Freedom | Worship

Good morning.

Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Jason.

I get the privilege of being pastor here, and uh we are always honored to you coming to carve out some of your time, and especially if it's your first time.

Can we do this?

Can we put our hands together?

Welcome everyone who's here with us this morning for the first time.

We're grateful you're here.

We're we're coming to the end of a series.

We've been in the series for almost two months now.

This is week nine of our series on freedom, and this has been this has been a very intentional season for us.

We call it a season of an intentional spiritual growth.

It's a spiritual growth campaign that we've really been on where there's been a lot of intentionality from the kid space to our students to hear.

All of you, you've you've had guides, most of you have been following along with a guide.

You've been meeting in groups around these topics, and you've been faithful to be here every week and and listening to the teaching.

And and for those of you that have been in all of it and been in groups specifically, we have our Freedom Weekend, which is going to be this Friday.

And so this series is kind of culminating in a in a weekend experience.

And uh, I just want you to know that throughout this series that we've been in, talking about freedom, this idea that it's one thing to make a commitment to follow Jesus, it's another thing to actually step into the life he made you to live.

That there's actually uh there's greater levels of freedom for all of us, whether you've been following Jesus for a couple weeks or a couple decades, either way, like there's more for you spiritually, relationally.

God has more for you.

And so that's what we've been doing as we've gone through this series.

And you need to know this that throughout this series, there have been a number of people that have been intentionally praying for you, for you through the series.

We had a group meetup yesterday, and we're just in preparation, just a whole ministry team that's preparing for the weekend experience, even this next weekend.

And I just want you to know that there are people from your group leaders to the staff here at the church to your serve team members and leaders, there's a number of people that have been praying for you.

Many of you by even by name, you don't even know that.

And and we say that, I want you to know that because church is is a it's a little bit more than what we give it credit for.

And here at Freedom, like there's a lot of intentionality.

And so we've said this for for now nine weeks.

As a church, we've been going on this spiritual journey toward the life God has made you and me to live.

And we've talked about a number of topics through this.

Today we're going to talk about worship, this topic of worship, and a lot of misunderstandings around this topic of worship.

If you're a Christian or you're familiar with church anyway, you you you you probably think of worship as like a music genre.

It's like there's the worship music, right?

We just finished the worship segment of church.

This is usually how our minds think about worship.

We think about songs, we think about the things that we're saying, right?

This is where where we where we go.

Um, you know, if you're if you're not a Christian, if you're not, if you're not religious even, if you don't even have any kind of religious background, maybe you're this is all kind of new and you're discovering things and trying to learn things.

Worship is kind of a weird word in general.

You don't you don't exactly use it very often.

Um in fact, if anything, oftentimes if we do use it, we'll use it in like a negative connotation, like somebody worshiping another person or something like that, you know.

But we don't really we may we have some like very eastern ideas that come to mind when we start thinking about this word worship.

So today what I'm gonna do is we're gonna see if we can't kind of correct the record and maybe maybe maybe get a better Bible vision, a higher vision for what this idea of worship is.

Now, for for Jesus followers, we we have to we have to back it up a little bit and we have to we have to start with with the with the story, like what what we're actually all gathering around.

There's a starting point for this.

I love this verse.

This is Hebrews 4, verse 16.

Hebrews 4:16

It says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence.

Think about this.

Most of human history, human beings have been trying to devise everything from images to pathways to buildings to rituals to habits, you name it, to try to touch the transcendent, to try to move toward God, to be closer to God.

And here comes our New Testament, our Bible here telling us that for those of us who are in Christ, we can approach God's throne of grace with with confidence.

That's that's that's a pretty unique place to be, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.

Now that that's a pretty big statement.

There's a lot wrapped up in that.

And I would imagine that that that's not even like hitting the nerve or hitting a chord with with everybody when I when I read it.

There's a little bit of like, you know, it's kind of become a little bit cliche, some of this.

But here's the thing you got to recognize is like this verse, this idea of approaching God's throne of grace, like with confidence, this isn't how it's always been.

It hasn't always been like this.

There was a time, you read your Old Testament, there was a time where in order to approach God, listen, God could come to you and me.

He did from the very beginning, even in our sin, God could come to us and thank God He did.

But you and I couldn't go to Him, not any time we wanted, not without taking our own life, you know, into our own hands at that point.

Like you, you you better, you there was a sacred, there was a sacrificial system that you followed, and it was only certain people that got to go into the presence of God.

Like it wasn't everybody, and it wasn't all the time.

And if you didn't follow that and your heart was somewhere other than where your behavior was, like if there was a disc, like a discontinuity on the inside of you, that person that was gonna go and be in the presence of God, it's very likely you're gonna, your life's gonna end that day.

Just the stakes were high, you know.

It wasn't that common.

And see, but then that changes, right?

That that change, that changed 2,000 years ago.

Here comes Jesus, and and and Jesus goes, all of those, those goats and the bulls and the animals and the and the cleansing process, like it points to something, but it's not actually doing what it what what the what the real promise is going to accomplish.

And so Jesus comes along and he does what nobody else would, like what all the other sacrifices failed to do.

He does it, and he does it once for all people for all time.

So then we get to this, we get a verse like this.

This is Hebrews 13, this is 11 through 1.

It says the high priest carries the blood of animals to the most holy place as a sin offering.

This is what it was like.

Right there.

That's that's pre-that's before Jesus, right there.

He says, But the but the bodies are burned outside the camp.

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

There it is.

Like this is an incredible thing that is that has happened.

Why can we go to the throne of grace with confidence?

Because Jesus made it possible for you and me.

I don't have to wait for a certain day of the year, I don't have to wait till Sunday morning, I don't have to wait.

I like now, even in as I am, I can I can step into that place.

It's an amazing thing.

And I'm gonna say this if you're sitting on your hands and that's not hitting you, if that's not doing something to you, if you hear the gospel and it has this way of just sort of like in one ear and out the other, it doesn't impact you, it doesn't stir you.

You're kind of on your hands, and there's a little bit of apathy there.

Maybe it's because we've been training ourselves to respond incorrectly.

Maybe we've heard it so many times and we've responded a certain way that it's lost its edge for us.

Maybe there's a way we ought to have been responding all along.

Worship.

Look at down, let's skip a few more verses.

That was verse 12.

Let's skip down to verse 15, Hebrews 13.

Says this, through Jesus, therefore, by the way, I'm gonna read this portion here.

You know, some of us we think that that the way you you step into church and we think that the way we're doing church, wait, we're doing church the way a lot of people are doing churches in the United States.

We have this idea that somehow some like surp secret group, you know, cabal group of people decided to get together and like make up some great way to do church.

And we're all like, you know, that sounds good.

Let's all do church that way.

Like it just kind of came out of thin air.

Believe it or not, there's actually some like deep theological framework and groundwork for why we do church the way that we do church.

So I'm gonna give that to you, ready?

So this is not only our response, which we're responding, well, that's why we're here.

Some of you might be here because you're you're inquiring, you're trying to figure something out.

You need something.

That's great, you're in the right place.

But for those of us who are in Christ and we go, this is our home, we're responding to the gospel.

That's why we're here.

We're present because this is part of our corporate response to what Jesus has done in us.

So here it is, you ready?

Verse, verse 15.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

There we go.

That's what's coming up.

That's what we did a little bit ago.

That's what we're doing constantly, right?

We're praise.

The fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

That's a there's a profession of his name, a profession that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And don't forget to do good.

That's service, serving one another, and to share with others.

There's a participation there.

We do goods, but we participate in that together, where your gifts edify, build up the people, and encourage the people that are near you and that you might even meet for the first time today.

For with such sacrifices, God is pleased.

Sacrifices, anytime the Bible talks about sacrifices, it's dealing with your time, your talent, and your treasure.

There it is.

It's all wrapped up in this.

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority.

I know we don't like the word authority, but there's a submission of to Jesus' leadership in your life through the people he's placed in your life.

Whether that's through your, whether that's a parent, whether that's a boss, or whether that's a that whether that's your church, like your pastor, whatever that means.

You know what it is?

I'm submitted to the people who God has given responsibility for my well-being and my personal growth, my or my spiritual growth, right?

This all encompasses, see, all of this, this is worship.

All of that.

Worship wasn't the first line.

Worship is all of it.

See, worship is whole life, it's all of life, it's not the segment of life.

We didn't, we don't have a worship segment of church.

We worship.

That's what we do.

We're worshiping now.

Do you know why?

Because we are you are hearing a bold proclamation of the gospel.

That's worship.

Like this is all worship.

So there's a there's a whole life response.

So, how do we respond?

We respond in worship, whole life.

Now that feels a little bit intangible, right?

It's like, okay, well, what does that what does that mean?

So here's what we're gonna spend the rest of our time doing.

We're gonna see if we can kind of bring this down, make this a little bit more real for us.

How do how do I do this in my life?

Am I doing?

I thought I was, maybe I'm not.

I like to think that I am.

Maybe there's a discontinuity in me.

Let's see if we can't shine some light on this, get a little bit more clarity, and leave here more like Jesus.

Sound good?

Okay, let's do this.

What is worship?

Now I know it's gonna happen because we start talking about worship.

Some of us are gonna be like, No, I worship, I worship all the time.

You know, I you know, I turn the radio on every on occasion.

You know, I you know, I I sang at least two verses of the songs that we just got done singing, you know.

You know, I'm worshiping, you know.

Hold on.

This is Matthew 15.

Look what Jesus says.

He's talking to Pharisees, these are religious people.

And he's there.

Now, before you start dogging on all the religious people that Jesus had to deal with, I just want to make it really clear.

Um, if the these people were in your community today, I'm convinced most of us would regard them very highly.

We'd esteem them because they're the people that like know the Bible really well.

And and we they're upstanding moral people, and they have this way of making you feel like you can't live up to their high standard of living.

And so I'm just before you start railing on all the religious, I'm just saying, okay, remember what team you might be on.

Okay, so here we go.

He's talking to the religious people, he says, You hypocrites, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and they worship me in in vain.

There's this connection between what's in my mouth and the posture of my heart.

Which means this.

I can say whatever I want.

But if but if there's a but if there's a there's a break, if there's a if if if if my voice is here but my heart is there, it's not worship.

Do you see this?

It's not it's not just one thing, it's whole life, it's whole person, which means that you you and I can we can hear the voice of our shepherd.

We can follow Jesus all we want.

We can say that we are all I want, all we want.

And Jesus can say, go, and we can go, but in our hearts we could just stay.

It's possible.

We can hear the voice of our shepherd, and he can go, stand, and we can stand, but in our hearts we're still sitting down.

Like it's it's possible that your heart and your voice and the and the things that you're professing are not totally aligned.

He says, See, when there's a discontinuity of that whole life kind of worship, he says, That's it's in vain.

Which means this is way more than songs.

It's not less than songs, it's not less than lifting up our voices, it's not less than that.

You know, I years ago, I just kind of made this commitment to myself, because I don't know about you, but I don't always feel like singing on a Sunday morning, you know?

I don't always feel like it.

So, so years ago, you seven years ago, I just I just kind of made a personal commitment.

I just thought, anytime I'm in a place where there's worship like that with with voices, like a corporate profession through a song, I'm just I'm not gonna miss the opportunity to participate.

Because I'm just I just got this feeling.

I haven't been, I haven't been in the physical presence like this.

I haven't been to heaven yet, right?

I haven't looked Jesus face to face.

I just have a feeling in that moment, I'm gonna wish I had.

That's just my gut instinct.

I don't know.

I don't know.

You you make your own judgment call, but I just feel like I'm going to be glad that I made that commitment, you know?

So, okay.

It's not less than that.

It's more than that, but it's not less than that.

It means this worship isn't a moment, it's not an event, it's not even the habit that you develop.

No, no, no, no.

It's way more than that.

It's it's whole life.

So let's break this down and let's say this.

What is worship here, okay?

Let's see if we can break this down.

Here's the first thing that worship consists of.

It means giving him your attention.

Your attention.

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

That's pretty simple.

Just give him your attention.

Look at Proverbs 3, verse 5.

Proverbs 3:5

It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him.

Acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths.

There it is, right there.

An acknowledgement.

It's amazing, it's amazing to me what God is actually asking of us here.

John 15, 5 says, I'm the vine.

This is Jesus talking.

You're the branches.

If you remain in me, like a remain in me and I in you, and you'll bear much fruit.

Now, if you've read your Bible at all, or maybe you've heard some of this before, it's like, is that really all Jesus is asking for?

Is our attention and acknowledgement of remaining?

Because didn't Jesus say it?

He's like, hey, before you come and find me, you better count the cost.

I mean, that's Jesus counting the cost.

He said, He said things like, You better pick up your cross.

You're gonna take you gotta pick your cross up.

It's like, well, that sounds a little bit weightier than acknowledgement, you know.

Acknowledge, attention?

What are we talking about?

See, see, we we like to do things, right?

We we we like we like that we like to do things.

You see, there's a story of uh this guy, the the rich young ruler, and Jesus tells he's rich, tells him, sell all your stuff, and he ends up walking away from Jesus.

Not because the task was too difficult, but because the surrender was way, it was just way too much surrender.

It's like I don't I don't want to let go that that much.

God doesn't ask very much of us, but He He does ask that we acknowledge Him, that we remain in Him.

He does ask that our attention be oriented toward Him.

Years ago when I was in the Navy, I was living in Southern California, I decided I wanted a motorcycle.

And uh, you know, I'd ridden a dirt bike on and off, but never really, you know, not like on the street, you know, actual motorcycle.

So I had the great idea, you know, I was it was post-deployment, and so I was kind of going through a phase.

And so I was like, So all my military people are laughing.

And so uh so I decided to go and buy a Harley Davidson night train.

Okay, I was all excited about this bike, and I love this bike, it was like my primary vehicle for two years.

Obviously, not North Dakota, that was Southern California.

So I'm running, I'm learning to ride this bike, and so I, you know, I didn't really know, like I said, a dirt bike, but never like a road bike, especially not like a bike that heavy.

And so I remember going to buy this thing, and um and I'm about to drive off with it, and the and the guy that owned the shop, and he's like, You know how to ride this thing?

I was like, Yeah, you know, I'm a man.

Yeah, come on now, you know.

So I just lied right through my teeth to him, you know.

Yeah, I know how to ride this thing.

I got down the road like six blocks, I was like, I'm gonna die.

That's what's gonna happen.

I don't want to tell anybody, you know, this is gonna be embarrassing, you know.

So I'm like, I feel like I'm gonna die.

So I'm just like trying to figure this out.

And if you've ever ridden a big bike like that, you know it's like it's not what you do isn't necessarily intuitive with a big bike.

You know, you think you gotta steer, you know, you gotta turn.

It's like, no, this is not a car, you know.

It's just like it's a little different.

Well, I was in the military, so if you want to ride on base, you gotta go take a class.

And so I was like, stupid class, I can figure this out.

Then I got through the class, I was like, oh, thank God, I took the class, you know, I feel safe now.

And so uh I get the class.

Well, one of the things they teach you when you're riding a big bike like that, especially if you want to like make a turn, you know, especially like a white or like a U-turn, you know, you kind of gotta lock that arm and you gotta, and this is really important.

They tell you you gotta look over your shoulder and you gotta see, you gotta look where you want to go.

That's really because when you when you look over your shoulder, and what happens is because all your attention is over here, your body just sort of like makes some adjustments all on its own.

And so you don't have to think about it.

Your body will start shifting its weight a little bit, you'll kind of you'll kind of move a little bit, and it's it's almost intuitive when you're actually when your attention is in the right place, and it's amazing you're able to turn this like thousand-pound bike in the right direction when you're doing it the right way, and your attention is fixed on where you're supposed to go.

Because I'm telling you right now, here it is.

You ready?

You you you put your attention on what you believe, and you only move toward that which you believe.

And when you get your attention on Jesus, it's amazing how there's these parts of your life, they're just sort of like intuitive.

Suddenly your your weight in your life starts adjusting a little bit, you're your behavior adjusts here a little bit.

Why?

Because you're focused on on where you're supposed to be going.

Do you see this?

You go, well, I I think that's my life.

Am I I think I'm doing that.

Here's a great litmus test for you.

Ready?

Is your is your would you describe your life between from 12 months ago to now as would your life be described as living with greater levels of surrender or less?

Are you operating, are you living your life with greater levels of trust toward Jesus and his way, or or is it just sort of plateaued and been the same been the same?

Where's your attention?

Give him your attention.

Okay, here's another part.

We give him our attention.

Here's the next part.

It means we also give him our allegiance.

Allegiance.

I love that word allegiance.

I love it because I think it I think it's one of the best words for helping us understand what it means to have faith.

That's a faith word.

Allegiance.

It's better than trust.

Allegiance.

What is allegiance?

Well, you know, if you're a certain age, you probably grew up saying the Pledge of Allegiance, right?

We we kind of grew up, most of us probably grew up like that, you know?

What are we saying when we when we pledge our allegiance to someone or something?

We're saying your values are now my values.

That's what that means.

It means it means that there's a there's a way of life here, and I'm making that way of life my way of life.

I mean, it even goes so far as to say that my I'm willing to lay my life down to a certain extent for my allegiance.

It it's not conditional.

That's what allegiance is.

Allegiance doesn't come, but it's not conditional.

Now that's not like most things in life, is it?

Most things in life that we do, there's a condition.

I mean, most of our relationships have some conditions, whether they're spoken or unspoken.

That's how we do sports teams, right?

It's condition.

I had to have my allegiance as long as, right?

Fill in the blank.

Right?

Now I'll tell you a story because I used to be a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Calm down.

Calm down.

Now I remember, and some of you, if you're a real Vikings fan, you'll remember this, okay?

It was January of 1999.

Okay, I was a kid.

I was loving the Vikings.

We were diehard Vikings fans, and and um and I had basketball practice that day, and this was a big game.

I mean, it's NFC championship that yeah.

And so I was just and they were in it, they were going all the way.

They were gonna go to the Super Bowl, Vikings.

I mean, I was so pumped about it, but I had basketball practice, so I got to take the radio with me.

So I put the radio in the corner of the gym, playing ball, and my coach was good.

With it, and and I remember it comes down to the wire and Gary Anderson, their kicker, Minnesota Vikings kicker.

This guy was setting records all year.

He ain't missed a field goal, he ain't missed an extra point all season.

This is in the bag.

We are going to the Super Bowl.

I cannot wait.

I mean, I was in it, you know, loyal, allegiance.

Like I was, it was, I was there.

And I was just everybody stop.

I'm listening to wide left, 34-year-old for 34-yard kick.

First kick of the whole season he misses.

Just earth-shattering as a kid.

I felt it felt personal, really.

It felt like it felt personal.

Like they let me down.

And oh my goodness, I still feel, I mean, maybe I need to work on forgiveness.

I don't know.

I got problems still about it.

I'm just like, but see, I was loyal though.

Listen, I was loyal.

I was a Vikings fan, so I you know I kept cheering them for them, you know.

And as I got a little older, and as the years went by, I started to realize that somewhere written in their contracts or maybe the franchise agreement, it's like, you must always disappoint your fans.

That's written in there.

That's how Minnesota Vikings, that's how the franchise works.

I don't know if you know that or not.

It's written into their contract.

You want to come here?

Just don't forget that last clause.

It's got a little asterisk next to it.

You must disappoint your fan base here.

That's how this works.

And I didn't know that.

You know, I was naive.

You know, I didn't, I didn't know that, but I caught on.

And so I fixed it.

I'm not a I'm not a Vikings fan anymore.

I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Somebody's like, I don't know if I can attend here.

Well, you know what?

I don't know what to tell you.

Okay.

I will say this.

I got a lot more joy.

I haven't been disappointed in a long time for football.

That's good.

This works.

Like, well, if they go to the Super Bowl, I'll bet you're changing you'll change your mind.

Maybe I will, you know?

Maybe.

I doubt it.

Okay.

Conditional.

It's conditional, right?

That's how my that's how most of life works.

We're loyal until we get burned.

We're loyal until it doesn't make any sense anymore.

But see, that's not what it means to follow Jesus.

Worshiping is this like commitment of allegiance.

He has, he has my whole allegiance.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible, these three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they don't bow down to this idol.

This whole thing, this whole community is being pressured.

Worship this idol, worship the king, all this stuff.

And they're just like, nah, we worship God.

We worship Yahweh, the one real God, the true God.

And so, and they just refuse.

And they say, listen, if you don't do it, we're going to throw you in this burning furnace, right?

Many of you are familiar with this story.

And I love this.

This is what it, this is Daniel chapter 3, verse 17.

Daniel 3:17

He says, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it.

And he will deliver us from your majesty's hand.

That's pretty bold.

That's a lot of confidence.

Oh, he'll he'll rescue us.

But that's not my favorite verse.

My favorite verse is actually the next verse.

And they said, Oh, but even if he doesn't, you gotta love this.

Even if he doesn't, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

I just I just love that.

That's somebody that's allegiance right there.

No, no, no, my God can.

You know what?

He will.

You know what?

Even if he doesn't, I don't care.

I just I just love that.

That's an allegiance there.

That's that that's them not even trying to make sense of it.

They just know I this is the my God has my loyalty, he has my my attention, and he has my allegiance.

That's that's deep.

Allegiance.

Well, I I think God, I think, I mean, I I give God my attention.

You know, I I think He's got my allegiance.

I mean, I'm I'm a Christian.

What are you saying, Pastor?

I mean, I believe in God.

I believe in God.

I hear that a lot.

I yeah, yeah.

Are you Christian?

Well, I believe in God, I believe in God most of my life.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Don't forget what we read earlier, Matthew 15.

We'll read it again.

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain.

Yeah, look, worship isn't about lip service.

What comes off your lips is just an outflow, it's an outpouring of what's of the posture of your of your heart.

Is it that's what it's supposed to be?

So we give them our attention, we give them our allegiance.

And this is probably one of the biggest ways you can tell whether or not whether or not God has your, like the God of the Bible has your allegiance.

Is this one, because this is another key part of what it means to worship.

It means that we also give him our obedience.

That's part of, you can't really separate that.

How do I know I've given him my allegiance?

Well, he has my obedience, so he has my attention, my allegiance, and my obedience.

Look at John 14, verse 21.

John 14:21

Jesus said, Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

You can't disconnect this.

Go down to two more verses, verse 23.

He says, Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks, in the spirit and in truth.

It's talking about a continuity here.

A continuity between what's in you and what's out of you, the spirit of God that dwells in you and what comes out of your life, the way you live your life, what comes out of your mouth, all of these things.

Love for God is a submission to the leadership of Jesus Christ in your life.

That's what it means.

And I've heard the pushback, and I and I'm and I'm a bit sympathetic to it.

The idea, it's like, how how is it that you qualify love for God when love for God is defined as do what you're told?

It's like, how do I reconcile that?

Because if that's a human being saying that, we call that person an abuser, right?

So that doesn't make sense in our in our minds.

Now that that might be true, except for one one thing.

If the person who's telling you to obey them is actually good and is actually everything they claim to be, and actually has your highest good in mind.

See that that changes the equation.

Because it isn't like a man who says that, it isn't like another human being that demands your your blind obedience.

Like that's not that's not what Jesus is doing.

Think about this: if you got kids, or you know a kid, or you've seen a kid, there we go.

I take a nine-year-old, for example, okay.

So I have a nine-year-old, and my nine-year-old, I'm trying to coach my nine-year-old.

Like, listen, you need to, you know, this is the way to go.

You know, this is with your friends when you go to school this week.

This is the things I want you to keep in mind, you know.

And he and he looks up at me and he says, Yeah.

I don't think I think I'm gonna do it my way, Dad.

You know, first of all, you know, you're nine.

So that just means you don't know anything right there, right?

So you're nine.

And second of all, I didn't really ask you, you know.

So you're gonna you're gonna do what I I told you to do, right?

And um, you're gonna do what I've told you to do.

Yeah, but I don't really understand.

Well, that's that's interesting because I don't even remember asking you if you understood.

I just remember asking you, telling you to do what I'm telling you to do, right?

Yeah, I need I need you to do what I'm telling you to do.

And and and you and since you want to know why, let me explain it to you.

Because I really don't need any more reasons than the first one, which is because I said so.

So that that's a that that qualifies, right?

That's valid.

But but if you want more, you need to know this.

That you you do know that there is nobody on planet earth that wants your your good for your future more than me or your mother.

Did you know that?

Did you know that there isn't another set of people on the face of the planet who are willing to sacrifice more so that you you can win in life?

Right?

This is what it means.

Like, if I'm talking to my nine-year-old and they're just like obstinate about this, it's like this is what's actually true behind the scenes.

Nobody is actually willing to lay their own life down for you more than your your mom and I.

Right?

So, so I need you in this month.

Do you love me?

Well, yeah, do what I'm telling you to do.

Do you see the difference?

And if we're and if we love our own kids that much, how much more does God love us?

I mean, here's the harsh reality.

Everyone obeys their God.

That's the real reality.

Everyone obeys their God.

You go, well, I don't really know.

I don't know if I believe in God.

It don't matter whether you say you believe in God, you got a God.

And and every one of us obeys that God.

You know, if if the Bible if the God of the Bible is your God, you'll follow the God of the Bible.

But if money is your God, you'll follow money.

If career is your God, you'll follow career.

You'll you'll live your life at every beck and call of money and career.

You'll obey your God.

If sex is your God, you will follow every inclination and you'll be at the beck and call of which wherever direction sex takes you.

You will worship, you will obey your God.

You go, well, I don't, that's not my problem, it's not a money problem.

I don't got a sex problem.

I it's just like I'm just trying to figure this out.

Okay, it's you.

You will you will obey your God.

Everybody does.

We we all do.

It's not about whether we will obey or won't obey, it all comes down to who's God.

That's what it comes down to.

And you go, well, that's not me.

I know where I'm I'm at.

You know, this is the thing.

This is what's difficult, even for those of us in Christ.

I mean, the Bible, the Bible paints some like really difficult contrasts.

It's like, yeah, I'm in Christ, but he also says things like this like it's easy to deceive yourself.

It's easy.

We're masters at it.

We're masters at justifying ourselves and deceiving ourselves.

And so there is this, like, there is this like encouragement to be a little bit suspicious of our own motives.

And I love how the psalmist praise it in Psalm 139.

And I think this is an appropriate way to respond to the things of God.

And when we're contemplating our worship, and is my life aligned?

Like, am I am I worshiping God?

My attention and my allegiance and my obedience.

And it's like, well, this is a great prayer.

139, verse 23.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

By the way, testing, when God tests you, it's for your good.

When God tests you, it's not to see whether or not you'll be loyal to me or not.

No, no, no.

He tests you so that he can help you see what's in you.

That's a God test.

So he says, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is important because worship transforms you.

It does, it changes you.

And I'm not talking about a 20-minute segment of a service.

I'm I'm talking about what gets your attention, your allegiance, and the obedience of your life will change the course of your life.

It will change who you are.

Worship transforms you.

You become like what you worship.

He gets our attention, our allegiance, and our obedience.

And here's the here's the last one.

Here's the last one.

We can't talk about worship without it.

It's a it's our reverence.

There's our reverence about God.

That's part of worship.

Showing him reverence.

That's again, that's kind of a churchy word.

That's probably not that's probably not a word you use very often.

What does that mean?

Just show him our reverence.

This is Psalm 111, verse 10.

Psalms 111:10

It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord.

All who follow his precepts have good understanding, and to him belongs eternal praise.

The fear of the Lord, reverence.

I mean, the first part of even having reverence is getting a revelation of who we're actually called to have reverence for in the first place.

This is God.

The God who moved toward us when we couldn't move toward Him.

But God.

And some of us we just don't have that revelation.

That's where that's why the gospel is a bit numb.

Because we we haven't actually sunk in, just like that the God of the universe, your maker, the one who knows you, every thought you've ever had, every thought you ever will have, everything you've ever done and ever will do, that God who knows you, all the ugly, all the stuff, that God that knows you actually moved toward you and is trying to make a way so that you could be with him for eternity.

That God.

There's a verse, there's a little story, it's a real quick story in Matthew 16.

I'll just paraphrase it for you.

Here's his disciples.

They come to Jesus, Matthew 16, and and they and Jesus is inquiring about what the people are saying about him.

And they all start telling, well, some people are saying that you're Elijah, some are saying you're John the Baptist, other even Jeremiah.

And he and he looks at him, and I love this question.

By the way, do you remember this?

Do you remember some of you probably got one on right now?

WWJD.

Remember that?

What would Jesus do?

Somebody probably got a bracelet on right now in the room.

W W J D.

We love that.

You know why we love that phrase?

Because we like to do things.

That's why.

It's like, just tell me what to do.

All right, come on, that's what you want.

You're like, this is just tell me what I got to do to get things right.

So we love that.

Now I may not have read the Bible ever.

I go to church twice a year.

You know, I don't even like church people, God's people, but somehow we think we're gonna figure out what Jesus would do if he were us at work in a bind.

What would Jesus do?

I think I know what he would do.

It's like, really?

How?

All right, are we really qualified?

Are you qualified to answer that question?

Anyway, you know that question's not in there in the Bible.

That's not what Jesus, that's not the Jesus, that's not the question Jesus is asking us.

There is another question.

He looks at him, he says, He says, Who are they saying I am?

He says, Oh, uh, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and he looks at him and he doesn't say, Well, what would I do?

He looks at him and he goes, Who do you say I am?

This is not small.

Who do you say I am?

Who do you who do you say that that Jesus is?

Because until you answer that question, listen, there's no points for believing in God.

That's probably the number one phrase I hear around faith in the Midwest.

I believe in God.

Nobody cares.

What do you mean, believe in God?

Who do you say Jesus is?

We've been on this spiritual journey for coming up on nine weeks now.

Going on this journey of on freedom, that saying that there is a life that God made you to live, made me to live.

And and and we may know Jesus, we may be in Jesus, we we may have salvation, we may, we may know where we're gonna go when we die and have eternity with you.

That all may be true, but but that doesn't mean that you and I are actually living the life we were made to live.

And so, how do we do that?

How do we step into that that kind of life?

There's a reason we're ending this series, like coming in at the end, and we're talking about worship, this whole life response to the gospel.

But you you won't respond with a whole life response, like a whole life kind of worship, if you haven't settled the question of who Jesus actually is.

How do I give him my reverence?

Well, it begins with the fear of the Lord, the Lord, the living God, the one who made you, the one who died for you, the one who rose again, and the one that invites you into his presence.

Like that.

Now here's what happens, see?

Because we're talking about freedom, and we're talking about we're talking about we're talking about stepping into the life that God has for us.

Like, you you want more joy in your life?

You want you want to experience greater levels of peace?

You want your family to be whole?

You want you wanna you wanna get on a pathway that actually leads to life?

I'm not saying it'll always be easy and you won't ever have a hard time, but but you'll but you'll you'll be on a course when you come to the end of that life and you can actually take a deep breath and not feel like you just won on the wrong scoreboard.

But you actually won at the game that mattered.

Like get on that kind of path.

And see, this is why we can talk about forgiveness, and we can talk about our words, and we can talk about God's words, and we can talk about we can talk about his church, and and we can talk about all of that, and then we get to the end of it.

Here we are, we're talking about worship.

How do I respond correctly?

Because when you worship and you with your whole life, not just your words, your whole life, I'm gonna show you what happens.

Here's Paul and Silas, imprisoned, imprisoned because they're proclaiming the gospel, and they could come out of prison if they wanted to.

All they gotta do is just stop saying all the stuff they're saying.

But they don't.

And so here they are, they're in a prison, and look what happens.

It says about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken at once.

All the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose.

See, this is what happens when you when you worship.

This is what happens.

I know this isn't this isn't just a random story about two guys in a prison who just have a miraculous way of escaping the prison.

No, no, no.

This is what happens when you and I respond to Jesus with whole life kind of worship.

This isn't the this isn't the result.

This story is not a result of them just singing a few songs.

They're singing songs because it's an outflow and overflow of the posture of their life, the posture of their heart.

Their whole life is oriented in response, their attention, their allegiance, their obedience, their reverence.

It's all aimed toward Jesus.

And in that moment, it culminates in like a song because it just comes out of them and their chains fall off.

But listen, it's not just their chains, it's their neighbors' chains.

And you're sitting over here like, you want better for your family?

Listen, mom and dad, you getting this a hold of whole life worship could be the very difference for chains falling off your own kids right now.

Like you have that.

It doesn't just listen, the rising tide raises all ships, and that goes for your community, your family, your home, your workplace, right here.

You can do that.

Worship.

Give them my attention, give them my allegiance, my obedience.

Who do you say I am?

Jesus, I say you are the Son of the living God.

That's who you are.

You died for me, and you rose again, seated at the right hand of the Father, and you sent your Holy Spirit to empower us and to dwell in us.

And you are building your church on that confession right there.

Reverence.

Reverence.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you.

That's what we want.

We want to worship you with our whole life.

That's our response to you.

That's our response to the gospel, worship.

And so we just that's our prayer.

In fact, that that's our commitment right now.

As we as you've taken us on this spiritual journey, as you've as you've been growing us and challenging us, and it's sometimes it's been good, other times it's been really uncomfortable, but but we know that it's for our good because you that's what you want for us.

And so we respond to your goodness and your kindness in our life, and we respond by giving you our attention, giving you our allegiance.

You have our allegiance, Jesus.

We give you our obedience.

We want to follow you, follow you no matter what.

Even when it doesn't make sense, we're committed to obedience to your way, and we give you our reverence, we approach you with reverence because you are God, you are our Maker.

And you are the one that moved toward us, and we believe that.

We believe that if you've never committed your life to Jesus, maybe you've been living your life telling yourself and others that you believe in God, but you don't actually and never have made an actual commitment to pledge your allegiance to the Son of God who came back from the dead, rose again, you've never made that kind of commitment, then this is your opportunity to do just that.

And not in some lip service way only, but in a way that says, I will confess with my mouth that which I am committing to do in my heart.

And if you've never made that kind of a commitment to say, Jesus Christ is and will always be the Lord of my life, if you've never done that, then just make this prayer your own, right where you're sitting.

Make it your own.

Tell them in your own way.

Jesus, I believe that you are who you said you are.

I believe that you died for me, for my sin and my brokenness.

And I believe that you came back from the dead and that he said if I follow you, that you would raise me to new life with you.

And so that's that's my commitment to give you my attention, to give you my allegiance, to give you my obedience and reverence.

Jesus, I'm all in.

I'm all in, I'm all in.

Thank you for saving me.

Thank you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, everybody said amen, amen.

Come on, like you mean it.

Put your hands together.

Tell Jesus, thank you.