Speaker 1: Ed's neighbors.
Speaker 1: They've they've they've really stepped it up this year.
Speaker 1: And now I know where Sparky Dupler lives Yesterday was Kathy's birthday.
Speaker 1: She's a wise 60 years old.
Speaker 2: No,
Speaker 1: I watched Carter read his book.
Speaker 1: He's getting, he's going to be good at reading here pretty soon.
Speaker 1: Oh, I've got some serious stuff to look at too.
Speaker 1: Um, I got to send Dennis and Karen a sympathy card cause LSU beat Florida last night.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever seen on YouTube, those videos that where people are doing crazy things while they're looking at their phones.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all were worried that I was about to step off the stage.
Speaker 1: If you watch on YouTube, you can see people fall into fountains at malls.
Speaker 1: You can see people fall downstairs, which is not good.
Speaker 1: And we hope that they're all healed and okay, but it's kind of funny Time.
Speaker 1: After time security cameras watch and capture people, walking straight into glass doors, just boom.
Speaker 1: And I saw one yesterday where this guy gets off an elevator and he's on his phone.
Speaker 1: And he just simply walks very quickly across the hallway and slams right into a wall.
Speaker 1: The door was right there, but he wasn't watching where he was going.
Speaker 1: Sometimes crazy things happen when we're looking down and God is calling us to look up, look up.
Speaker 1: And when we look up, we don't run into the same things as we do.
Speaker 1: Whenever we are looking down last week, we talked about the fact that looking down can't offer certain things that looking up can.
Speaker 1: In fact, our big idea was look up for what down can't offer.
Speaker 1: Albert Einstein said that a problem can't be fixed by the same mindset that created it.
Speaker 1: So the mentality has to be shifted.
Speaker 1: If we're going to truly make a difference in the world, around us and humanity, we created the issues that we live with right now.
Speaker 1: We, we continually fix one thing.
Speaker 1: And in doing so often break something else.
Speaker 1: Uh, somebody says you're not spending enough time with me.
Speaker 1: So we start focusing all of our attention on them.
Speaker 1: And now we're taking our attention from something else.
Speaker 1: And so we can shift the focus.
Speaker 1: We can shift the issue, but only heaven can truly redeem the situation.
Speaker 1: Redeem the person, redeemed
Speaker 3: The plan, redeem the condition of the reality we are dealing with.
Speaker 3: And, and God calls us to lift up our eyes.
Speaker 3: Cause we're our eyes go.
Speaker 3: There goes our life.
Speaker 3: If our eyes are lifted, our heart is lifted.
Speaker 3: If our eyes are lifted, our life is lifted.
Speaker 3: In fact, look where you're going,
Speaker 4: Or you will go where you are looking.
Speaker 4: That's what we said last week.
Speaker 3: It's not always easy though, because the enemy of our soul.
Speaker 3: And when I say the enemies of our soul, what I'm talking about as I'm talking about the carnal nature of man, our own personal humanity, that that causes us to think the way we do and be tempted by the things that we are tempted by and, and fall to those things, make the mistakes that we make.
Speaker 3: No one makes a mistake because they intentionally go out to do something bad or to do something that's going to be hurtful to another person.
Speaker 3: No, we make a mistake because we, we are drawn naturally drawn to certain things.
Speaker 3: And if we're not careful, if we don't keep our eyes up, then we become insular in our thinking insular in our life.
Speaker 3: And suddenly we're doing the things that please us versus always doing the things that are beneficial, even for us.
Speaker 3: And so the natural man is one.
Speaker 3: The second is the world, the world around us, the world around us.
Speaker 3: We know it's not elevating things.
Speaker 3: It's not lifting things up.
Speaker 3: And sometimes the things that it does try to elevate are not always the things that God would elevate or bless.
Speaker 3: And that's just the reality we're living in right now.
Speaker 3: And the last in the me of our soul is the demonic forces.
Speaker 3: The, the, the, the, we have God and the angels of heaven.
Speaker 3: Then we have Satan and the demons of hell.
Speaker 3: And, and, and the reality is that God is not fighting.
Speaker 3: Satan and Satan is not challenging.
Speaker 3: God's Satan and the demonic forces have already lost the battle.
Speaker 3: They cannot win.
Speaker 3: They have not won.
Speaker 3: They will never win.
Speaker 3: That's the reality, God has already won, but as Satan has not been able to defeat God, Satan is
Speaker 4: After you, he's after
Speaker 3: Me, the demonic forces are there to oppress and impress and suggest and, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: And so sometimes they, they push against us.
Speaker 3: Now I do think I'm I, this is my own personal thought.
Speaker 3: You think, whatever you want on this, but it's my personal thought that the devil and demons get blamed for a lot of things are carnal nature and natural man are actually pushing forward.
Speaker 3: Satan made me do it.
Speaker 3: No, that was just you.
Speaker 3: That was probably just you.
Speaker 3: But there are some things that Satan does do.
Speaker 3: And, and th the demonic forces do in our life and try to cause th th they don't care about you.
Speaker 3: They don't care about me, but they hate God.
Speaker 3: So they're doing everything they can to hurt him.
Speaker 3: And the only way they can do that is by hurting you.
Speaker 3: And so all of these things, they're trying to pull us down, trying to pull us down, and maybe you can relate that you've had a day where everything was going good.
Speaker 3: You got up every day that you were happy.
Speaker 3: You were whistling, you were singing tunes, you were worshiping Jesus.
Speaker 3: And then something happened.
Speaker 3: Something changed.
Speaker 3: That person cut you off in traffic and your, your, your day just was going good.
Speaker 3: And now suddenly it's not good anymore.
Speaker 3: The situation, it didn't get better.
Speaker 3: It got, in fact worse, something went bad, a temptation that you thought you beat, that you thought you had whipped.
Speaker 3: Uh, it, it rises again that you, you, you see that post on Facebook and it causes you to go in a negative direction.
Speaker 3: So these things start dragging us down.
Speaker 3: We started off high, and now we're coming down.
Speaker 3: It drags down a good day, and it's often not a spectacular thing.
Speaker 1: It's a mundane thing.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of
Speaker 3: The normal thing that's going along, that we're going along.
Speaker 3: And something generally normal happens, but it hits us in the wrong way.
Speaker 3: And suddenly our good day turns into kind of a negative day.
Speaker 1: And, and
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just the simple mundane reality of life that can cause us to be dragged down, down, down, down.
Speaker 3: And the camera guy is really loving me right now, because when things are going down, it's hard to follow that.
Speaker 3: It's hard to be a part of that.
Speaker 3: It's hard to, it's hard to connect with that.
Speaker 3: And even in our own lives, it creates disconnects.
Speaker 3: And today I want to look at a couple of guys that are surrounded by the mundane.
Speaker 1: They are shepherds, and they are watching sheep at night.
Speaker 1: Shepherds were some of the most lowly members of society.
Speaker 1: They weren't considered in the who's who,
Speaker 3: When people think they weren't even allowed to worship in the temple, because as a shepherd, you had to walk your sheep constantly.
Speaker 3: And so even, uh, participating in the Sabbath day was a difficult thing for a shepherd, because who was going to watch the sheep if you were, uh, taking the day off as it were.
Speaker 3: And so how are you going to obey the laws of God if you were going to be a shepherd?
Speaker 3: So they were, they were really low on the totem pole, if you will.
Speaker 1: And then there's nothing more mundane than being a chef
Speaker 3: Peppered in a field at night, watching sheep sleep.
Speaker 1: That just is mundane.
Speaker 1: Now we hear about in
Speaker 3: The old Testament who ultimately becomes King and, and he's, he, he really kind of has an exciting story because we hear that as he's watching the sheep, the bear comes and tries to take, uh, a sheep and he defeats the bear.
Speaker 3: And then the lion comes and he defeats the lion.
Speaker 3: But these were actually tests in David's life.
Speaker 3: These were not the normal realities of his life.
Speaker 3: How else does David have time to sing songs and learn how to play instruments and, and think all of these great things that he ends up thinking, if in fact he's fighting bears and lions constantly, no, most of the time
Speaker 5: He's watching sheep
Speaker 1: That gets boring.
Speaker 1: It's mundane.
Speaker 1: In fact, David was so ordinary that whenever the prophet came
Speaker 3: To the house and said, Hey, listen, I want you to bring all your sons before me.
Speaker 3: Cause one of these sons that you have is going to be the King of Israel, his own father, Jesse never even called David
Speaker 1: Out of the field is
Speaker 3: Like, no, that that's what that guy is good
Speaker 1: For.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to call
Speaker 3: Him out of the field.
Speaker 3: And after all, it's only after every other opportunity or possibility was exhausted in the profits that ain't none of these guys, you have any other sons.
Speaker 3: And
Speaker 1: She's like, Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine being the Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Son?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be the,
Speaker 3: Oh yes.
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 3: But David was the, Oh, yes.
Speaker 3: On.
Speaker 3: And so these shepherds that are in the field, watching their flocks by night, these guys are they're in a mundane task on a, on a mundane day, they were just doing normal stuff.
Speaker 3: And they weren't part of the who's who they're just, they're just getting the day done, going through the night, getting the motion that has to be done, done so that their sheep can be handled in.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Luke chapter two verse eight, that night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.
Speaker 3: Now, all of a sudden they're going to experience an exceptional moment.
Speaker 3: Even in the most moon mundane situation, there are exceptional moments and here's there suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared among them and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them.
Speaker 3: And then they like us probably if suddenly the angel of the Lord stood in your living room while you were sitting there doing something mundane and suddenly, bam, there's an angel standing in front of you.
Speaker 3: I know that if you're anywhere from the South.
Speaker 3: And, and I found out a lot of people from Michigan in Ohio, too, you probably packing something somewhere.
Speaker 3: And, and you're, you're, you're going to be terrified and you're going to be responding in a unique way because you're, you're afraid.
Speaker 3: This is, uh, a sudden thing, but now the angel reassured them.
Speaker 3: He said, don't be afraid.
Speaker 3: I bring a good news.
Speaker 3: That will bring great joy to all people.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 3: Well, all right.
Speaker 3: Uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna relax for a minute here and try to hear what you're saying.
Speaker 3: And then he says, um, the savior.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 3: The Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.
Speaker 3: And I remember from last week that the Messiah was one that we're waiting for, waiting for consistently wanting to see believing in praying for him yet he had not experienced this yet.
Speaker 3: And so, and so now the angels are saying, Hey, he's been born this day in Bethlehem, the city of David.
Speaker 3: How, how, ah, okay.
Speaker 3: In verse 12, he says, you will recognize him by the sign.
Speaker 3: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth in a manger.
Speaker 3: And then they take it to the next level because you know, it's one thing to have one angel show up and start telling you stuff.
Speaker 3: But it's another thing to have an entire choir of angels appear in your midst and start, uh, start singing to you.
Speaker 3: And, and they, they, they were joined.
Speaker 3: An angel was joined by a vast host of others.
Speaker 3: So that's a lot, the armies of heaven.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 3: Praising God and saying glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.
Speaker 3: This is, this is, uh, a spectacular moment in an otherwise mundane existence.
Speaker 3: It's a spectacular situation.
Speaker 3: And just as Gabriel had said to me, Mary, Mary, look up, look up, look up.
Speaker 3: Mary's response was to look down and Gabriel against us.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3: Look out just as Gabriel had said to Mary, look up.
Speaker 3: Now, this angel is saying to the shepherd, look up, lift your eyes out of the mundane thing you're in.
Speaker 3: And look that there and understand that there is something bigger.
Speaker 3: There is something greater that is happening in your life, in your area right now.
Speaker 3: And here's our big idea today.
Speaker 3: The big idea is looking up, elevates your attention from the mundane, looking up, elevates your attention from the mundane.
Speaker 3: The reason why people are on their cell phones while they're walking down the hall in the mall or down going through an elevator or, or, uh, just walking down the street is because they are doing a mundane thing and they are trying to distract their attention.
Speaker 3: They're trying to, to be in two places at once.
Speaker 3: One is in the activity that they're operating in and the other is in a different mint, uh, mentality at all.
Speaker 3: And that, and a different mentality in their mind is what I was trying to say.
Speaker 3: But since I wasn't in my mind, I didn't say that
Speaker 1: When I exercise,
Speaker 3: I don't like to be without something going on.
Speaker 3: And so one of the reasons I like exercising in my house is because I blast music or I blast a podcast or, or a sermon from another pastor.
Speaker 3: I, I, I listened to stuff because if I can get my brain in another place, I can do the Montana mundane task of exercising.
Speaker 3: And what is happening here is, is God is saying to these, these shepherds, no, I need your attention needs to be on this spectacular thing.
Speaker 3: That's going on in the life and your life in your area, around you.
Speaker 3: And I have three thoughts for us today.
Speaker 3: And thought, number one is this that looking up brings
Speaker 1: Revelation.
Speaker 1: It brings revelation.
Speaker 1: This revelation,
Speaker 3: You shouldn't have a savior came from above.
Speaker 3: It did not come from looking down and watching sheep sleep.
Speaker 3: No, it arrived from above and God is constantly calling us
Speaker 1: Up.
Speaker 1: Always calling us to advancement, always call
Speaker 3: To take our attention and lift it into something greater and Genesis chapter 15, God calls Abraham to look up and see the stars in the sky.
Speaker 3: And he said, that's going to be the number of your descendants.
Speaker 3: Don't look at what's going on right here, Abraham.
Speaker 3: And don't look at the fact that you have no children right now.
Speaker 3: Abraham, understand that you're you look up and know that your descendants are going to be like the stars of the heavens Genesis chapter 18, Abraham.
Speaker 3: It was when he looked up from his mundane task that he saw God revealed in the earth.
Speaker 3: In, in his day, in the old Testament, we would call that[inaudible] where God is manifest and flesh somehow.
Speaker 3: And, and people interact with him.
Speaker 3: And so the scripture tells us that Abraham had lunch with God.
Speaker 3: It was when he looked up from his mundane task, Genesis chapter 24, Rebecca looked up and she saw her destiny with Isaac.
Speaker 3: You can look through the scripture and you can see consistently that people are looking up Genesis 31, Joseph looked up and, and saw God's miraculous blessing in his life.
Speaker 3: Constantly calling us to look up.
Speaker 3: The Psalms are telling us over and over, lift up your eyes, lift up your head, lift up your eyes, look up, look up.
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 3: So you can see the blessings of God in your life.
Speaker 3: And if you look at the, the, uh, wife of Jesus, find that Jesus was constantly looking up and he would call upon the father while looking up.
Speaker 3: And as he looked up, he would see the power of God working in his
Speaker 1: Life.
Speaker 1: God calls us to look up.
Speaker 3: Can you down restricts our view, but looking up expanding.
Speaker 1: When's our view.
Speaker 1: Looking down
Speaker 3: Limits our perspective, looking up expands are
Speaker 1: Perspective.
Speaker 1: And your life is often as small or large.
Speaker 1: As your view,
Speaker 3: Life is often a small or large as your
Speaker 1: View.
Speaker 1: We have
Speaker 3: The story of Michael and the old Testament.
Speaker 3: She is the wife of King David that we just talked about, the shepherd who became King, and she's looked she's upstairs and in their apartments.
Speaker 3: And she's looking down from the window.
Speaker 3: She's looking down upon David and I, she looks down upon him physically.
Speaker 3: She, she begins to get a negative opinion of him and she begins to critique and criticize
Speaker 1: Him.
Speaker 1: And ultimately it does not go well for Michael, even though it continues to go well for David, her perspective changed and she began to despise him.
Speaker 1: Paul wrote, don't look down,
Speaker 3: Down on those that see things differently than you do.
Speaker 3: Don't get caught up in how they see stuff.
Speaker 3: Don't look down upon them.
Speaker 3: Then you become critical and you become condemning of others.
Speaker 1: And the church in families, in business,
Speaker 3: In our community, it is so easy to start looking down.
Speaker 3: And when we start looking down on something, we get critical and we become condemning.
Speaker 3: And, and it, it, it does it never, it never elevates the situation at all.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know this or not, but every one has an opinion,
Speaker 1: Shocking.
Speaker 1: I know, but it's true.
Speaker 3: Everybody has an opinion.
Speaker 3: And here's my encouragement to you.
Speaker 3: If your opinion is negative about something, look
Speaker 1: Before you share that opinion before you post that opinion look up,
Speaker 3: You know, there's a difference between a critique and a criticism.
Speaker 1: A critique
Speaker 3: Is something that benefits a situation and benefits.
Speaker 3: A person, a critique is built off of relationship.
Speaker 3: A critique says, Hey, I care about you.
Speaker 3: And I care about the vision that you have.
Speaker 3: And so I want to help you in that vision.
Speaker 3: And here's something that I have that I have noticed.
Speaker 3: And I would like to share it with you.
Speaker 3: It benefits a criticism is simply fault.
Speaker 3: Finding it is simply an express, an expressed complaint, or an express opinion.
Speaker 3: That is negative.
Speaker 3: An opinion, a saw a criticism and a critique are very different.
Speaker 3: And I would just encourage you that an anonymous criticism is never welcomed and anonymous.
Speaker 3: Criticism is not biblical and anonymous.
Speaker 3: Criticism is not helpful.
Speaker 3: And anonymous criticism is not benefiting the person that you are trying to communicate with.
Speaker 3: Uh, an anonymous criticism is just all about you and you expressing your opinion.
Speaker 3: And I'll just say, from my perspective, uh, when, when I get anonymous criticisms, I just throw them in the trash can.
Speaker 3: So save a tree and don't send them or something.
Speaker 5: Your name
Speaker 3: When you sign your name and you say, here's here.
Speaker 3: Here's my opinion.
Speaker 3: Now it can become a critique.
Speaker 3: It can be something that can elevate the situation.
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 3: Because now I know where this is coming from and I can say, Oh, that person is really, for me, Mark is really forming.
Speaker 3: In fact, isn't it your wasn't your birthday yesterday?
Speaker 3: Happy birthday, Mark Marcus Forman.
Speaker 3: He's one year wiser than he was the day before yesterday.
Speaker 3: And so he is Forman.
Speaker 3: So whenever he shares something with me and it's attached to him, now I know where it's coming from.
Speaker 3: I know what it's trying to do.
Speaker 3: I know what the motivation behind it might be.
Speaker 3: And now I can, the whole situation and my own life can be elevated by your sharing of your opinion and expanded view may change your perspective of something.
Speaker 3: [inaudible] let me give you some examples.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 3: Maybe you don't agree with the boss's decision in a particular area, but when you look up and you see that your, your company
Speaker 5: And your job are secure
Speaker 3: In very uncertain times, that then it might change your perspective on how big of an issue your disagreement with this particular decision may be, yes, maybe your family member didn't make the decision that you wouldn't have liked to see them make.
Speaker 3: Maybe they're going in a direction that's a little different than what you would have chosen for them, but you look up and you recognize that that is one decision that's going to be made in a lifetime of decisions.
Speaker 3: And you say, you know what?
Speaker 3: In, in light of an entire lifetime, I'm going to, I'm going to deal with this one area of disappointment so that I can continue a relationship for the rest of their life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Maybe you didn't like every song in the arrangement of the musical set for the surface, but then you look up and you realize that five people have been baptized in the last month.
Speaker 3: And then you say, well, wait a minute, maybe five baptisms are simply more important than whether or not I like this one particular song or don't like that one particular song I look up and suddenly my perspective changes.
Speaker 3: Really my world is getting bigger.
Speaker 3: My purse, my understanding is enlarging.
Speaker 3: And whenever you look up, you might find the end side of this thing, overwhelms the criticism that you may have levied, and suddenly you find peace in the situation.
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't mean you like everything.
Speaker 3: It doesn't change your fault on the subject matter, but there are simply bigger things to consider.
Speaker 3: It shifts the perspective and changes your attitude.
Speaker 3: And I would venture to say that every single one of us, when we look at those who are critique, critiquing, or criticizing our life, we wish they would adopt that attitude.
Speaker 3: And so I'm simply suggesting that we adopt the attitude that we wish everybody else
Speaker 1: Adopt towards us.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: The angels brought a new perspective.
Speaker 1: They said to the shepherds look up.
Speaker 1: You think
Speaker 3: You were involved in a, in a mundane thing and a mundane life and a lifetime of nothing happening in your world.
Speaker 3: And yet, if you just look up here, you'll find out that something absolutely spectacular is happening in your world.
Speaker 3: They were watching sheep and the lamb of God was being revealed.
Speaker 1: Look up,
Speaker 3: What revelations can you be missing in your life?
Speaker 3: What perspective could you be needing to shift in your life?
Speaker 3: But you're looking down.
Speaker 3: You're caught in a mundane
Speaker 1: World.
Speaker 1: Revelation comes when you're looking up.
Speaker 1: So if you say,
Speaker 3: And I just wish I knew what to do next.
Speaker 3: I just wish I could understand what needed to happen next.
Speaker 3: I just, I just wish I knew what I needed to do to break out of this cycle that I'm in or this situation that I'm in.
Speaker 3: My, my encouragement is don't look down, don't look down, look up it's by looking up that rev revelation comes into your life.
Speaker 3: And that brings us the thought number two, that looking up produces worship.
Speaker 3: It produces worship.
Speaker 3: Revelation, opens the door to worship and worship of anything is a result of revelation about that thing.
Speaker 3: People that worship sports stars have a revelation of how awesome they are in their area of sports.
Speaker 3: People who worship anything, have an understanding about that thing or revelation about that thing.
Speaker 3: And so when we have a revelation about God, about who he is and what he's doing, it suddenly expands our perspective and worship is the reason
Speaker 1: It's worth ship.
Speaker 3: It's an intentional recognition and acknowledgement of worthiness.
Speaker 3: It's saying you're worthy of what I'm offering you right now.
Speaker 3: The angel offered revelation.
Speaker 3: The lamb of God is being born and, and the savior, the Messiah being born in Bethlehem today,
Speaker 1: And then
Speaker 3: Following the revelation, all of a sudden worship Springs forth and godly revelation always produces worship.
Speaker 3: It acknowledges value.
Speaker 3: The angel said the Savior's born.
Speaker 3: And then the angels plural began to worship glory to God,
Speaker 1: God, in the highest heaven, glory to God in the highest heaven.
Speaker 1: What is worship?
Speaker 3: What we mean by that is worship.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, what, what is it worship?
Speaker 3: Number one is a statement.
Speaker 3: It's an individual statement of worth.
Speaker 3: It's saying your worth.
Speaker 3: This now worship is unified in focus.
Speaker 3: We today are, are in a unified manner.
Speaker 3: Online onsite.
Speaker 3: We're unified in our worship.
Speaker 3: And our focus is singularly on Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior.
Speaker 3: It's singularly upon God, our father, our Redeemer, it's singular in its unity, but it is individual and its expression.
Speaker 3: Every single one of us are uniquely expressing worship to God.
Speaker 3: Some of us worship God in one way, while another worship God, in another way, it's unique that that's why you cannot worship for me.
Speaker 3: I cannot worship for you.
Speaker 3: I can't say well, Christy's worship in today.
Speaker 3: So I don't have to know it's you it's, it's a unified in focus, but it's unique and expression.
Speaker 3: Secondly, worship, isn't it
Speaker 1: Expression.
Speaker 1: It's an expression that indicates worth.
Speaker 1: Sometimes
Speaker 3: Times it includes singing some con times it includes dancing.
Speaker 3: It's celebrating, it's declaring and speaking.
Speaker 3: It's adoration being given there.
Speaker 3: There's an activity involved in it and worship is a sacrifice.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 1: It's the sacrifice of self
Speaker 3: Can we offer what the focus of our worship deserves?
Speaker 3: So sometimes I'd just be very open with you.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I get into a moment and I know I should worship.
Speaker 3: And I just don't feel like worshiping.
Speaker 3: I don't feel like expressing nothing.
Speaker 1: I just want to
Speaker 3: Be insular.
Speaker 3: I just want to be to myself, but I don't get that privilege when I'm in the presence of one worthy of worship.
Speaker 3: And so I sacrifice me to give him what he deserves.
Speaker 3: And ultimately worship is a lifestyle.
Speaker 1: It's a lifestyle
Speaker 3: Of submission to one that is greater than myself.
Speaker 3: I say, you're, you're greater than me.
Speaker 3: So I, I worship you.
Speaker 3: I offer you something.
Speaker 3: I, I offer you me.
Speaker 3: I, I declare your greatness.
Speaker 3: I, I display my love for you because, because you're worthy of that, you're worthy.
Speaker 3: In fact, Jesus said it this way.
Speaker 3: He said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
Speaker 3: Obedience is worship.
Speaker 3: Worship is a lifestyle.
Speaker 3: Worship is not hidden, silent, reserved.
Speaker 3: It's an expression that is equal to the value placed on the one being worshiped.
Speaker 3: I've had a couple of times where people have come to me and said, uh, you know, this person, pastor Mike I'm in this relationship.
Speaker 3: And this person really loves me.
Speaker 3: And, and man, they're, they, they just tell me how much they love me and how much they care about me, but they, they don't want anybody to know about our relationship.
Speaker 3: There's something wrong with that.
Speaker 3: So when people say, God is my everything, God is my all in all my relationship with Jesus is the most important thing to me in my life.
Speaker 3: But I don't want anybody to know about it.
Speaker 6: There's something wrong with that
Speaker 3: Seasons to worship increase as our eyes are lifted.
Speaker 3: And the more that's revealed, the more we have reason to worship God doesn't change, but he becomes greater and greater in our life.
Speaker 3: As our revelation of him increases, it's kind of like us as kids, whenever we're growing up, we have this, uh, this view of our parents.
Speaker 3: At first, we think our parents know everything about everything and they are the authority on everything.
Speaker 3: And my daddy is stronger than your daddy and my mom was better than your mama.
Speaker 3: And that's how life is.
Speaker 3: And then you get a little older and then you realize that there are some cracks in the armor.
Speaker 3: They aren't everything that you thought that they were, they actually don't know everything.
Speaker 3: And then we swing to the idea of my daddy knows nothing.
Speaker 3: And my mother is really not that bright.
Speaker 3: And, um, you know, I've got this thing figured out and they are old fuddy duddies stuck in the past and they don't understand how it really is today.
Speaker 3: And then we get a little more revelation and we come to the place that, Hey, my mom and dad actually were quite brilliant.
Speaker 3: And uh, Hey dad, how exactly did you do that thing?
Speaker 3: And Hey mom, how did this work out?
Speaker 3: And, and, um, you know, and, and that's the progress that most of us make.
Speaker 3: The reality is our parents haven't changed.
Speaker 3: They're the same parents.
Speaker 3: Our revelation of them continues to shift.
Speaker 3: The only thing that's different is that with God, we never find the cracks cause he's perfect in all of his ways.
Speaker 3: But our revelation of him continues to shift and he becomes greater and greater in our lives, which brings us the thought number three, that looking up produces worship and it results
Speaker 5: In peace, results, and peace
Speaker 3: Angels revealed the Prince of peace.
Speaker 5: Maybe, you know, the old song that says, turn your[inaudible] in his[inaudible] of his glory.
Speaker 5: And the line
Speaker 3: Of that, that I think is so important for us today
Speaker 5: Is[inaudible]
Speaker 3: Stop that they change.
Speaker 3: It's not that they're gone.
Speaker 3: It's that they become why
Speaker 5: The light of his glory and grace, what happens is the,
Speaker 3: The things of this earth become dim because our focus is entirely on them.
Speaker 5: And as we look up,
Speaker 3: Certainly the things that filled our vision are no longer, quite as big.
Speaker 3: And they don't, they can't fill our vision whenever he
Speaker 5: He's filling our vision and worship upward is linked with peace on earth.
Speaker 5: To those that are connected by faith, Luke two 14 and peace
Speaker 3: To those with whom God is pleased.
Speaker 3: Who's God pleased with today.
Speaker 3: He's pleased with those who are looking up, looking up to him for revelation, looking up to him for salvation, looking up to him for all things that we know
Speaker 5: Intentionally seeking relationship with him.
Speaker 5: When you worship
Speaker 3: Intentionally engaged God in the situation in which you are
Speaker 5: Involved, and
Speaker 3: That automatically results in a new found level of peace.
Speaker 3: Think about it.
Speaker 3: Do you think that these shepherds were ever the same again?
Speaker 5: You think their life was ever the same again, years later, they're sitting there at night watching sheep sleep and they're talking about, Hey, you guys, you remember you remember that night?
Speaker 5: Whenever we were sitting here.
Speaker 5: And all of a sudden that dude was 10 and right in the middle of this dude, you can't call an angel.
Speaker 5: The dude, okay.
Speaker 5: That angel sitting right in the middle of us.
Speaker 5: You remember that?
Speaker 5: You remember when we, we kinda, we left Joe over here with the sheep and we all aggressive is went to see if this was true.
Speaker 5: And then it wasn't now look at what's happening.
Speaker 5: Jesus, all over the place.
Speaker 5: Just yesterday.
Speaker 5: I was at the restaurant cause you know, they didn't have COVID.
Speaker 5: I was at the restaurant and I was, I was talking to bill and I told him, Hey bill, you can, you know, he was talking about Jesus and all that stuff Jesus was doing.
Speaker 5: And I said, Hey, you know him?
Speaker 5: I knew him when I knew him, when he was wrapped in Stripe coughs and he was laying in a main dry eye.
Speaker 5: That's when I saw him first started looking up and suddenly I started seeing something that was different.
Speaker 5: The Shepherd's lives were never the same because revelation changes us forever.
Speaker 5: If you've looked up, then the revelation that all might be gone, Marvin, he stepped into this earth and he died to pay our debt.
Speaker 5: And he Rose again to empower him.
Speaker 5: And if you've applied his sacrifice to your life, then peace is yours.
Speaker 5: It's not a possibility.
Speaker 5: It is a reality.
Speaker 5: It's a reality in your life, feeling stressed and anxious right now.
Speaker 5: Then my encouragement to you is check your eyes.
Speaker 5: Are you looking down or are you looking up?
Speaker 5: Where is your focus right now?
Speaker 5: It's not always easy.
Speaker 5: I know that in my own life, I experienced times where I feel low.
Speaker 5: I feel depressed.
Speaker 5: I feel anxiety.
Speaker 5: I feel fear.
Speaker 5: I feel all of the different emotions that come with just living in this world and consistently being dragged down.
Speaker 5: But always every time I feel that way until I discover where my eyes are, my eyes are always looking down.
Speaker 5: And when I lift, um, my eyes, when I see Jesus worship fills my life in two things, can't occupy the same space.
Speaker 5: So when worship fills my life, fear has to go.
Speaker 5: Anxiety has to go all those negative things that I'm feeling have to go, because two things can't feel the same space.
Speaker 5: And so when worship revelation comes, worship fills my life.
Speaker 5: And all of a sudden peace begins to dwell in my heart.
Speaker 5: As the Prince of peace is lifted up in my life and in your life too, sometimes you say, well, how did you get into that place of worship?
Speaker 5: Sometimes you just simply say to, to worship you.
Speaker 5: I live to worship you.
Speaker 5: I live, I live two words to worship you.
Speaker 5: I live to worship you.
Speaker 5: I live, I live to worship you.
Speaker 5: I'm lifting up my eyes on it right now.
Speaker 5: Worship team, come on out here and help us with this.
Speaker 5: Why don't you stand with me for a minute?
Speaker 5: [inaudible] why don't you do that right now?
Speaker 5: Wherever you're at.
Speaker 5: You want to close your eyes to[inaudible].
Speaker 5: If you want to lift your hands, lift your hand, you want to lift your voice more than anything lift[inaudible].
Speaker 5: I'm just going to say to worship you.
Speaker 5: [inaudible], uh, sing it again.
Speaker 5: And let's just do that.
Speaker 5: As we close this service today,[inaudible] if we're caught up in the mundane thing and it's just dragging us down, I pray that we would look up carnal nature.
Speaker 5: Natural tendency is to find something that's lower than we already are.
Speaker 5: We go more base when we're feeling down.
Speaker 5: That's when that's, when we start looking for those things like drugs and alcohol and monography and fairs and entertainment.
Speaker 5: That's unhealthy.
Speaker 5: We're looking for distractions.
Speaker 5: And today we're not looking for distractions.
Speaker 5: We're looking for redemption and only you bring redemption.
Speaker 5: So we lift our eyes to you, save your of our soul.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Thank you for the hope you bring.
Speaker 5: Thank you for the life you give.
Speaker 5: And we pray that your will it be done in our life today.
Speaker 5: As we look to you in Jesus name, we pray.
Speaker 5: And if that's your prayer today, would everybody just say amen?