Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Real Ones | Week 1
We live in a world full of filters, facades, and fake—it’s hard to know what’s real anymore. But in John 4:23, Jesus says the Father is looking for something specific: true worshipers. Not perfect ones. Not polished ones. Real ones.
This Sunday, we’re talking about what it means to worship in spirit and in truth—not just with a song, but with your everyday life. If you’ve ever wondered if your worship matters, or how to draw close to God when life is messy, this one’s for you. Come ready. Come honest. God’s looking for the real ones.
https://relatecommunitychurch.churchcenter.com/episodes/512725
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I'm glad you came to church today. We're going to bring the house lights up a little bit and I'm going to look around the room and first off I just want to say welcome. It matters a lot to me that you are here, and could you just reach over and touch your neighbor gently. You might have to elbow them later in the service, but for right now, just gently tell them get ready. I'm glad you're here. You look great, you can relax. I'm glad you're here. You look great, you can relax. Summer's almost over, lots of things happening and, man, it is awesome to be in position and seeing all the stuff that's happening.
Speaker 1:Getting ready for small groups Are y'all ready for small groups to happen? It's not quite there, but we're getting close. I think that's one of the questions we get more often than not is why do we stop small groups? Why is there a break? Listen, breaks are good and then you just get excited for whenever it comes back, get your energy building and I love the launch three times a year in September, after 21 days of prayer, we will. I think this mic is quitting on me again, so We'll leave it over there on the floor. We won't even try it again until you guys put it in the shop or do whatever y'all do. We have some really talented, incredible people working on the production team and can we give it up for the production team? They work through so many things. Most of the things you don't even know happen Just like little, weak everything. Sometimes it's too loud, sometimes it's not loud enough, sometimes they're changing things you'll never know. But they're working their hearts out to serve God and to worship the Lord with their talents and I commend you guys for doing the very best and you're awesome.
Speaker 1:So this week we're kicking off 21 days of prayer without fasting. So in January we do 21 days of prayer and fasting and then in August we call it prayer and feasting. So you don't have to stop eating or anything unless you want to, unless you feel like you need to spend some time getting that part of your life in alignment with God. So here's the deal we will be praying, we're pressing in, we're reaching for more of what God has for us, because I believe it sets the pace in January for the whole year. But August it's a realignment. We don't want to go too far away from God's purpose and God's agenda in our lives and sometimes it's really easy to get distracted and focused on other things, and this is where we come back and we say God, this is setting the pace for the rest of this year, so that the rest of 2025, it belongs to you. God, I want what he wants for me. I want to be pointed in the right direction, looking at the right things, pursuing and I want my passions to align with. So that's what 21 Days of Prayer is about. It's about realigning, and so today, probably more than any other day for the rest of this year, we are realigning with his agenda and his purpose, and so, if you're watching online, I'm glad that you're participating and joining with us, but I can tell you that we have made a great effort so that the next three Sundays and the next three Wednesdays are working together. Not only will we baptize people, but we'll have our normal first Wednesday kicking off our prayer services. So come and join us. We're going to dive deeper into the word. We're going to dive deeper into our singing and our worship time, as well as praying for our neighborhoods, all right.
Speaker 1:So today we kick off a series that, while 21 Days of Prayer is always about prayer that's in the name prayer. We're going to focus on worship. We're going to focus on what it means to be worshipers, what it means to be people who worship. If you are a child of God, a follower of Jesus, then you should be a worshiper. The Bible says he's looking for worshipers, and so that's what we're doing. But there are lots of things, themes in the Bible presented to us, where we can get off track, and so we're going to talk about that a little bit over this, the next three weeks.
Speaker 1:But I want to start with this. I want to start with myself, and I want to talk about how things can look, and things can look true, but they're not always true. So I'm going to give you two truths and a lie about myself, and you're going to have to decide which you think is true, because that's often what we have to do with the Bible. So here's where we go. We're going to start off with this. I'm going to give you the first truth. We'll call them all truths to begin, until we can sniff out the lie.
Speaker 1:Number one I am very musical. Whether you know this or not, I play a bunch of instruments bass, drum, guitar, keyboard. I grew up playing in the church band and helping to lead worship. I can read sheet music, chord charts and tabs and play by ear, and so that's true. It's true about me, maybe it is true. It's true. Let's see Number two.
Speaker 1:Everyone in my family was born on the first of the month. So we've got March 1st, may 1st, october 1st. My birthday is December 1st. We planned them all that way and I guess my parents planned that it was a long plan. It's true, though. That's true. The third thing that's true is I am, believe it or not, the thumbs-up kid from the early 2000s meme. You may have seen me online. How many of you believe that I am musical? Raise your hand. We'll do a little test. Some of you guys I don't think that's the one. All right, if you believe that everyone in my family is born on the first of the month, raise your hand. About the same amount of people. All right. If you believe that I am the thumbs up kid from the early 2000s meme, raise your hand. Okay, thank you, I appreciate that. Actually, I'm not that kid, although I probably could have passed for that kid when I was 11 years old, if you see pictures of me from 11. Although the other two things are true.
Speaker 1:Sometimes in the Bible, in our faith, there are things presented to us and we just kind of hold them as true, like, yeah, that's true, it's always been. I already understand, in fact, if I tell you that we need to work on what it means to be a worshiper, a lot of you will think well, I already know what that means. We already worshiped this morning. We did it for what? 22 minutes? This morning we worshiped and now we're doing the preaching and we kind of have this division of truth in our heads, of what we think it means to be a Christian or go to church or follow Jesus. And I could tell you this that the Bible is full of those themes. For instance, our faith. The Bible says that there is true faith, authentic faith, but there's also a false faith. There's also an untrue faith. The Bible talks about real and authentic teachers, but then there's also false teachers.
Speaker 1:Part of our job is identifying the truth and the fake. There's the true God, false gods, little g. There's true prophets, false prophets. And what we're going to talk about for the next three weeks is true worship as opposed to false worship. And so let me show you John, chapter 4, verse 23, for our theme verse for this series Real ones is this but the time is coming, indeed is here now.
Speaker 1:Jesus said when true worshipers everybody say true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. In other words, god's looking for the true, real ones who will worship him in spirit and in truth. In and of itself, that statement implies that there are some false worshipers or some untrue worshipers, or some people who are either worshiping wrong or worshiping the wrong one or the wrong way. People to sit in church for weeks and months and years and decades and a lifetime, and we're doing worship the wrong way. I'm going to show you what that means. I'm going to show you the implications of being not a real, not the real worshiper, the one that if God's looking for the real worshipers, I can tell you that you could be the one, I could be the one that's doing it all wrong and we think no, I got this, I got that. I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:So just to give you the answer right up front if you're uh, if you got your notes, pull them out. We are a note-taking church. If you're four times more likely to remember it if you write it down. We want this to stick with us. We want this to be deeper than just in one ear and out the other ear and whatever sticks. It's stickier when we write it down because it's in multiple places in our brain, because we've heard it, we wrote it, we read it. We're going a little bit deeper. So here's the answer what is real worship? How do I become a real worshiper? We're going to talk about the things that it's not, but right up front I'm going to give you the answer and that is that we're.
Speaker 1:He's looking for a lifestyle of worship. If your worship is a quote-unquote 22 minutes on Sunday morning, that's not a lifestyle of worship. If you think that, oh, I worship this week because I went to church and right at the beginning of serve, we did it right up front 20, 23 minutes this week, 24 minutes, I spent a little bit of time. If you have a division of when worship starts and stops, that's not worship. Worship comes from the heart and it's something that we should be doing. It's a lifestyle all day, every day. It's a reflection of our life.
Speaker 1:But worship is very misunderstood. It's probably one of the most misunderstood things in our faith, in our religion, our Christianity, in church, in the American church, because we think that worship is oh, you know, I listen to worship on the radio, or there is a. The worship I like best is X, y, z. This band, that band, this worship group, this church, this person, this worship leader we think that worship is that thing. Can I tell you that worship is not that thing. Worship is not something we do for 20 or 30 minutes on a Sunday morning. Even if you count all of this worship service as hey, for about 70, 80 minutes. We had our worship service. I was there. If your worship is 70 or 80 minutes on a Sunday morning, what about the rest of the week? Okay, so this for all. A lot of us that.
Speaker 1:The reason that it's so confusing is because how many of you grew up in church? Or you've grown, you've been around church for a little while. That's good. Some of you not. But if you have been around church for a little while, you know that in some churches they say, hey, reach under your chair, pull out that hymnal and we're going to worship. Maybe that's what worship looks like. You turn to page 200, and we're going to, that's where we're going to worship. Or for others of you, like I, grew up in a church where we had colorful flags and banners and we walk around the whole church and that was our worship, right, and if you didn't get to wave that flag, you felt like you didn't worship this week.
Speaker 1:If we didn't get a Jericho march going around the building, which I never understood, why do a Jericho march? We want the church to fall down. I don't understand why we're doing a. It doesn't make sense. We have different ideas, or maybe it's specific songs. I just don't. I don't think that song we sang, pastor Sean, why'd we sing that? It's not even a worship song. We sing one song Tell the Devil no, not Today and I always think is that even a worship song? I don't know.
Speaker 1:The point is that worship is not a song. We don't get to define what worship is based on. Well, I don't like the way you do it. Or the way you do it, or we should raise our hands or not raise our hands, or some of you. It's a little too much if you're just tapping your foot like don't dance, don't do anything, just stand there and reverently worship. The problem is we put all these rules around. Worship Worship is none of those things or all of those things. It's a lifestyle. It comes from my heart.
Speaker 1:So here's a question we have to ask, and that's this why do we exist? You think that's way too broad of a question to ask. It's very relevant to what worship is. It strikes right to the heart of why we exist. What is our basic purpose? This is something that we talk about every week. In fact, you've probably heard this so many times. You're tired of hearing it, especially as it relates to our small groups, the programs, everything that we do.
Speaker 1:You were made on purpose, for a purpose, like why are we here? But if you think that your purpose, well, I have to serve God. Yes, true, but also not true. You're here on this planet to make a difference. True, but that's not the heart of it. There's such a deeper reason. Why do we have to make a difference? Why do we have to serve difference? Why do we have to serve?
Speaker 1:I'm going to show you what that means, but before I do, I need you to understand something about God. Can I tell you and I need everybody to listen, I need you to hear this that God does not need anything from you to exist, to exist Like there's ideas out there in the world that God has this worship meter and that he gets stronger when we worship him. If everybody would just worship at one time and lift up a loud voice, if we would all shout, then God would get so strong His little power meter would just go off the charts. If we were, just our hearts were into it. That's not true. God exists with or without us, and before time began, before he created all of us, he wasn't sitting around thinking you know what I really need? I need to create an earth where there are people, and if they would worship me, I would just. That would make me strong. That's crazy, but we add value to ourselves and we think that makes us important because God needs us. God doesn't need you to do anything. He wants a lot for you. He wants a lot for me, but he doesn't. It doesn't hurt him if I don't do it.
Speaker 1:There's a term it's a theological term called aseity. Aseity write this in your notes is self-existent and self-sufficient. Self-existent and self-sufficient. That's God. God has a seity that he needs nothing from us. But we're here for something else, and you can imagine it this way.
Speaker 1:How many parents do we have in the room? Parents with little kids, specifically, because kids need a lot. Babies need everything. They require food, changing, cleaning, when to go to sleep, when to wake up Like they need everything. But a healthy parent doesn't wake up and look at their baby child and say I never looked at my infant children and just said I can't wait till you guys grow up because y'all can help take care of the bills around here and you can get a job. And look, they're 21 and 23 right now. There's a lot of potential there, guys. I think we could just Gentry, you got 10 kids. I know you're not looking at your kids saying, hey, we got a whole team here, we could start a business and you guys can support me. That's not what God's doing.
Speaker 1:God doesn't need anything from us to exist. He exists in and of himself. I'll read it to you in the scripture Acts, chapter 17, verse 24, says the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands, in other words, and he is not served by human hands. He is like he served but not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. We serve, but not because he needs us to serve so that he can fulfill some kind of agenda that we just don't know about. It says, rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else and everything else. God wants a lot of things for you, but he doesn't require anything of you to exist. That would create a conflict of interest, in the same way that a parent can't require a child to support them in order to support. That would be a cancellation. So he chose to create you for his enjoyment.
Speaker 1:Isaiah 43, one says do not fear. This is God telling his children. For I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name. And then what you are mine, he's telling us you're my people, you're my children, I've called you by name, I made you, I summoned you, I brought you here, I picked you. And then it goes on in verse 7, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for what? Whom I created for what? For my glory. So right there, he created us to bring him glory, but he doesn't need the glory, we need to give him the glory. So if you could get this principle into your heart and into your mind and into your thought process and create that, this becomes the filter for why I'm here, why I live, why I serve, why I go to church, why I am a Christian. It changes everything, because we're not just trying to check boxes on what God wants me to do. This. I checked that box this week. I went to worship, I listened to the, I read my Bible, I prayed and no, wait a second. Why do we do any of those things? To glorify God. It says whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made as a created being.
Speaker 1:This is going to hit some of you harder than others. As a created being, some of you harder than others. As a created being, we're created to give God glory, but some of us, we've been giving our glory. We've been giving that glory to something else. We've been giving our time and our attention and our efforts and all the. I don't know what that looks like for you. You are worshiping something. You are made to worship, you are made to glorify something, and for many of us, we don't glorify God, but the glory is going to something. But if not him, then what's it going to? What are you giving your glory and your worship and your attention to? Maybe it's yourself, maybe it's someone else, maybe it's something else. It might look like this when you wake up in the morning every day, you're opening up social media and you're just saying here, let me give you a little bit of glory, upvote, thumbs up like shares, attention, follows, comments, engagement, comments, engagement.
Speaker 1:We're giving that attention to something, that longing, the desire. We're connecting it to someone, something, and for most of those things they're falling on deaf ears. Oh, they want our likes, they want our attention, they want the worship of the masses, but do they actually care about you? Do any of the things that we live for? Actually are they worthy? I love the song that we sang earlier, that is there anyone worthy? No, there's none worthy but him. Only one died, only one paid the price that could only be paid by the one. And yet we take the glory that's due him and we give it to someone else, and he doesn't say how dare you? He says come on back, I'm waiting with arms open wide for you so that we can fulfill our purpose as worshipers to bring him glory.
Speaker 1:What are you magnifying Today? I are you magnifying Today? I brought my magnifying glass. Psalm says magnify the Lord.
Speaker 1:When you magnify something, what happens? We have a term that's not in the bible, but it should be. When we magnify something, we're actually zooming in, we're looking closer, we're diving into it. A it might be the person next to you, it might be your finances, it might be a hundred other things that we think are so important. How often have you been so invested in something and you think it's so important? I have to put all my attention on this thing and then, a week, two weeks, two months, two years later, it's like man. Why did I ever care about that thing? Weeks, two months, two years later, it was like man. Why did I ever care about that thing? It's part, it's our nature to get invested and magnify stuff. But who we should be magnifying is the one who's worthy to be magnified, who we should be pouring our, our life and our lifestyle into, is the one who cares about us more than anybody else, the one who, for eternity, we get to live for.
Speaker 1:Watch this. Psalms 29, verse 1, says this give unto the Lord, oh you mighty ones, give what we have something to give. Watch this. It says give unto the Lord what. Y'all got to wake up a little bit. Here we go. Give unto the Lord all you mighty ones. Give unto the Lord what Glory and strength. You have glory to give, but you've been giving it to the wrong one. Give unto the Lord glory. Do his name. He's the only one who's worthy of the glory that you have to give. You were made on purpose for a purpose and that purpose is to give glory. That your life should give glory to his name.
Speaker 1:Worship the Lord in beauty and holiness. We don't have time to get into it this week about how he wants to be worshiped, about how he wants to be magnified in holiness, in the beauty of holiness, but your ability to give God glory, that is your worship. So here's the definition for this morning of what worship is, and you can write this in your notes Worship is the act of giving glory to something or someone. Worship is the act of giving glory to something or someone. Worship is the act of giving glory to something or someone. Whether you recognize, realize or acknowledge, you are giving glory to something and someone all day. We're doing it all the time. I was thinking this week.
Speaker 1:Some of you guys know that I have three nephews and they are brats, all of them, all three. I thought about putting their picture up on the screen, but I don't want to give them any glory today. I won't even tell you their names. I love them and they're amazing, but they are brats. They do one thing that gets me more than anything else.
Speaker 1:When we get together as a family, we have birthdays which is probably many of our tradition. What we get? A cake and we light the candles, we give gifts and all wonderful things. It's good to be with family. But then they do this one thing that ruins all of it. And then we sing happy birthday. Love to sing happy birthday. Everybody knows how the song goes, but what happens with my nephews and so often my kids join in too they turn the happy birthday song into like a dog pound where they're just like howling. It doesn't sound like a song, it's not good. I told them if y'all are going to do that for my birthday I don't want a song. Don't sing me happy birthday, it's for me. Don't do it, I don't want it.
Speaker 1:There is an act of giving someone something in a way that they don't want, and so often I think how often do we bring God a gift? Maybe it's a song, maybe it's our life or the efforts that we're putting in, maybe it's our offering that we're putting in the bucket. There's some part of my life that I'm saying God, I'm doing this for you, I'm going to church, I'm going to small groups, I'm giving in the offering, I'm going to serve on this night, but how often are we doing it in a way that is not acceptable to him? It's not how he wants it. I think he would probably say don't worry about it, I don't want you to sing me happy birthday if you're going to do it that way. There's an Adam and Eve. I mean, excuse me, cain and Abel. Abel brought an offering that God said it's acceptable, it's good. But Cain, when he brought an offering, god said you know, that's that's. You didn't do it right. He was so upset that he killed his brother over it. It's hard for us to imagine that we're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1:No, I've been doing it this way since 1982, when I got saved Pastor. I've been in church every Sunday, 52 Sundays a year. I've always been in worship service and I sit through it and I grit my teeth and even if the song's bad, I'm there for worship service. Has it ever occurred to you that that might not be worship? Listen, this is going to hit some of you. Some of you guys sit through the worship service and then give me a play-by-play, the blow-by-blow after service. You know that one singer you got up there, pastor, they're amazing. But then that other one, can we turn their mic down? That's not worship. That's not worship.
Speaker 1:I want that to marinate for a second because I need you to think about all the things that you think that you're doing for God but it's not coming from the right place in your heart. You know that your worship it matters where it's coming, like it matters the position of your heart. You think no, the end justifies the means. If I just do it, I checked all the boxes, I went. You're not going to take that away from me. I was there for 52 Sundays. I think that's kind of like Cain's offering, where he said I did what you told me to do and he said but your heart wasn't right.
Speaker 1:How can you call that worship? I think part of this 21 days of prayer and this alignment of where we are as worshipers has to be is my worship adequate? Is it the right worship or am I just calling it worship? Why does it matter? Because sometimes, when we're worshiping our family or our job or celebrities, or our finances, our bank account or our phone, or social media, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Whatever gets your glory becomes your God. Whatever gets your glory, whatever you've been pouring into, whatever you've been tapping on every week, whatever you've been pining for, whatever you've been reaching for, longing for it becomes your God. But only he is worthy. True worship isn't part of your life. Write this down. It is your life. True worship is not a thing that starts at 9 am on Sunday morning and that ends at. It's your whole life. First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31, says this therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, do all to the glory. That's all of it. Your whole life is for the glory of God and it's your worship. Okay, so I'm going to give you four things real quick. Four places, four times, four areas, four ways that we worship God. Number one worship God with your time. Worship God with your time.
Speaker 1:When Angela and I are working with people who want to get married premarital counseling, discussions about hey, we want to get married we always suggest there's a book. It's called the Five Love Languages. Have you ever heard of the Five Love Languages? Maybe you've read it. If not, go read it. Make your relationship stronger. In every relationship there is a way that you receive love, and it doesn't so much matter how you prefer to give love. What matters is how that person needs to receive the love, because maybe I'm speaking to them in my love language, but they're not receiving it. We're speaking two different languages. That's why it matters you know what their love language is. Here's the five acts of service. You just like it when people do stuff for you. I'll tell you right now that my wife, if I go help with the dishes, if I'm helping yard work, take out the trash, change light bulbs, do all of the stuff, fix this, build this, move this, if I rearrange our living room, my wife that does more. She will think he really loves me Words of affirmation.
Speaker 1:You just need somebody to tell you how much you matter. You look great today. I think this one is also my wife's love language. Love that outfit, physical touch. The third one, ladies, if you're wondering what your husband's love language is, this is it. The fourth one quality time, just spending time with me. The fifth one is gifts. I don't care what you say, just buy me something, then I'll know you love me. So what's God's love language? Of those five, one of those is his love language. Do you know which one he cares about? Because you might be bringing gifts, you might be doing all the wrong things, saying God, I love you, I'm doing this for you. He just really, when you get down to it, I'm going to show you that he cares about one of those things more than all the others Quality time. God wants to spend time with you.
Speaker 1:Watch this Luke, chapter 10, verse 38. Jesus and his disciples were on their way. He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary. So Mary and Martha. Martha opens her home, and it says Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said, but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Notice they had to be made. It's not like there was a choice. There was work to be done. And she came to Jesus and asked Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Watch what Jesus says.
Speaker 1:Martha Martha, if Jesus has to say your name twice, if you got kids, you know what I'm talking about. Martha Martha, it's like he's told her before. You're worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Can you hear that today? Can you hear that from the Lord today that you're doing a bunch of stuff? It might all be important, it might be necessary Preparations, work, job. You got all the things on your schedule. There's only one thing that's important. It says Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. She's just sitting at his feet listening.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you that you might have a list of a thousand things you want to do for the Lord. There's one thing that God wants from you and for you more than anything else, and that's just that you spend time with him. What if you go to work and you're just spending time with God. What if you go to church and you're spending time with God? What if, instead of I got to go to small groups, I got to read my Bible, I got to listen to some worship music? What if, in all the context of all of those things, if you were just saying, okay, I got to spend some time with God in my small group today, I got to spend some time with the Lord? Like all the stuff that we need to do, what if it was done in the, just to spend time with God? We have programs, we have systems in the church, but I promise you, all of those systems and programs are designed to help engage you to just spend time with God. So, christianity, write this down. Christianity is not about working for God. Christianity is about being with God. We get to spend eternity with him Right now. We get to practice. Why not start right now practicing? Okay, so that's our time.
Speaker 1:Number two worshiping God. Worship God with your treasure. How else can we worship God? Here's a quick question. If I said all right, everybody in the room, you get a million dollars dropped into your bank account, it's yours, you don't have to give it back. You don't have to pay taxes. What are you going to do with it? If your first thought is, oh, I'm going to buy a house, I'm going to pay off my house, I'm going to pay off my family's house Everyone in my family gets a house Good thought.
Speaker 1:But if your first it's about perspective and priority, if your first priority is to say, well, I got to take care of the important stuff so I can make some other things important, you have to figure out where does God fit in that? Because God doesn't necessarily care about your money. Your money is a reflection of where your heart is. And listen, this is the easiest thing to discount and just say well, the church really cares about my money. God only cares about my money. That pastor only cares about my money. He just wants to take an offering. We're not taking an offering. You can relax. This is about your heart and this is a heart test for you to say what's my priority in life? You want to know what your priority is. Do an inventory of your life and figure out where you spent your time. That's your priority. If you could make a ledger of all the time you've spent, that's where your heart is. If you could make a ledger of all of your money, which you can do. Go, look at your checking account, look where you spent all your money. That's where your heart is. Matthew 6.21 says it very clearly, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
Speaker 1:Also my first real job in 1995, I worked for Sonic. At 15 years old I was a cook and a car hop. Well, at first they just let me clean the floors. I cleaned the floors until 1230 at night. Then I wake up at 6 am to go to school. I made $4.25 an hour. For those young people in the room who are hoping for that $15 minimum wage, I can tell you that $4.25 takes a long time to get any. You can work for four hours. You still haven't made $20. So I remember our first paycheck.
Speaker 1:I had to work, so I got paid every two weeks, which felt like eternity at 15 years old. But also, not only did I have to work for two weeks, I had to work through the first pay period, so I had to work a month before I got my first paycheck. I had to work through the first pay period, so I had to work a month before I got my first paycheck and it was $200 or $230 or so and I was rich. I was like I can buy whatever I want now. But I had been raised in church. I can tell you that I was excited to give in the offering. It was never a question of like, oh man, now I got to give some to the church. I was like, finally I don't have to ask my mom for a dollar to give in the offering. This is my money. This is the best offering I've ever given because I made this money.
Speaker 1:Your perspective and your positioning of your heart matters so much to how you're giving in the offering, your time. Watch this. God doesn't want your finances, god wants your firsts, because tithe isn't 10% of your income. Tithing is the first 10% of your income, because what you do with the first shows where your heart is. Because what you do with the first shows where your heart is. Proverbs 3, 9 says honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. I'm going to go ahead and just tell you that I'm digging into your giving and your finances because Jesus talks about finances more than any other thing. We don't. We should, we should take Jesus' example and talk about money more than any other thing, but then people stop listening because of the condition of of our culture. But it matters a lot. So for the next three weeks we won't be talking about giving, but I need you to understand that it starts right here and that your heart is connected to your giving and it truly matters. Number three so your time, your treasure, worship God. Number three, with your talent.
Speaker 1:There's a bunch of us you think, well, I just don't have any talents. Wait a second, you do. You might not have the talent to sing into a microphone, you might not be the one who needs to stand up in front of the church and lead worship, and your husband and your wife will probably say amen, brother, don't let them have a microphone. But there's some things. There's some stuff.
Speaker 1:We say all the time that you were made on purpose for a purpose. We say all the time that you were made on purpose for a purpose, but you have to see your talent as a worship to God. What is the thing? And that might put you into a position? Your talent may be the thing that you do for a job. If you're not doing that thing to glorify God, then your talent is sitting on a shelf and not honoring God Ephesians 2.10,. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can what. Created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. He put the talent in you. He put the thing in front of you as a part of your purpose and says now I want you to go fulfill your purpose and glorify me. And you say, well, I guess I'll go to church today.
Speaker 1:There's something that you could get excited about doing for God. I tell our team all the time don't fill positions, don't fill rosters of who. We need to work in the nursery, so we need to find six people to do this job. No, let's find what people are excited about and get them doing that thing. And if you're fulfilling your passions and your talents for God, then it's worship. And I don't have to convince you to do it. I don't have to convince Pastor Jason to come up and sing. That's his gift, that's his talent. You'll hear those babies Someone is in there right now, hopefully who. They scream and the babies are crying and some of those babies have dirty diapers that we don't want to think about. But they are thrilled to be able to do to, to able to work for God, and that is worship. They're not doing it because we needed someone to work in the nursery For some of that, some of us. You have to re-examine how you work Monday morning. Watch this, this one's going to hurt somebody's feelings.
Speaker 1:Colossians 3.23,. Work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. You know what that verse doesn't say. It doesn't say as though you were working for the Lord rather than people, unless your boss is an idiot. Pastor John, you don't know who I work for. I'm just trying to pay the bills. No, it says do whatever you do, work at it. Whatever you do as unto the Lord, it's not just paying the bills, you're serving God. That should be what worshipers do. That should be the reflection of his glory in our lives. Number four this is the last thing. I invite the worship team to join me. I want to close with music. It's saying the right things at the right times.
Speaker 1:Number four worshiping God and worship God with your talk. What comes out of your mouth. We say this all the time that your words are powerful. But they're not just powerful because we want God to do what we say. That's not how it works. It's powerful because we're magnifying something. You're magnifying fear with your voice, or you're magnifying God's word. You're zooming into what it means to follow Jesus. It's easy to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:It's easy to talk faith and say the right things on Sunday morning when you're at church. It's easy to say the right things when everybody's high-fiving you and say, hey, you look great, glad you're here. But what about when someone cuts you off on the freeway? What about when your boss gives you bad news or you get a bad report from the doctor, or your family starts acting up again? Then what are you saying? What does your talk look like? Is it glorifying God or glorifying somebody else?
Speaker 1:1 Peter 4.11,. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. Colossians 3.17,. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God, the Father, if worship has been or is. For you, it's just 80 minutes.
Speaker 1:On a Sunday, go to worship service. I did the math for you 80 minutes. Even if I give you 80 minutes, if you think you're worshiping for the whole service, your whole week is 10,080 minutes. Your whole week is 10,080 minutes. Think about God created us to glorify him and to worship him and yet we're putting our entire purpose into just 80 minutes. That's like saying that I'm fulfilling my purpose in just 0.8% of my life. What about the rest of the week? What about Sunday afternoon? What about Monday, all day, tuesday, wednesday, when we're complaining about the life that God gave us, we have to be the people, the worshipers that he's looking for, who will worship him in spirit and in truth every day, as a lifestyle. That my life looks like worship, because I'm here to glorify him in everything I do, in my time and my treasure and my talent and everything that comes out of my mouth. My life is a lifestyle of worship.
Speaker 1:Last thing is this psalm 1914 may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you. Oh, o Lord, my rock and my redeemer, would you read that out loud with me? Let's read it together. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, o Lord, my rock and my redeemer. So why do we sing in church? If the song is not worship? It's part of worship.
Speaker 1:But here's why it's because singing aligns our speech with our purpose, which is to glorify God. It puts the right words in my mouth that I'm reminded that he is holy. He is the only one worthy. I'm living for you, god, and I'm realigning myself in this moment. I want you to stand up on your feet. We're going to close by realigning ourselves. Then we're going to come back and pray, but I want you to take a minute. Make this a moment of surrender, make this a moment of commitment and dedication. That, god, this is the moment where my life aligns with you. I'm setting the pace for 21 days of prayer. We're going to go to our neighborhoods, we're going to go to our family and our friends and our workplaces and we're going to pray and we're going to believe for great things. But it starts right here. It starts right here with an alignment of my purpose and my words and believing that I am who he made me to be and I'm here to glorify Him.
Speaker 2:So let's lift up our voices for just a moment and realign. Let's go Holy, all creation rise. Holy, you are lifted, high, holy, holy forever. Because Jesus, your name is the highest, your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all, all wrongs and dominions, all vows and positions. Your name stands above them all. Your name is the greatest, your name is the greatest. Your name stands above the ground of Rome. There's a name of God, that's the same. Oh God, your name, your name, and the angels cry holy All creation, high Holy all creation. Come Holy, you will lift it. High, holy, holy forever. We lift our voice and sing. We lift our voice and sing, we lift our voice and sing. You're the holy Lord, you're the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You will always be Holy, holy forever. Holy, holy forever. You will always be Holy, holy forever. You will always be holy, holy forever.
Speaker 1:I feel like the amount of effort that we put in for that commitment and that surrender, and that magnifying the Lord. I feel like that was almost like we went to a little league game and, all right, you're doing great, son, I want us to sing again and I want us to just take another minute right now and I just want you to open your heart. I heard someone describing worship as the word pour P-O-U-R that there's an effort, there's this part of your heart that's pouring out to God, and I need for us to just take a minute in the service. I want the band to come back. We're going to sing for just another minute and I want you to take a minute and just pour out your heart to God.
Speaker 1:It might not even be the words on the screen. It might be that you're saying to God God, I'm going to serve you, god, I'm going to worship you. God, I'm going to live a life that reflects your glory, god, I'm going to make the right decisions. I'm going to let this be a point of turning when I recommit myself to you. Can you just take a minute and let this moment of worship be where your heart pours out to the Lord. Come on and let's sing again, and you press it a little bit deeper. This is not a little league game. This is where you're saying God, my heart belongs to you because you're worthy. Holy, holy are you, lord, god Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb.
Speaker 2:You are holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Are you not God? Almighty Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Are you loved? Are you loved? Almighty, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. Oh, worthy're worthy Lord, you're worthy Lord, you're worthy Lord.
Speaker 1:Amen. He is worthy of our worship, he's worthy of all the glory. Before we leave here today, I want us to just let this be a line in the sand, let this be a marker that, from this moment, things are changing. Not just because it's 21 days of prayer, not because we're halfway through with the year, but because God's taking us somewhere and I want to be where he wants me to be. I want to be who he made me to be, and so when he's looking for true worshipers, he's going to find us. Today, if you are that one who maybe you were where you needed to be, maybe you've drifted in the wrong direction, maybe you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, maybe today's that day. I want us to say this prayer together and just make it a surrender of our hearts, a commitment. I want you to say these words out. Would you bow your head, close your eyes, right where you are? I won't embarrass you, but we're making a stand today to be true worshipers, to be who he made us to be. So for some that might be the very first time, and if that's you today, the Bible says that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So would you repeat these words after me? Together, would you say God, today I give you my life. I turn away from my old life. Forgive me of my sin, forgive me for going in the wrong direction. Give me a fresh start today. Breathe new life into me. Today I make a commitment to follow you, to serve you, to be a worshiper and to let my life glorify you In Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1:Let's put our hands together for everybody who said that prayer. I love you, guys and I'm excited about what God's doing in our midst. I can't wait until Wednesday night service. Pastor Angela and I will be in the tank to baptize and take that step with some of you. If you've never been baptized, come get baptized. Join us out in the foyer for 21 days of prayer, tbi, all kinds of stuff, getting ready to gear up for the fall. Y'all have a blessed week. The prayer team is going to join us up here at the front. If you want to pray with somebody before you leave, then come on down. Otherwise we're going to stay in worship or you're dismissed. In Jesus' name, your name.
Speaker 2:Jesus, forever your name. You have seen it At the right hand of the Father. Jesus, forever and ever. You've been given the name above all others Jesus, forever and ever. You are worthy of the blessing and the honor, your glory and power. Forever you reign, you reign. Jesus, forever you reign. We bless your name. Jesus, forever you reign, you reign. Jesus, forever you reign. We bless your name. Jesus, forever your name. Thank you for joining us in worship this morning. I hope that you guys have a fantastic week. God bless you.