SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's give the Lord a hand this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You may have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you turn to the person you didn't choose earlier and say, you look good?
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Jess.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in a series on the book of Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 138 is where we're going to be today.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible, turn to Psalm 138.
SPEAKER_00: I've titled the message The Power of Worship.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: See you next week.
SPEAKER_00: Better practiced than preached.
SPEAKER_00: But every once in a while, the Lord will lay a burden that we need some instruction or some reminders on some things that make something that's already good even better.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes what I find is the times in my life where I think I already know what I'm doing are the areas where I'm the least open to input.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: Often it's communicated like this.
SPEAKER_00: Often it's communicated like disinterest.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes what I find is it's the thing that I've been doing the longest, that I think I know what I need to know.
SPEAKER_00: And then I wake up and realize there's a lot that I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to revisit worship this morning, and it's Psalm 138.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't noticed, our our worship team, does our worship team, they do a phenomenal job.
SPEAKER_00: Can you all give it up for them?
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: I came up here on Friday night, and our worship team was up here on a Friday night just worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: What I love, the band, the band was up here worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that is it's not just a performance, it is what God is doing in them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so thankful for that.
SPEAKER_00: Our worship team, though, they wear these things called in-ears.
SPEAKER_00: In ears are like earbuds, they're like airpods, but they're for worship leaders.
SPEAKER_00: And what it helps them do is it helps them hear one another.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I have a really uh loud voice and they don't need to hear me, they need to hear jazz.
SPEAKER_00: And what will happen is they'll have a metronome in there if they need it, that it helps them keep time, it helps them stay together.
SPEAKER_00: All the speakers are out in front of them because if the speakers were behind them, the speakers would be speaking into the microphone, picking up sounds that we don't want it to pick up.
SPEAKER_00: So they wear in-ears.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So they can stay together, so that they can be unified.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something say something about the power of worship?
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be together.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things about in-ears with everything, there's a blessing and a curse.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: A blessing and a curse.
SPEAKER_00: The blessing is it helps them.
SPEAKER_00: The curse is it helps them until I start singing and somebody forgets to turn my mic off in their ears.
SPEAKER_00: It's happened before.
SPEAKER_00: I uh walk down the aisle talking to people, and they're up here singing, and here I am talking into their ears.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go to the restroom from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Can't say it hasn't happened.
SPEAKER_00: The worst time was several years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I was at a youth conference and and uh they had planned this whole deal.
SPEAKER_00: They had worked on it for weeks.
SPEAKER_00: It was a youth conference, they were talking a lot about identity, and and uh uh this sweet young lady was singing this worship song right at teenagers, and they had her starting in another room.
SPEAKER_00: She started singing the song in another room, sitting in front of a mirror, often reflecting teenagers sitting in front of the mirror, identity, and talking, and she was singing the song, sitting in front of the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: They had the camera, she was on the screens in the auditorium, and then she got up from there and she walked through the backstage and she walked out and she was continuing the song of worship, and on the screen she looked just angelic.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just you're like, man, she's got the favor and the anointing of God.
SPEAKER_00: She is just worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you something, I was on the front row worshiping my heart out, straight into her ears.
SPEAKER_00: We got done with the song and the worship set, and I said, that was incredible.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, So were you.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, I couldn't focus on worshiping the Lord because all I could hear was you singing in my ears.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: I've never worshiped the same with a microphone in my life again.
SPEAKER_00: Every five seconds in worship, here's what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go like this.
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just checking to make sure that switch is off.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know there's only one person that needs to hear my worship?
SPEAKER_00: And it's not you, it's him.
SPEAKER_00: But the challenge is it has now impacted the way I worship.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like secondhand.
SPEAKER_00: I just start to think, I wonder if they can hear me right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing when you're singing to the Lord and you know it's just him and you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are like, yeah, I got that covered in the shower, I got that covered in the car when nobody's watching.
SPEAKER_00: But something happened inside of me that caused me to slow down my worship, to hinder my worship.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but there have been times in my life where I've been really connected with the Lord, and I feel like my worship is working and it's working for me, and it's going great.
SPEAKER_00: But then there are times where I wonder if my worship is doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm not really feeling a connection, I don't know if this is working, I'm doing the religious practice, I'm here, this is what everybody else is doing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna what I want to talk to you about this morning is oftentimes the power of our worship, we often will find that there are some hurdles in getting there.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there are things that cause us to hold back.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things causing you to hold back your worship in life?
SPEAKER_00: For me, on that scenario that I just gave you, and from time to time I will I will wrestle this one out.
SPEAKER_00: That is that I'm more worried about what other people think about me than I am worried about worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever been there.
SPEAKER_00: It's sometimes and sometimes I'm just so thankful I sit on the front row because sometimes I look up and forget that somebody's right behind me having to deal with this, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes our worship is hindered or slowed down or halted because we're worried about what other people think.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our worship is hindered because we feel like worship is a really vulnerable thing, and I'm just not so sure if I'm ready to be that vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not roasting on you guys, but oftentimes uh this is the men in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Often I have a lot of conversations.
SPEAKER_00: I'll have guys tell me, they'll say, hey, you know, I really like coming to church here.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be like, I really, I really love listening to the word, but I'm just not much into that music thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say, well, um, it'd be really important that you get into that worship thing.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because worship is not about your preference, it's not about your style, it's not about your personality, it's not about whether you can sing or not sing.
SPEAKER_00: Bless God, some of y'all just found favor from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's one of those things we're gonna have to get comfortable with, and the reason is because you look in the book of Revelation, here's what it says that the elders are continually falling down in worship before the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, that's what we're gonna be doing a lot of.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes that hurdle comes because we're like, I don't know if I'm ready to be that vulnerable or open or transparent.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that hurdle comes.
SPEAKER_00: I've experienced times in my life where uh I know, I know, you know, maybe just me, but uh the relationships in my life get a little messy sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the challenge is I come in through those doors and I want to worship, but all I can think about is what they said and what they did and what I'm gonna say tomorrow when I'm not at church.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been through a worship set and you're like, I'm trying to focus, but I just can't?
SPEAKER_00: It's not because you're distracted, it's because your mind is on the relationships that have become a barrier to your worship.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the greatest barrier we face in worship is the relationship challenges that we are experiencing outside those doors or even inside these doors.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, you know, several years ago I was at a worship night, it was before we had kids, and multiple nights a week we could go do stuff, and and and I I remember we uh went to a worship night really late one night, and I remember looking around, it was in thousands, there was a couple thousand people there, and people were just worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been in worship and you're like, they're getting hit.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I not?
SPEAKER_00: I I mean I I'm being honest.
SPEAKER_00: There are times I've looked around at everyone else and thought, they're getting something that I'm not getting.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm telling you this, because if you've ever thought this, I want you to know you're not alone in that.
SPEAKER_00: There are still times that I feel this, and here, and I'll never forget what happened in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: I've I I kind of like sarcastically to the Lord, like, well, I guess you got stuff for them and not for me.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, It's because you haven't done what I told you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh man, and I I immediately knew what he was talking about, and I got up and I left the auditorium and I picked up my phone and I called the person that I wronged years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And I made that phone call and I said, Listen, this is gonna come out of the blue to you, but I did wrong by you, and I need to apologize and I need to repent.
SPEAKER_00: And I hung up the phone and I went back and worshiped.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what opened the the pipeline of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because this was exactly what Matthew chapter 5 says.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our worship is hindered by this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, verse 23 and 24.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're offering your gift on the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
SPEAKER_00: First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, some of y'all, y'all can check out the rest of the message because this is what you need right here.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the block to your worship, here, it has nothing to do with your singing ability.
SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with your personality.
SPEAKER_00: It has to do with the fact that there is some unresolved stuff out there that the Lord can't work through in here until you are willing to do what he already said to do.
SPEAKER_00: That greater level of worship, the power of worship, the doors being opened starts with our obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe for you today, listen, maybe the message for you today is this there is something that you have to go back and do what the Lord has asked you to do.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what you'll experience the worship in this room goes to another level because of what you do in that room.
SPEAKER_00: It's in your relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I've found that relationships are a hindrance.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm a preacher, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But just because I'm a preacher doesn't mean I'm not married and have problems.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know how hard it is to have an argument with your wife on a Saturday night before you preach on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: I know you think that doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: I know you think I just pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's no.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I argue.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be standing in worship, and the Lord will be like, What do you think you're doing?
SPEAKER_00: You can't get up there until you get this right here.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying, this is an ongoing thing.
SPEAKER_00: Your worship will grow.
SPEAKER_00: Your worship will become more fruitful when you do what it is that he said to do in Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, though, it's not the people in our lives, sometimes it's about God in you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's a block in worship.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, there is a block between God and Him and us because of some things going on in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Use this in the illustration of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to have intimacy when there's bitterness and anger.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to feel close to one another when there's unresolved tension, when there's undealt with business.
SPEAKER_00: And so the relationship between man matters to God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, well, if you didn't know this, uh, you're his child and I'm his child and we're all one family, and so God says, you got to make it right by the family.
SPEAKER_00: I love them and I love you.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do this in unity together.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes what we find is it's not between us and other people.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we got a chip on our shoulder about something that didn't go the way we wanted it to go.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes something happened to us.
SPEAKER_00: We're a little bit bitter about something that God did or didn't do the way we thought he would or wouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes that worship challenge or block can be our relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I find that trouble or distress or problems cause a block in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: I I've heard the phrase often said and in a lot of counseling sessions.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going through all of this.
SPEAKER_00: How in the world could I worship God in the middle of this mess?
SPEAKER_00: How could I do this?
SPEAKER_00: That's what I love about what the Psalms are.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms are real people with real problems.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about David is in the midst of his distress, he worships anyway.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is not the absence of problems in his life, it's the answer is the presence of God in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And the presence of God is found in your times of worship.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's not that God's not here for you, it's that when you worship, you become more aware of his presence that is already existent in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So, how's your worship going?
SPEAKER_00: I want to read Psalm 138, it calls it a psalm of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but anytime I've gone through a problem in my life, I wouldn't characterize or title that season of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so thankful.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, this is what David does.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because David is a worshiper.
SPEAKER_00: And David works stuff out in worship.
SPEAKER_00: When you work stuff out in worship, here's what it does: it keeps you thankful for God.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 138, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: Before the gods I sing your praise.
SPEAKER_00: I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
SPEAKER_00: He says, On the day I called, God, you answered me.
SPEAKER_00: My strength of soul, you increased, you elevated.
SPEAKER_00: All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly.
SPEAKER_00: But the haughty he knows from afar, the proud he knows from afar.
SPEAKER_00: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, here it is.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I've been in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, God, you preserve my life.
SPEAKER_00: You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, your right hand delivers me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight it again.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.
SPEAKER_00: Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Do not forsake the work of your hands.
SPEAKER_00: What I love about what David does is it says, in the midst of his trouble, in the midst of his distress, he worshiped anyway.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say when things got good, he went to church in worship.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say when everything got worked out, he then found the strength to worship.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say when he felt like it.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say when he was having a good day.
SPEAKER_00: It says that David bowed down before the Lord and he sang, In the midst of his trouble.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to know is this if he did it, you can too.
SPEAKER_00: When I think about this, to me this morning, it really comes down to the opening line of the scripture in Psalm 138.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the burden I have for you today that you walk out of here giving thanks, worshiping the Lord, singing praise to the Lord with your whole heart, not just part of it.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what happens when we get deceived is we will only surrender a portion.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, the powerful worship encounter will begin when your wholehearted devotion to the Lord is released back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: When I think about that, it wouldn't work very well on date night.
SPEAKER_00: Honey, I love you with my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just, I'm not gonna do anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna show you at all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna open the door for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna hug you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, this is an experiment, man.
SPEAKER_00: You should try it this week, see how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Preacher said.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because anybody who has a wholehearted devotion to someone or something will show it with everything that they have.
SPEAKER_00: Your worship is your expression of your wholehearted devotion.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you some things this morning that help you have a powerful worship experience.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready, Sam?
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, posture yourself worshipfully.
SPEAKER_00: Posture yourself worshipfully.
SPEAKER_00: Your posture and worship matters.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget my mom had a piano in our dining room growing up.
SPEAKER_00: It was given to her.
SPEAKER_00: It will one day come to my house and we have to build a room to put it in.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't, I took about five minutes of piano lessons, but it's just a family heirloom.
SPEAKER_00: It's passed on.
SPEAKER_00: My great uncle got it in World War II in Austria.
SPEAKER_00: He he brought it back, he had it made in the factory and he brought it back.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget sitting and listen, how many mamas you know?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what the sound sounds like.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's just your baby boy.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how good it is or isn't, but one thing I will never forget my mom saying is posture, what's she telling me?
SPEAKER_00: The way you sit at my piano matters.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't mine.
SPEAKER_00: The way you sit, it's etched in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Coaches yell at their players over and over and over again about what?
SPEAKER_00: About their technique, about their posture, about their position.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if it matters in everything else, I want you to know it matters even more in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Your posture in worship matters.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget I had a pastor correct me one time.
SPEAKER_00: Um I had just joined a staff and he said, Hey, I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: He said, When you are out in the lobby ministering to people, your arms are always crossed.
SPEAKER_00: I said, No, they're not.
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been corrected on something and you refuse to see what you know is true, but you just don't want to believe that it's true or receive that it's true?
SPEAKER_00: And he looked at me and he said, Hey, listen, I just want to give you something that's gonna help you for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You look like you hate people.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of hard to be a pastor if you hate people.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't hate.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Well then show them that you don't.
SPEAKER_00: What's he saying?
SPEAKER_00: Stop that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your posture matters.
SPEAKER_00: What does this say?
SPEAKER_00: This says I'm I'm closed off, I'm not interested, don't come talk to me.
SPEAKER_00: And everything inside of me will try and convince myself, like I did in my younger version of myself when I had hair, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Everything would convince me on the inside to say, it doesn't matter how I look, that doesn't change anything about the way that I love people.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know it does change the way I interact with them?
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty hard to hug somebody like this.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of awkward too.
SPEAKER_00: But when your posture changes, it changes the environment.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you some postures of worship that we read in scripture just so you know, this isn't about the Baptists or the Methodists or the Catholics, it's not about the Pentecostals or the charismatics.
SPEAKER_00: This is about the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't what people have always done, and we just do what's always been done, because that's just what grandpa says around here.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is the word of God on postures of worship that I promise you will change the way you worship.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is standing.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody good at standing?
SPEAKER_00: Good, you already got this one.
SPEAKER_00: You can do this.
SPEAKER_00: Standing.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 7, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, a great multitude that no one could number.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many people they couldn't even count, from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we stand and worship?
SPEAKER_00: It's not just because we don't want to we sit in the message and we stand elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: We stand because we do it out of honor and reverence to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't have anything to do with how long you can stand.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about your physical ability.
SPEAKER_00: This has everything to do with Lord, I'm just, my by my standing right now, I'm honoring you.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the gentleman who you walk up to and you approach to shake his hand and he makes the decision to stand up.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It's an old school honor thing.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of y'all know some of the old school stuff is what needs to be new school?
SPEAKER_00: Some of the stuff we've lost along the way is stuff we need to pick up again.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord is saying, when you stand, you're standing before me.
SPEAKER_00: Another position is kneeling.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 95, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Come let us worship and bow down.
SPEAKER_00: Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
SPEAKER_00: Kneeling, bowing.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 2, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: I love this one.
SPEAKER_00: The wise men fell down and they worshiped Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The question this morning is when is the last time you've assumed the posture of kneeling or bowing before the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just because the preacher says you should do it.
SPEAKER_00: This is because there is a precedent for this in the Bible that suggests if it's there, it's there for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, out of all of human history, this is relatively a short number amount of words.
SPEAKER_00: It may feel like a lot to you to read, but listen, if you think about it in this grand scheme of eternity, this is very few words.
SPEAKER_00: And in here, he takes time to make value, to describe or declare to you over and over in the Psalms that people would regularly bow down.
SPEAKER_00: And kneel before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it does something.
SPEAKER_00: I think it does something in you as much as it does something for God.
SPEAKER_00: You don't believe me, then I want you tomorrow to go to work and get down on your knees before your boss.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you laughing?
SPEAKER_00: That sounds crazy.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that happens when you do that.
SPEAKER_00: You mean the boss that I don't like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not actually telling you to do this unless your boss goes to work here in church here, then you're in trouble tomorrow if you don't do what the pastor said.
SPEAKER_00: This is awkward.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all just watching me right now.
SPEAKER_00: How long is this guy's knees gonna hold out on him?
SPEAKER_00: There's something about this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do this, but if people came before the king in the Old Testament, they're bowing down, they're kneeling down.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes people in the Bible got in trouble because they refused to bow down to something other than God.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about bowing down and put you in a vulnerable position, and it does something inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's a sign of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you might be thinking like, I am never gonna bow down at church.
SPEAKER_00: Don't say never.
SPEAKER_00: Because my heart would be if the Lord asked you to, that's what you should do.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the thing you've been praying for is held up because you haven't fully surrendered, and you're saying, well, your physical action, that is just that's just a religious thing.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not just a religious practice or religious discipline, it's an act of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And what I have found in my life is there are times when some things are held up because I'm refusing to have a wholehearted devotion to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And it's actually not God holding out on me, it's me holding out on me.
SPEAKER_00: And what bowing down before the Lord does is says, Lord, I am coming before you.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender, I'm exalting.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you've never done that.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to encourage you, do it when nobody's watching.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about other people.
SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with anybody else in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Get a time in your life where you get down on your knees before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the first thing you do when you get out of bed in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Before you hit that phone, you drop to your knees, you just you just do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's an act.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares what your spouse thinks?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I promise you, if you start doing it, your spouse is gonna love you even more eventually.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's gonna do something in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna change you.
SPEAKER_00: Another posture, lifting of hands.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 63, 4.
SPEAKER_00: I will lift up my hands in your name.
SPEAKER_00: What is it doing?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's like a child reaching their hands up to their father.
SPEAKER_00: I I trust you, I depend on you, I surrender over to you.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are gonna like this one.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 149, verse 3, dancing somebody and rejoicing before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let them praise his name with dancing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, listen, I it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, none of these have anything to do with what denomination you grew up a part of.
SPEAKER_00: None of these have anything to do with what tradition.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a personality style, this is not a that's not me kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Lord asks you to do, and he's asking you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's an outward expression of what you actually believe on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: Your outward posture is a reflection of the inward position of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, Lord, there's not nothing in the world that is more important to me than you.
SPEAKER_00: The lifting of hands.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we go to a football game a hundred yards from here, right here at Magnolia High School, and what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We throw up our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we throw up?
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if we can celebrate our kids in their team, how much more can we not celebrate and worship the God who gave us our kids?
SPEAKER_00: If we can celebrate something that we're not even close to, how much more can we celebrate a God who is near to you?
SPEAKER_00: And your posture is a reflection of that.
SPEAKER_00: So don't think, oh man, that's not really my thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about whether or not it's your thing or not.
SPEAKER_00: It's about whether or not you're willing to surrender to what God is asking you to do.
SPEAKER_00: So your posture is everything.
SPEAKER_00: Position yourself low.
SPEAKER_00: How do you increase the power encounter in your worship?
SPEAKER_00: You have to position yourself low.
SPEAKER_00: I love what verse 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty, the proud, he knows from afar.
SPEAKER_00: I love what it says.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is high.
SPEAKER_00: He's lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is above it all.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I I've been in some rooms or some circles, and if you've ever met someone with uh a status or who's prestigious or somebody who's influential or a leader or wealthy or successful, how many know like often attracts like?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, people will walk in a room and most of the time they're looking for the person who's just like them, right?
SPEAKER_00: So oftentimes what will happen is uh let's just use an example, a successful person walked in the room and has no interest in talking to the person who is, quote unquote, a failure by today's world and standards.
SPEAKER_00: They're looking for the other successful person in the room to talk to.
SPEAKER_00: That is not how the Lord operates.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is high, the Lord is lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: He is not looking for anyone else who thinks they are as high and lifted up as him.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually looking for the lowly.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture says he regards.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in the translation of the Hebrew in that, it says literally to see.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking to see, he's looking to find the lowly.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful worship starts not when you're high, but when you're low.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be thinking, well, Clayton, that's kind of like self, you know, deprecating, that's kind of harsh.
SPEAKER_00: And no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most powerful thing you could do is when you relinquish your position and say, I'm going to go low.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is only the low that the Lord will pull up.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about it in this way, it's it says the word haughty or proud.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that Satan experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: It says that the proud or the haughty, he knows from afar.
SPEAKER_00: He knows from afar.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there is a distance or a barrier or a gap between the Lord and those who are proud.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, sometimes the challenge in our worship, why we don't feel like we have that proximity to the Lord, is because pride has entered into our place of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And when pride is in the place of worship, it says the Lord knows from afar.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, here's the power of this revelation right here: the proximity you have to the Lord is picked by your position.
SPEAKER_00: The position you pick in life on the inside, on your outward expression, determines your proximity.
SPEAKER_00: Satan experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Satan, many theologians will believe that he was an angel in heaven, he was the worship leader of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There's some old uh translations, New King James.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever grew up, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like you know who you are already.
SPEAKER_00: You're amen right now.
SPEAKER_00: So oftentimes what they what they believe from that translation is that Satan was the worship leader of heaven, that he had an incredible voice, and God had just given him this wind instrument, his pipes.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know pride kills proximity?
SPEAKER_00: So Satan, who was not Satan, he was an angel in heaven, worship leader of heaven, worshipful, singing to the Lord, bowing before the Lord, got prideful.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He went from heaven to lower than the dirt.
SPEAKER_00: God kicked him out of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord knows the haughty and the proud from afar.
SPEAKER_00: They the proximity is not happening in that kind of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so listen to Isaiah chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: This is a very interesting passage, obviously reflecting on Satan here.
SPEAKER_00: How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn.
SPEAKER_00: How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low.
SPEAKER_00: You said in your heart, I will sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He took a position in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And here are the declarations he began to make over his life.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, don't write these on your mirror and don't speak these over yourself in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that kind of declaration.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Satan said, I will set my throne on high.
SPEAKER_00: I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north.
SPEAKER_00: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: I will make myself like the most high.
SPEAKER_00: But God says, But you are brought down to Sheol, the far reaches of the pit.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: His pride took him to the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, sometimes the challenge or the gap in our worship is that pride has entered into a place of worship and it keeps us out of alignment and attunement with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So that's Satan's example, but what about a good example?
SPEAKER_00: Encourage me, Clayton.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to know: an angel in heaven got it wrong, but David, a man, got it right.
SPEAKER_00: That should be encouraging to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because David didn't have perfect life, David didn't have it all figured out, David messed up.
SPEAKER_00: We just talked about his mess ups last week.
SPEAKER_00: Go watch it on YouTube.
SPEAKER_00: You'll feel better about yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it's saying.
SPEAKER_00: He had a position in his life that allowed him to enter into the presence of the Lord and encounter the Lord in such a way that everybody knew that David loves the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We're reading his songs of worship today.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of his position.
SPEAKER_00: We would not be reading his words in this way if David didn't have the position in worship that he had.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to 2 Samuel chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: It says of David, the ark of the Lord had come into the city, and Mikhail, the daughter of Saul, looked out the window and saw King David, this is his wife, leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, ladies, I know some of y'all don't like the way your spouse dances, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But that wasn't why.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because he didn't have good moves.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, and David returned to bless his household.
SPEAKER_00: But Mekal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How the king of Israel honored himself today.
SPEAKER_00: You can sense the real encouraging tone she has there.
SPEAKER_00: Uncovering himself today before the eyes of the servant, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.
SPEAKER_00: And David said to Mekal, It was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me prince over Edom.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try that in your arguments with your in-laws, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget, honey.
SPEAKER_00: He chose me over your family.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what David is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what he knows that he has no regrets for the way that he worshiped the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter who he offended, it didn't matter what people thought about it.
SPEAKER_00: David had no regrets for going all out for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I will celebrate before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, I will make myself yet more contemptible, undignified than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: This is what David is saying.
SPEAKER_00: David is saying, honey, I don't care what you think of me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what anybody else thinks of me.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing I care about is what God thinks of me.
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, I'm celebrating what God has done in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm celebrating the places that He's brought me from.
SPEAKER_00: I'm celebrating the things that He has brought me to.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna worship about it, and there's nothing you can do to get me to stop.
SPEAKER_00: I'll become even more undignified than this, he says.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be our prayer that that spirit in him would become the same spirit in you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what people think anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what people are looking around saying.
SPEAKER_00: I I I don't care what they say about me when I do.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I know that for the rest of my life, this is what I'm going to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: For all of eternity, this is what I'm so I'm gonna practice here as much as I possibly can.
SPEAKER_00: And David says, I'll become undignified before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What I find so interesting is his wife Mikhail was so busy watching David worship that she didn't worship herself.
SPEAKER_00: And there could be something to be said of this, as her father Saul fell from pride.
SPEAKER_00: Pride lived in her house growing up, and it was contagious.
SPEAKER_00: And she caught on that same spirit of pride, and what did it do?
SPEAKER_00: It kept her at a distance.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you don't come to church to watch Jazz sing.
SPEAKER_00: You come to church to worship the Lord and the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens in this moment is something really powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Mikhail is looking at David and she's saying, You became undignified for a king.
SPEAKER_00: But don't forget what Satan did.
SPEAKER_00: Satan said, I'm gonna become like God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna become the king, I'm gonna be above the king.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is when you don't make your position low, you will start to think that you are the king and that you got it figured out, and that you can do it all by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So the bowing down, the raising of hands, it is a reminder to you, as much as it is an offering to God.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need you now more than ever.
SPEAKER_00: And this act of worship, here's what it does: it causes you to lower your position.
SPEAKER_00: Mikal's greatest issue with David was this that he de-robed himself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of people say David danced naked before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we're not that kind of church, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So calm down, it's not gonna be alright.
SPEAKER_00: Most theologians don't believe that he was actually naked before the Lord, that that's an over-exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what they're saying: that he wore a linen ephod just like everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: He was the king.
SPEAKER_00: It means that he took off his kingly robes and he went out down into the streets in the city with everybody else, dancing around with everybody else, and you couldn't tell his status or his position.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't have known he was the king as if you had seen his face before.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mikal has a problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's not what kings do.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what David knew: I'm not the king, God is.
SPEAKER_00: He took off his robes, he took off his position and he got low.
SPEAKER_00: Mikal's problem is the fact that she's so busy worried about what everybody else thinks about her and her husband in the kingdom, that she is so worried about the image of the king.
SPEAKER_00: But David knows something.
SPEAKER_00: His identity is not found in the image or the status or the success or the favor that man has cast upon him.
SPEAKER_00: His success and his favor and his anointing comes out of the overflow of what happens in that place of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so if it meant that he was gonna dance, he was gonna dance all the way home.
SPEAKER_00: If it meant he was gonna look like a fool, he'd look like a fool.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because in the grand scheme of eternity, what we see around us today pales in comparison to what God is doing on the bigger picture in the bigger front of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, are you willing to position yourself low?
SPEAKER_00: And David did this time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, my son, I uh I realized something when he told me that his favorite store was Target.
SPEAKER_00: I was very discouraged with myself.
SPEAKER_00: Dad, you're failing at life.
SPEAKER_00: I realized he was spending way too much time with mom at Target, and I needed to teach him how to ride.
SPEAKER_00: So I took him to Bass Pro the other day, and uh him and his sister, and I was going and uh I had my hat on, and my kids wanted to look like me, so they put on hats, and you know how they pack the whole house everywhere you go, and eventually they get tired of carrying it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh eventually what I realized I was walking around Bass Pro, and people are like staring at me like real hard.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I know I'm not that good looking, so what's the deal?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just looking, why are they looking at me?
SPEAKER_00: My daughter said, Dad, she's seven today.
SPEAKER_00: She's seven today.
SPEAKER_00: She said, uh, she said, Dad, everybody's staring at you.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, You have three hats on your head.
SPEAKER_00: She said, You have three hats.
SPEAKER_00: I realized something.
SPEAKER_00: When they took their hat off and handed it to me, I put it on my head.
SPEAKER_00: Because I was so busy carrying all their other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And what I realized is I am wearing all of these hats that I didn't go out of the house with that day.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know we pick up a lot of hats in our life that we never intended to put on?
SPEAKER_00: People will put them on us, life will put them on us, our problems will put them on us, our position in life.
SPEAKER_00: We got all kinds of hats that we wear every day.
SPEAKER_00: The hat of a leader, the hat of a mom, the hat of a dad, the hat of a successful person.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've picked up somewhere along the line along the line a lie that you're a failure.
SPEAKER_00: You've picked up the hat of failure.
SPEAKER_00: We wear all these kinds of hats all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And what I realize is, you know, we don't have kingly robes and don't understand that in our context today.
SPEAKER_00: But we do understand hats.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a lot of hats that we wear.
SPEAKER_00: For many of the room today, you feel like you have too many hats to carry.
SPEAKER_00: They're too hard.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you, the hat of your marriage got really heavy and you're not really sure what to do about it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you, the hat of being a strong parent, a God-fearing parent who raises your kids, right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that hat got really big for you and really difficult for you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the hat at your job in your workplace, or with some relationships or friendships in your life, you find yourself with all these hats and you're wondering what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how many know each hat has a different job and a different title, different status, different association?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on, we all know when I wear this hat, we all know what I'm doing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I had to buy this one.
SPEAKER_00: I don't wear it around y'all, this is embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: We all have these hats in life.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what are you doing with them?
SPEAKER_00: See, what happens is David came before the Lord and he took them off.
SPEAKER_00: And he laid them down before the Lord and said, I don't oh, how about this one?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I live in Magnolia, Texas, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it is now.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are real proud of me right now for this.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about this hat?
SPEAKER_00: It says, I'm the boss.
SPEAKER_00: I got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_00: Some of our hats help us buy into the lie that we gotta take care of ourselves, that we gotta know all the answers, that we gotta be the super dad or the super person or the super spiritual saved person.
SPEAKER_00: There's a cowboy, real cowboy, that comes to our church and he wears his hat every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And I watch him walking down the sidewalk looking like a boss.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he does every time he gets to the doors of our church?
SPEAKER_00: I said he's a real cowboy, not a fake one.
SPEAKER_00: A real cowboy, every time he walks through the door, he takes that hat off.
SPEAKER_00: And he walks into church and he takes his hat off.
SPEAKER_00: I just wonder if some of y'all this morning are wearing some hats that the Lord says, you need to take that off.
SPEAKER_00: You come into the presence of the Lord, I'm not under my authority anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm under yours.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't have to have all the answers today because you already have them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm not here to make much of my name.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to make much of your name today.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a hat you're wearing you gotta take off today before the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Dance undignified before the Lord and your position low.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you this.
SPEAKER_00: When you position yourself low, he'll lift you up.
SPEAKER_00: Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?