The Worship and Leadership Podcast
Real conversations on worship, leadership, and living a faith-filled life beyond the platform. Hosted by leaders from LifePoint Church, this podcast is here to inspire, equip, and challenge you—whether you’re leading in ministry, in the marketplace, or just learning to lead yourself well.
The Worship and Leadership Podcast
A Lifestyle of Worship: Beyond Sunday
When was the last time your worship extended beyond a Sunday service? For many believers, the concept of worship has become confined to a specific time and place, reducing our relationship with God to a weekly appointment rather than a daily connection.
In this soul-stirring conversation, we dig deep into what it truly means to cultivate a lifestyle of worship that permeates every corner of your existence. Drawing from the powerful encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4, we challenge the notion that worship belongs in a specific location or time slot. As Jesus declared, true worshipers worship in spirit and truth—a revolutionary concept that liberated worship from geographical constraints.
Whether you're feeling spiritually empty, caught in comparison, or simply longing for more than a Sunday-only faith, this episode offers permission and practical wisdom for encountering God beyond the church walls. Remember, the God who created the universe invites you into relationship every single day. Will you accept His invitation to worship beyond Sunday?
Hey, what's up everyone and welcome to the Worship and Leadership Podcast, and we're excited today for episode two of season four Come on. And my name is Elmer Canyons Jr, and I'm here with it's your boy, cousin Willie.
Speaker 2:The only one on the ones and twos.
Speaker 1:Yes on the ones and twos and in the studio we got with us, we have the one and only.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:Me yes me, tiffany Duncan. I get to introduce myself with my real name, your real name. Your real name, my real name is Tiffany Duncan.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:Everyone knows her as Tiff.
Speaker 2:As Tiff Tiffy Toes GSP.
Speaker 1:Tiff the Terrific All of those things.
Speaker 2:Today you're Tiffany Duncan. You're Tiffany Duncan today. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. We also have our Rossview Campus pastor Come on Student pastor, let's go Worship leader, he does it all.
Speaker 2:He does it all.
Speaker 1:Pastor Jere.
Speaker 4:What's up?
Speaker 1:I don't even know. I'm all over.
Speaker 2:There's a camera. We have cameras everywhere. We got a camera in the ceiling. What's up, what's up, you can look up All the beautiful people.
Speaker 4:So good to be here. Yeah, hey. I'm excited we're in a room. I love this space. This is episode.
Speaker 2:It's a nice space, isn't it? I?
Speaker 4:haven't been in a space, yeah.
Speaker 1:I Go.
Speaker 2:Come on. Well, welcome to Cousin Willie's Lounge. Yep Care of Lori Konya's company, LLC. Established. How long have I been married?
Speaker 1:18 years.
Speaker 2:Established 18 years ago. I don't know the year, what is it 2007. Established 2007. I almost said STD 2007, but it's ESTD.
Speaker 4:No, you don't know that, brother, come on.
Speaker 2:Brother. No, that's the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 1:Brother, that's the gift that keeps on giving. Where's the camera? It's the one in the middle right there.
Speaker 2:So today's episode two of season four of the Worship Leadership Podcast, and today we are talking about a lifestyle of worship beyond Sunday. Come on, y'all beyond Sunday and we had some awesome discussion me, tiff and Jere on yesterday, so let's just pick up kind of that same momentum today when we're talking through worship, starting at John 4, verses 22, 23, and on when Jesus is engaging with the Samaritan woman and he says the hour is coming and is now. It's here, now when those that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. And he says God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So let's just unpack that Contextually.
Speaker 2:He's talking to the Samaritan, and the Samaritans were sort of this mixed race of people, you know a little bit of Jew and a lot of other Gentile nations, and they were stuck on the belief that you had to worship the Lord at this specific place, specifically Mount Gerizim, and she's offended that Jesus would talk about hey, you can worship the Lord anywhere. So let's just talk through that. This beyond Sunday. How can we pull that forward to beyond Sunday, where people think well, the only time I experienced God is on a Sunday. That's when I worship is on a Sunday. So, tiff, let's help us unpack that how worship is so much more beyond Sunday.
Speaker 3:Well, it's on a Sunday. So, tiff, let's help us unpack that. How worship is so much more beyond Sunday. Well, I think, above anything, god wants a relationship with us Right and. I think if you take any relationship and say I'm going to talk to you on Sunday between 1030 and 12.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Not any other time during the week do you have access to me? That's just our relationship. That's not a great relationship, that's right. That's maybe an acquaintance, that's somebody you make an appointment with. That's not somebody that you know you have a true relationship with and you know that's just very limited and and I don't ever want to limit god to a certain time frame or you know anything like I want to always have that. You know, open access we get that. Amen, like that is a gift that we get. Is that access? And I don't ever want to take that for granted.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I think just you know, I love that. We get that all throughout the week and that he wants that.
Speaker 2:Come on yeah.
Speaker 4:That's good.
Speaker 1:I love that. When you said 10 to 12 kind of model I just think of. Like a doctor, like you said, you set up a doctor's appointment or a mechanic like hey. I'll be. I'll be at the shop, like at nine in the morning and so when you want something fixed, you set an appointment, and I think a lot of Christians Sundays might be that where where they want something fixed, and so coming to church becomes that appointment for them because it's so transactional.
Speaker 1:It's like they're wanting something from God, but God is a relational God. And it's the point that we're making as a church. Our mission is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. That means followers of Jesus not where you show up to an appointment and hear about them and celebrate all the cool things only within a certain timeframe.
Speaker 3:It's a lifestyle.
Speaker 1:It's something that we pursue daily and you know it should be part of our.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's out of the context of your real life. I mean honestly, you're leaving your home, your you know things that you do on a daily basis to go to church. Right, I need God the most in my home. I need him the most in my every day. I need him the most in my routines, not when I'm leaving, I mean, I need him the most all the time, not just when I leave. That context, I want him to be with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great I love.
Speaker 2:that that's powerful, come on. So how do we see David really modeling this lifestyle of worship? You know he's one of my favorite biblical characters, not necessarily because, like I think he's like the greatest human being ever. But how do we see David model this lifestyle of worship where it's not like, it's not rote and it's not routine, it's not appointment-based? How do we see David modeling that?
Speaker 4:Oh man, when you look at the Psalms, it's full of what? It's a lamenting book. It's a book of poetry, but I see David being very emotional, but I also see very David being very vulnerable before the Lord, right? So one of the ways that I've always seen David before his God, he, he, he lets them have the anger, he lets him have his woe is me's, but then he also gives God all of his adoration. He gives God his praise. Praise is more about who God is in your life, and in retrospect of who he is in your life, than what he can do in your life.
Speaker 4:When you go to your 23rd Psalm and you read that, you recite that or you memorize it, whatever it may be, it's the way that David saw God. He saw him as a good shepherd. He saw him as a God that satisfied every one of his needs. He saw him as a God that was with him on the mountaintops as well as in the valleys, and he also sees how God is a God that prepares everything before him. There's nothing that he's facing in his life without God. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Like who, who does that? Yeah, like that's just it. So when you look at David and just what worship worship was more than, hey, I show up at the temple or I'm doing this one thing it was hey, I worship you in the fields. Yeah, I fields yeah, I worship you in the battle.
Speaker 4:I worship you when.
Speaker 2:I worship you when I'm not in the battle yeah, every aspect of my life, everywhere I am, I'm worshiping you. Yeah, it's just so good, yeah, yeah, I love that aspect too of david's life where you don't see him abandon the lord, yeah, or pull back from the lord, even despite really massive failures, massive failures, right, like I mean you know we don't have time to unpack it, but, yeah, again, you know David's not. That's why I say I don't look at David as like this, this hero, right, you know it's. You know, depending on who you ask, it's like David. You could almost call him a villain just because of all the failures. But he, he says to himself I'm not going to abandon my God, I'm going to petition the Lord, I'm going to repent Early. Will I seek you, cleanse me, give me a new heart and an upright spirit. And the Lord says this is a man after my own heart Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, both, there's no David without Saul. I think there's a lot of times it's easy for us to remove Saul from the story, but you know David first served Saul. He did, you know, playing his heart for him. Saul gave him the opportunity to face Goliath. You know he's very much part of the story. Yeah, paul, saul was a King, saul was a champion, like he had he had defeated's right countries and like all this stuff. Like he had god's favor, he was god's anointed samuel, anointed saul, as the people's king right and just as much.
Speaker 1:David saw victories and defeats and all that stuff. Right, he was anointed as well, but the difference was that Saul departed from what God was asking him Right, that's right and David, even in his failures, like you said, when he fell into his humanity and into sin, he always returned to God in repentance. Absolutely yes. Saul didn't. Yeah, saul was. You know the prophet would come and remind him him and he's like no, I'm going to do my thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and if you watch the house of David you know on prime they make it so much juicier. Yeah, they add so much more to it. But I think it's very true in the sense of once. Once he thought he could do it on his own and it became about him and pride and ego. He turned on God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so many Kings in the Bible, in the old Testament. You know they knew the law, they, they knew about God, the God of of Israel. But they, they chose to do their own thing because of their position. Right, david never made it about his position. Yeah, he started as a shepherd boy in the fields, as a warrior in the army and then as a king, but his position never determined his heart for God.
Speaker 1:He remained in the same posture of worship from the fields to the throne, and I think that's why God was able. Is it an ax that he says like David is a man after my own heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he says it in an ax, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And that's a heavy statement when it comes to a life of worship, right like can god say that you're a man or woman after his own heart, you know? Or like it's not just? Because you know how to sing play has nothing to do with that. Yeah, you know. It has nothing to do with your musical abilities.
Speaker 4:It has to do with the surrendered posture of your heart in every season every season, every season, every day of your life, every season, every day of your life, every day, come on. Every day it can be. I'm a man after God's heart. On Sunday.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 4:Come on no it has to be every day of your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's good bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the word that kept echoing in my spirit was pursuit. There's just an intentionality David pursued God. There's, there's just an intentionality david pursued god. And and we get the privilege of pursuing god. And here's a you know what, again, just mind-boggling thought. We have the spirit of god on the inside of us. So so my pursuit looks, you know, contextually different than david. David had to go into the. He had to enter into the sanctuary. Yeah, right, well, we are the sanctuary, like we house the presence of.
Speaker 2:God, but there is still that pursuit, and so I'll just go with me here. What I'm thinking of is, like there, I can't pursue something on the left and something on the right at the same time yeah like I can't do that, so.
Speaker 2:So I can't pursue the Lord and worldliness. I can't pursue the Lord and fame. I can't pursue the Lord and riches. I can't pursue the Lord and notoriety. I can't pursue the Lord and worldliness. I can't pursue the Lord and fame. I can't pursue the Lord and riches. I can't pursue the Lord and notoriety. I can't pursue the Lord and worldly pleasure.
Speaker 2:So, in the act of pursuing the Lord, I, by necessity, am abandoning these other things, and I think that again. That's why the Lord says David is a man of his own heart. Because he has abandoned those other things, he repents of his sin, he turns from sin. And so when we turn from anything that would ultimately fail us right, because that's ultimately what it is Like the Lord knows that if we worship anything other than it will fail us. It will fail us, it will crumble, it will dissatisfy, it will disappoint us, it will rob us, it will weaken us. You know, he, the prophet isaiah, says that those that worship idols become like the idols. They become, they become weak like the idols. So I, there's just that. What I think is it's a daily pursuit.
Speaker 1:We're saved by grace, for sure I think to that point yeah where you become like the idols, like a lot of people think oh, you're gonna become evil. No, you become empty.
Speaker 3:Yeah because idols are idols.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's, it's a, it's a thing although it's a, it's an image of something. It's just an image of something else. So you become the image of it on the outside, but on the inside you're empty come on and that's. That's the thing about when you pursue idols. When you pursue other things, it can look like something on the outside, but on the inside it's just hollow yeah you know, there's nothing there and that's. And that's where we're pursuing after God with the Holy Spirit in us.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:You got something in you Come on.
Speaker 2:You know it's different, Come on.
Speaker 1:So I think about David's relationship with God and ours. It's so different in the sense of something had to physically die with David for him to please the Lord, he had to bring an actual sacrifice to the Lord. For us it's we have to die daily.
Speaker 2:Yes, with a sacrifice, With a sacrifice.
Speaker 1:But it might be even harder for us. I might be able to physically do something as a guy and go butcher a sheep or a goat. I know Tiffany don't want to talk about it. We talked about this before. You guys are talking about the butcher shop and all that stuff, but that might be easier to do in the context of you're physically bringing and physically doing versus in private. I have to die, that's so good.
Speaker 1:But the benefits are. We were filled with the word that we are the temple now, which makes it harder, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think it's all pursuit, but it's perspective too. Okay, yeah, yeah, and I think it's all pursuit, but it's perspective too.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:David. You know, we kind of talked about this a little bit yesterday too. David wanted more of God.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:He didn't want more of the advantages of God. He didn't want you know anything, he wanted God. He was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think sometimes in our pursuit of God we're pursuing God's hands. God's blessings just something that God can give us, instead of pursuing all of who God is and worshiping all of who he is. I mean he is all of those things. And when I say I want more of God, I want more of him in my life, whatever that looks like.
Speaker 3:And I think sometimes that can become an idol. I want this one thing that I know that he can provide instead of I want him in every area of my life like all of him, yeah, man.
Speaker 2:So we have pursuit, we have perspective, come on, since we got pastors in here for alliteration. Then we can talk through priority. Man, we think of worship and God, then we can talk through priority.
Speaker 4:Priority.
Speaker 2:Man. We think of worship and God is. It's got the priority. I was thinking about this years ago. You know we always talk about putting God first and I always thought I've always thought that statement was problematic because I If God can be put first, then it means he can be put last, but if he's at the center, like the sun, is the center of our solar system and everything orbits around it. You can't displace the sun? You can't, and so when God is at the center of your life, everything orbits around him.
Speaker 2:And I'm just borrowing from Pastor Elmer's message this Sunday. I'm telling you it's going to be a doozy. Take good notes, because when you just said that about I want the things of God and I don't want him, that's exactly what Elmer's going to be preaching on and talking through gratitude. He blew my mind. Elmer, just give us a teaser man about gratitude and it tied with worship. I never saw it y'all today until I was in and just talking with them through the message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll be. I'll be preaching on gratitude at the end of the month, but it's it's gratitude is. We're talking about forgotten virtues as a church, and all of these virtues can easily fade away, they can easily drift from. You know who we are as a person, what we practice without gratitude at the center center, without gratitude being the anchor. And that's because I think of humility. Dr tim just preached on humility, but there's so many people that have this false humility and we live with this false humility and we realize it and we don't because we're we're, we're pleasing people, because we want to fit in, because we want the job, and so humility becomes more strategic than it is surrender. And humility is meant to be an act of worship. Right, it's a posture of the heart, just as worship is. And so when you add gratitude into the mix, you know, regardless of what's happening, regardless of your position, regardless of your titles, regardless of your circles, you're your titles, regardless of your circles you're so grateful and thankful just for another day of life period.
Speaker 1:And then, so you're not pursuing the things of the world, the things that are hollow on the inside the idols of this world, because you're in pursuit of what matters and gratitude keeps you centered with Jesus, and so it just strengthens these virtues honor, humility we're going to be talking about mercy and grace and kindness and it just makes you a better Christian, a better person, when you're grateful and thankful, and not just on Thanksgiving you know, but every day, and I think that's just part of it.
Speaker 1:And then I'm going to talk on Luke 17,. You know, on the 10 lepers and there was 10 that got healed, but only one was made whole, and we'll unpack that more on that Sunday.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, brother, I'm telling you, Listen, y'all make sure that you tune in. Matter of fact, get here. Okay, the godliest saints will be here in the building. I'm just saying, those that love the Lord will be here.
Speaker 4:Those that love the Lord those that love the Lord.
Speaker 2:Come on now. I heard your voice changing. Come on somebody. So, thinking through personal experience, how this is this is going to, how has our personal understanding of worship shifted and grown and morphed over the years? You know, from when the Lord saved us to up through today, all of us here have been walking with the Lord for double digit years. So how has your, your perspective on worship, shifted and grown and maturated? Cause we're all over 40.
Speaker 1:All of us is over 40. Welcome to the over 40 podcast my lord, say that again please excuse me, what'd you say?
Speaker 4:wow, I. I feel like, well, from the time that we were on before I just I remember as a kid just watching, watching services or being a part of church services and having this idea that, hey, this is where worship resides. Right, and I I'm not trying to plug LifePoint, I'm not trying to plug our church, but it wasn't until I really arrived here that God really started to work on some of those parts of my heart being able to lead worship in a sense of hey, I'm on a platform, there's a melody behind me, there's lyrics on the screen, there's all those elements there. God just had me in this position or in this space in my life where he was like okay, I like that, that's great. What about this? Because this is worship too.
Speaker 4:You can be a great leader, worship leader on this platform, but financially, how are you worshiping me with your finances? How are you worshiping me being a father? How are you worshiping me being a husband? How are you worshiping me being an employee? Come on, and when I started to look at the, the overarching picture of, hey, it's more than just a song, it's more than just lyrics I'm borrowing from my sister over here too. Come on, god just really opened me up to like hey, I didn't call you to be a, just to sing a song. Yeah, for me, I called you to lead people. Yeah, so when you worship me and you worship, I'm going back to the very beginning when you worship me and worship me in spirit and truth it's not just with one area on top of a mountain, or at this hour it's every part.
Speaker 4:So it really started me in elementary age. I was saved at a church at six years old because I wanted to sing in a choir.
Speaker 4:I'm being real just being honest, but along that journey it was seeds of ministry that were planted in me all along the way, from scripture to moments I never will forget high school. Right outside of high school there was a worship pastor leader guy that took me under his wing and just started showing me some different elements of worship, teaching me how to lead worship a little bit better, sharing scripture with me, taking me on the journey with him, and it was amazing to see and to learn the other side of that and I just I credit his name as Kevin Singleton. I will forget Kevin Singleton, great guy. He went to schools and dribbled basketballs and did all these basketball tricks. It was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:But outside of that, it was just the, the fact of. I thought I thought it was this, but then god said no, you can be great here and that's, that's a gift. But worship is to me, it was never just for you, right, and it. It just opened me up to a whole new world of seeing him, encountering him. Oh man, come talk about the encounter of god in in worship. It's lifting your eyes beyond what is at your fingertips and seeing him Come on.
Speaker 2:That's so good, Tiff. What about you? How has the Lord shaped your perspective?
Speaker 3:Oh, I love that, and I do think the more he places you on a platform, the more I mean, if we talk about Sunday worship, if we talk about worship leading the more he's going to refine you behind the scenes, the more he's going to show things to you that you didn't see before, the more you have to be obedient to see those things, the more you have to be open to that and the more I have to just give him that access and to just be willing to do that, the more I have to intentionally give him that access and to just be willing to do that, the more I have to intentionally worship him behind the scenes and have those moments and have that time.
Speaker 3:And you know, because it's a responsibility to lead people in worship, if we're talking Sunday, it is a weight, it is you're leading people and I just think the more I've realized. You know that like you're always being refined.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, there is always things like you know, as soon as you think you have it together, he's going to show you something else, and I love that about him.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:I love that Number one. He doesn't show you everything at once and you don't feel like a complete failure.
Speaker 2:Thank you God, thank you failure.
Speaker 3:I love that he walks with us and he always wants better for us.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 3:You know he is a loving father and he always wants better for us and he wants better for those around us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So he's always making us better for them. He's always, you know, just in that walk, and that's to me, it's worship, it's behind the scenes, it's. What are you doing, god, like you know. Good morning God. What are you doing today, and how can I be in it? You know like how how can I walk with with you today? What, what's, what are we doing today? You know like, and I just want him in every aspect of my life and that is worship and what.
Speaker 2:What happens on a platform, what happens, you know, in the lobby, what happens in the grocery store, that is all just overflow from that true worship is everywhere it's everything that's so good yeah, yeah, td jakes come on, let's just say in order to build a skyscraper, you gotta go deeper, deeper get ready, get ready, listen, listen, listen, listen, get ready, get ready, listen, I'm going there, I'm going there. You gotta be in rhythm, you gotta be in rhythm. Do you remember that CD? No, no.
Speaker 4:We will not go there.
Speaker 1:He knows where I'm going.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, the lady, a lover and a lord. I thought, brother, I know you're not trying to put on an R&B CD.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but his Luther.
Speaker 2:His Luther.
Speaker 4:It was his Luther album.
Speaker 2:That was his Luther, and it was cringy, cringy.
Speaker 1:Unless. Yeah, it was yes, just Cringy, Cringy, unless, yeah it was.
Speaker 4:Yes, just Don't listen to it, don't listen to it, don't listen to it.
Speaker 2:Don't listen to it. It'll be like visiting Hamptons Meats you will get nauseous. You will get nauseous. You will get nauseous, I'm telling you Anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get off this Please.
Speaker 2:Please telling you anyway. Yeah, let's get off this, please, please bring us back. I, I grew up in church. You know my dad, he's a, he's a, he's a in the pastorate. My mom, she was a ministry leader. She did it all, you know. She opened up the church door, she taught Sunday school, sang in the choir. I mean she, you know she did also like I.
Speaker 2:I grew up knowing how to do church, you know, and so I remember when I entered college that's really kind of where the wrestling began, because the churches I grew up in, you know Southern Missionary, baptist or Kojic, you know heavily charismatic CME, ame, all of that, just these heavily charismatic faith traditions what worship was? It was always an outward expression and it was always bombastic, right, it was always over the top, like always, and I understood the heart behind it. In terms of man. We're celebrating a good and great God. Like we're not going to be silent. You're silent about that. I don't want no rocks crying out for me. So we're not going to be silent. You're silent about that. I don't want no rocks crying out for me. Stop playing now. That's my jam, I'm telling you, man. You know so, and I came to really love that I really did. I came to love that.
Speaker 2:But then when I got into college, the church that I attended it wasn't a charismatic church. It was a very, very strong, word-based church. But one of the things that they talked through was being contemplative in prayer. It was Psalms 1. And I remember when our college pastor took us through that and I was like man, it just came alive to me. Where it's talking about day and night, does he meditate on the word of God and the outworking of that? He's like this tree just that image is burning man, like where he is steadfast. I mean, he's rock steady, he's not moving, he's planted.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And you're thinking that that takes time, that that it and it takes effort, it's being intentional, it's being deliberate, right, and graduating college and attending a church that was a Pentecostal church it wasn't super much charismatic, but it was definitely Pentecostal and my former pastor there, pastor Scott Schatzlein I mean I love that man dearly to this day. He's the one who really called out you know, like ministry in me for sure, and he would always talk about the secret place. And I remember after one of his messages I pulled him aside and I said, pastor Scott, I said, what is the secret place? Where is it? Seriously, I mean by that time I had been saved a decade, but that terminology was completely brand new to me. I'm like where is the secret place? He just put his hand on my shoulder and he said the secret place is wherever you want to meet with the Lord. He said, but the key is the intentionality. Are you there to meet with him to get close to him, like you said, tiff? Are you there to meet with him to get close to him? Like you said, you got to get something from him?
Speaker 2:But the secret place, again, that's where it's only you and the Lord. There's no distraction, there's no noise, there's no static, and that is where my heart I begin to just have, this revelation of understanding that, in personal worship, god is drawing me to himself. And, guys, the staggering part about that is that I am sinful, I am flawed, I am imperfect yes, I'm a saint because of the blood of Christ, but I still sin. That's the issue and that God is inviting me into his presence. Wow, that is the understanding of worship that I needed to say okay, god, I don't have to perform, I don't have to come up here and have the bells and whistles, I don't have to have it all together, like I don't have to brush my teeth before going to the dentist. I can bring my mess, I can bring the hurt, I can bring the shame, I can bring my trauma, I can bring all of my struggles, I can bring the wrong perspective, all of that. And in the secret place, that is where I am transformed and I say man, it is like looking into the face of the sun. I have seen God, I have seen the Lord and I and I'm just radically changed, like I'm telling y'all, like I'm mid, mid twenties, like I can earmark it.
Speaker 2:They're in Tuscaloosa, alabama. I remember one night, 900 square foot apartment, me and my wife, we got two babies. And I just remember crying out to God and just saying, lord, I'm struggling with some generational family hurt. And I just remember in that secret place saying, okay, god. I remember just saying, god, I want to give this to you, but I am scared. God, I want to give this to you, but I am scared. And just you know, you just hear the wish for the Lord. That's still a small voice, son, I know, I know.
Speaker 2:I know, and if you'll give it to me, I promise you, I promise you I will fill you with so much of myself. And I mean just, I remember I just confessed that I had to confess that there was unforgiveness towards some family members, and I said them by name, you know what I mean. It wasn't like cousins or so, it was like no, like pookie. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And guys that just I mean you want to. One of my friends used to call it dump trucks of glory. Yeah, yeah, I just feel his presence in that moment. It just it was like water filling up a bathtub. He just pushed everything else out. Yeah, it just pushed everything else out the hatred, the bitterness, the anger. It just pushed all of it out. And then in that moment, I was okay, god, this is why you were inviting me. This is because those idols were empty, they weren't able to fill me up. And I had the performance, though I could shun, die and shuck and jive with the best of them, I could priest of pain off the walls, could do whatever, but in that moment, god was like the thing that you're hiding from everybody else your wife, your kids, your family member. That's what.
Speaker 4:I want, I'm inviting you.
Speaker 2:That's the sacrifice. That's what I want. Give me that. I'm inviting you. That's the sacrifice. That's what I want. I want that right there. That's actually a good sacrifice. I will take that, and I just haven't been the same since. So when I find myself getting crusty and dusty and angry, I have to remember okay, God, let me go back into the secret place.
Speaker 2:I love that he just wanted, that's. All he wanted was just I'm inviting you, I'm like God, thank you, Cause I don't have anything else to give. It's like I know, I know you have nothing worthy right? That's why that song hallelujah man, nothing. I have nothing fit for a King, but my hallelujah, because I've given that sacrifice, the ugly, the shameful, the condemnatory, the negative here, and God says that is an acceptable sacrifice, Right, it's Psalm 51. A broken spirit and a contrite heart, these, oh God, you will not despise.
Speaker 3:And I love that that's behind the scenes. Right yeah, like you said Because I think sometimes, growing up like you, would walk into a church and see people worship and those people have it all together.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the Lord is blessing them and their life is great, and that's why their hands are lifted is because you know they're just praising him because they got nothing else. Everything's just great.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:It's when you have that sacrifice of praise.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:It's when you give him everything and you have that relationship.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:Like that's worship.
Speaker 2:That's worship.
Speaker 3:And you don't see that on a Sunday. Nope, you don't see what the person next to you is walking through and still choosing to lift their hands and praise the Lord, like you don't see that in a building on Sunday, because that's in the private place, that's something they've worked through with the Lord. Like you know, I know that there's times when I'm going through some things and I'm choosing to praise him because he's still worthy of all my praise and I've learned that you know, walking through life, but people don't necessarily know that about you.
Speaker 3:You don't wear it on your forehead. I don't walk around with a tag of everything I'm walking through you know, but I'm choosing to praise the Lord. So I think when you come into a building not knowing the Lord and you see people praising the Lord, you may think that you know, everything's going great, but he wants you to surrender those things. He wants that time with you in a private place. He wants to come in and just you know. Take that.
Speaker 4:So I don't know, like that is something you don't see. Can we just take a moment right now? I'm just again. I sense his presence here. And I know the folks that are listening to this or maybe even watching this video. Now, like this is beyond a Sunday and I just want to give you permission. Well, pastor Willie, and I'm going to say pastor Tiff, is even saying right now I'm a prophetically speak it.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 4:You have permission to do this outside of a Sunday. Amen, he's inviting, he's inviting us. James, four, eight, draw close, draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. He didn't say that I need you to perfectly, come to me, come on, I don't need you to have everything together, right? I don't need you to. And as you in in that, drawing close to god and him coming close to you, you're washing your hands that's it yep, you're.
Speaker 4:You're purifying your heart, you're changing your mind, your everything is starting to transform, exactly what pastor really said A few minutes, a few seconds ago the weight of his glory, the breath of heaven, comes into that space and pushes everything else out of the way. So we can just just five seconds. Thank you, lord, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, god, thank you for your presence, thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus, thank you God, thank you, thank you Lord.
Speaker 2:Thank you Lord. Thank you God. Now the word says in his presence there's fullness of joy. Some of y'all have you. You've been walking around joyless and in his presence there's fullness of joy. Whoever's listening to this podcast, there is fullness of joy in his presence. Fullness of joy which means abundance of joy. Some of you feel you feel like every day it's a struggle to get up out of bed like and guess what One encounter. That's the thing. It was one moment with the Lord. It was one moment. That was it One moment, and I gave it, and what I gave to the Lord it felt like a trinket compared to what I received.
Speaker 2:That's the unfair advantage you have when you go to the secret place, when you engage in personal worship with the Lord, when you just accept the invitation and I just say whoever's listening that invitation is universal. The God of the universe who spoke the word into existence, who calls the sun and the moon to stand still, who calls an ax head to swim, who calls manna to appear out of dew, who calls water to come from a rock, who calls fire to come from heaven. That same God who walked on top of the water, who multiplied a boy's sack lunch, that same God who now lives on the inside of us. He's inviting you. That's what's crazy. He is inviting. He has the same God who has no need of anyone or anything, who is existence. It's himself that. That God is the one who invites you into the secret place of worship. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think of my son, of Levi, with his little bowl of cookies. I'm like, hey, give me one. And he'll be like, okay, and he'll turn around and I'll give you two. But he's, he's very generous, yes, he is very generous. And then, because he knows I have the bag, like I have the bag of cookies. So he knows like, okay, I'll give daddy some. But how many times do we fight God, like no, I'm not giving you this. You know, I'm not going to surrender this. My finances, my faith, my everything Come on.
Speaker 1:He's holding the bag of cookies Like he is the creator of all. Yeah, he knit us in our mother's womb Like he knows everything, everything about us. How many hairs are on our?
Speaker 2:heads. He knows how many of them I got Tiny, tiny hairs. He knows all my luscious locks.
Speaker 1:He knows so much about us and yet we're not willing to let go of these things and even to meet him in the secret place yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'll be brief with this, this is just kind of my journey For me. I've been in some environments where I've seen God move in such an incredible way in worship and in prayer, and it shaped in me a hunger for god. But then there was the hunger for god's presence and, at the same time, the pursuit for perfection. And so, like, here at life, when we call it, you know, we pursue excellence, yes, and so it became the fight of like. Is it, is it going to be excellent or is it going to be filled with God's presence? And when you're young and immature, the external and the responses of people move you.
Speaker 1:And so I remember a lot of times, you know, even into my late twenties, striving to see a physical movement, a physical response from people, a physical movement, a physical response from people, like people had to be crying, people had to be, you know. And and then I even felt the weight of like. People used to tell me like, oh, you know, I hope you're living right for the Lord, you know, because if you're not, then God won't move. And I felt the responsibility, like man, if I'm not living right, like, like all these people that are in this room, like are going to miss out on a touch from the lord because of me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, and, and eventually I, I became free from that because I realized like god chooses to use me regardless of my imperfections. Right, thank you, god, and by his grace, people are going to encounter him, not because of my talents or abilities yes, yes and so I I got free from that, but I still pursued perfection.
Speaker 1:And as a creative, as a creative director, I remember just like going to every conference around the country reading books and everything I was. There was a season where I was just like, every Sunday, how to I'll do the last and? And it was fun, but it was exhausting and it was empty, you know. And because the only time you felt like, oh God is in this, it's when you're in the middle of the performance. And, again, because God is a gracious God, even though we were missing the target in our hearts, he was still touching hearts. It had nothing to do with us and what we were doing.
Speaker 1:It didn't matter if the songs were singing the arrangements. God was moving because he's God. But in my mind I was like, oh okay, I arrangement like God was moving, Cause he's God, come on. But in my mind I like I was like, oh okay, I had something to do with this. So then I, I I was on this pursuit, like I have to do it this way, it has to be the best. And uh, and you're in Texas and I was in Dallas at the time, so like you have to go big right.
Speaker 3:It's bigger in.
Speaker 4:Texas.
Speaker 1:they say and so I remember 2011 going to a conference, and I probably shared this before.
Speaker 2:I love this story.
Speaker 1:I love it. And and we're at this conference in Atlanta. I'm there with a friend of mine and from church that we were serving together and a preacher called Judah Smith is preaching and he's being funny, telling all these funny stories. Everyone's cracking up and then all of a sudden, he just hits this switch and he, he just says he just starts just speaking out. He just hits this switch and he, he just says he just starts just speaking out. And he's like you know, some of you, you know you've read every book, you've been to every conference and he goes. But since when is Jesus not enough? Since when is Jesus not enough? And I tell you guys, like I got saved all over again, I I've never I haven't felt the presence of God. That was one of those days where it marked my life forever. And this is a Baptist conference.
Speaker 2:There's no altar calls.
Speaker 1:There's no ushers.
Speaker 3:There are none of that.
Speaker 1:And 16,000 people in this arena. I get up from my seat, I walk to the front, I throw myself on the altar.
Speaker 1:There was an altar I just threw myself on the floor and the preacher goes. Well, I guess this is an altar call now and I don't remember anything else after that. But I remember I fully surrendered to the Lord again and I'm like Jesus. You are enough. You are enough, and this is why I bring it up. I learned to draw close to the Lord in private. I learned how to do private worship, but then my performance invaded my private place and so the performance of what am I doing?
Speaker 1:how is it making people feel is it enough that snuck into my private place?
Speaker 1:and that was louder than God's voice. And so all of a sudden, I still had my private place and that was louder than God's voice. And so all of a sudden, I still had my private time. But it became about how can I do things for God better my way? And I'll dare to say I became a Saul in that moment. That was my Saul moment, where how can I do this better? And I became blinded to what God wanted to do. Again, by God's grace, he moved, he touched everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because all had favor. Yeah, he did, he did, you know, and so like they wrote songs about him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and, but at the same time, god moved, touched hearts, people got saved. His presence was there. But, you know, until that moment when I heard is jesus not enough? Like I didn't realize, like I was trying to do things, when all he was just asking me to do is just rest in me, just just come back in here, let everything go, yeah, and let me take over. And I, man, I learned to fall in love with people all over again. Yeah, I learned to fall in love with Jesus all over again. The impact it had on my family yeah.
Speaker 1:Like man, like I, was set free from so many things and it was a life-changing moment just hearing that from the Lord. Like is Jesus not enough? Yeah?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you, lord, that's good, I think even the app of comparison.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think you know, even if you're listening to this podcast and saying like, oh, you know, that's their pastors there. You know, even if you're listening to this podcast and saying like, oh, you know, that's their pastors there. You know, like they know, the Lord Jesus is enough.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:And everybody has access to the same Jesus.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:And you know he's the same, he's enough.
Speaker 2:So good.
Speaker 3:And I think that comparison is just. It's a trap. It's getting your eyes off the Lord and your eyes on a person who is a person you know, who is not the Lord. We all have access. He sees us all the same. He has that capacity. There's nobody that he sees more than another. He's not distracted by one person and not looking at you Like. He sees everybody and he loves everybody and he wants to get to know everybody.
Speaker 3:Nobody was created that he wants to get to know everybody. Yeah, nobody was created that he doesn't want to know. Not one person. Yeah, no matter what you've done, no matter how you, even you know, began to listen to this, you know, like however you came across it, there's not one person, there's not one that he doesn't have that desire for. So I just love that. Like you know, just looking outside of Jesus, it's all Jesus, it's all him. And he's always Jesus for everybody. So I just I mean I love that all the time.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 3:Outside of Sunday. You know just even our topic.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that man I'd love to close out with with prayer man and just. Pastor Jerry, if you don't mind just saying a quick prayer over us, over the people listening. There's people that will be listening as soon as this podcast is released.
Speaker 1:Some of you are listening and it's it might be a year from now, you know from when this was recorded, but but we know everything at God's time and we just pray and we hope that, as you've heard this conversation, that you've confined the presence of God every day and and again, not just on Sundays, and if you don't go to church and you're listening to this, sunday is important. Yes, anything to this sunday is important. Yes, you know we we're not trying to discount what or you know, make be little a sunday. Sundays are important for the church, for the believer to gather with other believers and you know, and just let your faith increase, and celebrating with others and hearing the word. But what we're emphasizing on this podcast is the importance of carrying the presence of God with you everywhere you go and then not just being a carrier of his presence, but engaging the relationship with Jesus every single day, because he is more than enough. And so, pastor Jerry, if you don't mind closing us out in prayer.
Speaker 4:Let's go. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this day. We thank you for this conversation that we've been able to have and, father, as our ask for tonight, for today, for this moment, whoever's listening to this God, that you would just see them, father, as they go to you in their secret place. Father, that you will meet them there. And, father, I pray that their love for you, just as Pastor Elmer said, father, they fall in love with you every day like brand new, like it's the first time, all over again. Father, you're the God that never changes, who's always up to something new. So, father, as we worship you, as we adore you, as we lift up our adorations before you, oh God, it's not that we want more of the blessing, father, we just want more of you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:So have your way in our lives. Fill us Holy Spirit right now to overflow. In your mighty name we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, love you guys, until next week. Peace out, peace out.
