The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 13: A New Song

Episode Date: July 17, 2022

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. – Psalm 98:1 Worship is an overflow of our grateful response to God for who He is and what He has done.

Amen and amen. How we do it, church? Doing good? You look great if you got your Bibles. We're in Psalm 98. Go there. Today we're going to talk about worship. You see, every single one of us live on a continuum between gratitude and entitlement. And everything in this world pushes us over to entitlement. What I deserve, what is mine, what I want, what I need. But the scriptures push us to a position of gratitude. And it is what worship is rooted in. and this is the year of worship, and it's a really, really big deal. Because every single one of us worship something. And what worship is, worship means that we ascribe worth to. We put our attention and affection towards. And every single one of us, no matter what you believe about God and about the Bible and about Jesus, we all ascribe worth

and we all put our attention towards something. We all become who we worship. When the Bible talks about worship, primarily what it is talking about is our response to God for who he is and what he has done. This is the year of worship, and so I'm hoping and praying that this sermon, we're going to talk about how we as a church are to worship. And I hope it moves the needle for our entire church on what worship is and why it's so important. Psalm 98 starts out this way. I'm going to put it on the screen so you can help me with this second word, okay?

Oh, you nailed it. Now, if you just do it, we could go home right now. You understand? Now, why does the Bible talk so much about singing? It talks a lot about singing. It really does. Now, worship is way more than singing, but it's not less than singing. And we serve a God that tells us to sing.

Notice this is not a request. It does not say a Psalm of David. You know what? If you feel it and you kind of like the song and you're in a good mood, then why don't you hum along? It's not what it says. It's a command. part of the reason we are to sing as a church

is because our Lord tells us to sing. And when your Lord tells you to do something, you do what he says. And if you don't do what he says, then he ain't your Lord. And then he says, oh, sing, so it's a command, to the Lord. Okay, so that moment where you're sitting there and you're like, well, I don't really like this song.

Well, guess what? Just send me your feedback at Jimmy Cratscorn at I don't care.com because we ain't singing to you. There's so many people that have this misunderstanding of what happens in a worship. service. You see, the way people think about it completely wrong, because you feel like this is, this is like, you know, America's got talent or something like that. And the way we think about it is,

is we think like, like God is the director, and then the people up on stage who are very talented, amen, we have very talented people at all of our campuses, and they're incredible, and they love Jesus, and we think that they are the performers, and then you out here are the audience. And it's and then you also kind of think like, you're Simon Cowell going, I don't think I would have done that one there, you know? But we're singing to you, man. We're singing to me either. But what we are doing is we are singing to the Lord.

The right way to think about it is actually you are the performers. If there is a performer in worship, you are the performer. And the audience is God. And all of us are joining together and we are singing to an audience of one. So whether you like it or not, he said, oh, sing to him. And the people up here on the stage, they're actually the ones. like conducting us so that we can get it all together and sing unto him. Amen? Yeah. And so the crazy that, so some of you are like, hey, how come we don't have a choir? My last church had a choir.

We got the biggest choir in all of Jacksonville. You're it. Just don't wear a robe because that's weird, okay? But you, at all of our locations, on different days and nights and times and states, all of us joined together and all of our campuses sing the same songs, hear the same message, have the same mission because we're just one church singing to the one true God. And so he says, oh, sing to the Lord. So I need you to think about this. You are the choir. And the Lord tunes in every time we show up together. In fact, he does even more than that. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of his people. That it is a supernatural event happening here. So sing to the Lord. A new song. We'll talk.

about that in a little while. It doesn't mean what you think it means, okay? And you may ask yourself, okay, why sing? Think about this. Just in your regular world, think about all the reasons you sing. And some people are more apt to sing than other people kind of based on your personality, but there's a bunch of reasons that we sing. I think that the reason that singing, that music means so much to humanity is because I think it reflects the reality that we were created to live in rhythm with God. I mean, if you go back and you read Genesis chapter 1 and 2, you will see that God created everything in rhythm. I mean, he could have just said everything,

and then there's everything, but that's not what he did, man. Like on the first three days, God speaks into the existence, the very environments that he's going to fill up on days four, five, and six, and they correspond with one another. And then there's evening and there's morning and the next day. This is why some of you love to go and sit on the beach.

there's just something about watching the waves roll in that it just does something to you, right? We live in seasons. Now, not here in Jacksonville. We have two seasons. We have summer in January, but most people have four seasons. It's weird. You should Google it, okay? And in fact, this is why a bunch of us like to go to places like North Carolina so we can feel some of the seasons.

But there's something about it. We know that there's a new season coming. God gave us this heartbeat. You ever wonder why your heart beats in the rhythm that it does? because I think it's a reflection of the master artist, and there is a rhythm that he has created us to live into. And they're so weird. There's something that just mere prose,

like regular talking like I'm doing now, just can't get into certain nooks and crannies of your soul that things like poetry and music can. And so every tribe, tongue and nation, regardless of what people believe, we all sing. There's something about it that is, supernatural. Sometimes we sing because we celebrate, regardless of what you believe, right? We sing happy birthday. You don't just say it, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, dear, whatever your name is. No, you don't, man. You sing in celebration. If you're a Georgia Bulldog fan, congratulations, you're a national champion still. And you know what we do every time we score, like let's say, for instance, when we scored 31 points against Alabama's 18, every single time. Now, I don't know if you've been to a Georgia game. You would assume everybody there's a believer, but I don't think that's true, okay? But what happens when we score is the whole, the band strikes it up and we all sing. And you know what we sing? Glory, glory to, it's a worship song, glory, glory, to old Georgia. That's what we're singing. That when we, when we want to celebrate something, we sing, when we're in love, we sing. When we're in love, it's just different, man. This is why love songs,

matters so much to people. Because it's weird, man. And if you're not a poet or you're not a songwriter, that's why you lean on somebody else's ability to say words that you feel in here. This is why worship matters too. Worship is very evangelistic. And the reason why is because when we worship God,

it is an expression that this is more than just a mental assent to a set of religious claims. It's more than that. Like I'm just telling you, man, if you show up here and you were to sit next to me down here on the front road during worship, even if you don't believe what I believe, you would believe that I believe what I believe. Because some of you were sitting next to a crazy person today, right? Like you were looking at him and be like, God, this guy's really into it.

He's got his eyes closed. He's just over there like, we are the world, you know, and you're like, wow. He's into it. Yeah, man, he's way into it. You know why? Because he's singing to the Savior that he loves because the Savior first loved him. This is deeper than just singing along campy kind of songs. I mean, imagine if you were to roll in on a date with me and Gretchen, and we're huddled over

in the corner, and you were to be able to eavesdrop into our conversations, you would not walk away from that date and go, these are merely two Homo sapiens taking in some macro-nutrients for the propagation of the species. No. You'd be like, they're really into each other, more than you could even understand, I promise. Well, this is a part of what worship is for our relationship with God because we love. Another reason we sing is to learn things. Didn't you teach your kids the alphabet by singing the ABCs?

I mean, one of the best ways to learn things is to sing them. People sing because it expresses a deep emotion that just mere words can't. Some people sing to send a message. You ever had a football game? and you hear, nah, nah, nah, nah. You were saying something to that team via song that everybody doesn't just go,

we want, that doesn't work, man. It just sends a message. Also, communities sing together because it connects that community. It may be a community of two people, right? Like you and your man, you got your song. Oh, this is my song, my favorite song. Like Lou Bryant sings, right?

Or sometimes, again, communities get together. If you ever go to a Penn State football game, all my illustrations are football. So if you're in other stuff, I don't know what to tell you. Okay, but do you know, like Penn State, every time they sing Sweet Carolina, I don't know what it has to do with their school, but I just know they all get together and they sing this thing together. There is something supernatural.

There's something planted into the heart of every human being that we're to sing. And then God says, okay, sing, but I want you to sing to me. And I want you to sing to me a new song. Now, that doesn't simply mean like, Today we sang a new song that none of us together had sung, but obviously you listen to Christian Radio because a bunch of already knew the words. That's great, okay?

It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean like, hey, Michael, can you just get me a new tune with some new words every single week? Because that'd be a little tough to catch on. Actually, this phrase, new song is all throughout the Bible. It's in Psalm 33, Psalm 40, Psalm 98, Psalm 144, Psalm 149, Isaiah 42, 2,10, Revelation 5, 9, Revelation 14, 3, all right? And I say that so fast, so you've got to listen to it again to get them all,

right? And there's no way you write that down. But it doesn't simply mean, like, just a brand new story. song. First, it means like a new and fresh expression of the heart. So sometimes we sing old songs, but you can sing them in a new way because it's new to you. Like, that's how we're going to close today. But ultimately what this meant most of the time, or in many cases in the scripture, in Hebrew, when it says sing a new song, it was associated with a new victory of the Lord. And what would happen is in the Old Testament, they would sing. It wasn't so much like piano and guitars,

as much as it was. They would get together and they'd get a little beat going and they'd all chant this thing, and they would gather together as the people of Israel, and they would pre-declare God's victory in this next battle before they ever went to war. And then when they went out and won the war, they would come and re-gather together as God's people, and they would re-sing the song of victory. Now, what does that have to do with us as Christians? I got really good news. I'm a professional, so I've read all the way to the end of the book. I don't know if you've made it that for yet. I have. Several times. and I've got really good news.

We win. That's right. We win. The victory is ours. The victory is out. In fact, by the time you get to the book of Revelation, the way the enemy is described is he is a dragon with a mortal head wound flailing around, just waiting to die.

And the people of God have already won the victory because when Jesus says it is finished, he didn't say he was finished because he wasn't finished. He was put in the grave. He put death to death. He resurrected on the victory. third day, he went to the right hand of God the Father, is praying for me and you right now, and then one day he's going to crack heaven open and come back down with tattoos on his quads, Baptist, check that out a little bit, sword in his mouth, robe dipped in blood,

and then he's going to send the devil to hell forever and ever, amen, and it is finished. And right now the church is in a victory formation. That's what we're doing. It's over, buddy. We are just in a victory formation. I don't know if you want evidence of that. go to the Georgia National Championship against Alabama. Watch the last 30 minutes.

We won. So when we sing a new song, we are declaring the victory that Jesus already has. And as you know, I mentioned it last week, I think. This fall, we're going to be rolling out this thing called the 1010 life where we are fighting for the unborn, fighting from womb to tomb for the sanctity of life. And we are going to pre-declare via worship the victories that God is going to

bring through our efforts for his glory. So he says, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. And if you were to say, okay, God, why? What should I sing about? He's like, I'm glad you asked for. A great way to do Bible study is just to read the prepositions and see what they're for. The reason that you should sing the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. One of the reasons that you sing is because worship is our response to God for who he is and what he's done. Now, the way the psalmist is going to write it, he's going to do what he's done first

and then who he is second. This is why in that bumper video we showed you the gratitude list. Years ago, I just made this up. I don't know where I made this up. We'll give credit to Jesus because it seems like a good idea. I was just sitting in the street stand one day

feeling sorry for myself. You ever do that? Okay, you know? Which is pitiful, isn't it? You got the best life ever, even if it's terrible, compared to so many other people, things are going really awesome. And I just thought to myself, oh, Cupcake, it's so hard being you.

And I just was like, how pitiful are you that you just want to feel sorry for you right now? And so I just started to create a list of things to God that I was grateful for. And then it just dawned on me. I think I'm going to write one down for every year I've been alive. And so I go over this about once a year. And you should, if you have never created your gratitude list, it will help you be a worshiper. and you should write that whatever it is. And you don't have to be super spiritual for everyone.

Every time I think people have a fake one that they show me, here's mine. And it's just like Hebrew words. I'm like, what are you talking about? It should just be like regular stuff, the marvelous things that he has done. I'm going to go over mine real quick. And in fact, there are things on this list that you should not put on your list. Because there are things that I see as a gift that it almost killed you. So don't put that.

This is between you and the Lord. But for your sake, I'm going to read. Okay, here we go. 48. I'll have to add one September 5th. I'll think about it. My salvation, that's number one. Gretchen, J.P. and Reagan.

I added them together so I could have another slot. Number four, you, 1122. You are a remarkable people, man. The transparency, authenticity, and belief in the power of the blood of Jesus expressed last week by your confession and repentance, look at that and I'm like, man, I'm the most blessed pastor on the planet that I get to preach to you all the time. The fifth one is a mom and dad that loved me in their own way, even though

they couldn't love each other very well. Six is health. Seventh is wealth, globally speaking. I mean, I don't have much, but as compared to the world, like running water and tennis shoes and, you know, two cars and things like that, praise God. A staff team that follows and respects me. I don't ever give them enough credit. I have the greatest team. around me ever, ever, ever. I do, man. The pastors, the staff. You know them. Being American.

Now, I know there's a lot of people I ain't proud to be in American right now, but I don't know what's wrong with them people. I'm proud to be in America. I love it, man. Are we perfect? Not even close. See the upside-down kingdom. But if all the places to live, I want to live here. And then I took it one notch. One notch further. Being southern. Look, man, I'm American by birth,

but I'm Southern by the grace of God. Amen. When the world falls apart, I only see everybody moving to California and New York, right? You all move here. Welcome, we're glad you're here. Number 11 is the elders.

We had the greatest group of fate-filled men. I mean, I'm just telling you, man. I wish you had time to talk about them. Friends, some of my friends, like Jeff and Charles and Brad. Man, I've got some of the best friends on the planet.

And I was told in ministry you can't be friends with people you go to church. church with. I thought, that sounds like a miserable existence. That's probably why they all quit and stay in these weird homes in places. I'm going to be friends with the people that I go to church with. A sharp mind. That's questionable, but I think it is. I should have put humility next, but I didn't. I'm thankful for Pastor Jerry and Beach UMC for Coach Bull Lee in Campon Hill, for a gift of preaching. I get to work with my friends. For religious freedom, may we not take

that for granted? For Mert, my grandma. For Lynn Turner. Y'all don't know who they is. She's the first person that invited me to serve in student ministry. For the woods of South Georgia, praise God, man. For Dr. Bill Ross, that's the guy that hired me out of seminary. For the life and legacy of McKenzie Wilson, a 15-year-old girl that changed lives through her story. For my in-laws. I have, like, great in-laws. Think about that.

That's something to praise God. I've heard some of your crazy stories. Now, look at my in-laws. Now, they also live in Virginia, so that might be a part of it. But praise God, man. I'm grateful for modern medicine. Twelve years ago, I had an appendicitis. A hundred years ago, I'd be dead.

You realize that? I wouldn't survive. You'd think he would, I would just be in somebody's journal. He didn't make it, you know what I mean? And now it's just, I mean, think about this. The things that today we call a procedure 150 years ago, they would call a miracle. Praise God for modern medicine. For Taco Tuesday.

Yeah, man. Praise God. I've got, and the reason I put that is because I've got family. friends that are more like Framly, if you understand what I'm saying. I do, man. For people that consistently pray for me, for clean, running water, for cool fall mornings, living in Jacksonville, praise God, for the beach, praise God, ministry connections, good bourbon. Now some of you don't know what to do with that. Some of you shouldn't do anything with it. It'll kill you, okay? But for me, as for me in my house, it's a blessing, all right? For my neighborhood, for my wife, for her gift of singing and writing,

She's writing for you a Devo to prepare your hearts for saturated, and it's going to blow your hair back if you still got any. You can see this. Feasette hunting in South Dakota. Our home, my children's friends, my truck. I love my truck. My calling for grace, like the fact that it counted for me. I'm grateful for that. That God's word is so accessible.

I'm grateful for an opportunity to invest in other pastors. I'm grateful for Tony Sleiman. the guy that has done so much for our church, I'm grateful for the opportunity to impact one more generation. I'm grateful to be able to take the gospel into prisons. When I wrote this one down, that day I had baptized 67 brothers at Baker Correctional. I'm grateful for my dad's salvation.

Praise God. And then last year, the one I wrote down was this, man. I'm so grateful for my brother Russ. I'm so proud of him. So do you have a gratitude list? because that is at, that's what's at the heart of worship. Here's what happens, man. When you are given a gift by someone, it stirs a new gratitude.

I know this is goofy, but these shoes right here, see these shoes? Every person on the planet has a pair like this right now. You know how I got these shoes? Our CFO Paul Williams gave them to me. That sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? I don't know a bunch of grown men giving each other presents, but one of our, one of our codes of conduct for our staff is that we will honor one another.

That's what we do. So in our meetings, cynicism and sarcasm, we don't have place for that because the book of Romans says outdo one another with honor. And I was in a meeting and I saw Pastor Adam Flint and he had a pair of these shoes. And I was like, man, those shoes are cool. Where did you get those shoes? And then later that day, somebody knocks on my door and Paul Williams is just got a pair of these shoes. Here you goes, man. Here's what he said.

He goes, I've never heard you ask for anything in all the years I've ever known you. So I went out and got these shoes for you. Now let me tell you what happens when I put these shoes on every single time. Guess what I think about? Do I think about, wow, you look cool? Of course, and shortly after that, I think Paul Williams gave you those shoes, man. I literally, I pray for him every single time I wear these shoes.

I've never told him, miss, he's sitting over there. But I do, I think about what grown man gets another grown man a pair of shoes that one grown man could go out and buy if you wanted them anyway, but it's just a gift that I didn't deserve, and it just stirs in new gratitude. That's what worship is. And here's the thing, everything you have, including the shoes from Paul Williams,

actually is a bloodbought grace gift from Jesus Christ through Paul Williams to my feet. That's what happens, and it stirs in you worship. He says, oh, sing to the Lord, a new song, for he has done marvelous things, and then he's going to talk about the character and nature of God. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. That your salvation was for his glory.

Verse two, the Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. As post-resurrection believers, we understand that what the Psalm writer is talking about here is Jesus. The major part of what stirs our worship is that he has revealed his righteousness. That's Jesus. That we worship Jesus because he came for the nations, for our salvation. So when we sing, when we have an opportunity as believers to gather together, which everybody, in the world doesn't have this kind of opportunity, you realize? That's one of the reasons I'm

thankful to be an American and for religious freedom. And when we get together, we need to sing like saved people. We need to, I mean, I don't know how you just sing by the line. He stood by my side and he stood in my place and not just lose your mind over it. Because this is what the psalmist is saying. I'm going to sing a new song because the Lord made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

One commentator says it this way. The realization of every hope, the substance of all faith, the longing of all hearts, and the good of all peoples will be achieved when God brings salvation. And because of this, Psalm 98-4 summons all the earth, to shout to him, break forth with celebration, to give a ringing cry, and to sing to his glory.

That's what we're doing. And then verse 4 he says this, make a joyful noise to the Lord. Praise God. Right? Listen, he doesn't say make a beautiful noise. I've heard you, man. You can't make a beautiful noise. You ain't very good at it.

That's why we do it all together. Kind of drowned out all the, I mean, I had somebody asked me one time, Pastor, how come every song you sing sounds like a country song. Because I'm a Jesus follower, man. That's what we're going to sing in heaven. Ain't nothing a country music. All my life you have been faithful. Like that.

Got me? Worship should be joyful. Now it's not the only emotion that exists, as we've seen all throughout the Psalms, that we always posture ourselves to worship regardless of our circumstances. That sometimes, like Psalm 22, you feel like, oh, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And you just got to worship your way through that. But there's also times when we make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth, break forth into a joyous song and sing praises.

I'm just telling you, man, when we're doing the singing part of our service, I typically look around and see how the crowd's going to be. And if you're saved, some of you need to tell your face. I'm telling you, it looks like you were winging on a dill pickle, man. It's like, bro, get over you. I'm telling you. This is a full body experience. Worship is.

Now, here's the question that I'll get sometimes. style matter? Short answer, nope. It doesn't. This is why around here, you know, like, we're not critical of any other styles. There's all different kinds of expressions of worship. Some people old hymn, some people chant, you know, some people, whatever language and culture you're from, that's why there's different styles of worship. If you're new to church, you're not even going to believe this is a thing. But back in the day, I've been on staff at church this year, be by 30 your own staff at church. And about 10 or so years ago,

there was this thing in church that they called the worship wars. This is where, like, modern worship with, like, guitars and drums and stuff was kind of making its way into churches that weren't used to that. Now, you Pentecostal's been doing it forever, okay? God bless your ministry, all right?

But you did it with, it was like bring your own tambourine, so us Baptist couldn't handle it. It was just kind of creeping into the Baptist world. The Baptist didn't know what to do it, all right? They were afraid if somebody raised their hand in worship, they might catch the tongues, and then they didn't know what to do, all right?

So, now Catholics, you don't even know what I'm talking about, all right? You're like, I knew it was a cult, okay, so just relax. And they would argue about what God was honored more by, like hymns or do you just sing straight from, there are some churches that only sing the Psalms. That's all they sing. There's some churches that don't use any instruments. But listen, man, it doesn't matter. Style doesn't matter.

It's just a reflection of the time. the old hymn a mighty fortress is our God that Martin Luther wrote he took a bar tune took the tune and changed the words to a mighty fortress is our God now you tell a Baptist that and their hair would explode but how did he even know he was in a bar yeah okay Luther drank a lot of beer glory you understand and he so the style man it could be all over the place here's what it makes me think of Can you, Mama's, listen, can you imagine if one kid, one of you, you had two kids, or 20 or half a minute, okay, and one of your kids wrote you a handwritten Mother's Day card? And then another one of your kids drew you a Mother's Day card, but it was all pictures. And then they both presented them to you, and in their presentations, they got in a fistfight with one another over which one you would like better.

How honored would you be by either of the cards? Answer, not. all right so our job is never to be critical of other styles of worship it's just man god is a creative god and there's all different kind of churches and all different kind of languages and every tribe every tongue every nation and it should just reflect the heart of the people that are worshiping god and so then he's going to get into some specifics for the jewish people several thousand years ago because here's the instruments they had says seeing praises to the lord with the liar that was like a funny looking guitar

with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the king, the Lord. Now again, he just, he, he, he, God wants a grateful heart, a joyful noise. And then what's crazy is that what God is looking for, though, according to John chapter four, Jesus has this conversation with this Samaritan woman at a well.

And he's trying to talk about her life and he, she throws a curveball as is, She's going to Jesus, juke Jesus. You can't. And she's like, hey, yeah, yeah, your people say that we're going to worship at that mountain, but my people say we're going to worship at this mountain. And then in response to that, Jesus says,

well, the hour is coming and is now here when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth. And then look what the Father is seeking. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God's not looking for a song.

God's looking for worshippers. He's not looking for a certain style of music. He's not like, no, I really like Latin music. I don't like, you know, that's not how it's going. What he's looking for is worshippers that are worshipping in spirit. That's like sing a joyful noise, tell your face, raise your hands, do that stuff, and truth. So one thing that is very, very important when we worship God is you've got to say true things. You can't rightly love God without right thoughts about God.

God. And let me tell you what I mean here. If I were to go home right now and write Gretchen a love song. And it started out with a beautiful melody and lyrics about her long red hair. Guess what? She ain't going to like it. And it ain't because of my singing. It's because she ain't got red hair. And she would think, I don't think you're talking about me. And so we take the theology of songs. In fact, we change words all the time. because it's crazy. Some of the best, some of the churches with the best music,

greatest thing, not the most theologically astute crew. I'm not going to say who, but I just like, strike that, say this, that's wrong, this is right.

And so, because truth matters, man, you're going to sing things that are true. And then the Bible gives us all kinds of instructions on worship. Not just about singing,

but very specific instructions. And speaking of, you should put this in your calendar, July 24th. We're going to have a worship night right here at San Pablo, and it's for all. all ages. We're going to have a choir, and you can come, and I hope you do all these things.

Here are some of the commands in the Bible about how to worship, all right? And I hope and I pray this challenges you a little. Ready? The Bible says shout. That was your chance, bro. There it is. You nailed it, okay? Right. Okay? Well, listen, man, my brother came out to me a couple weeks ago, and he was like, does my shouting mess you up? And I was like, sometimes when you go, praise God, I go, whoa, what was that? Okay? But he's like, look, man, the Lord there he's getting better. I told him get better at it. But the Lord gave him a voice. We got an amen, Frank. We got praise God guy. We got some people. The Bible says, shout, all right? He says, Psalm 32.1, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

So there's sometimes we get in here, we get loud and we shout. It's what the Bible says. The Bible says, sing loud. Psalm 81, sing aloud. Sing aloud. Psalm 811. Sing aloud. Sing aloud. to God our strength. Shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Now listen, man, I mean sometimes when you've got to open your mouth and vocalize it loud. The Bible says, hallelujah.

You know, we sing songs and say hallelujah all the time? That's actually two Hebrew words that in English we have smashed together. When the word hallelujah shows up in the Bible, like in Psalm 150, we translate it, praise the Lord. But it's literally from two Hebrew words. One is halal.

And it's not a religious word. Halal, in Hebrew means, to lift up your hands, to jump up and down, to turn in circles. That's what it means. It was a word to describe a parade. And then the Bible writers would say, halal, lift up your hands, jump up and down, spin around in circles. Yahweh, the covenant name of God. Halal Yahweh, halal Yahweh. You smash that together, and you get hallelujah.

That's what their word means. And so sometimes when you worship, you lift up your hands and you jump around. And I know the Pentecostals are like, oh, I'm bringing a banner next week. and you want to be in here and just shaw all right saddle down so but then sometimes the bible says that we need to bow down like in quiet reverence psalm 956 oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker sometimes the bible commands us to lay down on our face before god so if you've ever come up to pray first of all you've got to keep your head on a swivel there might be somebody just laid out right there. And typically you don't have to call the ambulance or anything. They're just,

they're doing what the Bible says. Revelation's 514. This is John, the fishing buddy of Jesus, gets a revelation of what worship in heaven forever is going to be like. And it says, and the four living creatures said, amen, and the elders fell down on their face and worshipped. Sometimes we dance. You hear that, Baptist? The Bible, commands us to dance. Psalm 149.3, let them praise his name with dancing, make melody to him with tambourine and lyre. In fact, in 2nd Samuel, David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and the Bible says that he strips down to a linen, ephod, that'd be the equivalent of your tidy witties, and he dances around before the, before the, before the, before the, before the,

before the Ark of the Covenant, and his wife gets so aggravated. Can you imagine, fellas? His wife, come here. I got to tell you. She says, that was pretty undignified. I mean, what are people going to think? And he's like, you think that's bad. I'm going to get way more undignified than this, all right? So in other words, he didn't care what anybody thought, because he was dancing in his tidy white is for an audience of one. Claping, Psalm 471. clap your hands, all people, shout to God with loud songs of joy. I've been in churches that we're not supposed to clap. Read your Bibles, man.

It says that we are supposed to clap. Here's one I want to challenge all of you on. Lift your hands. Psalm 134-2. Lift your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. Do you know why you lift your hands? Sometimes you lift your hands. Like when you were in school, if you're like, ooh, I know the answer.

Anybody know the answer? You should lift your hands. Sometimes, like, when you had little kids, you know, mom's dad, and you'd walk up to your little kid, and your little kid be like, oh, me, right? If you ever want to reach out to your Heavenly Father, you lift your hands. Now, a lot of 1122ers are going to get this one. Sometimes you lift your hand because you're like, all right, you got me, all right? That's exactly it, man.

It's a sign of surrender. I'm like, all right, I give up. Yeah, we are to lift our hands. And in fact, in the New Testament, I think this is in. interesting. The Apostle Paul is writing a letter to a pastor named Timothy, and he says this, I desire that in every place the men should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarrel. You hear that men? Yeah, man, don't you let the women out hand lift us, all right? I'm watching. That's what we're going to do. And then even with all that, back to your charismatic that want to

bring your own tambourines and your flags and stuff, all right? And yet we are to be orderly. We are to be orderly. that 1st Corinthians 1433 says, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. And so we're not doing things to bring any attention to ourselves. We're doing all of these things to aim all of the attention at God. Straight up, man. So if you want to dance, you can. But we're going to do them back there in those corners here at San Pablo,

so I can't see you, all right, because you'll throw me off. I won't know what to do. I'll be like, holy goodness, is this happening? And we ain't taking laps. We're not going to do that. Some churches do here. We ain't going to take laps. keep your banners at the house.

Don't bring a show far. Okay, we got a band. All right, we're going to be orderly. But do you also want you to be free, man? We want you to be free to lift your hands to shout, to sing loud, to sing like save people. And here's why, here's why. Man, throughout COVID in the pandemic when churches weren't meeting and all that kind of stuff,

a lot of people, a lot of like church expert type people begin to kind of talk down about what we're doing, about gathering, about the people of God gathering together to make much of Jesus. But listen, man, this is not, this is not an entertainment hour. This is not karaoke. It's not. It's not just getting information from me. When we get together and we make much of Jesus and we lift up our voice, there's a supernatural interact with one true God that is occurring in all of our campuses every single time that we do this. Listen, can you worship God at the beach and in your truck and in an air? You can do all those things. It's just different when the people of God get together.

There is this transcendence that happens. Like when Jesus was praying on earth as it is in heaven, that's a part of what happens here, man. Because in the book of Revelation, if you get there, there's a whole lot of description about what is happening, not what will happen one day, what is happening right now in heaven. And there's going to be a lot of singing in heaven.

There's going to be a lot of worship in heaven. And there is this transcendent interaction between God's people and the God of the universe when His people get together and make much of Him. First and foremost, what you do is you are declaring it ain't all about me. And when we worship together, you're lifting up your eyes off of the current circumstances

and you're fixing them on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith. And one of the things that happens when we sing, if you think about this, in most churches, the only time we're ever essentially praying the same thing, it's when we're singing. We're just taking our prayers, And we're saying, all right, God, as a church, here's what we are praying together.

And in Revelation chapter 8, verse one, there's this verse that says, for 30 minutes, God silenced heaven. And if you go on to read the rest of chapter 8, you figure out what was going on. And what was going on is that the priests were lighting incense. And the reason that they would light incense in the temple is because when the people would come together, and they would pray. God was a very tactile God, and so the priests would light incense so that the people would know it would be like a visual indicator, just as the incense is rising up into heaven,

my prayers are rising up to God. And in Revelation chapter 8, and if you're not familiar with Revelation, I'm an expert, okay? Trust me, ready? It's loud. There's a lot of stuff going on. There's the bloody-headed dragon. There's the four horsemen, not the wrestlers,

but like the four guys that bring death. There's stars falling, there's locust, there's plague, there's trumpets, there's seals, not like, er, but like a seal like this, you know. It's loud. There's all kind of stuff. There's parades. I mean, there's a lot going on. And when he gets to chapter 8, verse 1, the God of the universe goes,

stop it, stop it, horse, whoa, parade stop. Michael put down the trumpet. Everybody. Why? He says, because he's listening to the prayers of his children. That when we, as a body of believers, get together, And we sing and we make a joyful noise and we clap and we lift our hands or we bow down or we lie face down before the king. The king of the universe who is timeless says, whoa, shh.

I want to hear the prayers of my people. It is supernatural. And what's crazy is not just us. The psalmist goes on to say, it ain't just people that do this. Verse 70 says, let the sea roar and all that fills it. You see, we worship the creator. not creation, but all of creation sings. Not only the fish, but the water that the fish are swimming in,

they roar and all that fills us. The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing for joy together. Before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. Here's what he's saying. You ever seen a dog hunt?

If you haven't, man, you're so missing out. Okay, you got to quit breathing on air-conditioned air. If you go out and you watch, if you watch a dog, like a well-trained dog hunt, and you watch that thing, do you get this sense of, man, that's exactly what that thing was created to do. Like, he just moves through the brush like you just can't. Or you see a bird fly? It's just effortless, right? Like, they're just flying by.

You ever in the water, like in the ocean and something swims up? And it goes, and it's just gone. and you're like, how you swim so fast? Because that's what fish do, man. Fish swim. And you know what we were created to do? We were created to worship. And what's crazy is everything else on the planet

does what they were created to do. But God's rebellious children? Yeah, we get it all on our head. We get airing it. I'm going to tell you, man, if you don't like worship, you're going to hate heaven. There's a lot of it. In Revelation chapter 4, verse 8,

here's what it's, here's the description of heaven. It says, in the four living creatures, which represent all of creation, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around within. And day and night, they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty who was and is and is to come. So how often they say it? They never cease to say it. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty who was and is and is to come. And then John says, and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him, which is when?

all the time it never stops. So whenever they do that, who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, then the 24 elders fall down before him, who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne,

saying, worthy are you, O Lord, and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things that by your will they existed and were created. That worship is a reminder, there is a throne and you ain't sitting on it. And if and when you try to create your own little kingdom, it's foolishness, man.

It's foolishness because the temporary things of this world will never, ever, ever satisfy. And what we were created to do is to give honor and glory to the king of kings who sits on the throne. Amen. Worship is about our response to God for who he is and what he does. The reason I worship, all right?

It's not because I'm just like a, I just like to sing. I don't. Like I think one of the dumbest things on the planet is musicals. I can't get my mind around a musical. Why just all these rando people just, dun, to dun, I'm like, that's stupid, man. I hate them, okay? So I'm not just like a huge music fan or whatever. But I'm telling you there's something that happens when I fix my affections and attention

on the one that put on flesh and stepped off of the throne where he was receiving all honor and power and glory every single day of his life. And he was hearing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty who was and is and is to come. And he stepped off of that and he came down here on a rescue mission and did for me what I couldn't do for myself. In Luke chapter 8, there's this woman. And I don't have time to read it all. There's this woman.

And the Bible says that she is a woman of the city who was a sinner. That doesn't mean she, like, had an apartment down the same. That's not what that means, man. It means she's a prostitute. And Jesus, it's eating with a bunch of religious people, a bunch of Pharisees. And listen, man, Jesus loved all people. He was for all people. So whether you were a rebel or religious, he would hang out with you and love you.

And this girl walks in, this woman of the city, and she sees Jesus and she's not invited. But then she goes and she gets this alabaster jar. It would have been the most expensive thing that she had in her possession. It probably was for her dowry to guarantee that one day she would get married, but because of the decisions that she made and everybody in that town knows, she ain't ever getting married. And so she takes this thing. There would have been her retirement.

It would have been the only thing that would have kept her afloat. And the Bible says she walks in and she breaks it open and she anoints Jesus' head. She anoints his feet. She's overwhelmed and overcome with emotion. and she begins to cry to the point where she washes his feet with her tears and then begins to let down her hair, which we're supposed to do in the first century. She lets down her hair, and there's nothing erotic going on, but it for sure is emotional. And she wipes off the feet of Jesus.

And guess what? There's a group of religious people that are critical. And they're like, what is this? It's a little extreme, isn't it? I mean, this person is really into it a little too much. Does she know where she is? And the Bible says they say to themselves. They don't say this out loud.

But you don't get to keep anything to yourself when Jesus is around. Do you realize that? They say it to theirself, if he really was a prophet, he'd know who's touching him. And then Jesus answers them. He's like, hey, you see this girl touching me? Yeah. She anointed me head. She anointed me feet.

What'd you do when I got here? Nothing. Nothing. You didn't anoint my head. You didn't welcome me. You didn't wash my feet. You did nothing. You just sat in your seat and you expected me to sit in mine. But this woman overwhelmed because she has experienced the grace of Jesus Christ. Overwhelmed. She pours out her emotion. She pours out her treasure. And she doesn't care what anybody thinks. Now, here's where it meets the road. Of those two groups, which one describes you at church? Because one of them is team Jesus. because it got run over by the gray strain. And the other one's team me because I'm religious enough that I don't have to bow and do that kind of stuff. And then what's crazy is here's what Jesus says at the end.

In Matthew 26, it shares the same story. It says this, truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Here's what Jesus is, like, what I'm doing right now is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus from 2,000 years ago. He's like, look here, religious, man. ain't nobody even going to know your name.

And in Jacksonville, Florida, 2,000 years from now, tens of thousands of people in hearing about how we are to worship, she is going to be the hero and you are going to be the villain because you are declaring yourself righteous. By definition, therefore you are self-righteous, and you don't worship me because you don't think I'm worth it. But this woman is pouring out her emotion. It's changing her posture at my feet.

because she knows who I am. You see, I'm going to tell you this all the time, I can't get over the gospel. I just can't get over it. I don't want you to ever get over the gospel. Part of the reason we talk about the gospel over and over and over and over and over is because the moment you begin to move away from the gospel,

you begin to move away from Jesus. You'll begin to think that you, by your own good work, somehow deserve to be in the family of God. and then you'll become like one of these Pharisees, one of these religious leaders. And when we sing, it's an opportunity to humble yourself and to declare, it ain't about me. It's all about you, it's not about me.

It's an opportunity to declare. I am so grateful for the gift that you have given me, which is sure it's better than choose. The gift that you have given me, which is salvation. May we never, ever, ever get over to the gospel. There was a guy named Carl Boburg. from Switzerland. He's a pastor.

He gets caught in a thunderstorm. We thought it was going to kill him. And when it finally passed and the sun popped out, he wrote a song that in English is how great thou art. Decades later, it got really popular. They were singing it all over. Then there was a missionary that went to the Ukraine.

And his name was Stuart Hein. He shows up in this little town in the Ukraine. And he says, are there any believers here? And the people said, there's one couple. There's this old guy and there's this old lady. And she can read. She can read. Which is super rare then apparently.

And so Stuart, this missionary who was trained by Spurgeon, he goes to this house and he's looking for this woman. And he pulls up on him. and in Russian, she is sharing the gospel with this group of people that don't know Jesus. And as the guy is about to knock on the door, he hears some of these Ukrainian natives repenting and confessing their sins. And they can't get over the gospel. The way the lady learned how to speak a little bit of English and to read was the Bible that she had. And so she's just sharing the good news with this group of people.

And all they kept saying over and over and over was we cannot, we can't believe that God would not spare his son for us. What in the world have we done to earn this? Because there's nothing we could do to earn it. And they're just pouring out their gratitude and pouring out their gratitude and pouring out their gratitude. And so with the song, How great thou art in the back of his mind, this missionary, Stuart Hein, sits down at the door of this woman sharing the gospel with these people and just begins to jot down the wall. words that they were saying. And this is how we get what we sing is the second verse of how great thou art. And when I think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die.

And then parenthetically, he says this, I scarce can take it in. This is Heinz's version of, I can't get over the gospel. And when I think, like not just go to church because that's what you do. And then you know, we're going to do like three songs. and there's going to be a video and then I talk and then you've got to get your kids, you hustle out so you don't, you know, into things and you're thinking that. That's not what he's thinking. He's thinking when I began to let my mind get around this idea that God sent his son and he didn't spare him.

He sent him to die. I scarce can take it in. I can't get my mind around it. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. then there's a thing that stirs in you. And that thing that stirs in you is the chorus of this old hymn. Then sings my soul. You don't hum that, man.

I mean, how does the soul sing? That's different than Christian karaoke, right? Sing along with the words on the screen. That's not what we're talking about here. That means when you experience the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you begin to think about it and you scarce can take it in, And you get your eyes fixed on Christ on the cross, then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art.

How great thou art. That's what we're going to do. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. That song is old, man. But we're going to sing in it a new way. And I'm telling you, I want you, I dare you, to take a step of obedience in the direction of Jesus in regards to worship. For some of you, it would mean move your lips. Sing loud enough to make an audible noise.

That'd be cool. For some of you, get your hands out your pockets. Honestly, by the time we get to how great thou art, every single person in here that knows Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I would do what he says do and lift your hands in the sanctuary. And at the soul level, just say, you are worth it. You are worthy, you are worthy, you are worthy. Would you please stand?

Let me pray for you. our good and gracious heavenly Father God. We love you more than anything because you love us first. And Lord, I pray that we would be a people that could never, ever, ever get over the gospel. That every single time we get an opportunity to gather together because of what Christ has done for us, that at the soul level, we would cry out. We would sing loudly.

We would lift our hands. We would bow down before you. We would hall Yahweh, and we would declare how. great thou art, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what you did through your son, Jesus Christ. May this be a worshiping church, God. And may you fill us up in here so that we continue to worship with our lives when we walk out of here to do all the things you have called us to do. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to respond. We worship God by bringing our first and best. Hopefully you know how to do that. We worship God. Some of you

need to come and bow down like the psalmist says and every single one of us need to sing to the Lord make a joyous noise make a loud noise and declare how great thou are let's respond