The Church of Eleven22 - Vision Weekend 2022: The Year of Worship

Episode Date: January 9, 2022

What are you worshiping? We are all wired to worship. Are you worshiping the ONE TRUE GOD?

Amen and amen. You're very kind. You're very kind. Sit down, sit down, sit down. Thank you. Hey, this is me applauding you. That does not cut into my sermon time, okay? So don't encourage me.

I had three months to prep. This could take until four o'clock. So, oh, Church of 1122, it is good to be home. Ah, really do love you like crazy. I want to thank the elders and thank you our church for the gift of sabbatical. I do appreciate it. It is a gift. It was great time with my family.

It was great time away. All the things. One of the things that people ask, you know, I think people have this kind of weird, they put this weird pressure on you. We need to do a sabbatical as if, like, you're going up to Mount Sinai. You're going to get this special revelation from the Lord.

They were like, what did God say to you? And I was like, well, he already said it in his revealed word. Nothing has changed. That the Great Commission is still the Great Commission. But I will tell you this. I don't think I had any kind of like special revelation, but I do have this resolve that for all the days God will give me,

I just want to do this, preach his word, with these people, you, 1122, all the days of my life. That's what I want to do, okay? And so, here we go, here we go, here we go. I do want to mention one thing. I did get pneumonia, non-COVID-related pneumonia. I need to point that out while I was gone. So I am going to hack my way through this a little bit,

so you'll get used to it. And I have a cough drop. So I just wanted you to know, it's not a dip, okay? it's not like I was like, here we go. That's not what I'm doing. If you don't know what this is, don't worry about it, all right? So, if you comes flying out, just keep it on the front row. You can take that home as your own souvenir.

If it goes the other way, I might need the Heimlich. So, Luke, I need you back up here. All right, but here we go. You need two things. You need this vision piece. This is a great Sunday for you to be here. You were here on Vision Sunday. So if you're just kind of kicking the tires and figuring out what this church is all about,

I'm going to tell you explicitly this is what we're. about over this next year. So if you don't want to be a part of it, you're going to know right early on. So that's cool. And if you're just a part of the team, a part of this family, then I want you to know explicitly this is where we are going. And so I need you to turn to Habakkuk. Good luck. Habakkuk chapter 2. Some of you need to start now. Use the table of contents in the front of your Bible. There's no shame in that. Because what's happening here is Habakkuk He's a prophet of God. And ultimately, it's a very short book, very small book.

In my Bible, I use the ELP version, extra large print. Some of you 20-year-olds, you know, the whole book fits on one page. God bless your ministry. You'll be up here with me one day. It's like three pages. And Habakkuk is the prophet of God. And ultimately what he's doing is complaining to God. He's like, God, I'm looking around at the circumstances of Jerusalem, of Israel, of Judah, and it's a mess.

And how long are you going to put up with this? When are you going to do something to stop this injustice? And here's what's going on in his day. He says everywhere I look, there's violence, there's riots in the street, there's division among your people, there's drunkenness, there's injustice. Sound familiar? You see, God's word is not an old word, it's a timeless word, and it's good for every time. And right in the middle of that, in the middle of Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 14, God gives this word. And ultimately what he is saying to Habakkuk is,

don't put too much stock in your ever-changing circumstances, but lift up your eyes and fix your eyes on the sovereign savior of your circumstances. And here's kind of the anchor verse of that whole book. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. It may look like everything is going awry. But Habakkuk, don't worry about it. I still got the whole world in my hands,

and there is coming a day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Here's what he's saying. The chief end of man is the glory of God. That's why we exist. Now grab this. This vision piece is simply to say,

so what role does our church play in the metanarrative of God that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the earth. This is how we are to be about that. So if you open it up, and I'll just give you a warning, the first 15 minutes is going to sound like a family meeting with some announcements and stuff like that, and then we'll shift into overdrive and get into preaching, and so y'all go ahead and get warmed up for that part, okay? Objective one is this. Basically, this is our version of what Habakkuk is saying. This is our version of the Great Commission.

Jesus said that we were to go into all the nations and make disciples. And this is how we say it around here. That we will continue to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's never changing. That we are a movement. It's not based on a personality. It's not based on programs, not based on a building project. All of those things, every personality that's a part of our church,

all the programs that we have, and all of our building projects are a moment. mean to an end, and the end is that your life would glorify God. The end is that this movement is for all people, no matter who you are, where you're from, or who you voted for, or whatever your past is, or whatever your future is going to be, it's a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. When you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, the New Testament calls that a disciple. And the disciple is just a Bible word for somebody that follows after Jesus. By definition, to follow after somebody

means you have to take steps in the direction that they are going. And so if you look over here on the right side, if you've been around here for a while, you've seen this 100 billion times. It's called the discipleship journey. I've taught on it over and over and over and over. I don't have time to do it today.

But ultimately, what I want you to do is take one faith step this year towards what Jesus is calling you to do. And so if you go to C-O-E-22.com slash connect. Anybody here that thinks either I want to be a disciple or I am a disciple and I need to know what my next step is, it would be best if you did this in the context of other human beings, like another disciple, but even if you're not ready for that, that you would ask yourself these assessment questions that are on that website and then it would help you take the next

step in your faith. That could be connect to a group. It could be steward of your resources for the first time, the way the Lord's told you to. It could be share your faith for the first time. It could be to deepen your relationships with other people. And down on the bottom right hand side, it says grow. And one of the things that I want us to do as a church is there is a particular spiritual discipline that I want all of us to grow in this year. Turn to page. Objective 2.

This is 1122 life. These are the family events that I want you to prioritize if 1122 is your church. You see, you've heard us say this 100 million times around here that this is just a big dysfunctional family. And if you think you've got your whole life in order, you're not going to like it here, okay? We're going to make you really uncomfortable, and then you're going to screw it up for us, all right? But this is a family. We're kind of the island of misfit toys among churches in Jacksonville, but you're welcome

to be a part of it. And every good, healthy family has healthy rhythms. And in the Old Testament, God prescribed to the nation of Israel certain feasts and festivals and high holy days. These are our high holy days that I want you to be a part of. And I gave you the dates so you don't have to guess. The first one, kind of a big deal. This is the granddaddy of them all.

This is the Rose Bowl of holidays. This is the Super Bowl of what we do, okay? It's Easter. On April 14th and 17, we are going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, see, we have so much work to do because you're not ready at all. You're like, again, uh-huh, it's the whole thing. Paul says, without the resurrection of Christ, we're all wasting our time today. So, and it's amazing to me how many Christians are surprised by Easter.

So I gave you the dates. I know it's confusing because it's about 40 days and moons and all that stuff. And if I'm ever king of the world, which would be a great idea. First weekend in April is always going to be Easter. Okay? So until then, it moves around. Now, I want you to start praying that your one more will come to Christ by this Easter date. Put that date on your calendar.

If I walk into your home, which could happen, I need to see these dates hanging up somewhere on your little family bulletin board or whatever, all right. Take down that little coloring junk from your kid and put this up because these dates matter. Our second High Holy Day is this. On May 15th, we have Beach Baptism, and we got a lot of people to baptize.

How many of you have been to Beach Baptism before? Raise your hand? Pray? Oh, look at it. It's fun, isn't it? We have over 2,100 people that surrendered their life to the Lordship of Christ last year. You got to get into water.

Now, a couple things. First of all, you don't even have to wait until a beach baptism. You could go to baptism class right after the service. We'll dunk it in two weeks or three weeks in the service. So some of you should do that. Also, the reason I give you the date, don't you be on vacation on May 15th? You're already booked. And if you got a family vacation, if you got some kind of family reunion, look at your family and be like, hey, look, family.

I'm going to be with my church family for eternity and only you're going to be with my church family for eternity. and only you till I die, so I'm going to that one. That's what I'm saying. They'll move. Unless you worship online with us and you're like from Ohio, then take a vacation and come down here to Jacksonville and be with your church. Just don't feed the seagulls.

Dummies? All right. The next big family event is saturated. Who's ready for saturated? Yeah, y'all woo more for saturated than everything else. All right? September 14th to 18th, Saturated is just our version of camp. That's what it is.

The problem with adult discipleship is you quit going to camp. So, from Wednesday to Sunday, it's like camp, except you're going to stay at your own house. You ain't staying here, all right? And I bring in friends of mine from all over the place

to preach the gospel. It's incredible. Pastor Doug Logan's coming. Remember the president of Grimki Seminary? He's coming back. My cousin, Clayton King, he's a national evangelist, real good-looking guy, bald,

graying beard, where he's playing jeans a lot. Help me pray. about locking down these last two. Ben Stewart, remember who preached at the preach series? I think he's going to come back. And then our very own Tim Tebow is going to be here to share the word, all right? Go dogs. So, mark those dates down, all right? Do whatever you got to do. And then lastly, Christmas Eve is going to be on Christmas Eve. And I know you're like, we just did Christmas. I can't believe we're still talking about it, okay? Any of you still got your tree up? Anybody can still get your tree up? You know, all right? I don't think I'd admit that.

Might as well as to leave it up now. We're already talking about Christmas, all right? So the reason I give you this date is because you're one more. You've been praying for them and inviting them and all that. And they're like, I ain't going, I ain't going. But there's something about when it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas that people are more likely to come to church. And so I want you to mark these dates and be a part of it. All right?

You need to know this. There'll be a test. Turn the page. Objective number three. Now, I will admit to you, I'm not sure what happened here. You can tell that I have been out of town for three months because it's orange, and I'm not sure. I'm going to have to fire Brit or something. I don't know what's going on here.

I don't know how they let this slab by. However, objective three, here's why we're doing this. Habakkuk says, let the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covered the sea. by show of hands, how many deep sea fishermen do we have in the house? If you go deep, raise them really high and keep them up. All right, keep that hand. Keep it up. All right, keep it up.

I want to see who I'm praying for, all right? Now listen. All right, when you go out past the jettys, what do you see on top of the sea? Water. It's everywhere. Everywhere you look where there's sea, guess where there is. There's water. And Habakkuk says, let the earth be filled with the nethered.

knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. In other words, our work as a New Testament church is not finished until every place you look, everywhere you look, every household, every nook, every cranny, there is people that are filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. And I don't know if you've been around. We ain't there yet. And so a few years ago, I felt like the Lord was calling us to lay out this goal, that by the end, the end, the God, of 2029, we want to plant a thousand churches, that we want to send a hundred full-time missionaries, that we want to launch at least 10 campuses. That one was too small. And it's all to reach one more. We've never tried to be a big church. We've just tried to create space where we could reach

one more person for Christ. Why? Because Jesus is the kind of shepherd that leaves the 99 that goes after the one. And so this year, in 2022, you know what the best thing about 2022 is? It ain't 21. Can I get an amen? All right? That's a rough one. So this year, here's what we're doing. We're going to plant 79 churches in America and around the world that will take us to a total of 480 on our way to 1,000. You should clap for that. That's a big deal. Because when we're all dead and done, these churches will still be going. All right, we're ahead of schedule on that one. We're going to send 15 more full-time missionaries into the mission field for a total of 42 on our way to 100. We're ahead of schedule.

Now, one of the questions you need to begin to ask, because I am praying on you about, is, is that you? Is that you? Are you one of those missionaries that are going to be sent? And for some of you, you might be like 21 years old. You're about to graduate with a degree that's about half worthless, so God bless you and your parents. And you're thinking, well, what am I going to do with my life?

I tell you, how about give us two years? and go to the ends of the earth. And then there are some of you that vocationally, you're on the other end of that spectrum, and you're about to cash out, but I just need to remind you, you never retire from the Great Commission, and maybe you are going to cash out,

and you are going to go for two or three years. And some of you are right in the middle of your vocational dreams, and you're going to realize that Jesus, when he said to the rich, young ruler, go sell all you have and follow me, he was talking to you, crickets. It's going to be you.

Watch. I promise, man. I looked at Coach Lee and said, I'll never work at church. So good luck. Fifteen of you are going. I can't wait. And we're going to launch three more campuses that will take us to a total of 10. So that number was big enough, so maybe we need to do 20 by 20 to 29. That's what we're going to work towards. This year, actually, in two weeks, we're going to launch a campus in Jessup, Georgia. Amen? Praise God. And by the time school opens up, we hope to launch a campus in Orange Park. So all you people, like sitting in each other's lap at Fleming Island, you can spread out a little more. And by the Christmas Eve of next year, we'll finally be able to open our North Jacks campus. Amen. Amen. All of that is to reach one more for the one name under heaven whereby we must be

saved. All right. The announcement portion is over. Now it's really time for the preaching. If you'll turn the page, objective four, this is what we will be focused on for this year. We are declaring 2022 as the year of worship. Now, the front rowers are always into it, okay? A couple of you Pentecostals are like, glory, finally. I got my own tambourine, when's banner day? Because I wanted to get into this, you know? All right.

And you Baptist are so nervous, and you Catholics are like, I knew it was a cult. I knew it was a cult. All right. Some people have been like, we're going to talk about singing for 52 weeks. No, we ain't just talking about singing. worship is more than singing at church, but it's never less than that. You see, Abakic says, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the earth.

The reality is all of us are wired to worship. Everything, every single one of us have something that we worship. There is something that we say with our mouth, with our heart, with our hands, with our affections, you are worth it. you were worthy of my time, you were worthy of my affection, you were worthy of my attention, you are worthy of my money, and every single one of us worship something. My question is, are you worshipping the only one that is truly worthy of our worship? His name is Jesus. I mean, we all worship.

I mean, I hope and pray that tomorrow the Bulldog Nation is worshiping. Do you know our fight song is actually a worship song? Do you know how it goes? glory, glory to old Georgia. So I am praying that God will hear the prayers of his people beaten down since the glory days of Herschel Walker, and we will be able to give time. You understand, we are all wired for it.

I'm talking about Southern Baptist that sit in church like this. You let Stetson run one in the end zone, and they're like, glory, glory to old Georgia. And then get to church and be like, I'm not really in it. Come on, man, we were all wired to worship. The problem is, the problem is, we have an enemy. We have an enemy, and he's a master manipulator. He's a master distractor.

He's a liar. And what he consistently tries to do is to get us to turn our eyes off of the only one that deserves to sit on the throne. And he wants us to put ourselves on our own little thrones and worship the temporary things around us. This is why if you read Habakkuk 2 and you get down to the bottom by the time you get to verse 18, he says this. Habakkuk says, what prophet is an idol? What prophet is an idol? Now, an idol in the Old Testament was like a carved image.

And a lot of times we, as progressive 21st century folk, look at these people and say, with what C.S. Lewis calls generational snobbery. We look down our nose at them and think, who in the world would bow to us? down to some carved little image. I don't know. The same folk that bow down to granite countertops, to which my wife told me, you got to update it, baby. People are tearing out granite to put in quartz. Okay.

People that bow down to this symbol on the car, because this symbol on the car is nicer than that symbol on the car. You see, an idol is anything that competes with the glory of God. An idol is that thing that you think, if I have it, it will satisfy me in a little. if I lose it, I'll be destroyed. That's what an idol is. There's nothing in and of itself wrong with courts or granite or cars or trucks or any of those things. The question is, is it a means to the end being God's glory, or is it the end where you think you'll be glorified?

Look, man, ain't nothing wrong with a truck unless you put your hope in it, unless you think it's going to do a thing in your soul. Because here's what you think. You've got a truck, but you want a new truck because it's got leather and then got seat warmers? What? this thing got seat warmers stirs my soul bro you live in Jacksonville why you need a seat warmer

that's called lunch just let it get to lunch it'll be hot got that thing all jacked up lift mud tires you ain't been off road ever the only time you go off road is when you walk through your front yard out of the house to get in that pavement

princess to drive to your office and what's crazy is that the enemy the enemy wants us to put our hope there we can be distracted and again it could be a kitchen it could be a car, it could be Bitcoin. You don't even know what Bitcoin is. Nobody does, but you're like, I got to have it.

You understand what I'm saying? And so Habakkuk says, what profit is an idol? When its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies, for its maker trust in his own creation. This is the trick of the enemy. The enemy wants us to trust, to worship, to love, the created things instead of the creator. That's what idolatry is.

Idolatry is when we take a good thing but treat it like a God thing, and that's a really, really bad thing. And so he says, for its maker trust in his own creation when he makes speechless idols. Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, awake to a silent stone arise.

Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver and there is no breath in it at all. Pop quiz. What's the Hebrew word for breath? Ruach. Oh, you're so good. You're such disciples.

And breath doesn't just mean breath. It's the thing that God breathed into Adam to make him a living creature. Here's what he's saying. Woe to you when you look for life in some temporary thing in this world that just can't give you life. Like it is silly, the amount of emotional energy

I will spend on a bunch of 20-year-olds tomorrow afternoon running around with shoulder pants and tight pants. You understand what I'm saying? Now, can you enjoy it and celebrate if you win and commiserate if you lose? Yeah, no problem. But it means about that much. And if I'm wrong, it's that much.

Do you understand what I'm saying? There's no life in it, man. And so he says, woe to you. Woe to you. But the Lord is in his temple. You see, if you get to the New Testament, the Apostle John in 1 John tells us that there really are three fundamental idols that distract us. And here's the crazy thing about idolatry.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to point out idolatry in everyone else's life and fail to see it in your own? Be careful when you try to justify yourself in the presence of God because we always think we win and yet we always lose. And John says, if you've been around, you've heard this before, all that the world has to offer, the temptations, the tricks, the lures of the enemy, The idolatry of this world can be summed up in three phrases. The pride of life, lust of the eyes, and lust of the flesh.

That's it. And what worship does is help us take our eyes off of the pride of life. The pride of life could be found in self-help. The pride of life could be found in your status, if I could just get this promotion. The pride of life could be found in social media, the approval of man. And Habakkuk says, he teaches lies. Facebook is lying to you. They're not your friends.

And see, the crazy thing is is what any idol promises it can never keep his promise and the king of kings never breaks his promise. You see, the enemy, through idolatry is trying to get in there so that you would question your identity. And when you live for the pride of life

and you live for the approval of man, what you're forgetting if you are a Christian is that you are a son or a daughter of the most high king and he's the only opinion that matters. Or it could be the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes is the shiny things of this world. The lust of the eyes is money.

Whether you look for money for satisfaction or you look for money for security, it can't bring either. And he said, if it's overlaid with gold, but it has no breath, it has no ruah, it has no life there, or the idol you struggle with, maybe lust of the flesh.

Lust of the flesh is this desire to feel something. It could be in a relationship, it could be in sex, it could be in food, it could be in drugs, it could be in a vacation. And he says, but woe to you, if you look at this sleeping idol and y'all awake, here's what this means. If you think your next family vacation to the Bahamas is going to do something for your soul, woe to you. Now, is there anything wrong with the Bahamas? Nah, man, invite your pastor.

I'll pray over it, sanctify it will glorify God together. You understand what I'm saying. But if you think that thing's going to satisfy something deep in the soul, woe to you. And so we're going to worship. We're going to turn our eyes upon Jesus. Now, worshiping is not just singing. So I want to talk about three ways that we're going to be focused on worship this year as a church.

Number one. We will worship God in Word. We will worship God in Word. In other words, we will teach this book. and I don't know how to make somebody love something that I love. I've tried for years to get you guys to be bulldogs and some of you won't come on board. So I don't know how to do it, okay?

Try to get Gretchen to like sweet tea and I don't know what's wrong with her either. She's from Virginia. It's not her fault. All right, so I love the Word of God, and I want you to love the Word of God. I want you to love the Word of God like this. This is what the Psalm 119.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it is about the Bible. He says this in verses 47 and 48. the psalmist says for i find my delight in your commandments which i love what's the last time you found your delight in the bible and you looked at your bible you're like i love i want you to love it like that the closest thing that i can think about that feels like that is you ever get addicted to a Netflix series you ever just binge watch something you didn't even plan on it right anybody watching yellowstone if i wouldn't clap

bunch of sinners, it thinks terrible. So bad. But it's so good, isn't it? I'm telling you. I'm going to make Beth Dutton a deacon around and get some stuff done. Anyway, but you know what it's like? You're like, all right, we're going to put the kids to bed and we're going to watch this. And, you know, one of you is like, but I go to bed at 930. That's when I go to bed. But if we watch it, it doesn't get over to 9.52. And you're like, all, it's worth it. Then 952 hits, and you're like, one more. You'll do one more? If it's a Netflix show, it's a Netflix show, It lures you in. It's like five, four, three, two.

We're in, all right. And you begin to think, all right, don't worry about it. I'll just two coffees in the morning, I'll be all right. That's what I'm talking about. I think this is what the psalmist is saying when he dives into the word. He says, I will lift my hands towards your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statues. I want us to worship God in His Word.

So I have put in your vision guide there the sermon series coming in 2022. Here's how we're going to worship God and Word. We have seven teaching series next year. I'm going to go ahead and tell you what they are. Number one, it starts in two weeks. It's called the upside down kingdom. The upside down kingdom. The Bible says that we are citizens of another kingdom.

It doesn't mean you renounce your American citizenship if you are an American. Paul did not renounce his Roman citizenship. However, we are not primarily defined by where we were born and who we pay taxes to. If you're a Christian, you are primarily defined by who gave you rebirth. and who paid with all of his blood to pay your debt. And I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, you ain't going to like this one. You're not going to like the upset down kingdom at all.

Because we're going to talk about what it means to be a citizen of his kingdom and not just this kingdom. And everybody's going to be offended. And some people have come up and about, are you going to get political? Oh, so political. And I'm going to go ahead and give you the foundation for where my politics come from.

that we as believers in Jesus Christ do not bow down to the donkey or the elephant we bow down to the lion who is the lamb that's where our allegiance is placed so because the reality is we will worship our king the question for you is is Jesus your king or a means to your political end so get ready get ready it's going to be an equal opportunity offender everybody's going to hate it all right can't wait the only people that are going to enjoy it is the people that for five weeks think I'm talking about somebody else. You're going to love it so much. And we're going to talk about things like money.

I ain't going to tell you what week. Oh, you greedy people won't show up. I ain't going on that week. We're going to talk about power and your job and comfort and consumerism. And while I was preaching Thursday, I realized, you know what? I got to strike one of those, and we're going to talk about sex one week. There's no way to talk about the upside-down kingdom and his kingdom ethics without talking about sex.

And I'm not going to tell you what week that is either. because every pervert and Duvall will be here. So, you'll just be surprised. So that's it, upside down kingdom, because we've got to get the right perspective. The second week, the second series for our Lent season, will be a series called If the Tomb is Empty, anything is possible. Because we need to talk about the power of the resurrected Lord

and how he demands our worship. And then, I'm excited about this. And then from Easter to saturated, we're going to study the Psalms. Not all of them, because that's 150. but like 20-something weeks we're going to study the Psalms because what we need to learn is the posture of our worship regardless of our circumstances. That's what the Psalms are about, the posture of our worship. You ever full of joy?

You ever full of thanksgiving as you enter his courts with praise? The Psalms are for you. You ever feel alone? You ever feel despair? You ever wonder, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Psalms are for you. See, the Psalms teach you how to worship through life. Months ago, there's a girl on staff with us that kind of runs my whole life,

and there were some circumstances in her life, and honestly, man, she was just heartbroken. And if I shared with you the details, you would think, that's rough. And she shows up at church, she has to. I make her. She sits over here. And the worship begins, and then she's just overwhelmed with emotion.

And so she leaves and goes to some offices that are about, there. And during the third song of every service, I walk out of here and go back to my office to do very spiritual things. Okay? I spray it, pray, I get my Bible, I make sure my zippers up, stuff like that, you understand? And she's just a puddle of tears at her desk, and I know what she's going through. I don't remember saying this. She told me I said it. It's awesome, so I'm going to tell you. And I just walked up to her, I put my hand on her shoulder, and I just said, I know this is tough, you're going to have to worship your way through this. That's what the Psalms are. While I am so grateful for this sabbatical, it was tough.

I lost my best friend. I lost my best friend. We went hunting one day in Scotland. We all went out, and he didn't come back. My best friend built this place. Builds all our churches. And I'm telling you, man, I cried all the tears and all that. But let me tell you what I needed.

Let me tell you what I needed. The thing I could not wait for. And I know I can worship God in the woods and in my truck. wherever I am, but here's what I had to have. I needed to get in here with you. I needed to pray the prayers. I needed to hear the word preach. Thank God we were in the preach series, and I didn't have to preach.

I needed to hear the word preach, sing the songs, and then I could not wait for that last song when I could get to that altar and just worship my way through it. That's what the Psalms are going to be for us over this summer, okay? That's where we're going. Then we're going to do a short three-week series called The Next Thing, It's actually based on a song that my friend wrote so that we can learn the purpose of your life. If you're near the 20s, you need to get it early.

If you're like going through a midlife crisis, you need to hear it. Like if you feel this itched by a Corvette, you need to be here for this, okay? Or if you're at the end of your vocational life and you think, what's next? That's what we're going to do. Then the next series, we're going to do five weeks

on one verse called the 10-10 life. John 10-10. I'll come back to that. Then we're going to do a two-week series on the book of Jude. how do you worship God when you're being persecuted, and then back to Christmas. We're going to do an Advent series called the rescue mission so that we can learn about the person that we worship who did not come to make bad people better, but came on a rescue mission for us.

And my goal, and anybody that stands up here, is to teach this word so that your response would be worship. You would lift your hands, you would love it, you would meditate on it, and then you would do something about it. We're going to worship God in Word. Secondly, we're going to worship God in spirit and in truth. That phrase comes from a conversation that Jesus has with the woman at the will. Okay?

And what he's talking about here is he's actually talking about her life and she tries to like dodge him with some theological question about worship and what mountain they're going to worship on. And Jesus says, a time is coming and has come and my father is looking for, this is very important, worshippers who worship in spirit and truth. He's not looking for a style of worship. He's looking for the people that worship him in spirit and in truth. And again, worship is not only singing, but singing together with the saints has a lot to do with what worship is. Like in Revelation chapter 4, one of the things I did on the sabbatical a lot was I studied apocalyptic literature. That's what I do for fun.

I don't know what you do. That's what I do. And I'm telling you, Revelation 4, the first time that John sees eternity, what he gets to see. is a worship service. And apparently to God, atmosphere matters. And there's a whole bunch of singing. And there's a whole bunch of lights. And there's a whole bunch of loud noise.

And there's a whole bunch of audio. And there's lightning and there's thunder. That's like AVL. God's into it. But ultimately, what that worship service in Revelation 4 is, is that there's somebody sitting on the throne, and it ain't you. And that's what worship reminds us of.

I've had some people say. that are critical of this style of worship. Listen, we don't want to be critical of any style of worship. Because God ain't looking for a style, man. He's looking for worshippers. So whether you chant or do it quiet or do it loud, whatever, man, whatever. Just worship in spirit and in truth. And sometimes people will look at churches like ours with the lights and the smoke and all that stuff.

And so they haven't gotten to Revelation for you yet, but that's okay. They'll get there. And they say, why are you copying the world? It's like a concert. To which I say, what if, what if the reason that concerts are the way they are is because God, has put eternity in the heart of every man, and they're actually reflecting what we will be doing in eternity. They just don't know as the one true king that we need to be worshipping.

You see, worship matters, man. Worship matters a bunch. And we're going to sing. I've had some people. Why we've got to sing so much? All right, go to Psalm 96. I'm going to put it on the screen so we can all play along here. Psalm 96.

It says that second word is yours. Okay, ready? It says, oh. There it is. If you people to listen, we could go home right now. Imagine that. That's it, man. God's into singing.

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Underline that, we're going to come back. Doesn't mean what you think it means. Oh, sing to the Lord, a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples, plural. All the ethnos. Here's why we sing. Number one, God commands it. If he's your Lord, you do what your Lord says. He says sing, you sing. He didn't say sing good. I've heard you. It's not that good. He says sing. Me either. I'm not good.

Somebody asked me one time, how come you turn every worship song into a country song? I'm like, I don't know. It's just how it goes. Leave me alone. God commands it. Secondly, he says sing a new song. We're going to come back to that. That matters. That's how we're going to end. Number three, it says sing to bless his name. So who's the blessing for when we sing? I've had people come to me and say, Pastor, I don't like that song. I'm like, well, cool, Jimmy Crass Corn and I don't care. because we ain't singing to you. We're not singing to you. We are joining our voices together to sing to him. People said, well, my church I came from had a choir. I've got great news.

We got the biggest choir in Jacksonville. Our choir is so big, it stretches over 10 locations by the end of this year. Do you understand? You are in the choir. Don't wear a robe. That'd be weird. See, sometimes you're thinking about it wrong.

Sometimes you think that the people up here are like playing to end up. entertain us. That's not how it works. The people up here are leading us in worship. We are actually the performers performing for the audience of one and the only one that matters. That's what we're doing. So bless his name. Sing of His salvation. Do you don't always sing? Because we're saved. Do you know how saved people ought to sing? With a heart of gratitude. Like the woman with the alabaster char that walks into a religious service with religious people in Jesus and she takes the thing that's most valuable to her in her life, and she sacrifices it and pours it out

and kisses his feet, literally in Greek. One of the words for worship is to kiss the feet of the king, and the whole atmosphere changes, and the religious leaders look down their nose at her, and Jesus has touched at the heart. We sing because we don't ever want to forget the gospel. We sing because he stands by my side, and he stood in my place. Don't you ever forget the gospel? The gospel is not just some thing back in the day that gets you to heaven. The gospel is our current reality, and we better sing like Save People.

Or like when we sing this old hymn, how great thou art. And when I think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die. And then the author stops, man. Parenthetically lets us know what's going on in his heart and mind when he's thinking that God sent his son to die on the cross for him. He says, I scarce can take it in. This is what I mean, and may we never get over the gospel. I just can't, I just can't, I scarce can take it in. Worship constantly reminds me of you got to be kidding me.

Who am I that you would take my place? Who am I that not only would you die for me, but you would die instead of me. I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. And then you get to the part, man. And when you sing this song, I had some old grown men in your church, or it don't count.

You need Dan Buckles. He's one of our elders. He's got a 10-inch bazooka tube down here in his vocal situation. I don't know if you've ever heard. He sings at Arlington. You probably hear him at most of our campuses. It's not a falsetto voice when you sing,

then sings my soul, my Savior, God to thee, how great thou art. that's how saved people sing. You sing out of a heart of gratitude because he saved us. Singing is evangelistic. Singing is evangelistic. Singing is evidence.

Like when you sing a new song, a fresh song from your soul, singing is evidence that this is just not a religious ideology that we've bought into, but worship is evidence that there's something more going on here. You see, maybe you're new. Maybe you don't even believe

this whole thing. that we believe. But I promise you this. If during the singing you sit over there with me, you may not believe what I believe, but you will believe that I believe what I believe. And maybe you're sitting next to somebody and you're like, oh, something is wrong with this person. They're up here like swoving around like this and crying and, you know. Let me tell you what's happening, man. It's not just wrote religious activity. We are singing a love song to the one that loves us. Like if you walked into, if you, if you snooped into a date between me and Gretchen, and we're all tucked away somewhere, just a little candlelight, me and her at

the table, and you heard our conversation and you saw the intensity, you wouldn't just peek your head in there and be like, hmm, these are two Homo sapiens taking in matricoronutriots for the propagation of the species. No. While that is true, there's a lot more to it than just that when we worship and the world that doesn't even necessarily believe what we believe, they look at it and go, oh, there's something more going on. It's evangelistic. And singing is supernatural. It is, man.

Singing is supernatural. It's a reflection of the rhythm of creation. It's a place of transcendent. Singing is a place of convergence. When you get to Revelation chapter 4, you find out that that worship service that John sees is not a thing that's going to happen one day. It's a thing that is happening right now. And when Jesus says, your will be done on earth.

as it is in heaven, a part of what it does when we align ourselves with one voice, all praying the same thing, to the one true God, there's some crossover space between what's happening in eternity and what's happening in our lives. Don't believe me? Back to my apocalyptic study of revelation. People study revelation. I'll give it to you. It's confusing, man. It's confusing. There's people all over the place on what this means and what that means, and some people have charts and graphs and all that. But here's the one thing you can agree with me. It's loud. Start about chapter four, it's loud. There's locust. There's a bloody-headed dragon. There's stars falling out of the sky. There's trumpets. There's seals, not like, er-uh,

but there's like declarations. There's the four horsemen, not the wrestlers, but like four-dousal horses that are wiping out people. There's mouth earthquakes. There's a lot going on. It's loud. the consummation of all things created are coming to an end. And in Revelation chapter 8 verse 1, God says, shh, and he silences eternity for 30 minutes. Why? In the early church and in the temple, when the saints would gather together and they would pray,

Ben Williams taught me this, is that singing is like the only time we all pray the same thing at the same time. Your individual prayers super legit, and you should do that. But when we sing, ultimately what we're doing is joining our voices together as God's children with one voice to lift up him our prayers.

And when they would do that in the temple, then the priests would come along and they would light incense. So that when the people of God saw the smoke rising up to God, they would be reminded that their songs of praise and their prayers are lifted up to God. In Revelation in 8, verse 1,

God silences eternity for 30 minutes because we find out that the priest have lit the incense, and the songs and the prayers of God's children are rising up to him. So he goes, stop with the trumpets, stop with the parade, stop with the seals, four horsemen, whoa, the horses. Shh, I want to listen to my children sing. Worship is supernatural, man.

Worship reframes what matters most. Worship is a response to what we value. Worship shapes us. We become what we worship. Maybe that's why in eternity we will never stop worshiping. And so this year we're going to worship God in spirit and in truth. And I just wanted you to take one step, okay, one step. If normally you worship like you were weaned on a pickle,

then I'm going to ask you to take your hands out your pocket, maybe, maybe move your lips. But we're going to do what the word says. We'll lift our hands in the sanctuary. We're going to make a loud noise. Hallelujah is two Hebrew words, halal and Yahweh. It literally means to jump up and down and spin in circles. So do that if you want to. There are also words in the Bible.

that means you bow down in reverence. Do that of what God's, if God's leading you to do. But we worship Him in Spirit and Truth. And then the last, we will worship God with our lives. Because this matters. Worship does not end in this room. It begins in this room. Worship is not just the songs that we sing,

but we are so overwhelmed by the manifest presence of God, and we understand that he came on a rescue mission, for us, and we sing to him thank you, that when we go out from this place, we understand that you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth, you are a city on the hill, you who have been rescued are now a part of the rescue mission. And so we are going to worship God with our lives. This fall, we're going to roll out a two-year discipleship journey that we call the 10-10 life. We're going to do two years in one verse. The 10-10 life. It's from John 10-10. And here's why. We have an

enemy. And our enemy's mission statement is in our Bible. Jesus said he's a thief. He's a thief. And the thief has come to steal. He wants to steal every good and perfect gift that God has given you. He wants to steal the joy that God has in store for you. He wants to steal the life God had in his mind when he came up with the idea that is you. And he wants to kill. He wants to kill you. He wants to kill He wants to kill your children. He wants to kill your marriage. He wants to kill your witness. He wants to kill anything that reflects His glory.

He wants to kill that. And he wants to destroy our church. He wants to destroy you. He wants nothing good for you. And anything that seems like it is good that comes from the thief is nothing but a trick. And on the other side of the trick is nothing but stealing and killing and destroying. But Jesus says, but I, the God. good shepherd, but I have come that you might have abundant life.

Now, I got saved in high school, didn't go to church a ton, but when I did go to church, when any, we didn't really talk about the abundant life now. The only message I heard about abundant life or eternal life was like, no, no, no, that happens when you die. So here's how it works. You become a Christian. You say no to all the fun stuff, but endure, because one day you'll get to go to heaven. Jesus doesn't talk about it like that.

that the eternal life, the abundant life, starts the moment that you believe when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for me. And Jesus says, I have come that you may have life abundantly. And the abundant life is not the abundance of possessions. The abundant life is an abundant relationship with him because he possesses you. It's not more cash and prizes. It's that he is the prize. And so, buckle up for this part. You ready?

What if, as a church, we did our part. that all people could experience that abundant life that Jesus is talking about. Not just one day when they died so they could go to heaven, but in this life right now, they could experience the full life that Jesus was talking about. What if, as a church, let me say it this way, what if we weren't merely pro-birth, but we were pro-life from womb to tomb?

So here's what this means. We're about to go to war. We're about to go to war. We're declaring war on the enemy. And we are going after marginalized and defeated folk that the enemy has been taken out for generations. In fact, if you study your Bible and you study church history,

any time there's a major move of God, the enemy tries to take out a whole generation. See Moses, see Joshua, see Jesus. And so we're declaring war on the enemy. In Jesus' name. And so we are going to fight for the unborn like we have never fought before. Okay? And not just so that they can be born and then say good luck, but an abundant life from womb to tomb.

And this is just as important. And we are going to be a place of healing and safety to anybody that ever bought into the lie of the abortionist. and I'm just going to tell you I've never been in your situation obviously I can't be all right and if I was in your situation and I was that old and maybe I would have made the same decisions you do I don't know but I will tell you this

if you made that decision it doesn't define you the gospel of Jesus Christ gets to tell you who you are and my Bible says therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and so we're going to war we're going to fight for the unborn and we're going to fight for foster kids

what if every foster kid in and around Jackson grew up in a Christian home, kind of like a reverse mission trip. I mean, can you imagine? What if, and here's how it's going to go, okay? All of us are going to pray and ask God, are you calling our family to foster? And many will say yes, and all the rest of us will come up under those families and be the support system to help every one of those families that foster kids.

Can you imagine if I could go to Mayor Lenny and be like, all right, man, I got all the foster kids. All right, cool, so I got that. So could you like finish 295? That'd be neat. You know what I'm saying? And we're going to continue to fight to rescue children from poverty in Jesus' name. Children from all over the world are going to get sponsored by us. And we're going to fight for kids who are being trafficked in Jacksonville and around the world.

And I'm talking about, I mean real fight, like Delta Force, kick down the door fight kind of stuff. And there are some of you that fight for a living. You call first responders. And we, as a church, are going to come alongside of you. And we're going to hold your arms up. And we're going to pray for you. And we're going to be your friends and your biggest cheerleaders. And if things are messed up spiritually or relationally, we are going to come alongside

you and say, the best version of you equals a better society for us. And so we've got your backs. And we're going to come alongside and champion a generation that oftentimes in this society says that you're out of the fight. And my Bible says you ain't out of the fight. And I'm talking about our senior adult. we're going to honor and respect and learn from and also remind you you don't graduate from the Great Commission you don't and I'm telling you from the very beginning we did not want this to

be like a bunch of 20-year-olds I mean the concentration of that much ignorance in one room is terrifying okay and so we are a multi-generational church and for those of you that are in your senior adult years I'm telling you man we're going to champion your fight in this great commission. But here's the thing. We ain't ready. We're ready. See, here's what worship is, man. Worship is war. Worship is a declaration of war. And we are not ready to go out and change the world out there until we get in here and are changed from the inside out. There are two things that make the enemy really nervous. And it ain't a r-rah speech. That happens all the time all over the place. Two things that make the enemy super nervous is a worshiping church and then the kind of

worshiping church where that worship spills out beyond the songs that they sing and it spills out into their world to the life that they bring. And they are a part of the rescue mission like Jesus came to rescue us. I'm telling you, man, one of the biggest things I'm resolved to do coming off this sabbatical is this. We ain't taking our foot off the gas. We ain't playing church. We ain't playing in church. We've never played church, not from the beginning and not now. We are going to war. We're fighting against the enemy. A couple weeks ago, I was with a friend of mine. You know Matt Chandler's a bunch of actually nine pastors. They were here. We were together. We were talking about kind of the state of the church. He's a great guy. And he said, here's what I'm afraid of.

I'm afraid the state of the church is that the enemy has lulled the church to sleep with a pacifier of entertainment and comfort. And any time she begins to wake, the enemy's just like, shh, no, no, you know, just take that passy, calm back down. He's probably right. But I'm going to tell you, not us, not the church of 1122, because we are declaring war on the enemy, and worship is war, and nothing will awake a church like worship. And so that's what we're going to do. In Psalm 96, if you ask, well, Pastor, where do you get this worship is war stuff? Look at Psalm 96, where it says,

sing to him a new song. That phrase new song is all over the scriptures. Psalm 33, Psalm 40, Psalm 98, Psalm 144, Psalm 149, Psalm 149, Isaiah 42, 10, Revelation 5,9, Revelation 14, 3. And in most of the cases, it doesn't just mean like a new, like, hey, Michael, write a new song with like new lyrics and a new melody. No, no, no. It means like a fresh song from in here that declares victory.

So in the old covenant before, the people of God would go out to war, they would gather together and they would sing a new song. And the new song that they sang means that they would sing a song of victory. So when the Bible says that we sing a new song, what it means is we are singing a song of victory and then they would go out and win and they would come back in and sing that song of victory. But I got good news for you. As new covenant believers, we are not singing in hopes of victory. We are singing from a place of victory.

Because the victory has already been won. the death blow has been given. When Jesus says it is finished, he meant the enemy and his schemes were finished, but he didn't say we were finished because we weren't finished. And when he resurrected on the third day and that tomb is empty,

and the spirit fell on the day of Pentecost in the hearts and lives of every single believer is contained the power of the victory of God over the enemy in his evil schemes in this world. And so when we get together, I can tell we ain't ready because you're like, that sounds scary. not if you know who the king is

and I've read to the end of the book and we win we win we win and so I'm going to invite at all of our locations I'm going to invite the band to come out and we're going to end just a little bit differently I'm going to ask you for two things if you're ready to go to war with me if I go alone whatever

okay whatever but I'm going to war I'm going to war for the people that Jesus came and bled and died for I'm going to war for the people that are marginalized that are overlazed that are overlooked, that can't speak up for themselves. I'm going to war so that all of the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the seas are covered by the water.

And I know a bunch of you are coming with me. But also I know this. Before we go out and claim victory in Jesus' name, there are some of you, and you need a victory in your own life. You need the same new song. You need the same song of victory. Because some of you need a victory in your marriage. you think that the only thing is dead.

And what I'm here to tell you is that if God can breathe new breath into his dead son and he can walk out of the tune, then he can breathe new life into your marriage. And some of you need a victory over the spirit of condemnation for something that you did a long time ago. And the enemy continuously tries to define you by your scars. But the victory in Jesus says you're defined by his at the cross and it is finished. And some of you need a victory in a relationship. There's a broken relationship that needs reconciliation, and you think it's impossible.

And I'm telling you, if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. The victory has been won. And some of you need a victory in health. And the only thing harder if you got the health problem is that if the one that you love the most has a health problem. And this is the year that we claim victory because Jesus is the great physician. And some of you need a victory with your children, because one of them has been a prodigal and ran off, and we're going to pray that this is the year they come home. And some of you need a victory in regards to addiction, and we're going to pray.

We're going to declare a new song of victory that this is to hear that the chains fall off. And some of you need a victory over sin and death, and you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ. And so if you're ready to go to war, if you're ready to sing a new song, if you're ready to sing a song of victory, I want to ask you to stand. And the band's going to go ahead and start playing, and I'm going to sing a new song. I ain't going to sing, and it's 3,000 years old. It's Psalm 148, 149, and 150. And as I begin, before God takes us out into this world, for his name's sake, maybe there's a victorious thing he needs to do in here.

And I want to ask you to come on, to come down to the altar, to heal before your king and to sing a song of victory for whatever you need in your own life as we sing this song of victory. Psalm 148. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts.

Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the earth. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth. You great sea creatures in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist.

stormy wind fulfilling his word mountains in all hills fruit trees and cedars beasts in all livestock creepy things and flying birds kings of earth and all peoples princes and all rulers of the earth young men and maidens together old men and children let them praise the name of the lord for his name alone is exalted his majesty is above the earth in heaven he has raised up a horn for his people praise for all his saints praise for the people praise for the people praise for the people people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song.

His praise in the assembly of the godly. Let Israel be glad in his maker. That the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing. Make melody to him with tambourine and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult and glory.

Let them sing for joy in their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and the two-edged swords in their hands. To execute vengeance on the nation and punishment on the people. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the trumpet sound. Praise him with the lyre and the harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe.

Praise him with sounding symbols. Praise him with loud clashing symbols. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. 1122, praise the Lord. Let's go.