The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 21: Praise the Lord

Episode Date: September 11, 2022

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! – Psalm 150:6 No matter the season you find yourself in, the condition of your heart or the circumstances of your life, it is always the right time to Praise the Lord because He is worthy of your worship. Join with all of creation in making much of our King.

Happy deal, Chair. It's doing good. Good, great. Grab your Bibles. I hope you got them. Psalm 148, 149, and 150. We're going to knock out three in our 21st and final week. And I would also, like for all of our campuses to welcome for the very first time,

our very first corporate gathering at our Orange Park campus. Can you say welcome to Orange Park? All right. We're going to dig right in. 21st week. I've heard somebody told me, they're like, I can't believe the Psalms is going to be over. All right? Well, just let me warn you.

It ain't like we're going to be teaching from Harry Potter next week. You understand? We still go just to teach out of the Bible, so get over. All right. This is, we declared at the beginning of this year, this is the year of worship. And so that's a big part of the reason we've studied 21 weeks in the book of Psalms. And one of the things that I just noticed this week, I don't know why I just paid attention to it for the first time, but I did, is that if you remember at the very first week, Psalm 1, it starts out with a Psalm about the Word of God.

That's what it starts with, right? Blessed is he who does not walk in the way of the wicked or stand the way in the center or sit in the seat of the mocker, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And upon his law, he meditates day and night. That's how it starts. It starts with the scripture, starts with the Word of God. And then by the time you get through the 150th Psalm, it ends with, here's how you worship God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

In Psalm 148, 149, and 150, it's going to say praise the Lord 25 times. So it starts with the Word, and it ends with the command. to worship, and I don't know if you've ever heard this around here, but the reason that we gather is to glorify God in worship and word, to make much of him through song and scripture, and that's what all of the Psalms is about. I think that's really cool. I wish I'd have figured it out 10 years ago when we planted the church, but that's all right. I'm a little slow on the uptake, okay?

Don't worry about it. So what we're going to talk about here is what it looks like to worship. Psalm 148 starts out this way. Praise the Lord, exclamation point. This is a command. This is not if you feel like it. This is not Hummelong if you like the song. This is praise the Lord.

We have been learning all year, and we have been growing in the area of worship. And you may ask the question, well, what is worship? We all worship something. We are all wired to worship. And I'm not going to Jesus juke you on everything, okay? It's like the natural response that we have towards a thing that we think is worth it. That's what worship is. Now, the one true God is the only one worthy of our worship,

but there are shadows of it that are not a terrible thing, okay? So like the queen passed away today. And I'm not an expert on European history. I don't know if you knew that or not. However, seems to be 70 years of an honorable life of serving her country and her people, all right? And so that thing that is compelled in the people of England to go to the different sites,

go to bow moral where she passed away in Scotland, or go to where she lives and lay down flowers. What they're saying is, I am setting my affection on this person because they are worthy to be honored. So every single one of us has this thing in us. We all worship something. So what is it to worship God?

Here's what it is, okay? It is setting our heart's affection. See, Psalm 37, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. It's when you set the affections of your heart. something. It's when we set our minds attention. We've already said, Psalm 1 says that we're to meditate on his law day and night. It's also when we put our body's position. The Bible's going to say we're going to tell us in Psalm 149 to sing, to lift our hands, to bow down to the Lord. And it's also

when we when we bring to the Lord our soul's desperation. If you'll remember Psalm 42 as the dear pants for the water, so my soul longs for you. The worship is not a compartmentalized part of our human experience. Moses is going to tell the nation of Israel, Shemaa Israel. Elohainu, Adonai, Elohanu, Achad. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And when you get a picture of the one true God, the normative natural response is what worship is. and you shall love the Lord of your God with all. What does all include? All your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all of your strength.

So worship it in just like the 23 minutes when we sing songs. Worship is our heart's affection, our mind's attention, our body's position, and our soul's desperation for the one true God. And what we are saying in worship is this, God, I want to love you with all because you are worth it. you are worthy of my worship. Praise the Lord, exclamation point. Now he's going to say it 24 more times. Keep counting if you like.

Praise the Lord. From the heavens. Now let me tell you this little phrase in our Bible, praise the Lord, capital L-O-R-D. It's literally in Hebrew, two Hebrew words that we smash together into an English transliteration of the Hebrew word, and we say hallelujah, or alleluia.

And it's two words. It's halal. Say halal. I didn't do it good enough. Go like halal. Yeah, you're so good, okay? Halal, Yahweh. Yahweh is the covenant name of God.

It's just four letters, the tetragram. It's supposed to sound like, they didn't do vowels in written Hebrew back in the day, okay? And it's supposed to sound like breathing. To breathe in, to breathe out. Yahweh, that the one true God who was and is and is to come, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. that God is as close as your next breath,

the covenant name of God, and we are to halal him. Halal was not a religious word. Halal was like a party word. Halal was a parade word. Halal literally means in Hebrew to lift up your hands, jump up and down and turn in circles. Can I go to witness from our Pentecostal brothers and sisters, all right? All right.

Of course you're here on the front row on a Thursday. Great. So, sometimes when songwriters do a real slow, Hallelujah. I mean, you should still sing it. It's great. It's fine. But it's technically wrong. You can't slowly, just slowly lift your hands and slowly. That's not a way, it's not a pirouet, okay? This was a party. This is what this was. So when this thing says, Hala, Hala Yahweh exclamation point, this means we're about to get hype. That's what it means. Now listen, Baptist, okay? Just hang in here, okay? We're going to get your Bible.

We're going to read straight from them. Lutherans, y'all don't even know what to do, all right? Catholic, so glad you're here. We'll talk about you in a minute, too. And the instruction is, halal Yahweh. Praise the Lord. From the heavens. Praise him in the heights. That's up in the heavens, too.

Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts. That word literally means armies. Praise him like the angelic armies. Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all you shining stars. Praise them, you highest heaven. and you waters above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord, exclamation point.

This is not a request. And what you need to know, if you want to flip to the very end of the book, get to the book of Revelation. By the way, if you're new to Bible study, it's not Revelations, plural. John had one revelation, and he wrote it all down. And in chapters 4, 5, 8, 20, and 21, we get a picture, a vision, a revelation of not what is going to happen one day in the sweet by and by when Jesus comes to get us and take us home. But what is happening right now, and then one, two, three, four, five, five different chapters

of the book of Revelation, what we see is angels gathered around, we see elders gathered around, we see these freaky animals gathered around. I mean, they got like a lion, a bear, a human face, and eyes all over them. Think about that, fellas. Year season starts Saturday in Georgia. Imagine you walking into the woods and you saw the lion bear scorpion face human. What would you, I mean, we'd take a shot. But you know what I'm saying. What it means is all of creation is around the throng.

The elders of the 12 tribes are laying down their crowns. And again, this isn't happening one day. In the current reality right now, that is going on. And the Bible says that the elders never stop laying. down their crowns and they are singing the forever song. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. That's the long way of saying Yahweh, because if your name is the I am that I am, that means you always was, you always will be, and you always are right now. That ain't good English, but I nailed it theoretically, all right? That's who he is,

and it's happening right now. And then you and I are invited into that, like when Jesus is praying on earth as it is in heaven in regards to worship, that's what he's talking about. This thing we're doing is a transcendent moment. It's a thing, man. C.S. Lewis describes worship this way. He says, worship might be best imagined as thinking about our instinctive response to a great work of art or a beautiful symphony or an extraordinary beauty in any form. The natural response is, first, to pause and engage.

joy, the beauty, and then to announce it to others. Such a response of a shared enjoyment may come on many levels. Like, wasn't that a spectacular sunset this evening? Or, I wish you could have seen the fresh fallen snow. It makes everything so beautiful. Or, I wish you could have seen the mother dear and her two speckled little ones. Or have you seen UGA beat Bama 3218? I added the last part, but that's what I'm talking about. Okay. That's what worship is. When you see something, when you experience something, when you know something that wows you, that thing that comes up in you, that's what worship is.

And we are to set our mind, our heart, our soul, and our strength on the only one worthy of our worship, praise the Lord. Then he keeps going, for he commanded and they were created. All of the heavenlies that he just described. He just in a word, he said, and it was there. All of it. Verse six, and he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Remember that little song we used to sing his kids?

He's got the whole world in his hands. Yeah, the psalmist would say he still got the whole world in his hands. He gave a decree and it shall not. passed away. He is all powerful. He is all knowing. He is never changing. That means he's omnipotent. He's immutable. And he's good. And because he's good, our response is, praise the Lord. So he's been in the heavens. The angels, the angel armies, the host, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, everything's praising him. And then he drops it down and says, praise the Lord from the earth. That's me and you. You great sea creatures in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word.

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds. That all of those things that he created with a word, they praised the Lord. Let me ask you this, man. You ever seen a bird dog hunt? Come on, man. Like, you ever, see, our problem, we breathe too much air-conditioned air and look at too many blue screens. It got us all the life.

I don't know what to do, okay? One of the things, there's God's general revelation in this world. You see a bird fly? I told you, I'm into birds, man. I put some birdhouses in my backyard. Feeder added a hummingbird thing this week. My worship turned up a notch, all right? My kids make fun.

I mean, they're like, Dad's so old. You're out here, you know, just looking at birds. When you watch a bird, you know what a bird does? A bird does what a bird was created to do. You don't see a bird swimming in my pool. It wouldn't make any sense, right? And the hummingbird looks like an angel, just like a zzz up in there, you know, gets this little nectar stuff, whatever it is, out of there. It's incredible. And of all the options it has, all the different, well, bird people get into some bird food.

I'm going to tell you this, but I am bird people now. So, you know what he does? The hummingbird never tries to get the cardinal food. He don't do it, man. He goes right back to the food that I bought for him, and he just does what God created him to do. And apparently, according to Psalm 148, to the glory of God.

You ever be out fishing and watch a fish swim? Doesn't even look like to try hard, does it? Just gone. It's incredible. Or you ever see a bird dog hunt? You know what? You don't have to coax them into the hunt. You don't.

It's incredible to just watch that dog do what it, was created to do. It'll ignore all kind of distractions. Trucks drive by, people go by, there's guns, there's talking, there's ATVs, there's all of that. But when that bird dog gets the scent of the bird that it's after, everything changes. Its focus goes towards it. And without even trying or convincing itself, it just does what it was created to do. And what it is doing is praising the Lord by being itself. Think about that. Worship, what if he thought about it this way? One way to think about worship is doing what you are supposed to do, what you were created to do, and what you were created to do is give God the glory, is praise the Lord by being who God

created you to be. And we're the only thing on the entire creation that said, nah, we got this. everything else on the planet obeys the Lord and we rebelled and we fix our attention and we fix our affection on us and then what we do is we begin to use stuff and status and people to build a throne to ourselves and build honestly a miserable little kingdom without Jesus sitting on the throne and here's the thing man he loves you too much

to let you sit on the throne of your own life That's why when God says he is a jealous of you You think God's like, how is that a birdhouse like that? He creates the birds. He knows when they're coming and when they're dying. He knows, man. Now, he's jealous for us The way anybody that loves his people

and is in a position of authority would be jealous for their position. Here's what I mean by this. Husbands, imagine this. Imagine you come home from work one day and there's another guy at your house and be like, hey man, what's you doing? What's up?

You hear what's going on? And he goes, yeah, man, I'm Ted. And I don't think you've been a very good dad. I don't think you've been a very good husband, so I think I'm going to take over from here. All right. I'm just telling you, if that happens in my house, oh, we're going to be on the news tonight, you understand?

Oh, yeah. And you think fast, man, think about it this way. Hey, mama, imagine you got home. and there was a woman in your house she's sitting at your vanity putting on your favorite makeup whatever you know just doing it all excuse me can i help you um yeah i don't think you've been a good mom okay you're not sweet enough you're not tender i have children's books to read to your children and i'm old i'm and you haven't been respectful to your husband enough so i'm here to take over that spot well would you man you'd scratch your eyeballs out wouldn't you to the

the glory of God. Every single time we try to sit on the throne of our own life, essentially what we're saying to the one true God, who is almighty, who is all powerful, who loves us, and is good, is say, forget you, I can do a better job of this than you can. And he lovelingly says, scoot over. Get off the throne. That's my seat. You see, let me ask this, what were you created to do? The answer is to worship. So then how? How has God wired you to bring him glory. Because we're not all created the same, man. The Bible says that we're one body with many parts. That the body of Christ has all kind of different shapes and sizes and gifts and spiritual gifts and abilities and experiences and passions and all of those kind of things.

Are you leveraging your life in such a way, man? I mean, what is it in your life when you can just bird dog it and you do the thing God created you to do for his glory? I mean, because of your patience and grace and generosity, I get to do this, and I think God put me on the planet to do it. I mean, a long time ago, 30, but a long time ago, good gracious, 40 years ago, for the very first time I stood in front of a group of people and opened my Bible and preached. And when I got finished, Coach Bull Lee, the football coach that led me to Christ,

said, boy, when you teach the Bible, I see two things happen. I see you come alive, I see them come alive. And so what is that thing for you? because if the stars do what they do for the glory of God and the sea creatures do what they do for the glory of God and the birds in my backyard and the bird dogs do what they do for the glory of God what does that mean for you and then he said the kings of the 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 the Bible would have us know that worship is a movement for all people amen that's rich people that's poor people that's powerful people that's just getting started people that's old people that's young people that's all people are to praise the name of the Lord and then it says for why why are you to praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted in other words because he is worth it one of the things you do in worship is you were just declaring you are worth it. It's why you lift your hands.

It's why you open your hands. It's why you open your mouth. What you're saying is you are worth it. And if you were sitting next to somebody and you felt like they got a little too into it, you know, they might need, they kind of need a little space. Here's all they're saying, man. First of all, they're like, I don't really care what you think because I ain't singing to you. I'm singing, okay, that he's worth it. So worship is just simply this, man. Is he, is he worth of your song? And is he worthy of your money? And he's worthy of your service and is he worthy of your life? I've talked about this one several times lately, but I can't get away from it. In John chapter 12, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who has just been resurrected from the grave, she knows

that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. She knows that he is the son of God. He is the lamb that has come to be slain for the forgiveness of sin. And by the power of his speech brought her dead brother out of the grave after he was dead for four days. And she even warned him, Lord, he stinketh. And yet he still, Lazarus, come forth. And then they throw a party, and she goes and gets the most expensive thing she has. An alabaster jar. It would have been worth, it would have taken her a lifetime to purchase that. And she breaks it open and pours it out on to Jesus. And it's the religious people that think, yeah, what are you doing? Do you know what we could have used that for? And what she's saying in her action is, hey, you think whatever, what do you want to think? What I'm telling you is he is worth it.

My question to you is, what is he worth to you? It will show up in the way you worship. His majesty is above earth and heaven. Verse 14, he has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Now, according to the book of Romans, chapters 9, 10, and 11, that we, you and I, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, when the old covenant says the people of Israel who are near to him, they are talking about you and me

because through the blood of Jesus, we are receivers of the promise of faith that was given to Abraham. That we are the people of God, and this is make your head explode. we have been grafted into the chosen people and we are near to him, not because of the things that we have done,

we are near to him because the Son of God put on flesh and came on a rescue mission for you and I. The only way we can be near to him is because he came after us. And the moment you begin to realize that the normative natural response to Jesus Christ coming after you and the God of the universe doing everything it took for you to be reconciled unto him that we, the people of God,

could be near to him. The response is this, praise the Lord. Halal Yahweh. 149. Praise the Lord. Starts the second verse same as the first. He likes it. Okay.

This is the 10th one. Praise the Lord. Then it says, sing. Sing. Sing to the Lord a new song. Worship is way more than singing, but it's never less than singing. God enjoys when his children sing to him. Sing to the Lord a new song.

His praise in the assembly of the godly. There's a bunch here. I've covered this before, but just for review, when the Bible says new song, it doesn't just mean like every time you come in, it's like, you know, top 40 hits. That's not what it's talking about. It literally is a victory chant. That in Israel's time, they would get.

gather the army of Israel together, and they would chant this victory song, and then they would go fight. God would give them the victory, and then they would come back and sing the new song, and the new song was a victory chant to the Almighty God. Now, post-resurrection, I don't know if you've read to the end of the book, but I got really good news. We won. The reason we can show up and sing with victory is because it is finished.

The debt has been paid for. That the Bible in the book of Revelation describes the enemy, our enemy, our enemy, and who wants to steal, kill, and destroy as a dragon with a mortal head wound, that when he tried to bruise our Savior's heel on the cross, his head was crushed, and he is bleeding out. He's like, if you watch UFC, I don't know if you should or not, but let's just say I'd do a lot. And when they get that rear naked choke in there tight, it's just a matter of time, and then as soon as he wants to go, nighty night, it's over.

From this time until the consummation of all things, the Savior of the universe has got the rear naked on the enemy, and whenever he's ready, he can tap, snap, or nap. It's up to him. It's over. Actually, he gets cast in the hell forever, never, never, ever. All right, so that's what's happened. In the assembly, we sing the new song in the assembly of the godly. Oh, who is that? Now, you know the answer, because you've been well trained here, that because of the death of Jesus, when we put our faith in him, we are imputed with the righteousness of Christness of Christ, and it's not by our godly behavior. It's what Christ has done for us, that we are the godly. This is who he's talking about. This isn't check your resume at the door

and all the godly people to get to come in. None of us would be here. Be an empty church. But because of Christ, life, death, and resurrection, for whoever believes in him, he becomes our sin, pays the full price, puts death to death, and we become the righteousness of Christ. And when God sees us, he sees his perfect son. And you and I are the assimilation. of the Godly. And this is a really big deal. We are supposed to sing to the Lord a new song, His praise, in the assembly of the godly. The book of Hebrews is going to say, don't give up on meeting together. This thing that we do together, when we get together at all of our campuses, at all the places, it is not just a little song and dance. It is not just a little activity

that you can check the box. It is not just me sharing with you some information from a book this several thousand years old and karaoke Christian stuff. That's not what we're doing in here, man. When the Bible says that we are to do this, assemble together, the thing that is happening in this moment, what you were a part of right now is supernatural. Do you know what happens in our gatherings? People get healed of cancer, man.

In our gatherings, man, addictions are broken. Marriages are restored. Pradical kids come home. I'm telling you, man, crazy thing. The only eternal miracle, which is somebody gets saved, because listen, man, if you get healed of cancer, praise God for you, love it, can't wait to celebrate your story,

and you're still going to die. It just ain't going to be soon. It's going to be like many, many, many moons around. But everybody that got healed in the Bible, guess what? They still die. Anybody seen Lazarus lately? Bro died twice.

Think about that. But the only eternal miracle is when we go from death to life and God redeems us, and we will be in his presence forever. and ever and ever and ever and ever and the assembly matters look man if COVID taught me anything they taught me a lot of things I'm about to get in trouble again if it taught me anything it taught us how important it is for the church to gather together to make much of God amen we gather in the assembly of the godly verse two let Israel be glad in his maker let the children

of Zion rejoice in their king again when it talks about Israel we know, according to the book of Romans, he's talking about believers in Jesus. And so there are two things that we are to be, glad, and we are to rejoice. Now listen, I get it. You can't always be happy based on your circumstances. I got it, man. And it's okay to not be okay. And you don't have to like have a little pep talk with yourself every time before you come to church.

put your fake self together and lie to everybody and act like everything's okay. The fake you's doing just fine. You never had to fake it here. So for sure, and we've studied this all throughout the Psalms, right? David looks at his own soul and has a conversation with his own soul. Why are you downcast my soul? And so when it's time to lament, you lament and you praise God through it. This is no place to fake it. But the general disposition of the believer in Jesus,

if you know the maker and if you know Christ as your king, you should be glad and full of joy. You see, God is love. He has to be stirred to wrath. Think about that. So let me just put it on the bottom shelf for everybody. If your general disposition is grumpy, you ain't doing it right. I'm just telling you, you ain't doing it right.

Why? First Corinthians 13 says, love ain't grumpy. In the Greek, it says, love is not easily. angered. You know what easily angered is? Grumpy. Why you're so grumpy? I'm just easily angered. Love ain't that. God is love. If you know him, you ain't supposed to be like that. Why do so many grumpy Christians, man? I mean, seriously, even if people don't believe what we believe, if you were just, you know, ask people, what do you think about Christians? You think they're going to go. I got two words for them. Joy and gladness. No, I'm at grumpy. Grumpy. And we shouldn't be grumpy.

I get it again. I'm not saying you got to fake it. You see, there's a difference because joy is rooted in Jesus who never changes and happiness is based on all kind of happenstance and happening. So it's time to cry, man, cry your face off, but you can still have joy in Jesus because you know your maker, you know your master and the king of the universe is your dad. And I'm going to tell you, man, I'm kind of picking on other people because this is great. Y'all are awesome. You are. Verse three, let them praise his name with dancing. You see that? Baptist, look at at, dancing. Make melody to him with the tambourine and the liar. That's like a weird stringed instrument. Now, what this means, man, is this going to, it gets a little rowdy sometimes.

Now, you got to still, you got to read the New Testament too. First Corinthians 14 talks about orderly worship. So, again, if you're going to take a lap, you just keep it in the corners. Actually, on a worship night, I was so proud of you, hardcore Pentecostals, you brought banners, but you stayed over in the corners. It's great. The banners got out and you were, I mean, you were just ripping them, man. My crew was like, we got banners. I was like, well, they went where I told them and go, so praise the Lord, this is orderly worship.

They checked with the elder, and that's what we said. So good did the job, okay? Because while we're dancing and while we're tambourine, and I should tell you this, one time early in the early days, we were next door, and this guy comes in, and most of our, like, Nehemiah, I don't know, they didn't have a ton of church background, apparently. This guy walks with a shofar.

You know what shofar is? It's a ram's horn. Well, in the dark, it kind of looks like a crooked AR, you know what I mean? You guys are like, we got a, you know, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, it's just a, it's just a, you know, the shofar must go on, right? And we're, bands up there, and I jocles, and it don't sound good. It's just like, hmm, it makes you want to eat a re-coli, you know, it makes you throat feel better. And so we just had to gently tell the guy, hey, man, you know, band tryouts are next week, so we're all set for this week, and this ain't bringing your own tamper. Marine night, so.

But if it gets a little rowdy, we need to get some freedom for people to move around. Let me tell you what a dance ain't. That ain't a dance, man. Okay? That oftentimes, too, listen, we are a unified psychosomatic being. These things are not separate. And sometimes, you know, like you've been just doing your day. Like, I get ready for this service literally for about four hours.

I'm ready to go. You, some of you, came straight from traffic and worked. and oftentimes, I think some of the reasons that the Bible gives us positions to put our body in is sometimes the heart and the soul and the mind are going to follow the position of the body. So I don't care if you feel like raising your hands. If you just do it a little bit, it's amazing how to lift up your eyes and lift up your soul and lift up your heart, you know. And if sometimes when you need to let go of some stuff, you'll just sing a song and be like, Lord, I'm just, there's nothing in my hands. It's actually in my heart, but I'm going to use my hands and say, God, can you just, I just need to let go.

owe us some stuff, some worry, some anxiety, and I'm having a hard time, like, vibing with you right now because I'm thinking about all these other things, and then you flip them over and be like, Lord, could you just pour it out on me again so I could, you know, and then your body and your heart and your soul will follow the way you position yourself. So praise the Lord, man. Praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with a tambourine. Verse four, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people. But the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

God's really into you. If you're in Christ, God is really, really into you. You can take that too far for sure, but I think sometimes we're in the wrong ditch. Let me tell you who needs to hear that in the most. Southern Baptists and Catholics. Look at me in the face. God's really into you, man.

Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. The amount of guilt you did, I'm telling you. And listen, and it ain't because of you. It's not like, he's like, wow, didn't see that coming. They went to church twice in a row. Nah, man. You see, one of my favorite verses is from 1 John, and it says, and this is love.

Not that we love God, but God loved us, and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. And that word propitiation means a lot for you right now. Propitiation is a theological term. It has to do with the wrath of God. That your sins are expunged and his wrath is satisfied. The short definition is perpetuation is the payment that satisfies. So when Jesus Christ pushed up on his nail-pierced feet and says, it is finished, he fully satisfied the justice and the wrath of a holy and perfect God.

And if you are in Christ, then God cannot be dissatisfied in you. Because to be dissatisfied in you would mean that Jesus was not the payment that satisfies. Like on God's refrigerator in heaven, he's got a picture of you on it. Remember if you're a parent and you take your kids to like when they first started doing sports, they're pitiful. It's not even a sport. Let's be honest. It's not even a sport.

It's just rando kids and uniforms. And it doesn't matter at all what they do. You're just so, you're so. And in fact, if it does bother you, if their behavior bothers you, it says everything about you and your pride and insecurity, not them. Every time I talk about it, I can only think of this time I was coaching. I tell you this every time, but I don't care. I was coaching coach pitch baseball. And the most important position in coach pitch baseball is none of the players.

It's the coach. Because what you've got to do is go, all right, buddy, swing. And when they swing, and then your job is to throw it back in that exact spot. Do it again, right? And so you get on the field with them, you know, because they can't really stay together. Honestly, baseball for little children is the worst sport ever. I love baseball, go braves, hope we win it all again, can't stop the chop. However, it's, you know, it ain't a lot happening for a long time there's out there like this.

And I look over, my third baseman is laying face first in the dirt with his brim of his hat. His hands were down here, and he's using the brim of his hat to scoop up a little like, it looks like an ant male. And I thought, and then I was going to tell him to get up, but I thought he's going to take one right in the nose to be. That's probably the safest position that he can be is down there like that. I look over his mom. She's like, look at him. No, you know? And I'm just telling you, I'm telling you, man, on your best day, on your best day, when the Lord looks at you, you just laying out on third base, just scooping that thing up. And he's into it, man. I'm telling you, he loves it. He loves you, he loves you, he's into you. He takes pleasure in you. So when you worship, you see, propitiation is not the, it's just the

starting line to our walk with him, that he continuously takes delight in you, takes pleasure in you because of the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ. And he adorns the humble with salvation. You know what you need to be saved? Need. That's why Jesus says, that's hard for rich people need to heaven, because they don't think they need anything. And if you've put your faith in Jesus, you got to a place where you humbled yourself and said, I need you to do for me what I cannot do. That's what salvation is. And when we worship, it is a reenactment of our moment of salvation every single time we worship. Because worship is a humility declaration.

Because you ain't singing to you. And I don't know if you noticed the songs we pick. We don't pick a lot of prom songs to Jesus about you and your feelings. It's not what we do. Think about what we sang today. How majestic is your name. I delight in you, greater you, Lord. We don't sing how majestic is my name.

I delight in me and great. to my Lord. No, no, no, no. What every time we worship, what we're saying is there is a throne, and you're sitting on it, not me. It matters. That he adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exalt in glory, let them sing for joy on their beds. That word exalt literally means show or feel triumphant elation. That's what we're supposed to do. We should have triumphant elation. Triumphant, because because we know that Jesus is the victor and elation, because there is an emotional response to that.

And then he goes on to say, let them sing for joy on their beds. Is this affecting you at home? If it's not, you ain't worshipping right. That we do worship together collectively in the assembly of the godly, but it does not stop here. When we walk out of this place,

we continue all the way to we lay our head on the pillow and we continually exalt him in glory. It's what we do. And then it gets kind of weird. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and the two-edged sword in their hand. All right. What just happened? We're packing at church.

Is this what's happening? It keeps going. To execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the judgment written. Well, that escalated quickly, didn't it? Thought we were saying, and I exalt thee. Now we were executing people. What is happening?

I'll tell you what's happening. Worship is not only singing songs in here, it's fighting for justice out there. That's what worship is, man. We're about to roll in the next two years and for the rest of our existence. Jesus talks about the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

But he has come that we may have life and have it abundantly. And we're about to fight for the abundant life for all people from womb to tomb. And it's going to be a fight. And that's what we do, fight. Because if we just show up and sing the songs and we don't go fight for the people that Jesus died for,

according to the prophet Amos, God says through Amos to the Assembly of Israel, stop singing your songs, they make me sick. Can you imagine if the heavens cracked open? And God said, stop it. Why? And he said this. He says, let justice roll down like a river.

Because what they were doing is they were showing up to church and they were singing all the songs with their hands up like you're supposed to. But when they left and they were treating people, as objects. And these are people created in the image of God. You see, here's what it means.

Here's what justice is. By the way, justice in the Bible needs no, it doesn't need an adjective in front of it. It's just justice. It means treating people like the image bears

that they are. And this is two ways. And what's crazy is throughout church history, most people have just picked one or the other. I hope you know that God does not live under the tyranny of the or, but he owns the genius of the end. That it is gospel declaration and gospel demonstration. That it's gospel declaration. Because if all you do is fight against the suffering of people on this planet

and just feed them well on their eternity to hell, then what in the world have you actually done for them? We want to fight against all suffering, especially eternal suffering. So you preach the gospel. But not only do you declare the gospel, you have to demonstrate the gospel from womb to tomb. And this means, as believers, this is a double-barreled approach. This means top-down institutional, and it means grassroots personal responsibility. And the Bible teaches both of those. And so we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And the way we do it, the way we glorify God, the way we worship God. when we gather in this assembly, we exalt him, we make much of his name, and then we leave this place and we declare the gospel and we demonstrate the gospel so that all people can discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. And then in 150, he turns the corner. Okay? In 150 he turns the corner. He says, praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. What we're doing here, again, is a really, really big deal. And I don't know if you see this here, but when we worship together,

when we do all these things that he's about to say to do, sing and he's going to mention a bunch of instruments, when we do this, we are invited into what is happening in heaven right now. Do you realize what a big deal is? Have you ever been invited to a thing, a party, an event, and you show up and you look around and you go, I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Have you ever done that?

Okay, well, trust me. As a redneck from Dillon, South Carolina, that is my experience very often these days. One was this week. So there are these ministries that we support, right? And we'll tell you all about them when Ten Ten Life comes out. And one of them I was at this week,

and we were there, and it's a big fundraiser thing. And they do this auction. You've ever been, you know, this awesome. It was in Nashville, Tennessee, and so the guy was like, come on, you do that thing? And the first thing up that they were auctioning for this partner that we have was a trip to Cabo.

And I thought, you know what, this is a good organization that we part. I think I might, you know what, I got a little folding chains these days. I might make a bid on this thing, right? And they go, opening bid, $100,000. And I went, I'm in the wrong, whatever am I doing here? What the heck?

100,000. Okay, all right, so. Can you imagine? Hey Gretchen, good news, bad news. Good news, we're going to Cabo. What's the bad news? We've got to sell our house to pay for Cabo. All right.

So it's like that. I don't know why. I was, you know, you get invited to a thing. And you're like, I don't, why am I here? Who invited me to be at this? I can't even play the game that everybody's playing, right? Do you realize worship is that? I don't know if you ever heard an angel sing.

Or the elders lay down their crowns. or the chair of them play their harps and blow the trumpets and you don't understand what i'm saying and we us little island of misfit toys in jacksaville and jess up and watching online we have been invited into an event that we have no business being there except one thing the man on the middle cross said we could come that the son of god said this was with me come on listen to this one sing I'm telling you, man. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his mighty deeds. What deeds? You could go back to your gratitude list. That's a great source to get you going on worship. Some of his mighty deeds are the cross and resurrection. He's always worthy to be praised for those. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

And then what he's going to do is going to get specific to the Israelites during this day. what you'll find when it comes to worship in the Bible is in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, it was written to one people, they all lived in the same place, they all live together. And so there was prescriptive commands about worship. Use these instruments, don't use those, those kind of thing. But in the New Testament, you don't find that kind of prescription. Why? Because it's to all people in all times everywhere. And so he says, praise them with trumpet sound, praise them with the lute and the heart, praise him with tambourine and dance. There it is again, Baptist. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him. For some of y'all, that pipe doesn't mean

what you think it means. Okay, stop. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding symbols. Praise him with loud, clashing symbols. Wow. Now, I think what's happening, I think if you read the Bible, cover to cover, here's what I think you get when it comes to worship and instruments and all of that. Just you use the instruments that make the most sense for that culture and that day and time. that God does not have a preferred style. I mean, we think God likes better. Latin music or Gregorian chant? Is it hip-hop or old English hymns?

Well, everybody knows country. That's what's favorite, but... Oh, man. And oftentimes at church, people, they try to take their preferences, what they're used to, what they grew up with, and try to elevate that as a precept of God. And in John chapter four, Jesus makes it abundantly clear.

He's talking to the Samaritan woman that culturally everybody would say you're not supposed to talk to her. But he's like, I created her. I'm about to save her, so I do what I want. And they start talking about worship. And Jesus has this very famous saying that he says this. A lot of people miss this. God is looking for worshippers who worship in spirit and truth. He doesn't say he's looking for worship.

It's not like he's up there going, God, if you sing my song. No, man. He's looking for his children to partner with the spirit of God in you and to say true things. Both of those things are important. He's looking for worshippers to worship him in spirit and truth. So, man, praise God for hymns. Hems are awesome. Okay? But, you know, they were just written a few hundred years ago with the instruments that were available that day. All right? It's funny. I hear some people, Theologically, it's called the regulatory principle. There are some churches that say, if it doesn't specifically say that instrument in the Bible, then you can't use it. And most of the time, where you read about it is they wrote it on a laptop and put it on the internets,

which is also not in the Bible. But don't worry about that, okay? Here's the thing, man. All kind of different styles, all kind of different people. Worship is our expression to God to say, you are worth it. You are worth it. And there's all kind of different expressions all over the world.

and I think it's evidence that God is a God of variety, and he loves all people that love him. And so we just worship with the instruments that he's given us, okay? So depending on where you're from, man, like if you're in Tennessee, you're probably going to have a banjo, right? And if you're in France, you're going to have a whatever those people have. Right? And if you're from Gainesville, you're going to worship in jeans shorts.

Like, it's just who you are is what you're bringing. And then he says this, let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 25 times we get halal Yahweh. Psalm 150 could be summed up this way. Where? In the sanctuary and in the skies? Why?

For what he has done and for who he is? How? All kind of different instruments. And who? Everybody with breath. Praise the Lord. Amen? So really, the big idea of all the Psalms is this.

No matter the season you find yourself in, of your heart or the circumstances of your life, it's always the right time to praise the Lord because he is worthy of your worship. And may we join with all of creation to make much of our king. And the way we end every service, see some of you, you've heard this too much, so you kind of tune out, okay? But don't even put your Bibles up. I'm not going to read another verse, we're done, but just keep it open so you don't move. You see, the reason we make such a big deal about the end of the service is because this is exactly what we're trying to do. We're trying to respond to him in worship.

In worship. And occasionally we'll do some different stuff, but typically we respond in three ways, and it matters like crazy. Because all throughout these three Psalms, the primary word is halal Yahweh. That's excited, that's tambourine and dancing. That's jumping around.

But there's also some words in the Psalms that come from the root word, that we get the word Sabbath, sabbat. And it means like, I will worship and bow down. I'll get really close. quiet before the Lord. And so some of you, man, I mean, you're just going through it. And you don't, your expression to the Lord right now isn't so much to like exult and jump up and down. Because you feel like, I mean, you're in the fire and cool. You worship your way through it. And we say,

want you come and pray? But you come and kneel down before your God and your maker and say, I need some help. Because he delights in you. He loves you. He finds pleasure. He finds pleasure. in you. And just like every decent parent knows, man, if your kid was in hell, if they would just come to you, you would do everything within your ability to help make it okay. And that's exactly the kind of Heavenly Father we have. And he's proved it once and for all. He sent his only begotten son to demonstrate his love for you so that you wouldn't get confused when the circumstances go your way as to whether he loves you or not, but he is already fully and finally with an exclamation point said,

I love you and I sent my son to die on the cross for you. So whatever you're going through, one of the ways you can respond in worship is you come and you pray. You cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. And we should pray like everything depends on it because it does. And we bring. If you're new to our church, you know, we don't like take up an offering. It's not what we do.

We want the time where we bring to God our ties and our hearts. offerings, our first and our best, to be a worship thing, not like a check-the-box thing. Not like a, you know, like church needs money to do this. That's not what we even talk about or do. God doesn't need your money. If he wants your money, he could just squish you right now and just, you're going to leave it all anyway. No, no, no. It's an act of worship. And we live in a world, we live in a world that wants you to think that if you could just have some more money, it will either bring you security or satisfaction. And it's a lie.

The only one that can really bring a security and satisfaction is him. And so he says, just bring to me, by faith, by faith, bring to me a portion with a cheerful heart, not because of what he can do with it, but because who he is and what he's already done. And so that's a part of our response as an act of worship. And then we sing. We sing.

And when we sing together, you know, All of our campuses sing the same words, same songs, same stanza, same, same, man. And the reason, it's just one church with a whole bunch of locations. That's it, man. We're just one big family spread out over all kind of places and spreading even more. But it's the same mission, same message, same music. Why? Because we're all in the scene together.

And imagine this. Over this weekend, you will sing with tens of thousands of people that are your brothers and sisters that gather at 1122 to cry out to God in worship. It's like all of our prayers joined together to make much of him. And that's why we sing at the end of our services. So we pray and we bring and we sing and we're going to sing the song. It's super long and it's got about a million words. Okay? But so do the Psalms.

So it's called So Will I. And I think they must have written it from these Psalms. Because it says this. It says if the stars were made to worship, so will I. And if the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. And if the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. And if the oceans roar your greatness, so will I. So for if everything exists to lift you high, so will I.

I love this. This is my favorite one. If the wind goes where you send it, so will I. If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I. If the sum of all our praises still fall shy, then we'll sing again a hundred billion times. So even if you can't keep up, just get the so will I part. And so we're just going to, the book of James says, do not be merely hearers of the word and so deceive yourself,

but do what it says. So we have heard the word, 25 times, praise the Lord. And so we're going to respond. Can't go outside anyway. Okay, let's do it. Thank you. All right?

We're going to respond. And honestly, regardless of what's happening up here, if you're not done praying, don't leave, man. you step here as long as you need to be crazy to leave the presence of the king too early would it not yeah so would you stand let me pray for you and then we are going to respond our good and gracious heavenly father god we love you more than anything because you love us first and we thank you that you have defined it and you have demonstrated your love for us and that while we were yet still sinners christ died for us that you adopted us you changed our name you changed our identity that

that you imputed us with the righteousness of your son, that you delight over your children, that you find pleasure in us. So God, may our lives declare that you're worth it to us. You're worthy of our song, you're worthy of the posture of our body, you're worthy of our heart and our soul and our mind and our strength. And so, God, may we just be a worshiping church.

church. May the words of our mouths in these songs and the meditation of our hearts, God, be pleasing unto you because we want to worship you in spirit and in truth. God, we love you. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to respond. We're going to sing. We're going to bring. We're going to pray. Let's respond.