00:00:04.680 Worship is more than music, more than words on a screen.
00:00:10.291 It is the posture of our hearts before a holy God.
00:00:15.900 The Bible says, "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."
00:00:22.170 True worship is giving God the honor he deserves in our songs, our actions, and
00:00:28.110 in the way we live.
00:00:31.920 Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
00:00:37.620 pleasing to God.
00:00:40.200 This is how we worship Him. It's not just something we do, it's who we
00:00:46.020 are. People, created to glorify the one who gave us
00:00:47.490 life.
00:01:01.860 Amen. Welcome back, everyone, and welcome to everyone watching online as well.
00:01:08.071 Today's message is all about worship, and before we get into that, the thing
00:01:14.010 that we get to celebrate with children being dedicated.
00:01:15.750 We actually had two at the first service, five here, seven kids being dedicated,
00:01:15.750 the families, the parents. We are a multigenerational church.
00:01:19.380 And when I say that, I don't mean because we have older people and younger people.
00:01:27.060 I believe multigenerational means what we're doing, what God's doing through
00:01:30.270 Freedom Church, is going to last beyond our current generation.
00:01:34.170 It's something that lasts beyond when all of us are gone, if Jesus doesn't come
00:01:37.500 back first. I believe God's doing something that's going to be multigenerational
00:01:41.461 for generations to come. And that's exciting because it's more than just what we
00:01:46.021 have here and now or what we see, but it's going to continue on for generation to
00:01:50.760 generation to come. That the movement of Jesus continues on far beyond just what we
00:01:56.010 are doing. So that perspective and that understanding of Freedom Church, I think,
00:01:59.490 helps us see the bigger purpose. It's not just about young people, but it's all
00:02:03.601 about the next generation and beyond getting to be a part of what God is doing.
00:02:08.190 We are continuing this series called Morning, Noon, and Night.
00:02:08.190 We're in the third week of the series, and what I'm doing is helping people see,
00:02:12.150 helping us all see healthy spiritual rhythms in life.
00:02:16.830 So we all have
00:02:16.830 spiritual rhythms, we all have rhythms of our life, but I want to make sure we have
00:02:22.050 healthy spiritual rhythms by implementing some spiritual disciplines in our life.
00:02:29.340 Nobody likes discipline, but you like the results of the discipline, right?
00:02:32.730 Like being disciplined in your diet.
00:02:32.730 You like the results of it, you don't like doing it on the way there.
00:02:37.590 So we're talking about spiritual disciplines, and two weeks ago, we talked about
00:02:41.340 reading the Bible, the Word of God, how important it is to have a daily discipline
00:02:46.230 of reading the Bible. Last week, we talked about prayer, how important it is to be
00:02:50.460 a people who pray. It can take even 15 minutes a day to simply pray, to get before
00:02:55.800 God, to speak and communicate with God. And today, we're going to focus on worship.
00:03:00.570 So just to start off with a definition of worship, this is from Merriam-Webster's
00:03:05.340 Dictionary. It says, "Showing profound respect, love, or religious
00:03:05.340 devotion to a deity, person, or sacred object." So by just definition,
00:03:11.520 worship can mean a lot of different things, shown in a lot of different ways, and
00:03:17.580 even directed at a lot of different things, a deity, a person, an object.
00:03:24.960 Worship is not exclusive to Christianity.
00:03:28.470 In fact, all of us worship something.
00:03:31.590 All of us give worth to things, as we're going to talk about.
00:03:34.560 It's biblically, in a biblical dictionary, it says, "A total response of a person
00:03:39.930 recognizing God's supreme worth, holiness, and glory." So it goes
00:03:45.541 far beyond just singing songs. It goes far beyond 20 to 30 minutes on a Sunday
00:03:50.671 morning in a church service. Worship encompasses so much more than even our actions
00:03:56.370 or the words that we say or the words that we sing.
00:03:59.281 It really should be a total response of our entire lives.
00:04:03.330 That is all-encompassing of what biblical worship really means.
00:04:08.160 To describe some more understanding of worship is it actually comes from the old
00:04:12.240 English word worthship. So worthship is attributing value and honor
00:04:18.091 that's given to someone. So again, worth and value is given to somebody, that's a
00:04:23.580 form of worship. Just by definition, we're giving worth to something.
00:04:28.380 There's a physical posture of worship.
00:04:30.480 The word worship in the Hebrew and in the Greek primarily point to a posture of
00:04:35.580 bowing down or being prostrate. That means to be face down on the ground, hands out
00:04:40.830 on your belly, just prostrate before something.
00:04:43.470 It's a physical posture of our bodies.
00:04:45.990 The third thing that's more of a cultural thing is a complete, humble submission,
00:04:51.720 such as kissing the ground or hem of a garment.
00:04:53.940 We see this a lot in the Old Testament primarily, and we see it in different
00:04:57.420 cultures around the world where people would bow down before a king.
00:05:01.470 Kings are not something most of us in the United States have ever really
00:05:04.140 experienced in the natural sense.
00:05:06.451 But in many cultures and governments, there is still this expectation of bowing
00:05:11.490 down, of kneeling, of complete and humble submission to a king or a leader or
00:05:17.341 a president or something of that nature where they're even kissing the ground or
00:05:17.341 the hem of a garment. So just giving you cultural background, historical
00:05:21.720 background, understanding of this.
00:05:26.400 The reality is every one of us worships something because we give worth and value
00:05:31.050 to something. How do you determine what you actually worship?
00:05:35.730 Well, I would say it's whatever you put the highest priority in your life.
00:05:39.781 What's the most important thing in your life?
00:05:42.900 And unfortunately, many of us, we put a lot of value and worth in a lot of good
00:05:48.180 things. They're not bad things. Things like work or making money to make a living.
00:05:52.860 That's something that's good. You should desire to work and provide for your
00:05:56.010 family. But when we start to put all of our worth and our value and our effort and
00:06:00.060 our heart there, that's when we start to worship it more than we worship God.
00:06:04.320 Or maybe your worth and value is in kids. And kids are great.
00:06:08.040 They're a gift from the Lord. But when we start putting our highest priority in
00:06:12.510 sporting events or activities or all the stuff that we want to do for our kids
00:06:16.860 rather than putting them before God or making sure they know God as the first and
00:06:21.031 highest priority, we're putting those other things above God.
00:06:25.770 So whatever it is you put worth to, whatever it is you have the highest priority in
00:06:29.520 your life, that's that thing you worship the most.
00:06:32.880 Now as Christians, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you profess to be a Christian,
00:06:36.600 our highest priority should be in Jesus. It should be in worshiping God.
00:06:42.061 It should be giving worth and value to Him, and not just on Sunday morning, but in
00:06:46.890 every day of our life. So Revelation 4, and I'm going to go through several
00:06:51.540 different verses, primarily in the Book of Psalms because those are spiritual songs
00:06:55.410 and hymns that were written to God, or about God.
00:06:59.401 I'm going to click through several of these, and then we're going to look at a
00:07:01.561 story in the Book of Acts as we close.
00:07:04.081 So Revelation 4:11 says, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and
00:07:09.750 honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and
00:07:15.690 were created." God alone deserves our worship.
00:07:20.581 God alone deserves our praise, our honor.
00:07:23.550 Anything we could give to God, it's because He's created it.
00:07:27.360 So I want you to think for a moment. Think about how much is the value of
00:07:31.140 everything you own. The money in the bank, the stuff that you have, your clothes,
00:07:36.630 all the stuff that you possess, all your belongings, how much is that worth?
00:07:42.151 Now think about all your relationships. How much are your relationships worth?
00:07:46.230 How much is your marriage worth, your children, your friends, your coworkers?
00:07:50.370 How much is all of that worth? Now imagine all of those things came to you
00:07:56.190 from God. God created those things and gave them to you.
00:07:59.100 That's how much more worth God should have because the things we value the most
00:08:04.680 ultimately came from the one who created them.
00:08:07.081 So God should deserve all the worth, all the value, infinitely more than the stuff
00:08:12.390 He's even given us, but that shifts our perspective to how much we love our stuff,
00:08:18.120 how much we love our relationships.
00:08:20.401 We should love God all the more because without Him, we wouldn't even have any of
00:08:24.061 those things. We wouldn't have our possessions. We wouldn't have our relationships.
00:08:28.591 And something that makes something valuable is often the author.
00:08:33.000 Think of a piece of artwork or a masterpiece, a sculpture.
00:08:36.901 I could paint a painting that looks exactly like Picasso or Monet or somebody, and
00:08:41.040 I'm the author so it's not worth anything.
00:08:42.780 But these guys, these famous masterpiece or sculptors, they create something that's
00:08:47.040 worth so much value. They're invaluable, right? Because of the one who created it.
00:08:52.170 Well, last night, I don't know if you looked outside around sunset.
00:08:52.170 It was one of the most beautiful sunsets last night. The sky was just gorgeous.
00:08:57.450 And I just stopped for a moment and said, "Man, God is my favorite artist." He
00:09:01.530 created this sunset. He created all of creation. He created the sun and the sky.
00:09:07.176 That God is the ultimate creator. He's the ultimate artist, and the value of all
00:09:12.306 the stuff on this planet is because He is the one who authored it.
00:09:17.946 He's the one who created it. So Psalm 34, verse 3 says this.
00:09:22.896 It says, "O magnify the Lord with me." What is worship? It's magnifying God.
00:09:25.956 And he says, "Let us exalt his name together." So I want us to do a little
00:09:31.206 exercise. If you're taking notes, take a moment, take a little break, stretch your
00:09:35.166 hand out. But I want everyone to stick one of your hands out in front of you, just
00:09:38.736 like this. And try to cover me up where you can't see me. Okay, thank you.
00:09:43.446 Thank you. So you might have to close one eye. Make sure you can't see me.
00:09:46.027 Your hand's covering me. Now I want you to give an answer to this question.
00:09:50.257 Is your hand physically bigger than me?
00:09:54.246 No. Your hand's not bigger than me, but it appears to be, right?
00:09:59.286 Why does your hand appear to be bigger than me? It's because of its proximity.
00:10:03.786 So it doesn't matter if you're far away or close, my size doesn't change.
00:10:03.786 But the people sitting up front, I appear bigger to them than those sitting further
00:10:09.606 back. The same way with a magnifying glass.
00:10:17.166 You get a magnifying glass to read some fine print, it appears that the text is
00:10:21.816 larger, but you don't actually change the size of the text, okay?
00:10:26.766 It's your proximity and how you magnify that ultimately shows how it appears to
00:10:31.926 you. So how does this apply to God? Your proximity to God will determine how big
00:10:37.896 He appears to you. We don't change how big God is, but we can see Him, we can
00:10:43.507 magnify Him, so He looks small, but then when we magnify Him, He appears bigger
00:10:49.536 as He truly is. We don't change the size of how big God is, but it's our proximity
00:10:54.786 to Him that ultimately determines our perspective of Him.
00:10:58.266 If we're far away from God, "God, where are you? God, are you really there?
00:11:02.136 God, are you listening? God, do you see what's going on?" And we get further and
00:11:05.916 further away from God, He appears really small or limited or incapable.
00:11:10.866 But the closer we are to God, the bigger He actually appears to us.
00:11:16.326 We magnify Him. Worship does that.
00:11:18.216 Worship gets our mind off of ourselves and onto Him, and we magnify the Lord to
00:11:23.976 rightly see Him. We exalt His name together.
00:11:27.786 Worship is reminding ourselves how big God is.
00:11:33.186 Ultimately, that's what worship does.
00:11:34.806 It reminds us in this culture we live in of self-worship, of self-help, of
00:11:40.296 self-improvement, of selfies, right? All this stuff is about self.
00:11:44.616 That's the world we live in. That's the culture of our world.
00:11:47.496 It's all about ourselves. But if our entire world revolves around ourselves, one,
00:11:52.476 that's a very small world, and then when problems or challenges or obstacles come
00:11:58.176 up, man, they seem so big because we're living in such a small world.
00:12:02.976 But when your world revolves around God and how big He is, how magnificent He is,
00:12:08.406 how mighty He is, those problems, those challenges, those obstacles come along and
00:12:13.116 they say, "That's so small in comparison to how big God really is." When we
00:12:18.277 worship, we remind ourselves how big God is and how small our problems really
00:12:24.306 are in comparison. So how do we worship?
00:12:27.906 Ultimately, we worship with our entire lives.
00:12:31.027 As Romans 12:1 says, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
00:12:36.696 holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper
00:12:36.696 worship." True and proper worship is a living sacrifice.
00:12:45.757 We're to use our lives to honor God, to live for God.
00:12:50.736 That's the true and proper worship, to put God first in our lives.
00:12:55.776 So how do we do that? It's living less selfish and more selfless.
00:13:00.606 That's been one of the simplest ways I can explain the process of being a
00:13:00.606 Christian. You should move from being selfish to being selfless because that's what
00:13:09.576 Jesus did. Jesus came as a selfless, serving, sacrificial king for
00:13:15.666 us, so we should become more like Jesus.
00:13:17.977 That means we got to become more and more selfless.
00:13:21.007 It means turning your everyday ordinary routines into acts of worship, that we can
00:13:26.466 truly worship as a lifestyle morning, noon, and night.
00:13:30.517 It's not just Sunday mornings or church service.
00:13:32.947 It can be a daily time of sacrificing our lives.
00:13:36.876 But just as an animal is sacrificed or money that's given or some other sacrifice,
00:13:42.366 it's usually you give it once and it's gone But to be a living sacrifice means we
00:13:45.246 got to live for God each and every day, morning, noon, and night.
00:13:50.197 It's a daily rhythm. So what does a living sacrifice look like?
00:13:54.336 I want to give you some very practical things that I believe you can apply.
00:13:57.727 First one there is morning alignment.
00:14:00.066 So wake up in the morning, and before you check your phone, which I know is
00:14:03.276 extremely hard, before you check your phone, before you see missed notifications,
00:14:07.326 before you want to see what happened, what somebody posted, start by saying, "God,
00:14:11.916 I just surrender this day to you. God, I want to align my heart with you.
00:14:15.816 God, I want to live for you today. God, let today be a day I follow you and live
00:14:21.517 for you." It starts with a morning alignment.
00:14:23.736 I think it's one of the very practical things you can do. Even just a short prayer.
00:14:27.276 If you can get that 15 minutes, all the better.
00:14:29.346 You get more than that, even better.
00:14:31.056 But a morning alignment, starting your day as a living sacrifice.
00:14:34.776 Second thing, obedience over convenience.
00:14:37.836 Now, there's often in life an easy road and a hard road.
00:14:41.947 Any of you ever experienced that? There's multiple options in life, and our flesh
00:14:47.257 wants to take the easy road because it's easy.
00:14:50.886 The hard road is something we usually don't want to do, but ultimately, if we take
00:14:55.806 the hard road, it typically leads to a better outcome. You're stronger in the end.
00:14:59.646 You're more resilient in the end. You see a better outcome for other people by
00:15:03.996 taking the hard road. What does this look like how about in your marriage?
00:15:07.896 And I'm not going to make any eye contact with anybody.
00:15:10.056 But maybe there's some tension in your marriage right now.
00:15:13.447 The easy road, the convenient thing is to just be passive, just avoid each other,
00:15:18.007 just to not talk about it. Let's not bring it up. Let's just keep cohabitating.
00:15:21.576 Let's just keep the house going, the kids fed, and bills paid.
00:15:25.056 Let's just avoid the conflict. That's the convenient, easy road.
00:15:29.496 What's obedient, though, is obedience.
00:15:31.445 To make peace, especially in your home, to have the hard conversation with your
00:15:36.035 spouse, and I would encourage any spouse, do not start with telling them what
00:15:40.146 they're doing wrong. You always start with what you're doing wrong, and you come
00:15:42.876 before them humbly and say, "Honey, I'm sorry. I've been a jerk.
00:15:47.076 I haven't been kind. I haven't been loving you enough." I see the head nodding.
00:15:50.017 I'm not going to make eye contact again.
00:15:51.636 But those are things that, that's not always easy.
00:15:51.636 But that's obedient, not convenient.
00:15:57.636 To take the high road often means to take the humble road.
00:16:01.776 How about at workplace, or you're hanging out with friends, all the friends, you
00:16:01.776 guys are going out for drinks, or all the people are smoking something, or
00:16:05.466 everyone's doing something. You can still have influence on those people without
00:16:08.376 participating with them. Convenient and easy is, I'm just going to go along because
00:16:12.936 I want them to like me. Obedient is, I'm going to be different than them but still
00:16:16.716 love them and have compassion for them.
00:16:21.426 At your workplace, if people are stealing stuff or cutting corners, you can choose
00:16:25.086 to be a person of integrity, of character, be honest, and do the hard thing.
00:16:29.646 I'm convinced if there's two options, the easy road or the hard road, God wants me
00:16:35.376 to take the hard road every time because there's a better reward on the end.
00:16:38.916 Number three, stewarding your physical body.
00:16:44.916 If you're a Christian, we are called temples of the Holy Spirit.
00:16:47.736 That means the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us. He lives within us.
00:16:52.146 So we should steward what we put into our bodies.
00:16:54.996 That's not just what we eat and drink, however that's important, but also what are
00:16:58.116 you watching? What are you listening to?
00:17:01.386 What kind of music are you allowing into your mind and into your soul?
00:17:05.106 It gets into your spirit. It's not just mental. It gets in deeper.
00:17:09.007 So I'd encourage everyone, listen to Christian music only.
00:17:12.997 There are so many different types of genres of Christian music, and it's better for
00:17:17.676 you. Many of it, it's scripture, it's God's truth, it's God's Word, and putting
00:17:22.416 something better into yourself than just whatever's on the radio next or the talk
00:17:26.856 radio or sports radio. Listen to Christian music more and more.
00:17:31.716 Fourth thing, radical generosity and forgiveness.
00:17:34.656 Now, I put these two together because I think these are the two most difficult
00:17:38.437 things for us as people to let go. To let go of money and to let go of offense.
00:17:45.714 We hold onto these two things the most.
00:17:45.714 And I believe to be a living sacrifice requires a sacrifice.
00:17:50.784 It requires something difficult. If it was easy, it wouldn't be a sacrifice.
00:17:57.265 So to be radically generous is to give radical, to give generously, to be somebody
00:18:03.024 who says, "You know what? I have two options.
00:18:05.064 Do I hold on and worry about me, or do I just be generous?" And as a church, at
00:18:09.475 Freedom Church, I can tell you, we choose.
00:18:09.475 When there's options like that, we say, let's err on the side of generous.
00:18:12.864 Let's err on the side of just blessing somebody or giving things away or to pay
00:18:16.944 something because we want to be generous and trust God as provider.
00:18:21.444 The first time worship is mentioned in the Bible, in Genesis 22, is when Abraham's
00:18:26.034 about to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God was testing him.
00:18:30.024 He didn't make him sacrifice his son, but that same idea, sacrifice and generosity
00:18:34.284 go hand in hand. Or forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that we receive, but it's
00:18:36.654 really hard to give. And radical forgiveness is something to say, "I'm not going to
00:18:40.854 hold onto offense, but to be a living sacrifice, I got to give forgiveness as well.
00:18:48.894 I got to let go of offense. I got to let go of the wrongs that have been done to me
00:18:52.644 to truly forgive, to truly move ahead," and that's how we can be living sacrifices.
00:18:57.384 So worship is ultimately about expressing love to God.
00:19:03.144 If you could boil it down to one line, I'd say worship is about expressing our
00:19:07.015 love, showing our affection to God. So how do we do that?
00:19:10.584 Well, I'm going to clip through several verses here.
00:19:13.194 Just some physical ways and ways that we can demonstrate and show our affection and
00:19:18.504 love to God. First one in Psalm 95:6.
00:19:22.284 It says, "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down.
00:19:25.884 Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." That same word for worship, that proskuneo
00:19:30.234 in the Greek, it's to bow down. It's exalt the name of God.
00:19:30.234 It's to lift up our Lord our Maker. It's to honor him in complete, humble
00:19:35.334 submission. That's how we can worship God physically. We can bow down.
00:19:44.874 We can worship him and kneel before him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
00:19:49.975 So a physical prostrating or physical bowing down is often associated with biblical
00:19:56.034 worship. Psalm 95:1 says, "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
00:20:02.124 Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation." Now, we sing, and he actually
00:20:07.284 says, "Sing for joy of the Lord." And multiple times throughout the Psalms, the
00:20:11.274 Bible says we should be singing joyfully, or we should be making a joyful noise.
00:20:16.524 Now, how many of you are thankful he doesn't say make a beautiful noise?
00:20:19.524 Because I can make a joyful noise, but it might not be beautiful.
00:20:22.434 That's why there's people up here with microphones that do that, so you don't hear
00:20:25.225 me singing. But we sing joyful to the Lord. We should sing with joy to who?
00:20:30.534 To the Rock of our salvation. We don't sing here so other people hear.
00:20:36.414 We sing so God hears. That will change how you participate in a corporate worship
00:20:42.234 time, or I know you sing in your car, I know you sing in the shower, I know you
00:20:45.714 sing in other places, but we come to church and we're like, "I sing for the joy of
00:20:49.704 the Lord." It's like you don't seem very joyful.
00:20:52.765 It's like if you have the joy of the Lord, you should tell your face, and sing out
00:20:56.515 loud and let your voice be heard. Let God hear and see that you are joyful in the
00:20:59.634 Lord. Next one, Psalm 100:1. "Shout for joy to the Lord." There should be a
00:21:04.044 shouting to God. It's okay to yell to God in a lifting him up. Shout to the Lord.
00:21:14.484 We're going to sing a song after this.
00:21:15.774 We're going to have a little worship time after the message because I want to
00:21:18.654 practice what we preach. And one of the lyrics is, "Shout, all the earth will shout
00:21:22.884 to God. We lift up his name. Serve the Lord with gladness.
00:21:28.015 Come into his presence with singing." So singing and shouting.
00:21:32.184 And third thing here is clapping. Psalm 47:1, "Clap your hands, all you people.
00:21:37.584 Shout to God with cries of joy." We were clapping the first song, and I'll be the
00:21:42.265 first to admit, I cannot stay on beat. I get off. I have no rhythm, I'll admit it.
00:21:45.444 But I'm like, I'm going to clap for God. You know what clapping also is?
00:21:50.214 It's giving applause. It's when you see a sunset, you're like, "God, you did it
00:21:53.754 again. Wow, God, look at what you could do, God, what you've created.
00:22:00.534 God, you're so worthy. I'm going to give you applause.
00:22:03.324 I'm going to clap for the Lord." We clap in worship.
00:22:06.414 We clap to applaud what God has done, his goodness, his abilities.
00:22:11.574 We clap, we sing, we shout all these together, and then we get to lifting our
00:22:16.044 hands. Psalm 63:4 says, "I will bless you as long as I live.
00:22:20.874 In your name, I will lift up my hands." In Psalm 134:2, "Lift up your
00:22:26.844 hands to the holy place and bless the Lord." We lift our hands.
00:22:32.004 You know what lifting your hands is a sign of? A couple different things.
00:22:35.304 We often lift our hands when there's a victory.
00:22:38.184 When your team scores a goal, makes a touchdown, we often will lift our hands.
00:22:43.884 When your kid scores a goal or does an awesome play, we lift our hands.
00:22:47.515 We say, "Yeah! Good job. We did it." It's victory.
00:22:50.694 Lifting hands is a sign of victory. Guess what?
00:22:53.934 If you believe in Jesus, you're on the winning team, and we win.
00:22:58.434 Jesus has defeated sin and death. That's worth victory.
00:23:02.214 That's worth celebrating with hands lifted up. It's a sign of victory.
00:23:06.894 You know what it also is? In a courtroom.
00:23:08.844 They have you put your hand on the Bible, raise your hand to swear to tell the
00:23:12.024 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
00:23:13.584 You lift your hands as a testifying, as a witness to people.
00:23:17.904 When we worship, you shouldn't worry about what anybody else thinks about, but when
00:23:22.254 we actually worship God, as I hope all of you have seen and experienced in your own
00:23:26.634 life, when you worship God, you lift your hands, it's a testimony.
00:23:30.834 It's saying, "I would love my God. I know my God." And it's not about how I look.
00:23:35.124 It's all about I'm pointing to him.
00:23:36.834 We lift our hands to the holy place to bless God, and we point people to him.
00:23:41.784 The third thing that raising your hands means, in any culture, in any point on any
00:23:46.434 part of the planet, the same sign is universal.
00:23:49.854 You put your hands up, it's a sign of surrender
00:23:53.094 It's a sign of
00:23:55.134 I surrender. I give in. And God ultimately wants us to get to that place where we
00:23:59.034 lift our hands to him to say, "God, I surrender.
00:24:01.734 I lift my hands to you." I never forget that moment when it clicked for me and my
00:24:04.794 son. He's 16. He's on the cameras back in the room.
00:24:08.244 I remember the first time he came to me, he lifted his hands up, and I went to pick
00:24:11.543 him up, and I'm like, "That's what God wants from us. Dad, I need you.
00:24:15.863 God, I need you to pick me up. God, pick me up." And I remember I lifted him up,
00:24:19.404 and it hit me in a moment of that's what lifting your hands in worship can be like
00:24:23.304 as well. It's, "God, I'm not proud of who I am." I'm saying, "God, I need you." It
00:24:26.154 can be a sign of surrender, of desperation, of dependence on him as well.
00:24:30.864 1 Timothy 2:8, Paul, the Apostle Paul, is writing this to Timothy.
00:24:36.084 He says, "In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up
00:24:41.874 to God, free from anger and controversy." I'm very pleased
00:24:48.054 to say that here at Freedom Church, we have men who pray. We have men who worship.
00:24:52.074 We have men who are not afraid to let people see how they love and show their
00:24:57.234 affection to God. In fact, in the last seven months as we launched this church,
00:24:59.184 every Saturday morning, we've had prayer from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., and we've
00:25:03.114 consistently had more men or equal number of men and women in prayer on Saturday
00:25:08.184 morning. We have a church of men who pray.
00:25:12.204 That's typically not what I hear from other churches. I'm not bashing anybody else.
00:25:18.024 I'm just saying we are a church that have men who pray.
00:25:20.244 We have men who worship, who lift their hands, who are not afraid to display their
00:25:24.564 affections to God in front of other people. And it's never about us.
00:25:28.884 It's always about I just know God saved my life. I want to point to him.
00:25:32.964 And men, if you're here and you feel it, I speak to the men because women, you're
00:25:36.594 typically better at expressing your emotions. Can I get an amen?
00:25:40.165 You're typically better at being able to put words into play or to express your
00:25:44.544 feelings. Men, we're like, "How are you doing?
00:25:46.524 How are you feeling?" I'm like, "Fine." That's it.
00:25:48.984 That's all you're getting most of the time.
00:25:50.484 But men, if you wait till your feelings start to show up to feel like worshiping,
00:25:56.094 you'll probably never get there. But if you choose to be led by truth, not
00:26:00.684 feelings, you'll start to worship more. Truth is who is God.
00:26:06.355 Let truth lead you. Who is God? Who is he really? What has he done for you?
00:26:11.454 That he is creator. He has redeemed your life. He has saved your soul.
00:26:16.134 He has brought you all the good things he's blessed you with.
00:26:18.954 When you start to put truth in the forefront of your mind, the natural result
00:26:22.764 should be to worship God. Maybe that's to lift up your hands.
00:26:25.794 Maybe it's to sing out loud. Maybe it's to just realize you have some joy and some
00:26:29.304 things to be grateful for. But don't wait for your feelings.
00:26:33.144 Choose to lead your feelings. Choose to let truth lead you.
00:26:37.014 Don't be led by your feelings. Worship isn't based on personality or feelings.
00:26:42.624 So
00:26:44.215 I was not the guy that went to the Steelers game and was like, paint my face black
00:26:47.334 and yellow and cheer and shout and all that stuff.
00:26:50.364 So that wasn't really my personality type. It still isn't.
00:26:52.944 I'm really not that demonstrative and extroverted as much as you're like, "Yeah,
00:26:57.684 right." I talk with my hands a lot. But it's not about personality.
00:26:57.684 It's not about how you feel to understand how truth should lead you to worship God
00:27:01.884 regardless of your feelings or your personality.
00:27:10.554 Why I say this is many of us were trained to worship God in a way that's
00:27:15.684 unbiblical. What I mean by that is I don't think there was any intentionality or
00:27:19.824 malice behind it, but I even went to a church where I grew up.
00:27:19.824 Every once in a while, we'd go, and our hands were on the pew, and you dared not to
00:27:23.454 raise your hand. And it was not very joyful sounding.
00:27:27.834 And it was very just rigid or liturgical.
00:27:33.024 Maybe you went to a denomination, you went to a church growing up where it was like
00:27:36.234 you never expressed yourself in worship that way.
00:27:39.684 I think a lot of that came from there's a generation, I'm not knocking anybody, I
00:27:42.834 think it's just a generational thing, where dads especially didn't show love and
00:27:46.794 affection to the next generation.
00:27:48.654 Many of us grow up, I talk to a lot of you like, "Yeah, my dad never told me he
00:27:51.774 loved me. My dad never gave me a hug.
00:27:53.484 My dad never showed me that affection." So we have a hard time looking at God and
00:27:57.774 displaying our affection back to him in any expressive way.
00:28:02.394 We may say, "I love God in my heart," like you love your dad in your heart.
00:28:05.424 That's good, but there's so much more to offer to God that's not based on
00:28:10.404 personality, it's not based on feelings, but ultimately, we give God our adoration,
00:28:16.254 our affection, our love, and we should demonstrate that to him as well.
00:28:22.043 I don't sing well, I don't play an instrument, but I can worship.
00:28:26.064 And every one of us have that ability. It's not about your musical gifting.
00:28:27.745 It's all about what has God done for you.
00:28:33.415 One, we're commanded to worship, but more importantly, I believe it's because if
00:28:37.944 you really are a Christian. Now, I know that word Christian, I called myself a
00:28:41.665 Christian for the first 25 years of my life, and I didn't really know what that
00:28:44.814 meant. But a Christian to me is somebody who really has transferred their trust
00:28:49.014 from themselves into Jesus. They believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth,
00:28:54.174 and the life. That God demonstrated his love for you by sending Jesus to die for
00:28:58.614 you. And you receive that truth, not just in your head knowledge, like, yes, I
00:29:02.725 believe those facts, but now it's internalized to become he's my Lord, he's my
00:29:07.495 Savior. Now I want to live my life to honor God, to live for God, and not be
00:29:12.475 selfish, but I want to live to be selfless.
00:29:14.995 And it's a work of the Holy Spirit ultimately, but when you work through that
00:29:18.834 process, and you allow God to transform you from an old creation to a new creation,
00:29:24.024 the old life is gone. Like old Eric is dead. New Eric is alive, alive in Christ.
00:29:29.754 And it's not my works, it's all his works.
00:29:32.184 So if you're really a Christian, you should not need any other reason than that
00:29:37.134 reality that he transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
00:29:41.094 light to worship him. It's not based on personality. It's not based on feelings.
00:29:45.745 And I think it's weird. People say it's weird when you look at somebody who's
00:29:48.954 kneeling down, who's worshiping, who's jumping, who's loud, who's shouting for joy.
00:29:53.064 They think that's weird. I say I think it's more weird than to be in a place where,
00:29:53.064 like for myself, I was addicted, depressed, suicidal, addicted to myself,
00:30:02.904 was a criminal, was all these things, and God saved me? God redeemed my life?
00:30:08.634 God healed me from addiction, from depressing thoughts, and suicidal thoughts, and
00:30:13.225 I'm not going to go like this and lift my hands to him?
00:30:16.014 I think that's weird that I would not show my affection and adoration to the one
00:30:20.784 who saved my life, who's blessed me abundantly.
00:30:24.774 Why would I not want to show my love and affection to him?
00:30:28.344 I think that's more weird than for all of us to say if God has truly saved you, if
00:30:33.024 you really are a Christian, I want to encourage you, no matter what your past has
00:30:36.384 been, what your experience has been, we all should be able to worship God more
00:30:40.554 affectionately, more demonstratively, because ultimately, what does God want?
00:30:45.534 Luke chapter 10, verse 27 says, "You must love the Lord your God with all your
00:30:50.064 heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind." Now, the heart, the
00:30:56.094 soul, and the mind are more internal, but strength is external.
00:30:59.694 It's physical expression. He wants us to love him in our hearts and love him in our
00:31:04.855 minds and love him in our soul, but he wants us to express our love to him
00:31:08.965 physically as well. Now, let me bring this a little more home to you.
00:31:13.105 Men who are married, especially men, do you like it when your wife-- You don't have
00:31:17.034 to answer this. Maybe I asked a rhetorical.
00:31:18.864 Men, you would enjoy your wife expressing her love to you with a physical
00:31:24.264 expression, right? Women, you enjoy your husband expressing himself physically
00:31:30.174 to you, maybe through acts of service, maybe it's through quality time, maybe it's
00:31:34.404 through gifts, maybe it's words of affirmation.
00:31:37.674 We do this in every relationship of love and adoration.
00:31:40.554 We share and express ourselves physically, and we enjoy that, right?
00:31:45.774 And when you pull away and separate that physical expression of love, you really do
00:31:50.514 have a lesser relationship, a less high-quality relationship than when you have
00:31:55.434 physical expression of love as well.
00:31:58.975 Why would we not express ourselves physically to God?
00:32:02.094 By laying down our lives, by lifting up our hands, by bowing down, by singing to
00:32:05.874 him, by living as living sacrifices for him.
00:32:10.794 So why do we worship? Well, I want to share with you a brief story in the book of
00:32:15.204 Acts. It's the second missionary journey of Paul, and Paul was a persecutor of
00:32:19.855 Christians. He ends up getting saved, has this radical encounter with Jesus, and
00:32:24.144 he's going on these trips to reach people for the gospel.
00:32:26.965 I'm going to go through this story in just a couple minutes here.
00:32:30.174 Starting in verse 23, I'm going to give a little context.
00:32:32.334 It says, "They were severely beaten, then thrown into prison." Guess what they were
00:32:36.204 doing? Right before this, the verse right before this, Paul has this vision.
00:32:41.605 God tells him to go to this region of Macedonia.
00:32:41.605 So Paul goes to this region with Paul and Silas. These are the two guys.
00:32:46.014 They go, and they're preaching the gospel. They're teaching people about Jesus.
00:32:52.704 They're doing everything according to the will that God has called them to do.
00:32:56.184 They're obedient. And then they have this scenario where this slave girl has a
00:33:00.654 python spirit. They cast out this demon, and the people who are using this girl for
00:33:04.855 money, they take these guys before the magistrate. So this is the context.
00:33:08.904 They're doing all the right things.
00:33:10.374 They just helped the girl get free from a demon, and then here they are severely
00:33:14.574 beaten. Now, the Bible says Paul was beaten many times.
00:33:17.904 This is the only time it says he was severely beaten, and actually the
00:33:20.784 understanding of it is he was beaten almost unto death.
00:33:24.024 He was beaten so bad, usually with wooden rods is what they would use, or leather
00:33:29.064 straps. They would beat him so badly, and then they threw him into prison, and then
00:33:31.374 the jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape.
00:33:35.124 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.
00:33:39.984 So I started to study and look up, what would this have been like?
00:33:44.454 What was the scenario? The inner dungeon would've typically been a very lower
00:33:48.624 level. You could go through the dungeon into the inner dungeon, where there's
00:33:51.804 pretty much no light. So darkness all the time. Extremely foul.
00:33:56.844 Everything went downhill, if you know what I'm talking about.
00:33:59.304 Everything that flows down into the inner dungeon.
00:34:01.704 It was disgusting, it was vile, and this is where Paul and Silas are at.
00:34:05.694 And not only that, they put their feet in the stocks.
00:34:07.764 So here's a picture of a drawing of what some of the stocks could've looked like.
00:34:10.884 They would lock their feet and their hands in stocks.
00:34:14.665 Now, this was most common in medieval times, but I read research about Romans would
00:34:18.895 often have stocks that looked like this next picture, with four holes, where the
00:34:23.214 outside holes were for your ankles, the two inside holes were for your wrists.
00:34:27.864 So if you can imagine how painful that would be to have your legs stretched out and
00:34:32.844 your hands locked in front of you. I can't do it.
00:34:35.574 I would show you, but I didn't stretch enough this morning.
00:34:38.904 But imagine the horrible pain, that he was just severely beaten, and he's locked up
00:34:44.364 in something like this, stretched out, causing agony in his hips, agony in his
00:34:48.564 lungs. How can he even breathe after being so severely beaten?
00:34:51.924 And I would think, man, he has a lot of reason to complain.
00:34:55.044 God, I'm just trying to do the right thing. God, I listen to you. I heard from you.
00:34:59.244 I'm obeying you. We set this girl free. We're telling everyone the good news.
00:35:04.434 Why do I deserve this?
00:35:07.434 Paul, of all people, and Silas, they could've had many reasons to complain, but did
00:35:11.424 they complain? Did they get angry at God? Did they lament?
00:35:15.174 No, look what they did in verse 25. It says, "Around midnight, Paul and Silas were
00:35:20.724 praying and singing hymns to God." They were worshiping.
00:35:27.804 I don't know about you, but my flesh, I'd be like, I might be angry.
00:35:30.594 I might be a little upset. I might be a little complaining. I'd be whining.
00:35:33.924 But no, they worship instead. They worshiped God no matter what their circumstances
00:35:39.864 were. It wasn't about their personality. It wasn't about their gifting.
00:35:43.974 It definitely wasn't about their circumstances, but they chose to worship anyways.
00:35:48.924 Why? Because we were ultimately created to worship.
00:35:52.650 We were created, that's why God created us, to worship him, that he gives us all
00:35:56.730 these blessings and gifts, that we bounce them back to him. But look at this, too.
00:35:58.830 In verse 25, it says, "The other prisoners were listening." Other people were
00:36:03.840 watching Paul and Silas worshiping. Now, people are watching you in your life.
00:36:09.030 When you have bad situations or bad circumstances, how you respond is going to be a
00:36:14.370 testimony to other people. There's other people watching your life.
00:36:18.330 Whether you believe it or not, they're watching what you post on social media.
00:36:21.390 They're watching how you handle work environment.
00:36:21.390 They're watching how you treat your kids or grandkids. People are watching.
00:36:27.150 We should be paranoid of it, but let's make sure we worship God as living
00:36:30.870 sacrifices in every aspect of our lives. So what happened?
00:36:34.200 Verse 26, "Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake.
00:36:37.620 The prison was shaken to its foundations.
00:36:37.620 All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off."
00:36:42.601 The power of worship comes when we worship God in every situation.
00:36:48.420 We choose to worship him. We choose to not be led by our feelings, but to be led
00:36:52.290 by truth. And I want to offer you guys a couple opportunities coming up soon.
00:36:59.101 October 9th. It's a Friday evening, and this is open to anybody who wants to come.
00:37:03.750 We're going to have a worship night.
00:37:05.491 A worship night just for worship, just to practice what I'm preaching.
00:37:09.510 We're going to practice worship, and we're going to spend time worshiping God,
00:37:12.960 lifting up his name. It starts at 7:00 PM. Bring your kids.
00:37:16.170 They can lay out on the floor, asleep, whatever it is.
00:37:19.140 We want to provide an opportunity for us to gather together an extended time of
00:37:23.101 worship on Friday, October 9th. It's coming up in just a couple weeks.
00:37:26.610 And then on October 10th and the 17th, the following Saturdays, we have two events
00:37:31.050 called Victory and Freedom. We have the women on October 10th, the men on October
00:37:33.270 17th. What is this? It's a workshop.
00:37:37.560 It's an all-day thing, like 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
00:37:41.730 But trust me, this is not a boring seminar like you've gone to before.
00:37:45.241 This is going to be engaging. My wife and I are leading the ministry.
00:37:48.540 She's overseeing the women, I'm overseeing the men.
00:37:50.851 This will result in you getting victory over your past and freedom into your
00:37:55.020 future. You will identify things you maybe didn't even know were holding you back
00:37:59.700 in your relationships, in your relationship with God, and you'll find victory and
00:38:03.991 freedom if you sign up to go. It's $30, and we're providing three meals.
00:38:08.670 So the cost of the event is just to cover some of the food costs that we're
00:38:12.540 providing for you, but everything else is free. I can't urge you enough, sign up.
00:38:18.540 Women, sign up for the 10th. 17th, men sign up. Make sure you get there.
00:38:22.680 Even if it's your first time here at Freedom, you can sign up.
00:38:25.410 This is an open event. We want to help you.
00:38:27.900 We're going to train you on how to do spiritual warfare.
00:38:30.690 We're going to train you to understand things on a spiritual level, not just on a
00:38:34.770 natural level. So what happens? The prison doors open. The chains fell off.
00:38:34.770 The jailer woke up, verse 27, to see the prison doors wide open.
00:38:44.221 He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself, but
00:38:48.480 Paul shouted him, "Stop! Don't kill yourself.
00:38:51.300 We are all here." The jailer, in verse 29, called for lights and ran to the
00:38:55.920 dungeon. He fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
00:38:59.460 Then he brought them out and asked this question that I believe is the most
00:39:02.910 important question any human could ask.
00:39:02.910 "What must I do to be saved?" The jailer thought he was dead.
00:39:08.699 He thought the prisoners escaped.
00:39:11.851 He was going to be killed, so he might as well kill himself.
00:39:14.310 He thought his life was over. And when he realized that they're still there, he
00:39:14.310 responds with this question, "What must I do to be saved?" And Paul and Silas give
00:39:18.930 him the answer in verse 31. They say, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
00:39:23.820 saved." Believe in Jesus. And that word believe is not just head knowledge.
00:39:29.700 It's not the facts. It's a heart posture of saying, "God, I believe in Jesus as the
00:39:33.601 way, the truth, and the life. I believe that I can't save myself.
00:39:42.030 I believe that my sins are something I need forgiveness of, and I can't do it on my
00:39:46.950 own. That my good works and my good deeds are never enough to pay for the debt that
00:39:51.510 I owe." And when you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved.
00:39:55.830 You put your trust in him. You put your faith in him.
00:39:59.730 Would you all please stand to your feet?
00:40:01.230 I'm actually going to invite the worship team up to the stage,
00:40:05.010 because we're going to practice what I'm preaching.
00:40:07.560 And I know if this is brand new to you, I want to encourage you something.
00:40:11.250 If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved.
00:40:16.380 You give him your life. You lay down your life. He will save you.
00:40:20.250 You can spend eternity in heaven. It starts with this.
00:40:22.710 It starts with simply acknowledging where you are.
00:40:25.440 Saying, "God, I know I've sinned. I know I've done wrong.
00:40:29.730 God, I know I'm not perfect.
00:40:32.160 But God, I ask that you would forgive me of my sin.
00:40:34.920 God, I want to turn from my sin. I don't want to continue on this path of doing the
00:40:38.760 wrong things or living in a wrong way, but God, I want to live for you.
00:40:43.170 I want to honor you. I want to live in right standing with you." It starts with
00:40:47.790 that honest response to God. And then we say, "God, I ask you forgive me.
00:40:53.250 Will you forgive me of my sins? God, let me know you in a real and personal way.
00:40:57.660 God, may I find freedom in you." And when you truly ask God, when you seek him to
00:41:02.760 save you, to forgive you, you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved.
00:41:08.520 So I encourage you, if you're here today and you say, "I don't know for sure that I
00:41:12.660 have a relationship with God," that you don't know for sure that you want to know
00:41:16.800 God and have a real relationship with him.
00:41:19.170 Maybe you're like, "I don't really know God that well, that way, so I don't know
00:41:19.170 how to worship him," maybe your next step is simply saying, "God, I want to give my
00:41:25.920 life to you." So I'd ask that every head bowed, every eye closed in this moment,
00:41:25.920 and all those listening online, I just want to offer you this moment right now.
00:41:34.920 Before we move on to anything else, this is the most important thing, most
00:41:37.860 important decision you could ever make, is what must you do to be saved?
00:41:41.550 You must believe in the Lord Jesus. Put your trust in him. Put your faith in him.
00:41:46.920 That you can know God in a real way. You can know him as a loving father who's
00:41:52.351 perfect and is faithful and is caring and wants to communicate with you.
00:41:57.510 If you're here today or you're watching online, I just simply want to pray for you
00:42:02.460 Heavenly Father, I pray for every person making that decision right now.
00:42:05.640 God, they choose not to be led by their feelings, but to be led by who you are and
00:42:11.190 what you've done for them. God, I pray for every person that needs to give their
00:42:14.550 heart to you, need to lay down their trust and their faith in you.
00:42:18.030 God, I pray they would give you their life.
00:42:20.579 God, receive what you've already done for them.
00:42:23.790 That it's not about their good works or what they've done, it's all about what
00:42:26.610 you've already done. God, I pray they would make that decision now, and God, they
00:42:29.101 would take their next steps. They would fill out the card.
00:42:33.991 They'd go on our website and let us know that they want to follow Jesus, and that
00:42:38.160 we can connect with them with their next steps after that.
00:42:41.250 And God, I pray for every single one of us in the room, if we could put 1 Peter 2:9
00:42:45.030 up on the screen, that this verse would become a lifestyle for us.
00:42:49.800 That us, as chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his own
00:42:54.721 possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
00:43:00.390 darkness into his marvelous light.
00:43:02.280 If you're a Christian, if you've been moved from the darkness into the light, if
00:43:06.660 your old self is dead and your new life has begun, will you worship God like you
00:43:11.670 really mean it? Will you lift your hands? Will you shout and sing?
00:43:15.180 Will you put a smile on your face? Because we're going to do it with joy.
00:43:18.270 I want us to practice what we preach. You're welcome to come down front.
00:43:21.480 You can kneel down. Do whatever it is that you want to do to worship God, to show
00:43:25.800 God how much you love him, how grateful you are for him, how thankful you are for
00:43:30.540 him, and let's worship him as he truly deserves.