our life together that we've learned to love one another through

the deep and the dreadful times, through the times that were mountaintop experiences,

through times traveling together.

We did not kill one another, not even on this last trip to Colorado.

She had many opportunities on those narrow hikes that we did.

But she didn't want us to become one of those datelines or something, I think.

You know, when the going gets hard in our own relationships, we just don't bail.

And when the going gets hard in your relationship with the Almighty God,

you're not supposed to just bail, but you work through it and you get through it together.

And as you do that, your love for one another deepens, not only in your personal

relationships, in your marriage relationship, but also in your relationship with God.

And so when we look again at the scripture, let brotherly love continue,

we have to have love for the family of God.

Folks, if there's any kind of conflict that you engage in or enter in with anyone

in this congregation, it's an opportunity to grow deeper in love with them and in love with God.

And so my commitment to you is that let's work through it.

If you have a problem with me, if there's something I say from the pulpit that

offends you, whether it's genuine or whether it's my foolishness.

Let's talk about it, and let's work through it together.

And by doing so, we bless our brother, we bless our sister, we glorify God.

It's part of worship when we love the family of God.

The second part that it says in verse 2 is, do not neglect hospitality.

And the word that's used there is another kind of love, another kind of phylos kind of love,

And that is phyloxenia Love of the outsider Love of the stranger There's a song,

I won't say it Because it will get stuck in your mind But it says something

about people are strange.

Matter of fact, the church, we're kind of called weird sometimes because we

don't always fit in with what the world wants to be.

But we're talking about loving the outsider, those outside of the body of Christ,

outside of the faith, maybe even outside of our own culture.

Really, philozenia is the opposite of xenophobia, which is the fear of the stranger.

You hear a lot of that word today when it's paired with immigration issues,

being afraid of those that are different from us.

Even though our culture, even though our nation was built on not only the Americans,

Native Americans that dwelt here, but immigrants that came from all over the world.

We think about what this really means, loving the stranger. It's about hospitality.

About serving those and loving those who can never pay you back.

Loving those that have no interest in you, but expressing that love to them.

Making room for people who can't repay you, maybe even for people that won't even be grateful to you.

Why do we do that? Well, I think we do that. We practice hospitality because

God showed us hospitality.

There's a scripture that says, while you were still dead in your trespasses

and sins, while you were still outsiders, Jesus did something for us.

Jesus gave his life up on the cross for you and for me.

He shed his blood for the outsiders, for people who still don't know him yet

and are still not grateful,

but also for those of us here now who have taken that step of faith into a relationship

with Jesus and now get to experience the love of God full on.

So I know we got a lot of empty seats. Are we welcoming the stranger in?

I just don't mean some immigrant from some other land. But how about your neighbor

next door or down the street or the person you work with?

If they're outside the body of Christ, if they're outside of relationship with

Jesus, have you welcomed them to come?

To come together, to come and to be part of what God's doing here.

Loving the stranger is part of our worship.

Along with that is loving the suffering or love for the suffering.

The scripture says, remember those in prison? And it kind of says,

as though you were in prison with them.

Now, I think specifically they're talking here about the Christians that have

been in prison for their faith. But not just that, those who are suffering.

This is where worship becomes empathy in motion. And I'm not the one to talk to you about empathy.

On my CliftonStrengthsFinders. Empathy is the very last one. It is 34.

So if you come to me and you're weeping and you have something very emotional

to tell me, I am not going to understand right away.

However, if my wife is with me, she will. Empathy, I think, is her number one strength.

So if you're crying, I'm going to send you to Melanie. No, no.

She has taught me much about empathy, as the Lord has used her for that.

But love for those that are suffering, it takes that not just empathy,

but sympathizing with them.

Coming alongside, trying to understand why they feel like they feel.

Trying to see what the Lord is doing in their life.

See, I really believe that a worshiping church is a suffering with church.

We sing a song sometimes called The Family of God. And in that line,

there's a line in that song that basically says, when one has a heartache, we all shed a tear.

That's the kind of worshiping church we're called to be. That when someone in

the body is hurting, man, we come alongside and we try to love and to help them

through, maybe give advice where that's warranted or just to be there.

See, that's the kind of love through suffering that happens.

We're called to a better worship and that better worship begins with love and

and i'll just close out this section by saying this if worship doesn't make

us more loving then maybe we're singing the right songs but with the wrong hearts,

let's get our heart and our mouth and our mind all aligned to love the way that god wants us to love.

Better worship begins with love, but then better worship honors fidelity.

And this is a great progression. We go from love to fidelity,

or in other words, faithfulness.

Not just faithfulness to God, although that's the bedrock of everything we're talking about.

But I'm talking about the worship that shapes how we treat God or what God calls precious.

What God honors, what God has ordained and instituted. And specifically here in,

verse 4, it says.

Marriage is precious to God. It was God's idea. It wasn't any invention of human beings.

It was God's idea. When you look all the way back in Genesis,

you can see for the first man, Adam and Eve, how God instituted marriage there,

between one man and one woman.

That's the way God ordained. That's the way God planned. And the scripture again

says marriage should be honored by all.

That word honored, or in the King James, honorable, it's timios. It means precious.

It means valuable.

I would even add, though, it may not be a direct correlation. It might be priceless.

It's something so valuable to God, so important to God, and it should be important to us as well.

When we think about this precious marriage, fidelity, staying faithful in your

marriage relationship, it's not just about morality, but truly it's about a worshipful reverence.

We think about the marriage relationship.

We think, and I got to perform the wedding between Emily and Hayden last night,

just a great time together.

And in that marriage ceremony and in our premarital counseling that we met together

for months, once a week, we talked about what is the oneness of marriage.

It's not just the physical part of marriage, but it's really the two becoming one.

And that just doesn't happen the first week of marriage, the first year of marriage,

maybe not even the first 30 years of marriage, but it's a process.

And it's that oneness that's expressed in marriage that exemplifies or that

reflects the oneness of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It's something on this side of eternity where we get a little hint of what it's like.

I mean, you guys know how it is when you run into an older couple,

maybe even some here, and when you see brother or sister so-and-so,

and they're just so much alike, you can't tell them the difference.

Maybe in their appearance, I don't know, but in the way they talk and the way

they carry themselves and the way they perhaps finish each other's sentences or thoughts.

That's the oneness that we're talking about in this mystery of marriage, that there's this.

This oneness almost in their personality and who they are. Scripture says that,

marriage is precious to God. It's to be honorable.

And it really, it comes down to the whole church is to protect marriage,

not just those that are married.

The whole church honors marriage.

We look with it at such high esteem. It doesn't mean we discount those who are

single. Do not get me wrong.

Scripture talks that some are maybe called to that.

Or perhaps some have not found the right person that God is sending their way yet.

No matter how much my daughter Emma prays. But I love that because she's just

not settling for whoever comes along.

She's very discerning in her tastes. She's probably listening to this right now.

We'll mysteriously have a short

circuit in the live stream. I'll get in trouble a thousand miles away.

But it's up to all of us to protect marriage, to protect the marriages in our congregation.

I want to tell you a story. My first youth pastorate, Melanie and I lived in

Rancho Cucamonga, California.

I was a youth pastor there in Ontario, which is right now Ontario,

Oregon, Ontario, California.

And there was a couple in the church that unbeknownst to us later on ended up,

they came out that they had had an affair.

And I noticed some things along the way, but I never said anything.

I mean, I'm just this young youth pastor getting started.

And maybe some of the things I saw or thought, I could have pulled my brother

aside and said, hey man, this is what this looks like, your behavior toward this other lady.

Or maybe another sister in the church could have pulled the lady aside and said,

hey, this looks kind of fishy here. What's going on?

You know, we've got to protect the marriages around us. That means first having

our own integrity intact, but also watching out for our brothers and sisters.

Saying, hey brother, you're a little flirty with sister so-and-so.

Man, watch that, man. You're married. Or even if you're not married.

Be careful, she's married.

We've got to protect that within the body of Christ.

I can't begin to tell you what damage that affair did in that little congregation.

What damage was done? The church recovered, praise be to God,

but a whole section of people was knocked out because of that.

So that leads me to this next part about better worship honors fidelity,

and that is we've got to have sexual integrity as part of our worship.

Now, please don't throw rocks now. Some of you don't like when I talk about

sexual things, and I understand that. And please forgive me.

I will always talk about sex as the Lord makes it part of His Word,

as long as it's in there. never going to do anything salacious.

But here it says, God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous.

I want you to know that's not a threat, but it's an invitation to take God seriously,

to take God's holding and high esteem marriage seriously, to not water it down or cheapen it,

to not say it's not that important. It's just sex. Come on.

No, it's the breaking a part of what God has put together.

One of the things I said yesterday, and I always say in the marriage ceremony,

and it's scriptural, what God has joined together, let no man separate.

Let no one tear asunder.

You see, we've got to take these things seriously, not as judging,

not as coming against those who've found forgiveness for sexual immorality or adultery.

We offer forgiveness where that forgiveness is warranted, and we restore,

but we've got to be on our guard and protect.

That integrity is so important. Fidelity, the bottom line here,

fidelity is a way of saying, God, you are worthy of my obedience.

God, you're worthy of the vow I've made to my wife, to my husband,

to stay faithful. God, maybe the vow I've made to you.

I know this is heavy sitting. It's in our scripture today, but it's part of

our worship to honor the faithfulness in a marriage.

Because it reflects our relationship with our own God, our own Father.

Better worship just doesn't praise God with our lips, but it honors God with our bodies.

It honors God with our promises, and it honors God with our relationship.

And so, better worship begins with love. better worship honors fidelity,

but better worship produces contentment.

Do you see the progression here? We go from love, we go to faithfulness or fidelity,

and then that brings about contentment in our lives.

I love this, what the scripture says, worship frees us from the tyranny of fear

and the illusion of financial security.

That's what this next section, verse 5 and verse 5, keep your lives free from the love of money.

It's not about having money. It doesn't say you're not supposed to be having

money or that your preacher is supposed to be not having any money.

But what it says, and where many preachers have erred, it's about trusting money.

It's about loving what comes with money and financial abundance.

See, money promises security. Oh, if you just have enough money, you can have this.

If you just have enough money, no one's going to bother you.

If you just have enough money, you get whatever you want.

But those promises are lies because stuff doesn't fill the hole in your heart.

Stuff doesn't give you a purpose in life. And really, when we think about it,

worship, in its right frame and better worship. It relocates our security from our pocketbook to God.

We're trusting God for everything we have. And guys, I want to be honest.

I think that's where we as citizens of the United States of America,

the richest nation on earth, where we have a danger and a temptation.

Some of you have experienced this on the mission field. When Melanie and I were

on a trip to Jamaica with a team from McCall, I had a guy and he has money in that church.

And he said, hey, why are we wasting our time mixing this concrete on the ground by hand with shovels?

I saw a little mixer down the road we could just rent that have this knocked

out and go do something else and the missionary on the field said no wait stop

brother that is not what you want to do he's like why we'll save so much time.

Well, if we do that, then these five guys that are over here mixing this concrete,

then they lose out on a day's wages.

We're not able to bless our brothers and these workers here who desperately

need whatever pence that they were getting in that day.

You see, sometimes we as Americans, we just want to buy our way out of things,

instead of putting in the time and the effort to really bring about what God wants to happen.

I'm not thinking of anything in particular, just in general,

but we try to buy ourselves out of difficulties, out of circumstances, out of situation.

Now, do we need money in the church?

Yes, we do.

But we can't just focus on the money.

We need to focus on God who, guess what, will provide the money.

Really quickly, there's a story

in Scripture where it came time for the disciples to pay their taxes.

They reach in their pocket, nothing there. Oh, there's a key there.

What are we going to do, Jesus? How are we going to pay the taxes to Caesar?

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar, and the Lord what's the Lord's, right?

So what's Jesus tell them? It's brilliant. And this is one of my favorite passages

in Scripture. He says, go fishing. Woo!

Remember the old card game, go fish?

Jesus tells his disciples go fishing and so what the disciples do like all good

disciples they listen to Jesus and they do what he says and they went fishing,

and as they went fishing guess what they caught fish and guess what just happened

to be in the fish's mouth some coin money enough to pay the taxes.

Jesus, God, will provide our needs. We need to take our financial security away

from our wallet, away from the plastic, and we need to trust God to do what

God said he will do, which is to provide, to take care of us,

to take care of our needs.

Let's not worship money, love money so much that we're worshiping it.

That worship needs to be relocated to God who will provide everything that we need.

And so we go from the freedom from the love of money to contentment that is

rooted in God's presence.

Again, in verse five, be content with what you have. Why?

When I turn on TV, I'm watching a nice, good program, and then there's a commercial

that comes on, and I realize my cell phone stinks.

I need a new cell phone. It won't make me look like that picture that's on the screen.

Or my car is horrible. I need to get a new car.

TV tells me I need to do that. It produces this discontent within my life.

Or man, why am I going to stay home and eat soup today when there's a commercial

for Wendy's and I can go there?

I mean, this discontentment that is stirred up within us.

God's word said, be content with what you have. Why? Because I will never leave you.

Or nor forsake you. I'm not going to leave you, and I'm not going to take you for granted.

Contentment is not a financial condition. Really, it is a theological conviction.

If you want to think about the Apostle Paul in this, you can turn over to Philippians

4, starting at the end of verse 11.

The scripture says, or Paul said, I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.

He goes on to say, whether I'm in need or whether I'm in plenty,

whether I am in want, well-fed, or whether I'm hungry.

And he says the secret in all of this is this, that I can do all things through

Christ who strengtheneth me.

He focuses back the source and the focus of contentment onto Jesus,

that Jesus has taken care of everything that we need.

That's what this contentment leads to, comes from God's presence within our lives.

When you have Jesus, you really don't need anything else, spiritually speaking,

and it filters down to our everyday life.

And because we are in God's presence, we can do what verse 6 says,

and we can have courage that comes from our worship.

You see, in verse 6, it says, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear.

What can mere man do to me? What can mere mortals do to me, the NIV says.

If I'm with God, who's going to harm me? Who's going to hurt me?

It's like walking with your big brother into a scary place.

You're not afraid because you know your brother can whoop whatever comes your way.

Maybe if you are the big brother, maybe you really are scared,

but you're not going to show up because you don't want to disappoint your little brother.

But here, God, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. Contentment produces courage in our life.

Maybe you've been through a hard time where you didn't have any money,

you didn't have anything, and you didn't know how you were going to feed your

kids or your wife or yourself.

And then all of a sudden, God shows up.

Up with an offer of groceries, an offer of a meal at a person's house,

and God takes care of you, and he sees you through step by step by step.

And you don't have to worry, like the apostle Paul said, whether I'm hungry

or well-fed, whether I'm in plenty or in want.

I found the secret is just to focus on Jesus because I can do everything through

Jesus Christ who gives me strength.

Are you trusted in Christ's strength today?

Worship breaks the spell of fear. Many, many other scriptural examples.

The first one that comes to mind is when Peter hops out of the boat to go to

Jesus who's walking on the sea when there's a storm going.

He doesn't even ask. He just hops out, man, there I go.

As long as his eyes are focused on Jesus, he is walking on the water just like Jesus is.

But the moment he becomes fearful because he sees the waves crashing around

him, because he feels the mist of the water on his face, he begins to sink.

And I love a picture that's out there. I wish I had a shot of it to show you,

but it's where Jesus' hand is reaching down and Peter's submerged in the water.

It's a depiction of that scripture passage.

And I don't know how many times have you felt like that.

You've been in a place where you've just succumbed to the fear,

to the fright of the circumstances. You just sink deeper and deeper,

and you don't know what to do except to reach your hand up. Jesus saved me.

And he reaches down, and Jesus will grasp your hand to save you,

pull you out of that and say, hey, trust me. Keep your eyes focused upon me.

Better worship breaks the spell of money because it anchors us,

each and every one of us in God, who never will walk out on us,

who will always be there for us.

So as I conclude today, I just want to tell you, we need a worship that walks

into Monday. You and me, all of us together.

A church whose worship becomes love for people, fidelity in relationships and

contentment in God's presence,

extends that worship easily into Monday, into Tuesday, come Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, even Saturday,

and enables us to gather back together again on the following Sunday.

So since Jesus has brought us into God's presence and promised that he will

never leave us or forsake us,

when you this week, maybe even today, Face the temptation to retreat Retreat

into self-preservation Retreat into financial anxiety Or relational withdrawal,

I want to tell you You can reach out in love.

Reach out and rest in contentment through the grace and the power of Jesus Christ

who welcomed us when we were strangers and who will continue to hold us securely.

Are you trusting Jesus this morning? Are you trusting him and what he wants to do?

So I've got an action point for you this week. Something really simple. Take your cell phone.

Seriously, if you've got one, take it out. go to your alarms clock,

alarm, I don't know what it is on your phone maybe you took it off.

Entirely stinking alarms and set an alarm every day or maybe at least three

times for this week for 4 19, I will let you choose whether that is a.m. or p.m.

If your spouse is not awake at 4 19 a.m. do not set that one Thank you.

Do I say set it at 419? My son Noah's favorite scripture verse is 1 John 419.

We love because he first loved us.

So set it for 419 and then do this. When that alarm goes off,

wherever you're at, see what you can do to reach out to three different people.

Now, it doesn't have to be all on the same day at 419 on Monday.

Maybe it's just one person a day, or maybe it ends up being all week,

but reach out to three different people in your sphere of influence, in your community.

And what I want you to do is express genuine love to them or support them.

God's going to set this up. I don't know how. I'm anxious to hear testimonies

and where people are at at 419.

Maybe you're in the grocery store. You're buying your Lucky Charms and you're

at the register and your alarm goes off. Oh, man.

And you see the checker behind the counter and you ask the Lord,

God, how can I encourage this person?

How can I show this checkout lady some pure, genuine love that comes from Jesus?

Maybe it's just a word of encouragement. Hey, you scanned those groceries. Great. Thank you.

Or maybe you get a discount. Hey, thanks for that discount.

Or maybe there's just something else you can encourage them in.

Take the time to do that, to express that love or support. Maybe you're just

going to send a a text message, or if you're able to phone somebody,

or maybe you just want to make a visit at that time.

Find a way that you can tangibly worship God by sharing the love He's given you with somebody else.

Why do I want you to do that, Mike? You always make us do crazy things.

No, I always give you opportunity to do crazy things.

I want you to do this because if you make an effort to connect with others,

especially those outside of the faith, I want to tell you, you're spreading

kindness, the kind of kindness that our world needs. You're sharing that love

of Jesus that he shared with us.

And if you're willing and have courage because you're content,

you're also going to boost your own mood. Because when you share love with someone else, man,

you happy inside. It brings a joy inside. Not like you're giving yourself a

brownie button. Hey, look at me.

No, because you know that God has given you something, you can hold onto it.

And so you're going to share it. You're going to give it away.

Not only that, it creates a culture of care, of love and care that benefits everybody around you.

I mean, honestly, what kind of boss do you want to be around?

The old grump who's always ragging on you? Who's always telling you You're doing everything wrong.

Or do you want to be around the boss that's encouraging you?

That's saying, man, you did awesome on that. Way to go.

Or hey, I got an extra sandwich. You want it?

Or hey, let's go to lunch. It's the pizza buffet. Come on, baby.

Well, don't go if they call you baby. That's probably not a good thing.

Share the love of God like that, man, it changes this culture that's characterized

by criticism, by Debbie Downers. Forgive me, Debbie, please. You're not a downer.

But those that just want to look at life through broken glasses and don't see

life as it's supposed to be.

So take up this week, the 419 challenge.

Ask the Lord to put three people in your path this week.

I don't know how many are here today, but we take three and times everybody

else, there's a whole lot of blessing going to happen in our community.

And if that blessing continues, whoo, how's that going to change the culture that we live in?

As I wrap this up, I just want to say that the world doesn't need a church that

worships better on Sunday, but what it really needs is a church that worships better come Monday.

I wonder this morning, if you'll pray with me, We had said we were going to

do communion. We're not prepared for that this morning, so we will do that next week.

But what I want us to do is just to have a quick time of prayer.

If you're struggling this morning with your worship, with love,

with fidelity, even with contentment, I just want to ask, would you turn that

over to the Lord? Say, God, would you help me?

Help me with my love for my brother, with my love for the stranger,

with love for those that are suffering.

God, help me in my fidelity, my faithfulness in my relationship.

Times are hard, and God, I just need to stay true to her or him.

I need to stay true to you.

And God, help me be content and not fall into the temptation that money is the

solution for everything.

Would you trust God today in that as we pray? Pray with me. Father,

there's times we all struggle.

Many times, and most times it's not even of our own causing.

God, I pray that you would be with us. Speak to us right now,

God, about our worship, about the homage, about the respect,

about the honor we pay to you.

Lord, is it worthy of who you are?

Lord, we want our love to reflect who you are, not just on Sunday when we all

gather together and it's easy to worship you, but Lord, throughout the rest of the week.

And we pray in your mighty and your powerful name, that you'll speak to us.

God, put three people in our path this week around 419.

And God, help us. Help us, I pray, God, Lord, to share your love with them.

And Lord, be with us. If there's someone here this morning that's wondering

about all this love stuff,

God, I pray before this day is over, their pictures are taken,

that we can have a conversation about how they can experience this wonderful

and beautiful love that comes from you, God.

Lord, be with us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.