Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] I want to start with a question, and the question is this. Why are you here today?
[00:00:16] Like, why did you come to church today?
[00:00:19] Or what motivates you to come to church every week? Like, why do you show up where you could do so many things? What is the motivating factor that caused you to come to church on days when you don't want to come? What do you tell yourself in order to come?
[00:00:33] I'm not asking why you pick Kingdom Movement specifically or like, why you chose to put roots down in this community. I'm saying why do you value the Sunday morning experience specifically, not life groups on a Thursday outreach community? I'm saying this Sunday morning experience, why did you show up? And why do you show up most weeks?
[00:00:53] What's fascinating to me about this question is if you really reflect deeply on the question.
[00:00:58] Sometimes I wish I could read minds because of how many different answers you'll get in a room this size.
[00:01:03] And then you get two different types of answers. For most of us, firstly, you have the honest answer, but then you also have the answer which you think is the right answer.
[00:01:15] So most of us would try to think through what is the right answer. It reminds me of a story of some parents in our community that told me this. It's one of my favorite stories. They.
[00:01:24] They were raising this young man, he was like 13 or 14 years old. And they started to notice that their son was listening to music that was explicit. And it was like Trippie Redd or like, I don't know, all the rap. I don't even. Couldn't pick Trippie Redd out of a lineup. But he's a rapper or like Little Something. You know, every rapper is called Little Something. It's like the least gangster, but it's always the most gangster looking person.
[00:01:50] And this guy's just a teen is listening to these rappers. And it's explicit music and it's bad music. And somehow the parents find out, maybe looking on Spotify or whatever, and one day he's sitting in the lounge listening to this explicit music about sex and drugs and all this different stuff. And mom and dad walk in, they're like, yo, what you listening to? They already know what he's listening to.
[00:02:16] He goes, how Great Is Our God? By Chris Tomlin.
[00:02:20] I'm like, well, this isn't 2001, dog. We moved on from How Great Is Our God By Chris Tomlin.
[00:02:28] And then what I love about that is the parents actually sat him down and the mom read every lyric of the song in front of dad to the son. I love that. That's so awkward.
[00:02:41] The kid will never listen to sexual music or drug music again. The last thing you want mom and dad to do is be reading that song with your kids sitting there.
[00:02:50] But what I love about that story is it kind of does illustrate how often we jump to what we think is the right answer.
[00:02:57] Like, when I asked you, why did you show up today? You probably tried to, like, think through all the thoughts of, like, what would be the right answer to that?
[00:03:05] And even there, like, what is the right answer?
[00:03:09] Like, what is the right. Like, there's a real reason we showed up today. And then there's the right answer. But even the right answer we probably wouldn't all agree with.
[00:03:16] There's probably 20, 30, 40 right answers in the room of why we think we come on any given Sunday or why we think we should show up, even if that's not why we come today. We're going to break down why we think we should come and what forces us to come that we shouldn't come for, but it does motivate us. And then we're going to go into why we actually come.
[00:03:35] You with me?
[00:03:38] I think if we. Honest. What worries me at times is that in communities like this is that one of the motivating factors that causes us to come is social pressure.
[00:03:50] What do I mean by that? It's the thought that what would my family, friends or community say about me if I didn't come?
[00:03:57] You know how you've been at church and go where is so and so.
[00:04:01] They haven't been here for, like, three weeks.
[00:04:04] They must really be struggling.
[00:04:07] Their marriage must be falling apart.
[00:04:10] They could also be living their best lives on the beaches of Italy. But let's jump to different conclusions on what's going on.
[00:04:16] But we've been a part of so many conversations of where were they? They must be struggling. Their marriage, their kids, their job. They must. Everything that eventually you're afraid that if you aren't there, the conversations will be had about you.
[00:04:31] Was that too quick? Is that okay? Are we good? Okay.
[00:04:35] So some of us don't come because a family member or friend. Some of us are drugged here by our spouse. Good job to the spouse doing the dragging. I love. I love that the issue with this is, though, is that this form is. Which in some ways I'd consider dead religion, because it's. It's going. Religion's not bad. Christianity is a religion. I'm not that guy.
[00:04:56] Dead religion's bad, meaning you go through the form of Christianity without relationship.
[00:05:01] The problem is a dead religion is almost always connected to the fear of man.
[00:05:06] You always see dead religion and fear of man going hand in hand.
[00:05:11] That's why when someone's not in a relationship, you'll notice this. The moment they go through something hard and people find out about their sin or they get exposed, they stop going to church. Why? Because when they were found out, their facade was broken. Now they have no one to impress, so they may as well not attend church.
[00:05:26] That's why dead religion is almost always connected to the fear of man.
[00:05:30] And then when the fear of man begins to crumble, your need for attending church is no longer there.
[00:05:37] So if you think about it, we show up to God's house more concerned with people.
[00:05:43] This is why in Matthew chapter four, Jesus says, hey, like, some of you go into the street corners to pray, to be seen by people. You have a reward.
[00:05:52] What is the reward? People think you're spiritual.
[00:05:55] And many of us fall into that trap at times. Like, I come to church, I pray. I don't pray all week, but I'll definitely just get in that church. Why? So people would assume or think that I'm spiritual.
[00:06:04] And we settle for this reward which motivates you for a time. But when life gets hard, that will no longer motivate you. And the reward is, do people see me as spiritual?
[00:06:18] And then religion somehow becomes a way to impress man. Creation, trying to impress creation, forgetting about the Creator.
[00:06:27] How do you know this is your motivation when the best part of the service is when it's over?
[00:06:36] We laugh, but it's true. How many of you have been like, finally, oh, no, I had to be with God for an hour and 15 minutes, right? The best part of the service is like, it's fine, you're done. Why? Because I fulfilled my obligation.
[00:06:50] I ticked off my box.
[00:06:54] That's how you know you're going to impress people. As long as people saw me, I'm good.
[00:07:00] I would say some of us think that, because if I asked, why did we come? Some of us would have said, community.
[00:07:06] And I'm like, but I think you can come to church and not build community firstly.
[00:07:13] Secondly, I don't know how you build community during worship.
[00:07:18] Is worship really about your neighbor?
[00:07:22] What about the sermon? God's words, Preaching about you, trying to connect.
[00:07:27] So if you come here for connection, you love before and after service a lot, all the middle stuff is kind of like, we're just getting through this to talk to our friends, and you don't really have to come here. On a Sunday to build community. You can have a great, thriving Christian community and not come to church.
[00:07:44] I'm not.
[00:07:46] It's very rare, but I'd say it's possible.
[00:07:49] We have other places for community. We have life groups built around community. I'll also say this community alone won't transform you.
[00:07:56] Otherwise. You could go and join MS.13 or the Bloods or the Cribs.
[00:08:03] I don't think you'd become more Christ, like Christ in community transforms you.
[00:08:11] A space centered around the Christ is what transforms you. Now at this part, I love this because some people in the room are thinking, finally, someone's preaching. This is not about big church.
[00:08:22] I love you guys. To think that because it's like one of the verses that are like, hey, you should give your honours double. Your teachers double honor.
[00:08:31] You're like, that's perfect. I teach myself.
[00:08:35] I love myself so much. No one's my teacher, just me. I honor myself double.
[00:08:41] Oh, I honor that YouTube guy double. What does that even look like? Nothing. But I honor him. How?
[00:08:47] By subscribing.
[00:08:51] So easy doing life without community. What is. What about this one? Hey, you should be submissive to your leaders and make it easy for them to rule over you.
[00:08:58] That's in Hebrews. That's not toxic leadership. You know what I love? When you aren't in church, it's easy to be ruled over because you're ruling over yourself.
[00:09:09] I'm so good at being led by me, You can't even do it by yourself. So I'm not here saying you shouldn't come to church. I'm saying, why do we come?
[00:09:22] So it brings me back to the same question of why do we show up here? I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't come. I'm just saying let's come for the right reason.
[00:09:32] And what is the right reason? I'm glad you asked. Let's turn to Second Chronicles, Chapter 5.
[00:09:40] A few years ago or last year, I preached a sermon called before the Suddenly. And I feel like in some ways this is part two for our community.
[00:09:48] And the crux or the core of that message is that sometimes in our circles we think God showing up has nothing to do with us.
[00:09:55] That's just a sovereign act of God. One of my friends says this, that revival is God's sovereign response to man's hunger.
[00:10:03] But sometimes we go, this has nothing to do with me. God will either show up or he won't show up. It's like all the girls say today. They're like, if He Wanted to. He would.
[00:10:12] We say that about the Lord.
[00:10:14] If God wanted to show up, he would.
[00:10:16] If God wanted to transform me, he would like. Here's another question for you.
[00:10:22] Do you play any part in what happens in today's service?
[00:10:29] I love that because out loud, I heard both answers.
[00:10:32] It was a rhetorical question. I heard both.
[00:10:37] Like, do we play a part while we just spectators?
[00:10:41] Fascinating. Okay, I love that. Both answers. Okay. Second Chronicles 5. Let's look at this.
[00:10:48] We'll start in verse 13. We're going to jump around.
[00:10:51] Indeed.
[00:10:53] Actually, let's start in verse 12. The Levites who were singers and all the asphalts and hormones and their friend with the sons and brethren throughout the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen. White linen. Here spirit speaks of purification or purity.
[00:11:08] Having cymbals. Anyone that complains about the drums, circle that. Having cymbals, stringed instruments. That's for the electric guitar haters. Circle that.
[00:11:20] And harps.
[00:11:22] We actually do have someone that plays the harp in the church. Some of you are like, you don't obey the one we do. And with 120 priests, I also love that connection because there's 120 in the upper room.
[00:11:33] I think this is a typology of what would come one day. Verse 13.
[00:11:36] Indeed, it came to pass. When I have the word when circled in my Bible. I'm not going to have you do that, but it's an option because it's speaking to when this happens, something begins to happen in the room. Jump down to the end of 13.
[00:11:51] That the house of the Lord was filled with the cloud so that the priests could not continue ministering to because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
[00:12:04] So we're going to read what. Because it says when something happens, this is the outcome, right? So if you look back at verse 13, indeed, it came to pass. So this happens. When they do this.
[00:12:17] I think one of the things that holds back our circle sometimes, like, God is omnipresent. Like, I've heard people be like, I'm not a conference guy.
[00:12:25] Like, imagine being the guy that Jesus is like, hey, y', all, you guys should go wait upstairs in that room till I pull myself out.
[00:12:32] And then the Holy Spirit will abide with you. And you're like, I'm not really a conference guy.
[00:12:38] God's omnipresent.
[00:12:40] Like, bro, you would have missed out.
[00:12:43] God's omnipresent, sure, but he still pours himself. I think about they come down acting somewhere. The people are like, bro, are Those people drinking wine at 9:00am If God's omnipresent, why am I not acting like I was drinking wine at 9am Wouldn't I also be the same? If he's the same everywhere, well, think about this. The Holy of holies, this side of the veil, you alive, that side dead.
[00:13:08] We would all be dead. If he's the same everywhere, so is he omnipresent? Yes. Can he manifest himself in time and place?
[00:13:19] Yes.
[00:13:20] So he's giving insight here into what happens. So it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, as if God is waiting for the trumpeters and singers to come into unity and alignment.
[00:13:36] So we sometimes come, like, I'm just gonna shoot in the dark and hope he comes. And we say things like, you can't put God in a box.
[00:13:42] I'm like, but can I learn God's ways from Him?
[00:13:46] Can God teach us his structures?
[00:13:50] Because sometimes we think, you can't put God in a box. I'm like, but can God?
[00:13:57] The Bible says this, that Moses knew the ways of God, but Israel knew the works of God.
[00:14:03] There's a big difference. And often a community can experience his works. A few people humbling themselves to learn his ways.
[00:14:10] But I'm inviting us into it. Doesn't have to be that way. We can all go on the journey of learning the ways of God.
[00:14:15] It does require humility, though. Like, for instance, if it's Titus's birthday, and I come up to Titus and I'm like, titus, I love you so much. I got you a golf club.
[00:14:25] Titus is like, hey, bro, just so you know, like, thank you so much. I just don't like golf. I'm like, okay, I had a good heart. I didn't know he didn't like golf. Like, I gave him what I thought he liked. I spent money on it.
[00:14:35] The next year, I'm like, titus, happy birthday, bro. I love you so much. He has a golf club.
[00:14:42] Like, bro, eventually. Eventually, if you have a good heart, you learn what the person likes.
[00:14:50] So we hide behind, oh, I had a good heart.
[00:14:53] Really? So you didn't learn what God liked for 25 years, you kept doing it your way. And that's a good heart.
[00:15:02] So we start learning, what is God? What does he desire? If this is his house, surely we should learn from him what he even desires here.
[00:15:10] And one of the things is unity. So you're telling me the moment that Svet on the keys and Jerry on the drums come into unity, God does something in a room, you're Telling me, the one playing keys, their heart matters to God.
[00:15:25] How can there be in unity, you have to be in the spirit.
[00:15:28] Which means that if you on the keys, your walk with God matters not just for you, but for the room.
[00:15:35] The drama matters to God because we all in unity of what? The same spirit coming together.
[00:15:41] So if one's in the flesh, once you walk with God, you know this. You can't suddenly switch from a weak in the flesh to in the spirit.
[00:15:49] That's not how it works. That's why Catherine said, I died a thousand deaths before taking the stage.
[00:15:54] So you come in the spirit, and suddenly everyone's in the spirit together, leading.
[00:16:00] And then God comes in and you are a part of that.
[00:16:04] The room comes in the spirit. And yes, we submit to be led by who God's entrusted to be on the stage.
[00:16:10] I say that again, and it always gets quiet in our circles. Who God's entrusted to be on the stage.
[00:16:17] God entrusts leaders. God ordains leaders. And we receive from imperfect people.
[00:16:23] Jesus sat in the temple in Luke chapter two and learned about himself from his creation.
[00:16:32] God ordains leaders. He confirms it with leadership. And God promotes and exalts we forget that and it actually ends up hurting us because we go, we all equal. Then why did God say to Peter, I'm building my church on you.
[00:16:49] We would have been offended. Now he's building it on us all.
[00:16:52] Peter is not just you, dog. We all equal, Peter. Me too. Remember, it's like, no, but you have your own calling and it's beautiful.
[00:17:00] But the church, Peter.
[00:17:02] And then one disciple gets knocked out. Remember, Judas, they are like, it's fine. We don't need a twelfth. No, no, we need a 12th.
[00:17:10] We need a 12th. Not everyone's a 12th. We need a twelfth.
[00:17:14] And let's cast lots. That's a. That's a weird one. I don't really know how to put that one in there. But my point is, leadership is from God. So we coming in and we go, okay, you can lead me, but I'm gonna pray. Partake in where you're leading me.
[00:17:26] I'm going to dive into that. So we begin to see. We're learning God's ways. And he says, when the trumpets and singers were as one, which, that's why it matters, why we come.
[00:17:37] Remember in Acts chapter two, when they were in one accord, he came.
[00:17:42] So if we come with a hundred different reasons, we aren't in one accord.
[00:17:47] I love this too, because I used to be a guy, like, hey, service was Too long.
[00:17:50] The upper room took them 10 days.
[00:17:54] 10 days?
[00:17:55] Like that works.
[00:17:58] Didn't they know it's finished? I don't have to do that. You would have gone home and missed the whole. Like Holy Spirit, fire, flames, new tongues.
[00:18:07] So they wait until what? They. In one accord. This is what's happening here. One accord happens, and they could be heard praising and thanking the Lord.
[00:18:16] Here's another one, which I love so much. God's ways don't change for any of us.
[00:18:22] They don't change on your personality, your preference, your culture, or when or where you live.
[00:18:26] Contrary to popular belief, God's not changing for me.
[00:18:31] So praising and thanking the Lord, that's not a mistake, that God came when they praised and thanked him.
[00:18:37] One of my favorite verses, Psalm 104, Come unto my gates with thanksgiving, and my courts with praise.
[00:18:44] My gates with thanksgiving, and my courts with praise.
[00:18:51] I think about this.
[00:18:53] I have a friend, and to go to his house, he's in, like, one of those bougie neighborhoods. To get to his house, you have to go through a gate with a code.
[00:19:03] And recently, he's like, hey, here's a key to the front door. I'm pulling up to the crib.
[00:19:08] I get to the gate, I have the key to the front door.
[00:19:11] I'm like, you know, like, the key is kind of useless. I'm stuck outside the gate.
[00:19:16] And that's how it is when we try to praise without thankfulness first. We're trying to get through a front door, we stuck at a gate.
[00:19:23] What do I mean by that? That's why so many of us can stand through worship going, I can't wait for it to end. But someone in the room's life was changed because someone in the room understood thankfulness.
[00:19:33] So I ask you this. This afternoon, did you come in with thankfulness this afternoon?
[00:19:39] It will affect your experience.
[00:19:41] It will affect your awareness of the Holy Spirit. I don't say it to condemn you. What I'm saying is, let's build forwards.
[00:19:48] Imagine if every week we all came in thankful.
[00:19:52] And that's why even showing up on time matters. You know that as we lead worship, the first song was thank you for the cross.
[00:19:58] That's not a mistake.
[00:20:00] That's how we come into his presence.
[00:20:03] We thank him. And when we miss that and come in late and we're like, oh, worship. Worship wasn't very good.
[00:20:08] I'm like, you're telling me God was in the room, but it wasn't very good.
[00:20:13] I will say this often, people's critique of Church says a lot more about them than the church.
[00:20:20] We stuck outside the gate. Someone else's life's being transformed and our mind is somewhere else.
[00:20:26] So this progression of thankfulness. Can I tell you, these simple things will change your life? What if you woke up every morning and chose to be thankful? It will change your life.
[00:20:35] Thankfulness. What's next? Praise. Thankfulness is declaring what God's done, which should always lead to praise. If you don't feel like praising God, I've been there too often.
[00:20:44] Anyone been there? I don't really feel like worshiping. Thank God till you want to worship.
[00:20:48] Praise. Sorry. Thank God till you want to praise. Because praise is now declaring who he is.
[00:20:54] So you thank him for everything you have eventually, like God, you are so generous.
[00:20:59] Like, welcome to praise.
[00:21:01] You are so loving. Welcome to praise. Now you're declaring his attributes and it's actually specific. Here they sing these words for he is good. Sounds a lot like praise.
[00:21:13] Not can you come?
[00:21:20] I'm not going to die on that mountain.
[00:21:24] For his mercy endures forever.
[00:21:27] Who he is and what he does causes his heart to move and he pours Himself out.
[00:21:35] Imagine if we trusted that. Like if we just declared who he is. He comes.
[00:21:40] So now we have this beautiful progression. I come in thankful. No one can do that for me. Hopefully the leader is leading us into thankfulness.
[00:21:48] Then I begin to praise. And it doesn't matter how you feel. You thank him for. You want to praise and then you praise.
[00:21:54] That's the point of a sacrifice, of praise.
[00:21:57] You sacrifice something unto the Lord.
[00:22:00] I believe there's a new freedom coming even in our praise. And we're going to get to that.
[00:22:05] There's a sacrifice. People like, I sat down because I was tired. That's the time to sacrifice something that's not works.
[00:22:13] That's a sacrifice going. God, I don't care how I feel. I'm going to submit my body to the spirit. I'm not going to be led by the flesh.
[00:22:21] So then what happens? We begin to praise. And the Bible says when he, when he is inhabited on the praises of his people or where two or more gathered. So as you praising him and as, as the leaders are leading us. And have you ever noticed that suddenly a leader goes into a song in a room shifts.
[00:22:38] Let me explain why that is. So if you're being led by the spirit, true, true worship, it has to be spirit led.
[00:22:46] So you praise him till he comes and you do whatever he says.
[00:22:49] And that's why it says, without faith it's impossible. To please God.
[00:22:53] And whenever you can please him, his presence always comes.
[00:22:57] If you need scripture, Matthew 4, presence. This is my beloved Son, of whom I'm well pleased.
[00:23:02] If you want to learn how to live in his presence, you learn how to bring him pleasure.
[00:23:06] And that worship leader's faith pleased God.
[00:23:11] And that's why we all get to go. But the room shifted.
[00:23:15] He's here.
[00:23:17] That's beautiful.
[00:23:18] And we enjoy that. Why? Because now we're being led by the Spirit. And now, actually only now, you enter into worship.
[00:23:25] You have to worship in spirit and in truth, it's only worship when he starts leading you.
[00:23:31] You ever been there before? Where you just so locked in with the Lord that songs start coming out of your heart.
[00:23:36] Deep calls to deep. That's worship.
[00:23:40] That's worship. Where the Spirit of God starts worshipping through you.
[00:23:44] That's where we call to live.
[00:23:47] So in these moments, we come and we begin to worship. But the problem is often that we actually don't know how to prepare ourselves to come into worship.
[00:23:58] Let me say this. What you get out of today is not only dependent on me.
[00:24:04] Okay? I like this.
[00:24:07] You know the parable where Jesus is like, hey, a farmer goes out and sows seed.
[00:24:13] Three different types of seeds. The fourth one is good, the soil. The first three, the seed does nothing.
[00:24:21] The fourth one, the soil receives the seed and it's 30, 60, 90 fold.
[00:24:27] The seed was good on all four soils.
[00:24:34] We have a lovely way of going. Oh, that word wasn't really for me. Yeah, you're probably distracted.
[00:24:40] That's why I'm saying it says more about our walk. The Bible says, to the hungry, even the bitter things are sweet.
[00:24:47] You know, I love about hungry people. They'll leave everything going, man, I love this.
[00:24:51] Too many of us are sitting in our seat going, man, this is for somebody else.
[00:24:55] I hope that friend I brought, I hope they really get something out of this.
[00:24:59] Oh, people come to me like, bro, I actually had never heard this.
[00:25:04] You actually. Wow.
[00:25:06] You learned something new today about a God that's too big to comprehend.
[00:25:12] Are you with me? We come and go sometimes. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to learn today. Can I remind you we actually, first and foremost, I don't come to serve you. First and foremost.
[00:25:21] That's why I have a stand before I preach. Because in our circles, sometimes we think that I'm here for you first.
[00:25:27] The best thing a leader can do is follow the cloud and the fire that serves the people the best.
[00:25:34] So I am here to serve You. But the best way to serve you is by following him.
[00:25:39] That's the goal of me being here. And you, first and foremost, are not here to receive from me. This is God's house.
[00:25:46] You're here to receive from God. That's why I have a stand and look upwards to remind ourselves that we are no longer alone, that God is here. What if we actually came with faith every week that God was going to be here?
[00:25:58] You know that no one's forcing you to be here, right?
[00:26:02] So why are we here? What if we actually came going, man? I actually really want to encounter the presence of God because how we come into the space matters.
[00:26:12] So the last seed falls on soil and it says, the cares of this world snuff it out.
[00:26:18] So that means the perfect seed, the Logos, the revelation of God is sown because our heart is not good soil. The revelation gets quenched and it's gone.
[00:26:28] And we have the audacity to, oh, it's their fault.
[00:26:32] The soil of our heart is really important.
[00:26:35] That's why sometimes we can go to a church and love it, love it, love it, love it, love it. I get offended. My heart gets hard.
[00:26:40] God doesn't go to that church anymore.
[00:26:44] God doesn't like that. My favorite preacher, God doesn't like him anymore.
[00:26:48] I used to love that worshiper, but now God, oh, I matured out of that. It's like, no, no, your heart got hard.
[00:26:55] So good seed is not really falling and taking root.
[00:27:00] It's the same to me as when the whole Mary and Martha situation.
[00:27:06] Mary comes up, goes, Jesus.
[00:27:09] Look at her just sitting there. Can you tell her to do something?
[00:27:12] What's Mary doing sitting there receiving?
[00:27:17] See, there's a way to be in God's presence.
[00:27:20] And when you don't approach rightly and you aren't receiving, you start complaining about everyone else.
[00:27:25] Isn't that fascinating? You're like, jesus, why are they jumping during worship?
[00:27:32] Jesus, why are they dressed like that? Can you tell them to dress differently? Jesus, it's like, hey, bro, you distracted?
[00:27:40] They worshiping? Oh, you thought they're worshiping you.
[00:27:44] I like their worship.
[00:27:47] See, but when we aren't receiving, we come into God's presence concerned about everyone else.
[00:27:54] Imagine Jesus being like, hey, Jesus, get a load of this.
[00:27:59] Like, look at everything I'm doing. She's doing nothing.
[00:28:02] But sometimes even us. Like, have you been walking with the Lord for a while? You can get really stuck up in serving and you forget that you came here for you today too.
[00:28:11] I need God. The amount of times I Come like God. I need you today. I need a touch from you. And there's something unique about this experience. That's why Kathryn Kuhlman would say I would often experience in five minutes of corporate worship where I spent years pursuing alone in the secret place.
[00:28:26] There's something about this moment when, when we come in faith that he begins to move and shift things in the room, and that's what he's looking for for us. I want to encourage us. Number one, how do we come? And we come in thankful.
[00:28:39] You prepare your heart. Firstly, you repent of your sin.
[00:28:44] Confess your sin. Come in hungry for the Lord. Don't come in distracted.
[00:28:50] That's why I would advise you get here early, because kids check in is going to take a while. Your kids always do stuff. But if you show up late, 10 years going, you could. I don't buy it with the kids anymore.
[00:29:04] I don't have kids. But can we agree?
[00:29:06] I'm like, if you late to everything, surely you just go. Let's plan 10 minutes earlier.
[00:29:13] See, because we've lost reverence for the presence of God in an attempt to make God approachable, we've lost reverence earlier in Chronicles. In 1st Chronicles 9, they're carrying the ark of the covenant, and it begins to fall, and someone tries to stop it from falling. God lives in this. This box. Tries to stop it. God kills the guy for trying to stop it.
[00:29:37] Meaning what? You can carry his presence, but don't you dare try to make it common.
[00:29:44] And don't you dare try to control it or think that he needs your help to facilitate it.
[00:29:49] Hey, God, your presence needs me to just sometimes be like, what will they do if I leave? God will be fine.
[00:30:00] God is good at showing up.
[00:30:02] We can't treat something holy as common.
[00:30:05] And I worry that we start to treat this as common.
[00:30:09] Like, do we treat it like, I'm coming to be with God today?
[00:30:14] Or do we come into God's house more concerned about everyone else?
[00:30:18] What are they thinking? Are we actually bringing a sacrifice of worship? I need some people to worship in a way that kind of offends people.
[00:30:27] Think about David just dancing before the ark. You can't do that with the fear of man.
[00:30:32] But it's like, oh, you throw us here for you.
[00:30:36] I'm here for God.
[00:30:38] So we prepare our hearts. We come. What if you got your five minutes early just to sit down to still your heart?
[00:30:44] Because both Martha was distracted and the bad soil distracted, and God can't do what he wants to do. So what I'm saying is, what happens here is not just dependent on me. It's dependent on us coming in unity and going. I'm coming for a purpose. What is that purpose? Christ crucified. I'm here to celebrate him and. And so that he will come and be with us and transform lives.
[00:31:06] So what I'm saying is every week you have your list of needs. Great. Put them aside, thank him, praise him, worship him, knowing that if he comes, he will meet your every need.
[00:31:20] Put it aside. I know you have needs. I know you need breakthrough.
[00:31:23] The best thing for you to do is to host him, and when he comes, he will give you that breakthrough.
[00:31:29] So what I'm imploring us is what if we came every week hungry to be with him, not here to impress somebody else, not here could be worried about what somebody would say if I'm not here.
[00:31:44] I think God's pressing on this thing to be free from people's opinions. It worries me that often we feel more free out there than we do in here, that we come into church and we kind of put our best foot forward.
[00:31:57] Turn with me to First Corinthians, chapter 4. This is where I want us to go this morning, afternoon.
[00:32:07] I thought I didn't have enough content for today. And I'm like, this is. This was three sermons worth in this First Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 3. This is what Paul said. But with me, it's a very small thing that should be judged by you or. Or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I know of nothing against myself, yet I'm not justified by this. He who judges me is the Lord. I love when people are like, you can't judge me, only God can judge me. I'm like, bro, that should worry you more.
[00:32:40] It's a very small thing that we judged by you or by a human court. What Paul is saying here is, hey, I'm pretty free from your opinions.
[00:32:48] I call this the courtroom in the mind. Like you think about a courtroom, you have somebody accusing and someone defending.
[00:32:53] Many of us live in the courtroom of the mind of people's opinions.
[00:32:58] I think we do a pretty good job not having the fear of man out there. I'm more concerned within. Here we walk in. What are people thinking about me? What are people saying about me? What are people this? What? When you leave a conversation, what are they thinking? We become puppets on the strings of people's opinions.
[00:33:13] On our bad days, we don't show up to church because what would people say?
[00:33:18] The problem with this is. This is meant for people who are struggling.
[00:33:21] This is the best place. That's like saying, I'm hurt. I'm not going to the hospital.
[00:33:25] What will they think of me?
[00:33:28] You came to the right place. And then we go, hey, world, come as you are. God really loves you as you are. They come here, they're like, I feel uncomfortable. Everyone's acting perfect because we put on this facade. They don't even feel comfortable.
[00:33:43] And suddenly we come in here and we're more controlled and stiff in here than we are out there. I actually get refreshed sometimes being around unsaved people in the world as I'm evangelizing to them because they're honest.
[00:33:55] We need to get better at being honest. How are you? Terrible.
[00:34:00] Not great. Can you pray for me?
[00:34:03] Not like all, I'm good. I'm good. Everything's good. Because what do they think? If I'm bad, I'm like, bro, that's humility.
[00:34:10] What if we modeled humility? So I'm saying, like, Paul's like, hey, I'm free from the opinions of people. And then he goes, I'm even free from myself. This is someone who's killed Christians.
[00:34:19] He looked in the mirror. He's like, I'm free from me.
[00:34:21] Because it's not that that justifies me. God justifies me.
[00:34:27] God is the one that determines who I am, and he lives before an audience of one. And what I'm imploring us to, when we come to church on a Sunday, we here for God.
[00:34:38] We show up for him. Who cares what somebody thinks? Who cares what your friend or what your family or community thinks?
[00:34:45] I'm here to meet with God.
[00:34:47] I'm here because I'm hungry for him. I'm gonna bring him an offering of praise. Some of us want to praise, but we afraid. What will people think?
[00:34:56] Some of us, I do altar calls. Come forward. I know the situations in the room. There's freedom available. We stay in our seat because what would people think?
[00:35:03] Or we think? I don't have to do that, really.
[00:35:07] Spiritual release often comes from physical obedience.
[00:35:12] I'm not saying come forward because I'm lonely up here.
[00:35:15] When Jesus goes, hey, throw your net on the other side. You'll catch a fish. Imagine being like, I don't have to do that.
[00:35:21] The fish can come to me.
[00:35:23] He throws his net, catches fish.
[00:35:26] Because he obeys and something happens. That's why I always invite us to respond. Because in the responding, the flesh dies.
[00:35:33] Like, in a few moments, I'm going to say, if you have the fear of man or you feel controlled in church, come forward.
[00:35:39] I'll give you a prerequisite because everyone's mind, like, I don't have to come forward.
[00:35:44] That sounds a lot like the fear of man.
[00:35:47] Can you trust the leader?
[00:35:49] Like as I'm saying that I'm not doing it because I'm bored. There's freedom available.
[00:35:53] Sometimes you have to dance before you free jump, before you free shout for if you say flesh, you aren't going to control me anymore.
[00:36:02] What if your worship offended somebody good, you weren't worshiping them.
[00:36:10] There's freedom available. We can't come into God's house concerned with other people. We come for him and he loves extravagant worship.
[00:36:18] So I'm inviting us as we come into services, I come to worship him, to give him something that's of value, that's of cost.
[00:36:28] I'm not coming here to just go through the motions week in and week out.
[00:36:32] I, I believe as we go into that new building, people are going to be there early, sitting in their seats, so expectant to meet with God. There's even repentance available this afternoon for us treating something that's holy as common, coming for every other reason, coming for the time afterwards or coming late or leaving early because it's like, what about that? This is holy.
[00:36:52] That's not me gaslighting you. This is God's idea. Do not forsake the gathering of the saints. Why? Because he's uniquely present in that space.
[00:37:03] Can we stand right now?
[00:37:09] I want to encourage you. If that's you in the room, we're going to go into a praise song in a moment and begin to praise unapologetically.
[00:37:17] But if that's you and you know, you've, you've kind of. I think some of us have even grown up in this where we're more concerned with people's opinions then our worship that we bring God, that we come here more for others than for him, is a fear of man. We feel controlled when we come into church to try to be somebody that we not. I just want you to respond right now. Just come forward. If that's you, just respond.
[00:37:40] Young and old, there's freedom available. Just because you started like that doesn't mean you have to end like that. Just respond.
[00:37:47] Come forward right now. If that's you, just make your way forward.
[00:37:51] It's a moment of freedom this afternoon.
[00:37:55] Come right now.
[00:37:58] It's time for us to leave that behind. Let's respond.
[00:38:05] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
