You are invited to examine your heart today to see if you are truly worshiping Jesus or yourself. Let God's love transform your daily life and relationships as you commit to small groups and genuine worship. Walk away knowing you are loved and ready to follow Him anywhere.
Hey, Church family. This is John Krueger. I am the worship and production director here at Real Church, and I am so excited about the word that the Lord has for us as a church and as a body today. We're We're gonna be talking a little bit about worship and more specifically, **"pure worship"**. So let's take a second and "lean into this word".
Enjoy.
Well, hello. Hello. Hello again. My name is pastor David, David John Phillips, for those of you that came in later. So glad you're here.
If this is your first time, we do pray that you felt the "love of Jesus" from the time you drove into the parking lot until the time you made it here. Our prayer is that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Not just that, knowing his love so much that when other people see you, they see Jesus. They see the love of Jesus. It transforms the culture of your home.
It transforms the culture of of your business. It transforms the culture of your relationships. It transforms the out the the outlook that you have towards life. Because that's what his love does. It transforms us.
It just does and it's awesome. And part of the way that it does that is from being together with other believers. So, as I said, yes, or as Emily said, we are starting small groups. That is the big we have 2 big announcements today. Number 1, starting small groups.
Sign ups are online on your phone. I don't have my phone on me, but if you go to realchurch.us, we have a new website which is cool too by the way, but if you go to realchurch.us on your phone, click the little hamburger at the top right, click connect, you'll see groups. We have 11 different groups. 1 of the groups is a teenagers group, a teens group, we're starting a youth group. So if you have youth, this will be on Wednesday nights, which will be amazing and wonderful.
We are a church of small groups. Okay? Like this, we're celebrating what God has done in the relationships that have happened in small groups or through believers throughout the week. So I would highly encourage you and I also wanna read this scripture because it will highly encourage you too. The very first believers, like the Holy Spirit just came, Acts-2, the disciples go out and they preach first message, 3,000 people get saved, which is awesome.
And what did they do? Acts-2:42, it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Later it says, verse 46, every day Everybody say, every day. Every day. Every day.
They continued to meet together. It was priority, togetherness with believers. They continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with clad and sincere hearts, praising *God* and enjoying favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Man, I want God to add to our number daily, those who are being saved. And part of that is is us not halt you know, just coming to church on Sunday and then going home about our lives and forgetting about Jesus. Part of that is meeting together with brothers and sisters in Christ and letting what God's doing in you rub off on what God's doing in me, and what God's doing in me encourage what God's doing in you. Amen? It's vital.
So not only do we have it online on your phones, but we also, as you guys are walking out, we have sign ups you could if you're not phone savvy, sign up there. And as you sign up, you're basically saying, I wanna learn more about this group. The group leader will contact you this week. Those of you online are not off the hook. You the link for small groups is right in the description of the live feed.
So we would love for you to participate. We even have an an online group as well if you don't live in our area. Amen? Amen. I wanted to take some time as a vital and important announcement.
Now, we are going to continue the I Love You series. Do you guys enjoy this? Yeah. I hope so because we're gonna continue it for a while. Now, part of the I love love you series, the the reason that we say this, you know, God has forever said I love you.
The premise for it is 1 John-4:9. It says, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as atoning sacrifice for our sin. God has forever, forever demonstrated his love to us in the sending of his Son, the sending of Jesus.
Forever. Like you never have an excuse to question or doubt God's love for you. Again, you ever I'll say we all, assume we all, we've all been in that place. God you like, you look at circumstance and you're like, do you really love me? We never have an excuse to do that again because he's forever declared his love for you in the sending of his son.
He does more things than that, you know, day in and day out by his grace and mercy but he's he's forever done that. So the only reason that we would doubt his love for us is ignorance, which is not knowing, but you know now Jesus sent his son. He loves you. God has forever demonstrated it and he wants to do even more than that. He wants you to know him.
He wants to walk with you day in and day out, which is awesome. So you can't claim ignorance. The only other reason we would doubt *God's love* for us is unbelief. Raising the circumstance over what God has said. Let's not do that anymore.
Let's put our focus on Christ. Amen? So the response then, 1 John-4:19, we love because he first loved us. So when we see his love for us, it causes our love, boom, love for God is birthed in our heart and we see it transform our lives. So the the whole premise of the series is I love you.
*God said I love* you. Now how do we say "I love you too"? When we were planning, I was planning this series and praying, I knew today we're gonna say I love you too. We're gonna preach about how we say I love you too through worship. And man, I thought, and God just put on my heart, who better to preach about worship and responding to God and love through worship than the guy who leads our worship and production team.
Yeah. Yeah? So John's John's Odeganzo. Our Zimbabwean brother said, John's Odeganzo for those of that are watching online. It was funny.
John Krueger started leading our worship and production team January. So, it's been a full year. And in that year, I have seen man, a a young man who is full of Jesus, started full of Jesus, but yet in going through, you know, transitions and all kinds of stuff, when the the pressures of life squeeze. Think about this, when you "squeeze an orange", if you were to get anything other than orange juice out of that orange, it'd be weird. Right?
If you were to get apple juice out of an orange when you squeeze it, you'd be kind of freaked out. Why are we not freaked out when a Christian squeeze in anything but Jesus comes out? You know? And I've watched the pressures of life squeeze John Krueger, pressures of moving. He he set all of this up.
He's the 1 that ordered all of this. He's the team and really it's God through him. He's done an amazing job. And I've watched the pressures of life squeeze him over the past year and I've watched Jesus come out. And it's amazing.
It's genuine. It's real. And he's pastored the team well. Like, he just has. And the people that are on the team are growing in relationship with Jesus because of Jesus flowing out of John.
So it would be wrong for me to not let him preach on worship when he's living it. Yeah? So that's the bits number 2 big announcement. John Krueger, would you come on up? You guys thought I was gonna preach, didn't you?
Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be amazing, man.
I'm so honored by that. I wasn't expecting him to say that today, but titles aren't aren't too important to me. What's important to me is Jesus, and I can guarantee you that he's here in this room and he is the most important person in this room. And that is something to behold, the presence of God. How about small groups?
I'm so so excited about small groups. I led my first small group 2 and a half or 3 years ago, and it was terrifying. I had no idea what I was doing. And David was like, why don't you just build a plan? And I was like, I don't need a plan.
*God* has a plan. But small groups are amazing. If you have never been to a small group here at Real Church, encourage you to. There's a ton of amazing small groups. I'll probably be at Jerry's small group and then jumping around.
We have a a really beautiful prayer small group, which is something I'm so excited about. It's so cool to just get together and pray. I often end up going too long when I pray, but there's nothing better than talking to Jesus. So as David said, today we're gonna be talking about worship. But more specifically, today we're gonna be talking about pure worship.
You might wonder, what is that? I'm gonna make a couple of statements today, we're gonna talk through them. We're gonna talk through some definitions, and we're gonna talk through some scriptures to back all of it up. Everything that anybody says from a platform should always be rooted in scripture. That is 1 of the fundamentals for anybody that you listen to is to test them against the word because that is the truth.
Right? Amen. So the statement I'm making to you is that pure worship worship is loving Jesus. At its core, is loving Jesus. We were created to worship our creator, and it is a gift to behold.
And it is something very special and near and dear to my heart. And there's a lot of history and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about that history today. But before we move any further, I would love to pray and I would specifically love to pray that God would give us ears to hear and eyes to see. That we would be able to receive what God is saying today, not what I'm saying because this is for me too. That we'd be able to hear what God is saying and see what he has for us.
So, father, we thank you. We thank you that you love us because you love us because you love us. We thank you that you are good. We thank you that you are love. You are truth.
You are all things pure. We thank you that you are here with us. We acknowledge that promise that you made that where 2 or more are gathered, you are here. *God, and we thank you for that beautiful promise and we acknowledge that you are here, Jesus*. We acknowledge that you are the most important person in this room.
We acknowledge that you died and you took all of our sins on that cross. *God*, and we can't say thank you enough. God, we love you because you love us because you love us because you love us. God, pray that you would give us eyes to see what you have for us today and ears to hear the words we're speaking today. God, I pray that it would not be about what I am saying, but God, that it would be solely about what you are saying to us.
*God*, and that you would use me as a vessel to deliver this word. God, breathe on these words. Let us be changed. Let us not come into church today the same way and leave the same way. God, let us come into church and encounter the person of love, Jesus, and leave entirely new.
We *love you, Jesus*, and we pray all these things in your mighty, precious, and holy name. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So today, we're talking about pure worship. I made the statement worship is loving Jesus.
Right? And 1 of the things that's really important to me is when I know a word and I use it, it's in my vocabulary, but I don't necessarily know the actual definition. So whenever that's the case, I wanna go and I wanna look up that word. I love understanding definitions of words. The bible's fascinating to me for that reason to actually dive into the Greek words and the Hebrew words of scripture.
There's something so intimate about connecting with those words. So let's go ahead and let's define worship. Webster's defines worship as **adoration or devotion**. Now, of you might be saying, well, that's not necessarily love. Right?
And so when I saw those words, was like, oh, but what do those words mean? Right? So let's go let's even go a little bit deeper. Let's define adoration. Adoration is defined as a deep love and respect for someone or something.
So there's love on 1. Right? Respect will flow out of love. Let's define devotion. Devotion is defined as love, loyalty, or enthusiasm.
And I believe truly that that loyalty and enthusiasm will flow, again, out of love. When you go and you look up worship, you look up the definition, you'll see a couple of different lines. But the the core of it that you'll see through those 4 or 5 different lines because there's a noun and there's a verb is that adoration and devotion. So go ahead and look for yourselves if you'd like, but I'm good for it. I promise.
So at its core, worship is loving Jesus. I wanna read a scripture and the scripture is gonna be basically the whole of the sermon today. And I truly believe that God has a fresh perspective for us in this this passage. Many of you have heard this sermon. You might have or this this teaching, this scripture.
Many of you have heard sermons based on the scripture, but I believe God has a fresh perspective for us as a church, for us corporately today and I'm really excited for what God wants to do today with this word. So let's go ahead and read *Mark-14:3* through 9. While he was in Bethany, and that's Jesus, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the leper. And Simon the leper was was healed obviously of leprosy. That's a little bit of context to the scripture.
So everybody in this room as they're hanging out with Jesus reclining is familiar with the miraculous. They're familiar with Jesus performing miracles. They're familiar with what he does. Right? The the beauty of Jesus.
A woman came with an alabaster jar, a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She "broke the jar" and poured the perfume on his head. That's Jesus. I love the passion translation. I love digging into passion translation, and and a lot of times I'll find myself using like New King James and passion and going back and forth because passion brings brings it really practical.
And so I always always kinda do that in tandem, but the passion translation says with extreme devotion. Now we noticed that she she broke this jar and poured it on Jesus' head, this this incense, this perfume in worship. Right? Let's continue. Some of those present were saying indignantly to 1 another.
Why this "waste of perfume"? It could have been sold for more than a year's wages. Practical. Right? Let's get practical.
A year's wages. $65,000? A $100,000. Let's say for for us here in this room, $100,000. This bottle of perfume is worth a $100,000.
Yeah.
Let's That'll
be better.
It'll be fine. It's more than a year's wages. Maybe it's almost 2 years wages or 3. Right? I'm with you.
I'm with you. I totally get it. She breaks this $100,000 jar of perfume. They probably make it in Dubai. I guarantee you, you could find it.
She breaks this bottle of perfume, and everybody in the room is freaking out. They're like, oh my goodness. She she just wasted all that money pouring this oil on Jesus' head. Oh my gosh. Right?
And they're they're actually upset. But the thing that interests me there is that they're not necessarily they don't necessarily have a bad heart, 1 could argue there, because they're the what they say or at least their front is, we could have given it to the poor, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Right? The next line, they rebuked her harshly. So not only did she come in, she came into this place, she broke her jar, she poured the oil on Jesus, But they're they're they're criticizing her not just in thought, but they're also criticizing her openly.
They're rebuking her. They're scolding her. Like, why would you do that, woman? We we could have sold that and given it to the boar. How could you do this?
They're they're rebuking her. Like, let's let's take take this home. Right? She committed an act of worship to Jesus. Not a single person in the room got it.
Not a single person in the room understood it. And then they begin to rebuke her in her worship. They begin to scold her for what she's doing. Here's where it's awesome. Let's look at Jesus' response.
Leave her alone, said Jesus. Why are you bothering her? She has done a "beautiful thing" to me. The poor, you will always have with you and you can help them anytime you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could.
She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. This is huge. Truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. That's a that's deep. Like, Jesus is making this line in the sand, like, guys, I don't know what the heck you're doing.
I don't know why you're scolding her because this is beautiful. This is intimate. This is special. And wherever this gospel is preached, this will be remembered because this is special. This is a huge deal.
Pure worship is always driven by love. Always. This woman, she was not she wasn't concerned about the money that she would get paid back. Right? She wasn't concerned about the fact that this perfume was a $100,000, $65,000, whatever.
She wasn't concerned about how she looked walking into that building. Right? She was concerned about pouring her love on Jesus. Her *worship* was driven by love. It was not driven by selfishness.
It wasn't driven by fame and glory. It wasn't driven by her desire to gain a platform or to be praised. It was driven by loving Jesus. That's a big deal. *Worship is an offering of our love* back to Jesus.
1 of my 1 of my absolute favorite scriptures in the Bible, and I don't have it up here. I'm just gonna tell you about it, is Jesus' 2 greatest commandments. Right? When when he's asked, what are what are what is the greatest commandment? Jesus responds.
The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second, like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. And the thing that's beautiful to me about that, right, is that how how do we love the Lord God like that? I'm a very, very firm believer. I've told many people this.
You cannot love somebody with a love that you have not received for yourself. I can't I can't go give Jerry a hug if I don't even know what a hug is. Right? In the same way, I can't love somebody out of a well that I have nothing in. So the beautiful thing about that passage is is I'm here, I'm receiving Jesus' love for me.
Right? I'm receiving his love for me. It's changing me. And I can't help but pour it back on him. And so in that exchange, I'm understanding why he loves me.
I can begin to love myself. Right? And I can begin to love him back. And in loving him back, I'll be able to love my neighbor as myself, if not greater because that's the desire of his heart. And when you love somebody, you're always going to want to fulfill the desire of their heart.
I love that that passage to me is like putting my fingers like this. It just like there's something in my brain. I don't know which side it is, but it just it fits together. Right? 1 of the 1 of the things about love though, and the same is true with worship, is it's only ever going to be as powerful as it is pure.
That's right. Right? Purity has a way of exposing dirtiness. Right? You you you have a room full of dirty people and somebody that's walking in purity comes in and all of sudden those dirty people like and it wasn't really that that evident.
This person comes in and like, man, they're not joking crudely. They're not walking in sexual immorality. They don't have any concept of any of those things. And all the people in the room are like, oh man. Wow.
Like, that person, what's wrong with them? Right? But purity has this way of exposing that that hidden dirt, that nastiness. Right? And and 1 of the things that's true about love and the same for worship is it's only as powerful as it is pure.
And the only person that you're gonna find purity in, pure love and purity, both and, is Jesus because he is the example of "pure love". He loved us enough to die for us on the cross, a sinner's death to be beat, bruised, ripped apart, tormented, spit on. He wasn't he was not concerned about what was what was coming out of it for himself. His heart was on you and you and you and you and me and you. That is the example of pure love.
And And it's the same with that scripture I mentioned, the 2 greatest commandments. When we when we receive God's love for us, we can receive it, we can we can believe it, and we can pour it back on him. And in that process, we can learn and we can grow in purity. Right? And we can begin to walk in pure love.
Right? *Love* is only as powerful as it is pure and worship will be the most powerful it ever is when Jesus is in the room and Jesus longs for pure love and worshipers. Right? So if we go to Psalm 24, to back this up again, it says, who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?
The 1 who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. Woah. It's it's kinda heavy but god washes our hands. He cleans and purifies our heart. That's right.
It's our opportunity to walk in that. We encounter him, we encounter love, and our hearts change and we're washed clean should we choose to accept him. And it's in that that we grow in our understanding of what pure love looks like. But when we come into this place of *worship* and worship is not just here in this auditorium or in a church service. Worship is every day that you're alive.
Right? But when we when we are worshiping him, we we enter into that holy place. We come right to the throne, and his longing is is for that pure heart, that pure worship. This next one's a little bit of a doozy, And I'm excited about it, and I believe God's gonna change us from the inside out with it. But I wanna share a little bit about myself before we move into this.
So I grew up in a Christian home, and I grew up I mean, I started playing drums at a really young age, and that was my "safe place". And when I was a kid, I I loved to play drums, and and I loved the Lord. I didn't have a great understanding. I I didn't really I didn't know the truth of what I know now, so I encountered a lot of nastiness, so to speak. And I had deduced from a young age that if I if I were to play drums for the Lord, then I could do both things.
I could satisfy myself and I could glorify the Lord with what I'm doing. And so I I struggled with that for a long time, and and then finally, I found myself in this place where I was like, alright, Lord. You know, I I guess I gotta do this. I gotta do this. So I found myself in Atlanta living I was with my mom and dad at that point.
And I was playing for 3 or 4 different churches at the time. And, you know, it was awesome. I mean, I was I was growing. I was I was excellent. People loved my playing and and, you know, I'm glorifying the Lord.
But I didn't know what worship really was. You know, I didn't have an understanding of what that really was. I didn't even encounter. I didn't even know the Holy Spirit until a couple of years ago. Right?
And so I'm in this place where burnout's imminent. And so I'm playing for 3 or 4 different churches. I don't really know the person of Jesus. I haven't truly encountered him. I know about him and I'm walking in a way that that that seems like I'm a Christian, you know.
And I and I was a Christian, but I I didn't have the power behind it. Right? So fast forward, burn out. You you double down on burn out with church hurt, people talking about you, unforgiveness, all that gross stuff that can happen when we walk together. Right?
Lambs biting each other. Right? And and it is that at that point where I'm done. I'm running from God. I don't even know if God's real.
I'm hurt. I'm broken. And like months back, I'm playing in church. How did that happen? I hadn't encountered the person of love.
I hadn't encountered Jesus yet. And so you fast forward through a whole bunch of awful stuff, you know, and and God was still working. God was still working. I had people warring in prayer for my heart. I had people warring in prayer.
And I encountered peace through through a brother whom I really love and and I would call 1 of my dearest friends now. And I hated him for a long time because he kicked me out of his band, but God restores. We have the ministry of reconciliation. It's amazing. Right?
And so I encountered peace. I encountered the peace of the Holy Spirit in his home surfing during a certain period of my life. And it was at that moment that I began to come into an encountering relationship with Jesus. And so Jesus now, I'm revealed of his love for me. I didn't have a great understanding of his love for me.
Like, you know, when you grow up in bible school and you're like, yeah. Yeah. Jesus died on the cross. Cool. You know?
And it just it gets so blase that it's like, yeah. I got that. Put it in my pocket. Go about my day. Right?
But I encountered love. I encountered the the Holy Spirit and I've I was like, what is going on, man? I remember 1 of the first times that I had I had really tangibly felt the Holy Spirit, felt like electricity, and it was amazing. We've talked many times about it not being solely about the feelings, but I tell you, they're awesome. So I encounter love and I I'm receiving his love for me and I'm like, oh my gosh.
What is going on? I I'm "walking in freedom". I was held in bondage for years. I tried so hard to get free from a number of different things for years, like really trying, like habits, good relationships, meeting with these guys from churches, and it all just it was awful. I burnt out and I didn't follow Jesus, and I was questioning if he was even real.
I encountered suicide in that period of life because I was walking outside of him. Right? So I encounter love and I'm like, oh my gosh. *Jesus*, you love me because you love me. That's right.
That's good. I can't help but pour my love back on you, Jesus. This is amazing. Like, he's bringing me into this place where like, oh, junk. I have to right wrongs now.
Like, I have to be honest and transparent no matter what the cost. But because he loves me because he loves me, I can trust him and walk forward no matter what that looks like. So I'm encountering the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm set free from junk. I'm encountering love and now it's like, oh, wow.
In the past, I was only comfortable behind a a drum set. Right? I was only comfortable if I was playing drums in worship. Otherwise, I was like, man, what do I do here? Like, okay.
Like, you can ask my father. I I would not sing hymns in church. I would not. My voice, like, I just it was like he would be like, son, I love your voice, you know. I was like, no dad, it's ugly.
I don't know how you love that. It's terrible. And so so now I'm in this place in life where it's like, oh my gosh, I just gotta pour my love on you Jesus. I don't know what else to do. Like, I'm just I just can't help myself now.
And so so there's this invitation now to know what what real and pure worship looks like. Right? But it's gonna cost me something. That's my second point. Pure worship is costly.
It's good. Right? And so I went from this season of my life, this this this long stretch 12, whatever, however long, many years, where I can't do anything but do this. I'm just saying, you know, I don't even wanna sing. I just I love you Jesus, but I don't know what to do.
You know? Like, this is awkward. If I raise my hands, like, man. And and I and in that in that past, I had thought, like, the the power of worship was in how how exciting it was. You know?
Is are these guys really going nuts? Because I love rock and roll. I love hardcore music in that season. And I was like, I gotta find my I gotta find the satisfaction in this. Right?
And so in the past, had thought, like, oh, the power of worship is in like, how how crazy it is. And like, youth youth camp was awesome because it was like, man, they're going nuts. There's speakers, there's screens. But remember what I said a few minutes ago. *Love is only as powerful as it is pure, and worship will only ever be as powerful as it is filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the presence of Jesus*.
And that's brought in by pure love. Right? So Jesus is inviting me into this new season with him. Right? Because I I I'm just wrecked by the love of Jesus.
I don't even know what to do with myself. I don't even know how to worship. I don't know what to do. Like, there's people doing all kinds of stuff and like, yeah, wanna raise my hands. I wanna do whatever.
Like, I don't care. And so there's this invitation from God, right, to enter this new intimacy with him, to enter this new depth in him. Right? Because I've encountered love and and and I can't help but pour it back on him. Right?
And so this this invitation cost me something. It cost me my dignity. Because it I'm at this place where it's like, man, my whole life I've been so concerned like, how do people see me? Right? Do I look good?
Like, am I making you know, am I looking cool? Like, am I doing the right thing? Am I doing this? Am I doing that? And now it's I'm at this place where it's like, dude, you beat me in the street.
I don't care. I love you, Jesus. It doesn't matter what is ahead. I love you. I trust you.
We're gonna walk forward in this. And so, like I said, I wanna define this word because I don't wanna just leave you hanging there. And so dignity defined by Webster's is the state or quality of being worthy of respect or honor. Right? And so I think a lot of times, I think this this word specifically, to become undignified is for us church.
Here, real church. I think it's for a lot of people specifically, but I think it's also for us corporately. Right? As Christians, we're like, oh, man. We can't break this this thing of like, cool cool.
Alright. I don't know what to do here. Worship's worship. We sing a song. You know?
Alright. But, like, when we encounter love, if you recognize that God is love and you recognize that Jesus loved you enough to be bruised, to be ripped open. Right? He encountered a death like no other. Right?
By by all scientific measure, *Jesus should not have been alive by the time he was on the cross*. No man can handle that. Right? We recognize he did that for you and you and you and you and you and all of us individually. Right?
He was on that cross. He was walking through the cat of 9 tails and walking through the beating of it. I don't want you guys to think I I don't know what that is. Right? And he saw you individually.
He loved you enough to come after you that way. Right? So we recognize that love. It's like, what do we do with that? Do we just receive it?
Are we gonna follow him and point that back out at his feet? Are we gonna be a people that's that's known by falling at the feet of Jesus, knowing and loving him? Is that how we're gonna be known? Like, are we so concerned about the opinions of people next to us that that our dignity is more important than loving Jesus?
Yeah. Preach that. Love that, though.
Because it it just doesn't it doesn't matter. Right? We're we're we're this little mortal being. We have this little mortal body but there's there's *immortality* whether it's death or life. Right?
It's farther than I can begin to describe. What do we do with now? Right? We only have this 1 opportunity in life. We have this lifetime to give him an offering that's eternal.
Right? We have this 1 opportunity to give him something that we can't give him once we get to heaven. Right? Every every eye will be wiped clean. There will be no more sorrow.
So are we gonna choose to walk with him now in the midst of our sorrow, in the midst of our tears, in the midst of our fears? Are we gonna walk with him now and give him that offering that's once in a lifetime? Are we willing to become undignified before the Lord? Or are we so concerned about how other people see us that we're not gonna follow him the way that he loves us? We're not gonna follow him into the midst.
Because I'm I'm I'm not a firm believer that we're gonna encounter crazy persecution soon. I'm really not. I think it would kinda be awesome. And I say that because it would identify where your heart is.
That's right.
Right? And so if you're in this season right now where God is leading you to this place, right, that's costing you your dignity and you're struggling with saying yes, that's a beautiful place. Because what happens when the cost is death? What happens when the cost is not just something as simple as, man, they think I'm weird. Like, that's not a big deal.
That's not a big deal at all. Jail for life, beating, spitting on, that that gets a little bit more intense. Right? But you walk with the Lord now and trust him, and he will carry you through those things. But the invitation is where it is now.
And so 1 of the things that I'm gonna encourage you guys to do today in *worship* is to ask him, where what where's your invitation now? Are you inviting me to to get rid of all this stuff to, like, abandon my dignity and worship you freely? Is that, like, is that, like, the thing for me? Or is it you're inviting me to walk in purity today? You're inviting me into freedom today.
You're inviting me into salvation today. I I invite you guys to ask that of Jesus today because that's huge. And so when I said yes to that, that invitation, when I said yes, Jesus, my dignity doesn't matter. I found myself, like, worshiping like crazy. I was going nuts.
Like, there's a there's a worship group that I that I go to that a lot of my friends go to, and and it's just it's awesome. It's just a bunch of kids loving *Jesus*. And and I found myself in many different areas, different people coming to me and be like, man, you just you fiercely worship Jesus. Like, you're just on fire. And I just feel like, well, what else am I gonna do?
What else can I do? He is jealous for me. His love's like a hurricane. Am I just gonna am I just gonna float along in that hurricane? Woah.
Or am I gonna am I gonna fiercely love him back? Right? Am I gonna abandon whatever the cost is and go after him? And the thing is is, like, remember, pure worship is driven by love. It's not driven by selfishness.
It's not driven by arrogance, and it's not driven by anything other than loving Jesus, pure love for Jesus. So whether people think you're a lunatic or whether they're praising you for your worship, it's it's about neither. That's right. It's not about if if people are like, oh my gosh, like, look at him. He's on fire.
But it's also not about whether people think you're crazy. It's both and. That's right. Whether whether the praise is there, whether the criticism is there. It's about how your father sees you.
That's right. Right? Because the the trials of life, right, they'll call upon your character. And you'll have many people saying many different things, and there'll be many voices. There'll be voices in here, and we've talked through that, and it's and it's awesome.
I encourage you to go watch her podcast. It's beautiful. There'll be many voices. There'll be voices around of criticism. There'll be voices of of people praising you.
And for a long time, I found myself in a place where I was like, man, I'm not I I I have no avenue to worship you, Lord, like with my drums. So, you know, I'm just gonna go over there. You know? And so I found myself in in drugs and all this junk and all this awful stuff. But in the midst of it, like, man, I'm playing hardcore music and I'm killing it.
Right? And, like, I have guys in bands that are like, man, how are you so good? And I'm like, this is awesome. Cool. Right?
But when Jesus invited me on this journey, 1 of the costs of that invitation was surrendering music in and of itself. Right? I was willing I said to Jesus, I remember. He took me on this journey, and and and I like to say, like, we kinda made a checklist of things that we had to walk through together. Right?
Just kinda like this list of stuff that's like, let Holy Spirit bring it up and it's like, man, I know I gotta deal with this. And 1 of those things was my dreams. 1 of those things was my desires and my passions. And I had to get to this place where it's like, man, I have these offer awesome offers to do, these amazing things and touring and all this crazy stuff that I've always ever dreamed. But is Jesus bigger than that?
Is *Jesus* more important than making the most money you've ever made in a year? Is Jesus more important than the most fame and social media platform you'll ever have? And so he's inviting me on that. 1 of those costs was was giving that up. And I can't found myself at this place where Jesus invited me into deeper intimacy with him.
I'm like, Lord, I I won't play music ever again. It's not that important. I see you, and you are the most important thing to me. You're more important than my wife, you're more important than my family, my my sister, my brother-in-law, my career, my dreams. You invited me to quit my job.
Really test that 1 before you do that. It was amazing. It was amazing. I promise. And so the question for you today is, are we willing to say yes?
Are we willing to say, yes, Jesus? Am I am I content to just receive his love, or am I gonna give it back to him? It's just a command. Like, this isn't religion. It's a relationship, and a relationship has reciprocation on both sides.
It's not just about 1 way.
It's good.
And so I just wanna encourage you to ask him about that today as we enter into worship. Right? Ask him about that dignity issue. Ask him about that pride issue. Ask him about that selfishness.
My last point for the day is that pure worship is eternal. When we worship him purely and remember what I said, this is this is like a little mortal period of time. We're we're immortal beings and mortal bodies, either to death or to life. Right? When we worship him purely with pure love, our worship carries into eternity.
And so to back that up, I wanna I wanna read *1 Corinthians-3:12* through 13. If anybody builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. I sure as heck don't want my offering to the Lord to be burned up in fire. I want my offering to be "beautiful things" that is tested by fire and shown to be true and pure.
That's right. I don't wanna just rally a bunch of musicians together to make excellent sounding slop. I don't wanna I don't wanna come up here and and and put together an auditorium that looks amazing but has no substance, that's not filled with his presence, that's not that's not in spirit and in truth. Right? I wanna follow him at whatever the cost.
And I wanna I wanna offer him something that carries into eternity. Right? And when we're found at his feet knowing and loving him, when we're found worshiping him in spirit and in truth and pure worship, that will carry into eternity. My last verse for today is Romans-12:1. And this is kinda like the go to, like, what is worship?
But this verse is heavy. We get so blase to to what God is doing sometimes and and the teachings that we've grown up on that it it just doesn't impact us anymore. So I encourage you if if that's you, like, shameless plug, listen to our podcast. I'm just kidding. Our podcast is great.
No. But but try a different translation. Try something fresh. Invite him into it as Holy Spirit, will you put breathe life into these words today? Because I've always heard John-3:16.
But once I encountered love and I invited him into it, it wrecked me. I've watched the passion of the Christ many many times. But once I invited the Holy Spirit into my heart, once I invited Jesus into that, it's like, I can't even read the the the the *scripture* without just getting wrecked, without recognizing his love for me in that place. Is your worship eternal? Are you living a life of worship centered around Jesus?
Because the truth is either you're **worshiping Jesus** or you're worshiping Satan. And that's that's brash. I'm I it it is what it is. Either you're worshiping yourself. I need this money.
I'm the only person that I'm concerned about. I need that car. Or you're worshiping Jesus. That's right. Self worship is Satan.
Exactly. Exactly true. Whether it's an object, whether it's yourself, whether it's another person that's not Jesus, there's no middle ground. Either you're worshiping Jesus or you're worshiping the devil. And either you're either you're gonna live eternally or you're gonna die eternally.
Is our worship going to carry into eternity today? Are we willing to become undignified before the Lord? Are we willing to abandon all things if it means knowing and loving him? Let me pray over you guys. Lord, I just thank you for this church.
*God*, I thank you that we can come together freely. God, I thank you that we can come together and love you, Jesus. I thank you that we can come together and learn more about you in spirit and in truth. God, that we can be led by your peace and by your presence, and we can honor you in all things. God, I thank you that you love us more than we could ever ask or imagine.
Your desires for us are good. *God*, I pray that you would impact us today with the words that you have spoken. God, I pray that we would leave here changed from that word. God, and I pray that today as we enter into worship, God, we would ask you the questions that need to be asked. God, why am I why am I so scared?
Why why does life not seem like it's worth living right now? Do you even love me, Jesus? Because if the answer is not yes, he loves you, then it's not Jesus. He loves you because he loves you because he loves you. *Lord*, and my prayer for this people is that we'd become a people that live abandoned to you.
We're not concerned about the people in traffic that we block if we get out of our car to go bless somebody that you're leading us to. We'd become a people that, God, are willing to follow you anywhere to the ends of the earth. God, that our yes to you would carry into eternity. God, that we would be the people that you see at heaven's gates and say, "well done", my faithful servant. Good and faithful.
I love you, son. I love you, daughter. I'm proud of you. I care about you. This is more than here now, Jesus, and we recognize that.
And I pray if anyone's struggling with that recognition today, God, that you would just reveal to them that this is more about the next 5 days, the next 5 years, a 10 year plan, a 20 year plan, my engagements in in this month or this job is gonna get me here, where this lateral move is gonna place me in this career path. God, and that we would seek you first. God, that we would seek you above all things. We would be a people after your heart, found at your feet, knowing and loving you. In Jesus' name, I pray.
For tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God *loves* you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church of the Lord. God bless you, and the best is yet to come.