- God alone is Worthy of worship (Ps 115:1-3)
- I Imitate what I worship. (Ps 115:4-8)
- My Dependency on God leads me to worship. (Ps 115:9-11)
- Worship is expressing my Gratitude. (Ps 115:12-25)
- Worship is my Priority. (Ps 115:16-18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:35
Alright, open up your Bibles with me please. We're actually going to be in Psalms, right in the middle of your Bible. We're going to be in Psalm 115. And on the back of your outline, or back of your bulletin rather, is an outline. And over the next three weeks as we are getting ready to go into the new ministry year, which is when? September 30th, So we have three weeks until then. So I was really praying, "God, what should we talk about over the next three weeks?" We just finished the series on forgiveness and we have three weeks.
00:35-00:41
Well, I thought it would be a great reminder of what a disciple is.
00:43-00:45
So today we're talking about worship.
00:46-00:49
A disciple worships Christ.
00:53-01:03
Quick review, pop quiz, Harvest people we need to know this, Harvest Bible Chapel, what's our mission?
01:05-01:09
And you guys can eat while I'm talking, the only person here that's not allowed to eat during the sermon is me.
01:10-01:12
Okay, so that's going to cause problems.
01:12-01:14
What's our mission statement, do you know?
01:16-01:26
To glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
01:26-01:26
Right.
01:26-01:28
The Great Commission is what?
01:28-01:35
Jesus said, "Go and make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." That's our mission.
01:35-01:37
Jesus' last command is our first priority.
01:38-01:41
In the spirit of the Great Commandment, what's the Great Commandment?
01:43-01:49
Jesus said the great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
01:50-01:53
And he said the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.
01:55-02:00
So we seek to fulfill the great commission by loving God and by loving people.
02:02-02:06
Harvest Bible Chapel is built on four pillars.
02:08-02:09
Who knows what the four pillars are?
02:09-02:10
What's the first one?
02:13-02:16
Proclaim, proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
02:17-02:19
God is not sorry that he said some things.
02:20-02:22
I'm not sorry to repeat them, right?
02:22-02:23
Anybody sorry?
02:23-02:24
God's not.
02:24-02:27
God's like, I'm the source of truth, here it is.
02:28-02:33
So when we get up and proclaim the Word of God, my job is just the megaphone.
02:33-02:37
I don't make up the message, I just want to broadcast what God has already said in his Word.
02:38-02:40
Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
02:40-02:46
The second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus through worship.
02:47-02:49
We're going to talk a lot about that today.
02:49-02:51
So the third pillar is what?
02:52-02:54
Believing firmly in what?
02:54-02:56
The power of prayer.
02:57-03:00
And the fourth pillar, Harvest Bible Chapel?
03:02-03:05
Sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
03:07-03:11
So we want to take some time to encourage disciples to be doing what disciples do.
03:12-03:13
That's what God's Word does.
03:14-03:15
So here's what disciples do.
03:16-03:19
Here's some encouragement on what we should be doing as disciples.
03:20-03:23
One of the things a disciple does is a disciple worships Christ.
03:24-03:26
So we talk about worship.
03:26-03:27
What does that look like?
03:28-03:30
What does worship look like?
03:31-03:35
It's corporate adoration in song.
03:37-03:47
When you talk to people about worship, they say, "Well, you know, to me worship is listening to sermons." But you know, worship is also corporate adoration in song, right?
03:47-03:50
Well, to me worship is when I mow my neighbor's lawn.
03:51-03:53
Worship is also corporate adoration in song.
03:54-03:56
To me worship is when I'm out fishing.
03:58-04:00
Well worship is also corporate adoration in song.
04:00-04:06
In fact, pop quiz, since we're throwing these questions out, what's the longest book in the Bible, do you know?
04:08-04:08
Psalms, right?
04:08-04:10
And what's the book of Psalms about?
04:11-04:11
Worship.
04:12-04:19
Do you think worship is important to God when the longest book in His Word, the very center of His Word, is all about what?
04:20-04:22
It's all about worship, right?
04:23-04:29
You're like, "Yeah, that's Old Testament, though." So when we get to the book of Revelation, what's happening in heaven?
04:30-04:31
Worship, right?
04:32-04:37
I don't read in Revelation where preachers are getting up, doing exegetical sermons.
04:37-04:39
I don't see that in Revelation.
04:40-04:43
People are in the presence of the God of all truth.
04:44-04:47
I don't see evangelism in heaven because...
04:48-04:49
Well, why?
04:50-04:52
Everybody there already got it, right?
04:54-04:58
It's not exactly prayer in heaven because you're communing with God in person.
05:00-05:01
Like you're there.
05:02-05:04
But do you know what I do see in heaven?
05:05-05:05
In Revelation?
05:07-05:07
Worship.
05:08-05:09
Worship.
05:09-05:10
It's a big deal to God.
05:10-05:11
It's a big deal to us.
05:12-05:38
And sometimes people come to a church like ours and are part of a worship set and sort to look around and say, "What's everyone so excited about?" My response to that is, "What are you not excited about?" Listen, it's okay to be excited in worship.
05:39-05:40
Is it okay?
05:41-05:44
It's okay to get excited in worship.
05:45-05:47
It's okay in worship to raise your hands.
05:47-05:48
Why do people raise their hands in worship?
05:48-05:50
Like, "Sam, I have a question."
05:52-05:52
(Laughter)
05:52-05:52
No.
05:55-06:02
It's sort of a physical way that we're reaching up saying, "God, I need you.
06:03-06:10
Father, I'm worshipping you and I want to receive whatever you have for me today." It's a physical response of engaging in worship.
06:10-06:16
That's why people raise their hands and sometimes people bow their heads in humility and prayer.
06:16-06:20
people lift up their eyes knowing Christ could come back in any moment.
06:21-06:23
That's the hope and the anticipation.
06:24-06:26
It's OK to get excited in worship.
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Because I guarantee you one thing.
06:31-06:32
Someday.
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Believers in Jesus Christ, someday you're going to stand before Jesus Christ, and I promise you, one thing you will not say is I spent too much time worshiping you on the earth.
06:44-06:49
You know, I just got a little too excited about worshipping you while I was on the earth.
06:49-06:52
I really should have toned that down a couple of notches.
06:52-06:55
You're not going to say that, are you?
06:55-06:56
You're going to say that?
06:57-06:59
No, absolutely not.
07:00-07:12
But sometimes in worship, church, you know, I was thinking about this this week when we told our six-year-old, Cade, to pick up his toys.
07:13-07:15
What does Cade say a lot of times when he doesn't want to pick up his toys?
07:16-07:17
He's putting them in the toy box.
07:18-07:22
And as he's doing it, he's saying, I'm not going to pick up my toys.
07:22-07:24
I'm not going to pick up my toys.
07:25-07:28
And I'm just like, you are picking up your toys.
07:28-07:29
But you know what?
07:29-07:37
That's what that's what sometimes we do in worship is we're sort of like I'm going through the motions, but my heart's not in this.
07:38-07:41
I mean, I'm standing here, words are coming out of my mouth and I'm kind of in tune and.
07:43-07:44
But my heart's really not in it.
07:46-07:48
Well let's get our hearts in it, alright?
07:50-07:58
You know when you are trying to explain something to someone, and they already know what you're talking about, what do we call that?
07:58-08:07
You say, "I know that I'm preaching to the choir, right?" That's my goal for Harvest Bible Chapel.
08:07-08:09
When I get up to speak, that's what I want to be doing.
08:10-08:11
I'm preaching to the choir.
08:11-08:15
I'm preaching to a group of passionate worshipers.
08:16-08:21
And well, here it is in your outline, five things worshipers are convinced of.
08:22-08:33
I'm going to share some things with you and some of, if you're a worshiper of Jesus Christ, if you're engaged in passionate worship, this morning you're just going to go, yep, yep, yep.
08:34-08:36
Jeff, you're what?
08:36-08:37
You're preaching to the choir.
08:38-08:38
Yep.
08:39-08:42
Five things worshippers are convinced of from Psalm 115.
08:43-08:44
Here's the first one.
08:45-08:49
God alone is worthy of worship.
08:51-08:53
God alone is worthy of worship.
08:53-08:54
Let's look at the first three verses.
08:56-09:03
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.
09:05-09:06
That sounds like that would make a good song.
09:07-09:08
We should sing that sometime.
09:11-09:12
Did Chris Tomlin read this?
09:16-09:17
He seems a little plagiarized.
09:19-09:27
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
09:27-09:28
Let's pause here for a second.
09:28-09:29
What is glory?
09:30-09:34
Glory is praise, honor, distinction.
09:34-09:38
Do you know what the word literally means in the Hebrew, the word for glory?
09:39-09:40
This is interesting.
09:40-09:41
It means weight.
09:41-09:43
W-E-I-G-H-T.
09:43-09:45
That's what glory literally means in the Hebrew.
09:45-09:46
It means weight.
09:47-09:49
We still use it like that, don't we?
09:51-10:00
For example, we say, "You know, Paul here, he carries a lot of weight in this church." Meaning, he's a pretty important guy.
10:00-10:01
It's weight.
10:02-10:07
Or when we use it negatively, we say, "Oh, he's just throwing his weight around.
10:07-10:08
That's all he's doing.
10:08-10:13
He's just throwing his weight around." Meaning he's sort of abusing his authority.
10:14-10:15
Well, that's what the Hebrew word means.
10:15-10:16
It's weight.
10:17-10:20
So when we give glory to God, understand this.
10:21-10:24
We aren't giving Him something He doesn't already have.
10:25-10:25
Did you know that?
10:26-10:29
When we give God glory, it's like, "Here you go, God.
10:30-10:49
are lacking here, so I'm going to give it to you. What you're doing is you're acknowledging what he already has and saying, God, I want you to. Carry the weight in my life, right? God, you carry all the weight of the universe. I want that in me.
10:49-11:04
That's what I want. That's what it means to give glory, acknowledging what he already possesses. He alone is worthy. Do you know? In Isaiah 42, verse eight in Isaiah 48, verse 11, God says, I will not give my glory to another.
11:05-11:06
Did you know that?
11:08-11:09
So when you talk about.
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The most glorious persons in the universe.
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There's only one on that list, and that is God.
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It's not as if there's God and some good saint or some good preacher somewhere that God's like, you know what?
11:26-11:28
He deserves a little glory.
11:28-11:32
God deserves it all. And he says, I'm not going to share it. Why?
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Because he alone is worthy. He alone. He's in a unique class.
11:41-11:47
I like to trick people with this question, I say, who is more like God, an angel, me or my dog?
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And the answer is none of the above. There is no one like God. There is no one like God.
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He is in a class all his own.
11:57-12:06
And he says, "I will not share my glory with another." That's why the psalmist here cries out, "Not to us! Not to us!" And he says it twice.
12:08-12:12
Too often we seek to ascribe that weight to ourselves.
12:13-12:14
People, we can be such glory hounds.
12:15-12:21
"Oh, oh, oh, put the spotlight on me. Oh, oh, oh, look what I did." We can be such glory hounds.
12:22-12:28
Not to us, not to us, but to your name.
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If you're not convinced that you don't deserve glory, let me ask you a couple of questions.
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What is inherently awesome about you?
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Can you tell me?
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Can you tell me something that is inherently awesome about you?
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I want to hear it.
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Here's another question.
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What do you have that wasn't given to you?
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For example, Laura can say, here's something, she wouldn't say this, but Laura could say, here's something awesome about me.
13:00-13:02
I have an incredible singing voice.
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That's great, where'd you get that?
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Where did you get that?
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God gave that to her.
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So who's the awesome one now, Laura?
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I'm safe.
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Now, now, let's not change the subject.
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Related question, what are you that you have made yourself to be?
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What are you that you have made yourself to be?
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Every good and perfect gift comes from above. Everything that you are, anything good in you, is from God. Right?
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It's not as if God was looking down from heaven and saying, You know that Brooke Rodeberger, she's got some great qualities.
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I'm going after her because I can use some of the things that she has.
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Anything that's good is from God.
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That's why the psalmist says not to us, not to us, but to your name.
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But to your name, give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
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That's why the Bible constantly tells us to humble ourselves.
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Constantly.
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Do you notice that in the Bible?
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Isaiah 57, 15, Matthew 18, 4, Luke 14, 10, Romans 12, 3, Philippians 2, verses 3 through 11, James 4, 10, 1 Peter 5, 5.
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Over and over and over and over and over.
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You know, one popular preacher, we were talking about this on the way down to church, one popular preacher says, "You know, the problem is you need to think more of yourself." The problem is I already think too much of myself.
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But the Bible says, "Humble yourself.
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Humble yourself.
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Think less of yourself and think more of God." So not to us, not to us, to your name.
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In verse 2, "Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" You know, back in Old Testament times, that was the way to insult an Israelite.
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If you saw a Jewish person and for some reason you wanted to insult them, that was how you did it.
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"Where's your God? Where's your God now? Where's your God now?" That was the insult. Not much has changed, right?
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Every hurricane, where was God at?
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Every school shooting, where's your God at?
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Every disease outbreak, where's your God?
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Always the accusation.
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Have you ever heard that?
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How do you answer that?
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I'll give you a hint.
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It's in verse three.
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This is one of my most favorite verses in the entire Bible.
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And it would do you well to memorize this verse.
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Because when people say, "Where's your God at? Where's your God at now? Where's your God at now?" Because you ask, "Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases." There's your answer. "Where's your God at now?" I'll tell you where He's at. He's on the throne of the universe.
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Why doesn't your God do something about this?
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You know what God does?
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What does God do?
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He does whatever he wants, right?
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He does all that he pleases.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Here's the awesome thing.
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God being the only being in the entire universe that this can rightly be said of, the only one in the universe that it can be said, he does everything that he wants.
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What does he choose to do?
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Look at verse 1. I have underlined in my Bible love and faithfulness.
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God could do whatever He wanted.
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God could say, "Those people rebelled and sinned against me.
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Just cast them into hell right now.
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Those people were wayward in their hearts. I'll just let them go." He could, because He can do whatever He wants.
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Do you know what He wants to do?
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He wants to love us.
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Isn't that awesome? He wants to show himself faithful to us.
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Doesn't that just give you chills?
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The God who could do whatever he wants.
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What do you want more than anything, God?
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I want my name glorified in my people as I'm blessing them, as I'm working through them, as they come to know me and the love and mercy and compassion that I have.
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Wow.
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So God alone is worthy of worship.
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And you're thinking right now, you're preaching to the choir, right?
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Well, God alone is worthy of worship.
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Number two, I imitate what I worship.
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I imitate what I worship.
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Look at verses four through eight.
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Getting back to the nations, the people that were insulting the Israelites.
18:13-18:21
He's like, "Well, let's sort of evaluate their God." They're asking where ours is. You know what the difference is between us and them? I see their God.
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He's made out of balsa wood and foil and sitting on their mantle.
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Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
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Oh, silver and gold. Must be an important God.
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Well, look at this. They have mouths but do not speak.
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Our God speaks, doesn't He?
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Huh, yeah.
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These little Mickey Mouse idols have mouths, but they don't speak.
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They have eyes, but do not see.
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They have ears, but do not hear.
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Noses, but do not smell.
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They have hands, but do not feel.
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Feet, but do not walk.
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And they do not make a sound in their throats.
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You know what those gods sound like to me?
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One word comes to mind.
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Actually several could be said.
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useless. Right?
19:16-19:32
They have all these things, but they can't do anything with them. They're dead and useless and worthless. Look at verse 8. "Those who make them become like them.
19:34-19:51
So do all who trust in them." What he's saying is the idols are useless, the idols are worthless, And people that choose to invest their lives in worshipping something other than the living God, they are what?
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They are as worthless and useless and dead and powerless as that thing sitting on the shelf.
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They have as much power as that trinket.
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The people that make them are like that and so are the people that worship them.
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Idolatry has always been a problem for mankind.
20:17-20:24
Instead of worshipping the unseen creator, man has a tendency to worship something that's seen.
20:25-20:31
As I heard one preacher say one time, "God made man in his own image and man returned the favor." True.
20:34-20:36
You become like what you worship.
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become like who you worship. For example, if you worship money, as Jesus warned, you can't serve God in money. Some people opt to worship money. Money in and of itself, powerless. People that worship money, think of somebody that's consumed with it.
21:00-21:10
Always thinking in terms of the bottom line. People are just resources. Everything is a a transaction, they worship money and that becomes that becomes the mindset.
21:12-21:13
Because that's what money is like.
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But as worshippers, Ephesians 5, one says we are to be imitators of God.
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So when you see Christians.
21:27-21:34
Show grace and compassion and mercy and forgiveness, why are they doing that?
21:36-21:40
Because Christians too imitate what they worship, right?
21:44-21:57
But for the believer in Christ, it's so much more than just imitating who we worship, because the Bible says the one that we worship actually resides within us, that we walk by the Spirit.
21:59-22:01
That's why Christians imitate God.
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You realize if you're a Christian, again I'm preaching to the choir, right? We established that.
22:07-22:10
Christians can't help but imitate God because God's living through them.
22:13-22:20
So when you see a Christian doing godly things, it's like, "Well, that makes sense." Because God's doing it through them, right?
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So, I imitate what I worship.
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Jeff, you're preaching to the choir. I know.
22:29-23:13
Number three, "My dependency on God leads me to worship." Look at verses 9 through 11, "O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield." "O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield." "You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield." So, notice three times, God is what? He says, "a help and a shield." There's so much to be scared of out there, isn't there?
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We live in scary times, we really do.
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There is so much to be scared of.
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And the psalmist here is reminding us that God is a safe place. God is a safe place.
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You have no danger in the Lord because He's what? He's our help and He's our shield.
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You know, we talked earlier about people making accusations against God's people, and specifically it's talking about Christians.
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Here's one of my favorite sayings that people throw out to insult us Christians.
23:49-23:52
"Christianity is just a crutch." You ever heard somebody say that?
23:52-23:55
"It's just a crutch." How many people have heard somebody say something like that?
23:55-24:06
"Christianity is a crutch." I'm a little offended at that statement because it doesn't really do justice to the truth of what Christianity is.
24:07-24:09
It's not like I had a limp and needed a crutch.
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It's much more than a crutch.
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I was dead.
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A crutch doesn't help a dead person, right?
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What helps a dead person?
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Life, right?
24:25-24:30
So, for somebody to say, "Well, Christianity is a crutch." Oh, no, it's much more than that.
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Pride says, "I don't need God." Reality says, "I am weak, I need help, and I need protection." You know, the Lord has taken me to some absolutely amazing and crazy situations in my life.
24:50-25:02
And this past week, while I was thinking about God being a help and a shield, and how so many people don't want to acknowledge that they need the Lord, you know, I was thinking, I've spent a lot of time in my life around some really tough guys.
25:03-25:05
I mean, like really tough guys.
25:06-25:08
Some of you know I was a professional wrestler for six years.
25:09-25:13
I was in a locker room with a lot of really big, tough guys.
25:14-25:16
I ran a prison ministry for ten years.
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I was locked in a prison with some really big, tough guys.
25:24-25:29
And I can tell you in both of those scenarios, I could keep you here for the rest of the day, I promise I won't.
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But I could tell you so many stories of some of these big tough guys weeping.
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"I'm so weak. I'm so lost." God finally getting at them and breaking the pride down to cry out, "I thought that I didn't need anything, but you know what I need?
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I need a help and a shield.
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I got some good news for you.
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That is who God is." Notice in here, he says, "O Israel, O house of Aaron, you who fear the Lord." Israel referring to the nation, house of Aaron referring to the priesthood.
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You who fear the Lord refers to Gentile converts.
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Really this is just a poetic way of saying everybody, isn't it?
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Whether you're an Israelite, well, what if you're a professional Israelite, like a priest?
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Yeah, you too.
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Well, I wasn't born Jewish, I sort of, you know, came to the faith.
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You too.
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He's saying everybody.
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God wants to be a help and a shield for everybody.
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Whether you're the single mom, whether you work in the mill, whether you work at the Whether you work at the university, whether you work at the airport, no matter who you are or where you've been, God wants to be a help and a shield to you.
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Have you learned Him to be that?
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Have you experienced the compassion?
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Have you experienced the comfort that only God can give?
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So why do we worship?
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Here's why.
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I am completely dependent upon God for everything.
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I am completely dependent.
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So when I come to God, "God, I need you.
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I need you." And that's what we're doing as a congregation.
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We're crying out, "God, I need you.
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I need you.
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God, I need you." Sammy and I have had this conversation so many times over the past year.
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But do you remember this time last year we were in a situation where we were like, "If God doesn't show up, we don't know what's going to happen." And we really felt so dependent on God to show up, right?
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Like nothing else is going to cut it.
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God has to show up and look around at what He's done already.
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He's just getting started.
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But so many times, Sam and I had this conversation that we can't ever lose that mindset of dependence.
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We can't lose that.
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We can't look around now and say, "Well, look, God gave us this stuff and God gave us some people, so now we don't need God now.
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We're good.
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We needed them last year, right, Dave?
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We needed them last year.
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This year, we're good.
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Thanks.
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See you in heaven, right?" Wrong.
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Do you realize we are just as dependent upon God now as we were last September?
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And if the Lord tarries, if we're here in ten years and this church has 50,000 people, wouldn't it be cool?
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But guess how dependent we're going to be on the Lord then?
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Just as much as we are now, just as much as we were last year.
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Always dependent, always dependent.
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It leads to worship.
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God, I was in a place where I needed you and you showed up.
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That's why we worship.
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Oh, Jeff, you're just preaching to the choir now.
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Number four, worship is expressing my gratitude.
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Look at verses 12 through 14.
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"The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless..." Here's the three again.
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"The house of Israel, He will bless the house of Aaron.
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He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
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May the Lord give you increase, you and your children.
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May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth." Worship is expressing my gratitude.
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Do you know there is a connection between faith and gratitude?
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Did you know that?
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I actually dropped this reference down, Romans 121.
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There is a direct connection between faith and gratitude.
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And here's the connection.
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Either they're both there or they're both absent.
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Gratitude always accompanies faith.
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And where there's lack of faith, there's lack of gratitude.
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You can switch that.
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When there's lack of gratitude, that's indicative that there's lack of what?
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There's lack of faith.
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They go hand in hand.
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Now the level of gratitude, this is just a true statement about life, but the level of gratitude is always proportionate to the size of the gift, isn't it?
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The level of gratitude is always proportionate to the size of the gift, am I right?
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Some of you aren't convinced, so I'm going to show you.
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Who wants a piece of gum?
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Will I knew you were going to raise your hand.
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Can you have gum, Bob?
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I knew some of you wouldn't be convinced, so I'm going to show you.
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Will you throw that away for me?
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Level of gratitude is always proportionate to the size of the gift.
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There you go.
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You grateful?
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Anybody else want some gum?
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You're welcome.
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Here you go.
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Are you still grateful?
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No, he's not.
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Will does not disappoint.
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He got a piece.
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Matthew got a pack.
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The level of gratitude is always proportionate to the size of the gift.
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Carrie, would you like an iPod?
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Alright! I thought what? I really would.
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Are you starting to see it?
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My car keys are in my bag, but somebody's really going to take that seriously if I give them that.
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That's a high count. But do you see it now?
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Your level of gratitude is always proportionate to the size of the gift.
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So let me ask you, what have you received in Christ?
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What have you received in Christ?
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Eternal life, every promise of God, heaven, the promise of comfort, all these things we've been talking about, the promise of protection, the promise of I will never leave you or forsake you, the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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We could go on, adoption as sons, complete forgiveness of sins.
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We could go on and on.
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Are you grateful for that?
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Could someone give you a gift that would even come close to matching that?
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I mean, I want to fall down on my knees in appreciation when somebody gives me a Tic-Tac.
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The God of the universe has given everything.
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He's given Himself.
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And when we come to worship, our worship should just be an overflow of thanksgiving.
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God, thank you. We weren't worthy. We didn't deserve it. We didn't earn it.
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But you lavishly gave us the greatest gift of all in giving us your Son, in giving us yourself.
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And then think of all the blessings on top of that.
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Did you eat today?
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Do you have shelter? Do you have clothes? Do you have friends?
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Worship is expressing my gratitude.
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What's happening in your life right now that can only be God?
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It's always a good question to ask yourself.
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What's happening in your life, or the life of the family, or the life of the church, that can only be God at work?
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Worship should be thankfulness.
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You don't have to tell me, Jeff. You're preaching to the choir now, buddy.
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That's what I'm hoping.
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One more.
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Worship is my priority.
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Worship is my priority.
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Verse 15, he says, "May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth." And he's like, "Oh, and speaking of," verse 16, "the heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth He has given to the children of man." We are stewards of this earth, but understand, we didn't pay for it, we didn't earn it, God gave it.
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God gave dominion. It's His, He gave dominion to us, but the earth He has given to the children of man.
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He says, "The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord." One phrase that I'm sure raises some questions, "The dead do not praise the Lord." Now, understand this without getting into a whole dissertation, but there was a bit of a question mark as to what was beyond the grave in Old Testament times.
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Now, we're blessed to live in this period of history where we have the full written revelation of God.
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The New Testament gives us more revelation on what happens beyond the grave.
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In the Old Testament there was still a little bit of a question mark in some people's minds, like what happens?
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That's why a lot of times in the Old Testament you see the word "sheol".
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That was the word that just meant "grave".
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Like people die and then the New Testament completed.
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We understand now what happens when people die and leave the earth, to be absent from the bodies, to be in the presence of the Lord.
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Jesus in the New Testament, authors inspired by the Holy Spirit, taught us so much more about what's beyond. But understand this in number five here, "Worship is my priority." He's giving this from a purely earthly perspective. Don't get hung up on that phrase. It's sort of like we say something like, we're still guilty of it, we say things like this, "His life ended." Yeah, "His life, his life ended. No, it didn't. His time on the earth ended, but his life didn't end. See what I mean? So God gave us this earth as a platform to praise him, and my time on this platform will be to praise him. That's what he's saying. God gave us this earth, and we have some time on this earth. The earth is sort of our stage, and we're going to use it to worship God.
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the Lord I ran into a man a few months ago Dale Lippin you know I'm talking about the traveling evangelist guy who um they'll had some encounters with him too I was doing some yard work and this guy came up was talking to me and we got talking about church he's from a church up north a little bit and he said let me tell you something about the worship at our church he says the worship at our church is great, but the worship is really only just to prepare you for the sermon." And I said, "Well, that's interesting." I said, "At our church it's sort of opposite." I said, "My job as a preacher is to make people better worshipers, right?" Well, I've heard people say things like this over the years, and it's sad. I've heard people say when they come to church, "Well, I'm just here for sermon. I'm just here for the message. Or, I don't really care about the music.
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Laura reminded us last week at the beginning of service, we don't worship to give the musicians something to do, right? Like, well, we got Darren and Laura and Sammy and Jay. If we don't find something for them to do...
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Actually, it's our priority.
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You can listen to sermons anywhere, anytime, and you should.
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I do.
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Listen to sermons.
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You should.
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You can do that anywhere, anytime, but corporate worship with God's people.
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As I close, I just want to go back to the beginning where the service started.
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Sam had quoted John chapter 4.
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I want to read a verse again.
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In John chapter 4 verse 23, Jesus told the woman at the well, "But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." Understand, you know this little Harvest logo?
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Have you seen this?
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You know what that logo means?
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Spirit and truth.
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Did you know that?
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The flame representing spirit, the book representing the Bible, representing truth.
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The logo is about worship.
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To say Harvest Bible Chapel, we want to be people who worship God.
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How?
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Spirit and truth.
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Spirit meaning with our whole being, like Sam said earlier.
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With everything that's in us, we want to worship with our whole being, but in truth, meaning according to God's word.
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And do you know why we do that?
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Here's one more reason, it's our priority.
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Jesus said, "For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." Jesus said the Father is looking down from heaven and He's looking for something.
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What's He looking for?
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What's He looking for?
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Worshippers.
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That's what God's looking for.
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He's looking for worshippers.
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What kind of worshippers is He looking for?
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who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
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So the question is, is He going to find any here?
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That's what we're going after.
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This is our priority for gathering.
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So next week, we're going to go at it again.
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We're going to passionately worship in spirit and in truth.
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And I want to take another opportunity to get up and preach to the choir.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 115
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.