ADORE: Where Your Treasure Is: Understanding the Infinite Worth of Jesus - Zac Acosta

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the Restless Ones podcast. My name is Zach Acosta, and if we haven't met yet, it's good to meet you for the first time. Um, we're going to continue on in our adore series where we're just talking about adoring and beholding Jesus. Here in our ministry, in our prayer room, we do more adoring Jesus than we do anything else. We've got a lot of prayer times and we pray for a lot of different topics, pray through scripture, but more than anything, we spend time adoring and beholding Jesus. And so we're going to continue on in uh this series. And today, I really just have two things I want to I want to talk about. I want to talk about determining the worth of Jesus. How do we actually determine how worthy he is when we say these phrases? Jesus, you're you're worthy and there's none like you. What does that actually mean? How do we determine those realities? And then how do we respond to it? If you listen to our previous session in the teaching or in the conversation where we talked about how worship is a response to the beauty and the works of Jesus, we're going to talk about how we respond and what that looks like. And so here's where I want to pick this up. I want to pick this up with some words of Jesus in Matthew chapter six. He says this, starting in verse 19 do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now, treasure is going to be a key word for today, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. And then the key verse here is verse 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So we really want to talk today about where your treasure is, where is your heart located? We want to understand the infinite, glorious worth of Jesus, fixating the eyes of our heart, fixating the eyes of our affection, the eyes of our devotion on Jesus and making him our ultimate treasure, making him our ultimate obsession. So we want to talk about how we determine something's worth or somebody's worth. There's probably a variety of different ways, but we're going to look at four sort of criteria for determining something's worth. A couple factors, I think, of our scarcity, utility, and irreplaceability. So rare items typically have higher prices. We pay more money or resources for something where there's they don't make a lot of that thing. Things that are useful, the utility of things, uh makes them more valuable. Something that does accomplish its purpose is worth paying the money for that thing. And then also something's irreplaceability gives it its its preciousness that goes beyond even how it functions. But I think that there's also a fourth factor, one that hopefully we can resonate with in a personal and unique way. It's that worth that comes from personal relationship, personal attachment, personal connection. We can actually determine something has worth because of our own unique attachment to that thing. And I want to use Revelation chapter five today as sort of a key scripture for determining the worth of Jesus and using these four factors to determine the worth of Jesus. And really in Revelation 5, we find uh the ultimate expression of all four of these factors. And this is why Jesus is infinitely worthy. It's why Jesus is absolutely worthy of our worship, our affection. He's absolutely worthy of being our treasure forever and forever. So let's first talk about this principle of scarcity. When something is scarce, when there is not a lot of that thing, it elevates that thing or that person's worth in ways that abundance never could. When there's something in limited quantity, its value increases. It's you know, it's why these with stock markets and cryptocurrency, and there's only a certain amount of Bitcoin that'll ever be made, and so that makes it more valuable. I don't really know how all of that works, but I just I know the talking points, I think. I've had enough conversations to understand the talking points about the stock market, and the worth and the value of those certain things goes up based on how valuable that thing is, because the amount of them are scarce. I was thinking about how during the COVID-19 pandemic when the whole world sort of shut down and people were isolated to their own homes for a short time, how really quickly toilet paper became so scarce, so hard to find in stores. I remember we went to multiple stores, or maybe it was fuel, you know, trying to uh fuel up your car. You couldn't go to a certain gas station, they wouldn't have gas, and so you have to go to the next one. All of a sudden things became scarce, which made them even more valuable, and that would even drove the prices of some of those things. One example that I think of often, because I'm a nerd and I'm obsessed with like Discovery Channel and watching nature documentaries, and I I know, I get it, I'm weird. But I've always been a fan of giant pandas. I think they're incredibly cute, I think that they're fun to watch, and they're just really cool looking animals. Well, um, they're actually endangered, and ever since I've been alive, I've heard that that giant pandas are they're on the endangered species list, and we don't want them to go extinct. Well, I did some research and found out that China invests$255 million annually just for conservation related to giant pandas. That's crazy. There's fewer than 2,000 giant pandas that remain in the world. So they are scarce in number, which actually makes them more valuable. It makes them more worthy to protect. It's their rarity, how rare they are. It kind of makes them invaluable. Now, we're not here to talk about giant pandas mostly. We're here to talk about Jesus. So I think in Revelation 5, we can see this scarcity principle demonstrated in sort of its ultimate form. Revelation 5, starting in verse 1. I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, and it was sealed up with seven seals. Now, if we just pause there for a moment, very simply, generically, we can say that the scroll represents complete authority. It is authority to uh over all of the earth, all over all of created order and the plan of God. So we just let's just understand that's what this scroll represents. I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? This question goes forth. And there's sort of a search party that takes place, and it says, No one, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. It's kind of a big deal. Can find anybody. No president, no king, no pastor, no leader, uh, you name it, was found worthy to open that scroll. John says, Then I begin to weep greatly, because nobody was found worthy to open the scroll and look into it. It's a bit of a crisis. John is weeping. This is a big deal that nobody was found worthy. Then in verse 5, one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals. What we see here is the scarcity of Jesus. Nobody can open that scroll and exercise its authority. Only one person, one man could do that. Jesus is the only one found worthy. Jesus is the only one capable of that sort of authority and that sort of power, which makes him this a priest's scarce reality, which immediately drives up the worth of who Jesus is. Because he's the only one, and we'll talk about why he's the only one here in a little bit, but because he's the only one, that fact alone makes him worthy. The scarcity of Jesus makes him worthy. Not a single person among the billions that have existed throughout all of history was able to open it. Only Jesus. It's incomparable. Now let's talk a little bit about why. The utility of Jesus, the usefulness of Jesus. The utility of something uh reveals something's worth through its action or through its usefulness, through its accomplishment. Does it accomplish what it's supposed to? I've learned this the hard way. I've learned that uh being a relatively new homeowner and doing all these projects at my house, if I don't have the right tool for the job, I just get frustrated and I can't accomplish the task effectively, or I can't accomplish the task at all. And I've learned that having the right tool makes all the difference. I'll never forget one day we had just moved in. I was trying to do something, some kind of plumbing thing under the sink, and I just could not twist the a knob down there. I was using every tool that I had, could not do it. It was like an hour of me just twisting and getting frustrated. Finally, my brother came over, brought me the right tool, and no joke, within 30 seconds, I was able to twist the thing, finish the project. The right tool that is useful and effective makes something worthy. It's why we pay for tools, it's why we way we invest so much money in tools or whatever it is that that we invest. I was thinking too about uh military members and how oftentimes when they're out on the field, when they're out on a tour, and they have missions that they go on for a couple of days, or maybe it's 12 hours or so, they can't always take all of their possessions. They can't take a whole bunch of food, they can't take all of their clothing or all of their weapons or ammunition, whatever it is. And just as I was doing some research, I found that one of the things that military members almost always take, that they always create space for, is their multi-tool. It's one of the most valuable tools to them because it can accomplish exactly what's needed when it's needed the most, and has a bunch of you know tools within it that it can be useful in multiple scenarios. Now, let's read, continue reading in Revelation 5, because I think this shows some of the utility of Jesus. It says, when he had taken that scroll, remember the scroll representing absolute authority over created order. It says the four living creatures, 24 elders, fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and break its seals, for you were slaughtered, and you purchased for God, you purchased people for God with your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation, and you have made them into a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign on the earth. So here we see some of the usefulness of Jesus. What he set out to do is useful and effective. It's a c he's accomplished his per his purpose. The angels, the creatures, they're declaring his worthiness based on his ultimate act of utility, his ultimate act of humility, of being the lamb who was slain, the lamb that was slaughtered. And I think it's important to mention that Jesus didn't just possess the qualifications to redeem humanity, like he didn't have all of that in who he was. He actually did it. It's one thing to possess those qualities, but it's another thing to actually accomplish the given purpose. And Jesus accomplished it. It's why he was hanging on the cross and he said, It is finished. He's accomplished the work he set out to do. His worth is established not in its potential, but it's established in its completed mission. Jesus is worthy because of what he has done. No other person in heaven, on the earth, or under the earth, whatever under the earth means, has accomplished what Jesus has accomplished. This alone makes him worthy of unceasing worship. This fact alone that he is the lamb that was slain forever and ever means Jesus will be worthy for eternity. It means you and I should sing about what he's done for eternity. We should talk about what he's done for eternity. No other person has done it. No other person had the potential to do it. Only one person was slain for the sins of humanity. He purchased people from every nation, tongue, language, and tribe. He alone is worthy. Jesus alone is the worthy one. Not only is he useful, but he's irreplaceable. Something's irreplaceability sort of transcends even scarcity and utility. If you can't replace something, that alone makes it valuable. There could not be another. There couldn't be another thing. I was thinking about the painting, the Mona Lisa, right? Everybody has seen that painting, and it's an irreplaceable painting. Other people have tried to um paint other ones and things like that, but it's probably the most valuable. I don't know if it actually is the most valuable painting uh in the world, but I know it's probably the most popular valuable one on the world in the world. But right now it it hangs behind bulletproof glass. It's insured for hundreds of millions of dollars, yet there's really no price tag that can capture its worth. That's why people have tried to steal it. There's thousands of replicas, but none of those replicas could carry the same value as the original painting. And what makes it valuable isn't that it's useful, isn't even that it's rare, but it's that it's irreplaceable. It cannot be recreated. The person who painted it is long gone. They've left the building. You can't repaint it. Even if that person was alive, then they totally couldn't do it exactly like they did the first time. So it is an irreplaceable painting. Now, let's continue on here in Revelation 5, picking it up in verse 11. It says, Then I looked and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. And I heard every created thing which is in heaven or on the earth, through under the earth, or on the sea, and all things in them, saying, To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, and the glory and dominion forever and ever. And the four living creatures were saying amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped. So what John sees here is the myriads of angels, the thousands of angels joining with every creature on the earth, under the earth, in the sea, and they're declaring the worthiness of the Lamb, and they're declaring his exclusive worthiness, his irreplaceability. Literally, all of created order erupts in this sort of unified song, this unified worship, because they recognize that there's no substitute. You can't replace what Jesus has done. Nobody else can compare to what Jesus has done. There is no substitute for the lamb that was slain, and they're singing a song that never ends. There's no alternative savior, there's no other way to God but through Jesus. There's no backup plan for redemption. There's no like plan B. He's irreplaceable. His works, his worthiness, it's irreplaceable. His sacrifice can't be repeated, his victory won't be replicated, and his position cannot be replaced. He is irreplaceable. Jesus is worthy because it is irreplaceability. Now, we can determine a lot of things worth by those three sort of factors, but there's another one. We're gonna move beyond sort of the economic calculations, and we're gonna talk about the type of worth that's born from relationship or personal connection with something. So personally, the most valuable possession that I own isn't a diamond, it's not um an instrument that I own or a piece of technology or anything like that. But actually, what I would say my most valuable item that I own is something that I couldn't put a price on. I would never sell it because it's that valuable, is a hat that I got when I was in maybe in fifth or sixth grade. And uh why that hat is so valuable doesn't even fit my head anymore because they've got a pretty big head. But why that hat is so valuable to me is because about a week before my dad passed away, he was struggling from cancer for some time, and about a week before he passed away, I found that hat and he coached me when I was a baseball player at that age, and I found that hat and I said, Dad, you've got to sign my hat. I was like, I I this will be the most valuable signature that I I'll ever own. And so he signed my hat, and uh to me that's the most valuable possession I own. I I wouldn't get rid of that for anything, and I wouldn't trade that in for anything, I wouldn't sell it for any amount of money. Uh it's the most valuable thing I own because I love my dad and I've got his signature, and sure I can find it other places, but he signed that for me. He gave that to me and even left me a special unique message on there specifically for me. To anybody else, it's probably just a hat with some scribbles on it, but to me it's priceless, like it it means more to me than almost anything else. It it it's uh it it reminds me of the relationship that I've had with my dad, and it r reminds me of how much I love him, how much he loved me, and I would never trade it in for anything. And I think that this is probably one of the most profound dimensions of Christ's worth to any given believer. He's not just the lamb who was slain for this unfathomable amount of people, he's not just the lamb who was slain for the entire world, he's not just the God of Genesis 1 who created this whole world and the universe and everything that it contains, but he is the Savior who died for. Me specifically, who saved me from my personal sin. He's the God who broke through eternity to die for me because he loved me. So our individual history with the Lord elevates his worth in ways that even angelic worship can't fully capture. The angels weren't saved the way that we've been saved. Those creatures weren't saved the way that we've been saved. We have a unique story and testimony. We have a a reality that we have been saved from, a brokenness that we've been saved from, a pit that we've been pulled up out of that Jesus did specifically for us. It's the power of testimony. It's why we testify of what Jesus has done, because when we testify, it power invades and it inspires others to come to the Lord. It's a powerful tool that we have as testifying of what Jesus has done for us. Galatians 2 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. And it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. This is valuable. Jesus is worthy. You see, that's something that nobody can ever take away from me. No circumstance, no scenario on earth, no pain, no persecution, um, no mockery or whatever could ever take away from me what Jesus has done for me personally. I knew who I was before I met Jesus. I knew the sins that held me enslaved before I met Jesus. I knew the mindsets and the brokenness that I had before I met Jesus. He saved me. He loves me. He's whispered secrets of his heart to me that are for me. And because of that, he's eternally valuable for me. Even if I was the only one to ever worship him because of what he's done for me, it makes him eternally worthy because of that personal connection. So then what do we do with this? We respond as worth. We hit on this a little bit in the last session, but let's let's double down, shall we? When we actually see something as valuable, when it's when something's truly valuable, when it's got worth, I think that response is inevitable. We don't have to be taught to respond to something that we treasure. If Jesus is our treasure, then we'll act accordingly, we'll do things. We will live lives that naturally move toward him and what we perceive as him being worthy. I think that worship isn't something that we just create by discipline alone. Though worshiping him is a spiritual discipline and a practice we can grow in, but worship is response. I mean it's it's what erupts out of us when we think about and consider and remember and recall who he is and what he's done. It is the natural expression of encountering his beauty. That's what worship is. That's that's what responding to his worth looks like. What we value most is what captures our attention. It's what uh forms and molds our desires. It's what we give our time and our affection to, and I think it ultimately commands our devotion, what we will be devoted to, what we will be unwavering toward, the things that grip our attention, the things that grip our time are really are what tr what's transforming us as we go through life. When we see Jesus rightly, I think worship becomes the only fitting response. Look at Psalm 96, 8. It says, Ascribe to the Lord, give uh give to him the glory that's due his name. Bring an offering and come into his courtyards. Or Psalm 145.3. We can pick hundreds of verses like this, but Psalm 145.3, Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. When we see the Lamb appear in Revelation 5, right, there's a crisis, John's weeping, nobody's found. But when we see the Lamb break through, the line of the tribe of Judah break through, and he's the worthy one to take the scroll, worship erupts throughout all of created order. Worship erupts because his worth has been revealed. Now nobody was saying, let's practice, let's rehearse this worship moment because the lamb's gonna come, and we've got this worship moment uh carefully planned out, and we've got the set list, and we've got the chord charts, and what happened was they saw the lamb and they responded. They erupted in worship. Oh, he is worthy, oh, he is deserving, and they just simply what came out of them was natural, authentic response to the only one worthy to open the scroll. The elders fell down, the harps were lifted, there were songs, the bowls of prayer and incense were were there, and you could hear the prayers of the saints. Songs are breaking out, angels are proclaiming thousands upon thousands. Like the nothing needed to be announced, nothing needed to be planned out and carefully prepared for this moment. They saw the lamb, they fell down and they sang and they they worshiped because of who he was. It was obviously recognized. Now, this is the this is the beauty of worship. When we obviously recognize him, when we encounter his beauty, when the spirit of revelation hits us, and we think about something about how he is, how he lives, or or what he's done for us, and we respond, and maybe it's crying, maybe it's singing, screaming, uh, whatever that response is. When that happens, we didn't have to plan it out. Okay, at 455 today, I'm gonna think about um how Jesus is uh the the the one who was and is and is to come. And when I think about that, I'm going to sing this song in this key. Like let's not make worship a formula that we just try to fit some emotion into, but let's make worship a looking at the beauty of God. Let's let's make worship about recognizing who Jesus has always been and what he's done, and let's just erupt in praise. Let's let's let our heart and our emotions and our thoughts and all that we think come before him in a song of worship, in a in an expression of adoration. When we treasure him, when we see him rightly, when we understand the value that he has, it does something to us. That's why I'm so excited talking about it right now, because I want to see him rightly, because he's deserving of my worship. He's deserving of everything that I can give to him. My song, my finances, my thoughts, my attention, my hopes, and my future. He's he's worthy of all those things. I want to give it to him because he deserves it. Nobody else deserves it. I don't want to have to plan and rehearse. And now, don't get me wrong. If you're on the worship team at church, in the prayer room or wherever, practice and plan and prepare set lists and chord charts and all of those things. Yes, yes. But more so, look to him, get provoked. Fix the eyes of your heart on him. It's where we began with the with this teaching. Fix the eyes of your heart on him and make him your treasure. His glory should produce a response in you. How many times have we talked about the glory of God and we've just like let that just kind of pass us by? We talk about his worthiness and who he is, and we're like, Amen, that's good. Amen. You're worthy of it all. You're worthy of it all. From you are all things, to you all are all things. You deserve the glory. Amen. That's a good song. It's an easy song to play. Like what and we just let it pass us by. His glory, every time that we think about it, every time we encounter it, should provoke a response. It should produce something, a sound and a song that's magnificent and beautiful. And uh, we've got to get revelation, guys, because our response, just speaking frankly, our response is too weak. The fact that Jesus isn't worshipped night and day in every city on the earth means we're not we're not beholding him enough. We're not encountering his glory enough. We're not responding because we're not seeing clearly. We're we're not moved emotionally when we sing these songs because we're we're not touching glory. We're we're touching real religion and we're touching routine, and uh we've gotta, we've gotta, we've gotta touch glory. That's my prayer for all of us who would listen to this and watch this, or that we would touch the glory of God and that it would produce something in us that would cause us to respond for the rest of our lives. Not just an emotional moment in worship where we jump up and down a little bit, cry a little bit, but something that would be sustained for the rest of our lives, something that would transform my own heart and those who are close to me in proximity, my friends, my family. I want to be so obsessed with the glory of God, and I want to live in such a response to his beauty and his glory that everybody who I encounter says, Whoa, you see something about Jesus that I don't see. What do I do? It's it's it is truly the biggest injustice in the world. And there's a lot of injustices. There's like crazy things that take place on the earth that are really, really, really bad. But it truly is the greatest injustice that Jesus is not worshipped day and night, night and day in every city and region of the earth. That's the least we could do if we actually put our hearts, if we actually treasured him rightly in our hearts and saw his beauty and encountered his glory, it would do something to communities. It would do something to local churches, it would do something to worship leaders and worship teams. We've got to, we've got to lay hold of that. We've got to lean into the revelation of God and let it impact our hearts. We've got to position our hearts to treasure Jesus unlike we ever have before. That's the song, that's the posture of the of believers that will usher him back to the earth. I can I can always knit it back to the end times, but the posture of of believers throughout the earth will sing him a song of his worth and his value that will usher him back to the planets. What Isaiah 42 talks about all the nations singing and declaring who he is, and it causes him to stand and and and arise and come back and establish justice to the world. Alright. Man. Got excited. It's okay. There's this idea of antiphenal worship that I just absolutely love, or responsive worship is another way we can say that term. Worship in Revelation 5 that we see, it's antiphenal, it's it's responsive. When you look at it, it's one group angels proclaiming, you know, declaring his worth to the elders, and the elders answer, and the myriads of angels join in, and finally all of creation responds. It's like this this back and forth declaration of worship. One part has a a line to sing, and another part has another line to sing. It's this idea of responsive adoration that takes place. And it was practiced in David's Tabernacle. Ezra III talks about the choirs being stationed across from each other, and they would sing responsively to one another. It was practiced all throughout Jewish tradition and the early church. And even if you go to a lot of liturgical churches today, this idea of antiphonal singing, maybe a choir or a priest or somebody sings a portion of a song, and then the congregation responds in worship. It's a biblical New Testament command to antiphonally, responsively sing to one another. Colossians 3 says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom and with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing responsively to one another. This is biblical, this is like culture of the kingdom stuff that we would responsively sing about Jesus. It's why I love going to prayer meetings. It's why I love being a worship leader. It's why I love going to church on Sunday mornings and singing songs with other other believers, because when we sing to one another, when we're singing to Jesus and when we're singing to one another, it provokes, it creates, it stirs within one another. I think that authentic worship multiplies as revelation spreads. You have a revelation of Jesus that I probably haven't gotten as deep in that revelation. You've experienced uh uh one of his attributes in a way that I haven't. And when you bring that to the table in a corporate worship setting, in a prayer meeting, or wherever we might be, and you tell me that, declare that to me, sing that over me, or whatever it is, I can take that and it can multiply because I take that and make it my own revelation, and now it becomes my song, and I sing that and I provoke others in that. Authentic worship multiplies as revelation spreads. One voice is meant to ignite the other. That's what happened in Revelation 5. They're singing, then the elders sing, and then more angels sing, and it's just this like uh cascading sort of effect. Oh, I see the worth of Jesus, and and we see the worth of Jesus, and they see the worth of Jesus, and they're singing their part, and it just multiplies and multiplies, multiplies and compounds and compounds over and over again. Worship is supposed to be contagious because revelation is shared. Within the context of community, our revelation of Jesus' beauty strengthens one another. It's why we're obsessed with doing this in togetherness. Can we worship Jesus uniquely on our own? And absolutely you can, but when we do it together, it multiplies. It has a multiplication effect. It's why corporate worship is powerful because it's what aligns us together around the same revelation of Jesus. Let's look at if you're following along in the notes, we're gonna look at point three here. Those who lead worship, maybe you're a worship leader, or maybe you're somebody who spends a lot of time in a worshiping community, you're part of a house of prayer, go to church, wherever you might be. You've got to continually ask not only what am I singing, what should we sing, but you've got to ask the question, how do I value Jesus? What do I value about Jesus? I think it's entirely possible to minister about Jesus while we're actually slowly drifting from actually treasuring him in real and authentic ways. We don't we don't acknowledge the scarcity of Jesus, we don't acknowledge the utility of Jesus, we don't acknowledge the irreplaceability of Jesus, we don't acknowledge the the personal value that that he holds to us and we'll minister about him as is too common to do on worship teams and as worship leaders. We sing songs about him, we sing songs to him that we're not really singing to him because we haven't treasured him. We've got to treasure him. In environments like prayer rooms or worship teams where worship sort of grows routine and where there's this requirement for excellence and skillfulness on instruments and in singing, it can be way too easy for our hearts to shift from a posture of adoration to a posture of performance. Or we can go from where we should be living in wonder to this place of living in familiarity. Ugh, Lord, I never want to grow familiar with your beauty and with your glory. I always want to be in wonder. I always want to be amazed by who you are. Help my heart to not grow dull and familiar to your glory. Because I think about those. We talked about this last in the last session. Those that are closest to him in proximity right now, they're not bored, they're not familiar, they're constantly amazed. They never stop singing about his transcendent beauty, his worthiness. They're not tired of doing that. He's the Lamb that is always worthy, always fresh. He's always deserving of wonder and awe. And I think that this is a call to us to guard our hearts so that our ministry, our worship ministry to God flows from adoration rather than routine. Take inventory of your heart. Take inventory of what moves you at an emotional level, what stirs you when you're dreaming with the Lord and when you're going day-to-day, what is it that's that moves your affection and your desires? Take inventory and let's put Jesus back where he belongs. Isaiah 29, 13 says, the Lord says this, since these people turn toward me with their mouths and honor me with their lip service while their heart is distant from me, and their fear of me is just a human command that's been memorized. Oh Lord, you've got to help us. We don't want to just memorize the words to songs and sing them and sing familiar melodies and sing these truths but not connect our hearts to them. We don't want to just honor the Lord with our lip service. We need our hearts to be close to him. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Where is our heart positioned toward? Mark 7, 6, 6 and 7, here in the Passion Translation says, Jesus replied, Your hypocrites is quoting this Isaiah prophecy, by the way. How accurately, how accurately did Isaiah prophesy about you phonies? A big word there. When he said, These people honor me with their their words while their hearts run far from me. Their worship is nothing more than a charade, for they continue to insist that their man-made traditions are equal to the instructions of God. Listen, we cannot give in to the man made traditions and practices that are emotional and hype driven and neglect our hearts actually treasuring Jesus. This is it's such a trend for worship to feel over hypey, you know. Overemotional, and you gather a whole bunch of sweaty teenagers into a room, and it's it's powerful because there's a lot of singing, but too often our hearts are disconnected, even in those what you might call ideal scenarios. Like too often it's we just grow familiar with it when worship can be one person at home with a guitar or without a guitar, meditating on the beauty of Jesus and the worth of Jesus, and being stirred in response to proclaim who he is. I'm not saying that conferences and sweaty teenagers are a bad thing. What I am saying is that let's not equate authentic adoration uh with just hype-driven um agendas. We want to worship Jesus because we treasure him, because worship flows from what we value. The most important thing we can do as worshipers isn't the practical stuff. It's not just the vocal warm-ups, it's not crafty set lists, it's not practicing um the chords and making sure you don't hit any wrong notes or whatever, but it's cultivating genuine affection for Jesus by constantly praying for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, constantly saying, Jesus, let your glory impact my heart again, stir me again. I think that if our private devotion grows cold, then our public worship will eventually become hollow. If our private worship grows cold, then our public worship will eventually become hollow. And when Jesus is treasured in secret, worship becomes powerful, it becomes provoking, becomes antiphonal and responsive. I love Psalm 27, 4, where the heart cry of David that in even in the midst of him being surrounded by armies, it seemed like he was about to die, and everyone was persecuting him in this moment. He says, One thing I have asked from the Lord, that shall I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple. Doesn't matter what your circumstances are today, what they were yesterday, what they'll be tomorrow, if it's easy, if it's hard, if an army is surrounding you. We can have a desire to behold the beauty of Jesus that would outweigh the pressures of this age, that would outweigh even the mundaness of our own selves. We can pray, God, I show me your beauty. Unveil your face to me again. Let my face shine with the glory of God, that I would see you and that would bring me out of this mundaness, that it would take my eyes off of this the unfavorable circumstances that are around me. And I just want to be in your house. I want to be obsessed and caught up in your beauty and your glory. When's the last time? Genuine question. When was the last time that you just got caught up in worship? When you didn't move on, when your mind left the circumstances that you've been stressed out about all week, when when you were moved out of the mundaness and the routine of whatever it is, and you lingered in thinking about him. You lingered in singing that song. You pressed repeat uh in the car on your drive again on that song because it was moving your heart about who he was. So if you're in a house of prayer like I am, I think this is something that becomes critical for us that we would live in this space. We sing about Jesus for hours. Some of us do it every single day. Sometimes we sing the same songs over and over. But do we see him? Are we actually reaching for him? Are we are we leaning in? Are we asking, God, I've got to see you again? Open my eyes. I'm bored, I'm dull, my my worship feels dry. I open my eyes again, stir my heart, provoke my heart. Do we feel the weight of his worth? Do we determine his worth again? Are we pondering, ah, Jesus, there's no one like you. You're irreplaceable. Jesus, no one can do what you've done. Jesus, you're you're perfect. I think that I often return to Revelation 5. I read it, sometimes it's daily, because I need to stir my heart and remember who he is and why he's worthy. But it reminds us of worship that's fueled by revelation. They see the Lamb, therefore they sing. Do you see the Lamb? And if you do, you should be singing, you should be declaring, you should be proclaiming. Our prayer rooms, they can't just become factories of religious noise. They can't just be a place where music is happening or song is happening, but worship is not. Our prayer rooms have to become dwelling places of constant revelation. Our worshiping communities have to become communities driven by the beauty of God. Every single set, every prayer, every song, every set list, it shouldn't, it shouldn't answer the question. What is he worth right now? Why is he worthy right now? In dry seasons, we can even pull on moments from from the seasons past. You feel dry, you feel bored, pull on something that you remember to be true about Jesus. I sing about his faithfulness, his kindness, even when I don't feel it and when I don't see it, because it reminds me of who he is and it draws me into genuine worship. We've got to constantly make Jesus our treasure. If you hear one thing from this too long podcast, I've already been talking for too long. If you hear one thing, hear this make Jesus your treasure. Determine his value. Look at the scriptures, look at Revelation 5, determine his value. Look at what he saved you from, determine his value. I'll end with reading Psalm 63. It's a prayer I pray often. It's a song I sing often. God, you are my God. I shall be watching for you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh yearns for you. In a dry and exhausted land where there is no water, so I've seen you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory. Because your favor is better than life. My lips will praise you. It's like the psalmist here is walking through the desert land. There's no water. For a moment he meditates on. I've seen you before. I remember your glory. I've beheld your power. I remember that one worship set from six months ago when I was weeping uncontrollably. Because I thought about how much you loved me and how you gave your life for me. And Lord, I don't feel that right now, but I've seen that before. And what's going to keep me going forward, what's going to keep me marching through the desert isn't just my own tenacity and my own zeal. What's going to keep me going through the mundaness and the desert and the unfavorable circumstances that we might be facing is remembering, recalling, determining his worth again and again and again. For those of you who are stuck in mundaness, for those of you stuck in routine, for those of you who feel like you haven't been moved by a worship song or a worship set in years or months or weeks or whatever it might be, I want to call you to remember when you have beheld him, when you have drank of his glory, when it did move your heart, and that you would hold on to that revelation of him and that you would let it drive you through this desert land and through this desert season that you might be facing. He's worthy, and nothing will change that. There's a unique worth and value that he has to you, and I encourage you today to make Jesus your treasure. Make Jesus the most valuable person, your most valuable possession. Make Jesus your treasure. Amen. Amen. God bless you guys.