Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Hosts Pastors' Lee and Jim.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
True Worship: From Surrender to Victory
What does it mean to truly worship? In this soul-stirring conversation with special guest Frankie from CFO Church, we unpack the transformative power of authentic worship and why it remains so misunderstood, even among believers.
Worship represents a profound paradox in our spiritual journey. While our culture demands control and self-sufficiency, genuine worship requires complete surrender—a vulnerable letting go that feels counterintuitive yet creates our deepest connection with God. For Frankie, this surrender has become the pathway to unexpected peace: "When I lay down before Him and praise Him, in that surrender, I find this beautiful peace."
We explore why worship matters to God not because He needs validation, but because it's our rightful response to His worthiness. When we choose to worship, especially amid challenges or distractions, we demonstrate faith that transcends circumstances. As Frankie beautifully articulates, "When you praise Him and it doesn't make sense, when you praise Him and you feel down with life hitting you...He inhabits the praise and begins to get into that room. Man, everything changes."
The conversation delves into common barriers that prevent wholehearted worship—fear of others' opinions, dwelling on the past, and hardened hearts—while offering practical insights on overcoming these obstacles. We examine the spiritual warfare dimension of worship, highlighting how the enemy specifically targets our praise because it was originally his position in heaven.
Perhaps most powerfully, we unpack the victory that follows praise through the biblical account in 2 Chronicles 20, where worship preceded battle and brought supernatural deliverance. This timeless principle reminds us that our greatest battles are won first through surrender and praise.
Whether you're a seasoned worshiper or someone curious about what drives Christians to raise their hands and lift their voices, this episode invites you into a deeper understanding of worship that extends far beyond Sunday mornings. Connect with us and discover how authentic worship transforms not just our church experience, but our entire lives.
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week with your hosts, pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now.
Speaker 2:Hey, good morning or good afternoon, depending upon when you're tuning in. We just want to say thank you for listening to our podcast Beyond Sunday with Pastor Lee and Pastor Jim. We got a special, special episode coming to you right now. We got a good brother and friend in the Lord from CFO Church at the table with us right now. His name is Frankie. Frankie, how you doing, brother? I'm blessed, amen, amen, and we're blessed to have you in studio, pastor Jim, good morning, how are you, sir man?
Speaker 1:I'm blessed. That was funny because it was like hey, how you doing. He said I'm blessed and then he just steps back from the mic.
Speaker 2:Amen, hey, could it be any better answer than that? Right there, I am blessed. I am blessed. So we got a special episode coming to you today. As I've already mentioned, we've got Brother Frankie in-house, and today we're going to be talking about worship.
Speaker 2:And this is something that's so important to me because, prior to walking with Christ, you really don't understand worship. Matter of fact, some people think Christians who worship are just crazy. Right, oh, it's a cult, you know. Like, why are they raising their hands? Why are they up there down on their knees? Why is someone laid prostrate face to the floor? Like, what is all that about? What is the need to sing to somebody that you can't see or don't even know exists? Right, so, pre-christ, I could see where people would be thinking that, visitors coming into church just wondering.
Speaker 2:But there has to be something that takes place, right, a switch has to flip when we become, as what Jesus says, born again. And when we become born again, there should be a desire birthed on the inside of us, given by the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God living in us, the Spirit of the living God, where we begin to be obedient to this call to worship. You know, I think a lot of Christians are not obedient to the call to worship because they remember how uncomfortable they were about worship prior to being saved Amen, right Prior to being born again. So that's what this episode is all about. We want to hopefully encourage the listeners who are saved and walking with Christ but maybe not yet diving into this beautiful relationship of worship with King Jesus. And then we want to also encourage those that already are worshiping to say, hey, you're hitting a nail on the head, keep doing it, keep going, keep growing in your worship, because it just continues to get better. And then, hopefully, there's some people that are listening to this episode of this podcast that are not yet saved and they're like what are you crazy Christians doing? You know, and hopefully we can bring some peace to the table and say, hey, everything's all right, calm down. You know the world's not coming to an end just because God's people go into the house and worship. You know what I mean. It's a beautiful thing taking place, so we're just going to jump right into the deep end of it.
Speaker 2:Brother Frankie and Pastor Jim and I just want to ask this question to you, brother Frankie, and just to let the listeners know the reason we have you on here is because, pastor Jim and I appreciate your heart for worship. You know, we appreciate the fact that you're unrestricted, you're unrestrained. We appreciate the fact that you know we can hear you when you worship and we know it's not to bring attention to you and that's how you know that someone's doing it for the right reason, right when they're not trying to make people look at me, but you know they're truly praising God, authentic. It is authentic worship, absolutely, absolutely. And to me and I know we'll touch on this today, but that's part of worshiping in spirit and truth, right when we're pointing to the Father and we're not trying to draw attention to self. So that's why we got Brother Frankie on here. He is a worshiper at heart and I love that and it attracts me to the brother. So question number one, just right into the deep end, brother Frankie, what is worship to you, my brother? Wow?
Speaker 3:Well, worship to me is an all-out surrender, amen, which is foreign to me because we're taught growing up from our parents and in school and through sports we're taught how to fight. Yeah, we're taught how to dig in, dig into the trenches and keep grinding, keep going, you know, but when it comes to the Lord it's all about surrender. So, walking faithfully with him for about three years now, it's a new process to me, like coming up to the altar and getting down on your knees and laying prostrate before him. It's just a whole new realm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because the fears I still have, fears in me that reside from the past, I still have doubt in my mind. But coming forward, and when I lay down before him and praise him, doubt in my mind but coming forward, and when I lay down before him and praise him, in that surrender, I find this beautiful peace, this welcoming peace of saying lay it all down and that's what I know I need to do, but with King Jesus I get to do that, I get to lay it down. So, and then, along with that, is total obedience to the Spirit, not partial obedience, because partial obedience is total disobedience. Right, that's good, and that's good and that's the place I find myself at right now. It's a beautiful place that I honestly thought I would never be at.
Speaker 2:That's such a good point, Like I don't know that I've ever looked at it like that, but I totally agree with that, wholeheartedly, 100%. The fact that we are raised up being taught that we've got to have control of everything but true worship is true surrender.
Speaker 1:I think it's that posture of surrender that actually gives us connection. When you fully surrender, there is your connection to the Lord.
Speaker 2:And I think that's why I could be so foreign to people that don't understand what worship is. We're not taught to let go of everything. We're not taught to surrender and be vulnerable. We're not taught to just let go and just let God do right. So even Christians that may have been saved for a little while, that still aren't understanding worship, what it is, the power in it, why we're called to do it, because you're right, they're still kind of living off of these old world feelings of man. I still have to hold on to something I've got to hold on to myself.
Speaker 3:And if I could add one more thing, like for me, the Lord has blessed me with a beautiful way of being vulnerable that I oftentimes like. The world teaches that men should not be like that. Men should be alpha. Nothing breaks you, you know, Keep it all in. But for me, I got this vulnerability to me and I'm beginning to see that it's a gift from God, especially in men, because when you expose yourself, my prayer is God, expose my weaknesses and as I do that around other men of the faith they see that it's okay to be vulnerable as well. And then you got this beautiful place that leads to worship. It leads to worship.
Speaker 1:Amen, it's okay to be vulnerable as well. And then you got this beautiful place that leads to worship. Yeah, it leads to worship, amen. It's hard to have intimacy if you're not first vulnerable. Amen, yeah, right, because if you're a rock solid wall, nothing can get in or out. How are you going to have a relationship?
Speaker 2:And that's the same for God. If we're not vulnerable, even like in a human relationship, if we're not vulnerable, then we're just going through motions. Right, we're just going through the motions. But you're exactly right, man, that vulnerability is such a huge key in worship.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. So what worship is to you is surrender for connection. I love that. That's good. Well, what about? Why is it important to worship God?
Speaker 3:I believe it's because God is such a loving God, but he's also the creator of all things. So what could be more important to the creator than for His creation to give Him the worship that is rightly due to Him? But we also have that free will aspect, so he's not making us worship Him. We have the choice to him, but we also have that free will aspect, so he's not making us worship him. We have the choice to choose and there's so much freedom in choice. But when we willfully choose our faithful father and to pursue him, even when it doesn't make sense, even when our natural minds are trying to resurrect, even when this flesh that's tethered to the world is telling us to go the opposite way, god is still there, saying like in His creation, like it's all around you, like.
Speaker 3:Look at the trees blooming and blossoming. Look at the animals, like thirsting for Him. Look at the birds that never stop singing. I don't know when the last time you've been outside, like if you would just close your eyes. It don't matter what time of day the birds are singing, and if they can do that, why can't we? And that's where I'm at. So that's why I believe it's important to God is because when our praises go up to him, it's a beautiful instance to him.
Speaker 2:It so is, bro. It reminds me of the scripture that talks about if the people don't cry out, the rocks will. Yeah, I ain't gonna have no rock doing my job. It don't matter if the people are doing it or not, god's still going to get it somehow, some way. Why? Because he's worthy of it. Right, and man, you make a great point Like I don't want something or someone else doing my job for God. You know, I'm called to worship, I'm called to give Him praise, and I don't want to fall short in that, and I don't think it's about appeasing God either.
Speaker 1:I think it's about a response. A worship should be a response to what all God has provided for us, not just something that the Bible says that we should do. No, it is a response to the love and to the creation and to everything that he does for us. He's the source of everything, and so the Bible teaches us that we should ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due His name. That's what we read in Psalm 29. It says worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, and I think that when we worship God, it reflects His glory and it deepens our relationship with Him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, as knowing that you're a worshiper at heart and really we all should be, you know we all should be worship warriors. You know we're called to worship the Lord. But let me ask you this why is worship important to Frankie Brown?
Speaker 3:Well, jim made a great point that it's a response. And to me, as he's saying, that I realize why I'm unashamed to worship so freely now. Um, because it's my response, is my understanding now of his word and the revelation but not just the revelation of his word that he's, uh, revealing to me, but it's the realization that his word is truth. And that's why I'm starting to praise, because he's telling me a different narrative than I've told myself my whole life and even the world's told me. Yeah, that's right, but it's so important to me to worship because when I stand among the assembly of gathered people in the house of God, when I worship like that, I like to believe that it's showing the God is worthy to be worshiped.
Speaker 3:And like what is this? What is this man? Why is this man got his hands up in the air? Why is he shouting Like? What is he shouting about? And to me, that's just the greatest thing that I could ever do is to honor the Lord in his house, but not only in his house, but beyond Sunday. Amen, amen. You like that, I like it, I do like that.
Speaker 2:I like how you put that plug in there, brother. That sounds familiar, yes, Doesn't worship.
Speaker 1:You know, worship is meant to be not about us. Yeah, worship is meant to be all about God. That's right. But what I find is, when I'm in quiet and I'm just in His presence, what happens is and I love how God does this I'm focused solely on Him. But what happens is, worship will end up centering me on God's truth and His presence, so that when I am feeling overwhelmed and when I go to worship because a lot of times, people and you've heard this before, man I just got too much going on in my life I don't feel like worshiping Well, it's in that moment that you need to go, find yourself in the presence of the Lord, forget everything that you got going on, and then what you'll find is that in his presence, he centers you, and his truth and his presence that's what's going to take all of that stuff away from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we have found the feeling within us that says I don't feel like worshiping, we have lost the truth that God is worthy of worship all the time Right, and we've made it all of a sudden when I feel like I don't want to worship because I'm tired or it's late, or it's early or I got a lot going on. When we feel like we don't want to worship, we've all of a sudden made it about us and not about God. And worship is not about us, it's about God. And notice that when we make it about us, we're not in spirit and truth. When we make it about us, we're not focusing on the Father. When we make it about us, oftentimes we're not even really doing it. We're not even really truly worshiping.
Speaker 3:Isn't that? The most authentic worship, though, is when you're tired, when you got these things pressing in on your mind that are telling you you should be more concerned about what you're going to cook for supper when you get home, but in that moment, like in that moment to worship, to me that's the most authentic worship you can have. When you choose to press on that's right In the inconvenient moments, in the inconvenience of life, and press on that's so good.
Speaker 1:The Bible teaches us that worship renews our strength. Yeah, so when you're struggling and you're weak, why would you not go to worship Amen To get your strength renewed? Yeah, and so you know. Speaking of that is another question we have here is what do we benefit from worshiping God? And I think that kind of segues really well into that, because I know our strength is renewed. But what are some other things, frankie, that you benefit from worshiping God?
Speaker 3:Well, I have Psalm 103 here before me. I like to read it Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Let's do that.
Speaker 3:God's Word to me better describes this than I can from a human perspective. It says this is the word of the Lord, psalms 103, starting with verse one my soul, bless the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy name. My soul, bless the Lord and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit and he crowns you with faithful love and compassion, and he satisfies you with good things. Your youth is renewed like the eagle. And I'll stop right there, because it can go on and on, and on.
Speaker 3:But, last night in the house of the Lord at the recharge service, as we were worshiping, I felt this presence of the Lord that overwhelmed me. It was the first time in my life that I felt this overwhelm, that my mind wanted to shut down because I couldn't, I couldn't grasp.
Speaker 3:I couldn't grasp it because I don't have that glorified body just yet. But I was beginning to feel this crown on my head and I'm like Lord, what is this? What is this crown that I feel? And it's right here in verse 4.
Speaker 3:He crowns you with faithful love and compassion and for the first time ever, I reached up and I like to do like faithful acts in my mind, that like when I'm meditating on something, it brings me to peace, as if I'm doing it unto the Lord. So last night I reached up to the top of my head and I took that crown and I cast it at his yeah, and then, out of nowhere, like five seconds later, the crown come back. I could feel it like like it's being crowned on my head. I take it off and cast it again. Yeah, and when I'm, when I'm trying to tell you guys, is that when he places his crown on your head and his faithful love and compassion, you can't cast that off. Yeah, you can try, you can. You can run back to your past, you can run back to the doubt, you can listen to the lies of the enemy, but when he puts that crown on you, who's going to take it off?
Speaker 2:So good, bro.
Speaker 2:So many times, while I'm preaching, or even just when I'm just having a moment with the Lord in private, so many times I feel that type of feeling. It's like this warm burning ring that just sits on the top of my head and, you're right, it would be almost like a crown coming down just sitting there. But it's this warmth that just comes and rests man, and I know that. I know that it is the anointing of God that is just resting upon my life and I want to encourage the listeners in that, just like you had just mentioned, it's when we're in the presence, it's when we're involved in relationship that that tends to happen.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying it happens every time, that's not what I'm saying, but I love those moments that we get when we choose to be vulnerable, surrender to the King and let God do what only God can do. That passage is so beautiful because, man, we gain everything by worshiping the Father, amen. What do you think, since we're talking about worship and what we get from it, and that God is worthy of it, and that it is a practice, it is a discipline I guess is a better word. It is a discipline that we should be doing? What do you think hinders people from worshiping God within the church house today?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's a combination of three things. Number one the fear of influence. So that could be like the spiritual temp of circles around you, including like your family circle, your work circle, and I know that you just preached on on that a couple sundays ago, talking about spiritual temperature, that we're most often times will conform to the spiritual temp of the room. Yeah, so I think like the sphere of influence is one. Number two, I would say living in the past, because choosing to not remain present, if you don't, if you don't remain present, you cannot see what he's doing presently in your life. And oftentimes you're looking back in the past and it's gone. So your focus and vision isn't even on him. And I've heard it said once before where your focus goes, grows. But if you're more focused away from him than where he is, because he is the, he's the future. I mean, he's the past, present and future. But if you, if you, if you choose to live in the past and that's a choice, yeah, and I've done that most of my life.
Speaker 3:And then I think the third thing is an undiagnosed hardened heart, which I have suffered from for many years. So when you put those three things together, the hardened heart won't let you. You have no desire to praise God. You have every desire to point your finger at the hymn and say, hey, you're the reason for this, when you don't even realize that the only reason your body hasn't come apart, your molecules haven't come apart, the only reason you still have breath in your lungs, is because of him. Yeah, I think these three things right here really hinder people from worshiping God.
Speaker 2:That's so good man. So the quote that you just said, I'm going to quote you on it where your focus goes, grows. That's powerful. We just take a moment and just kind of soak in that water for a minute.
Speaker 3:I don't really understand it until I start meditating on that, but it's so true because you can see it manifest in your life, Like yeah that's powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's really good man that's really good.
Speaker 1:Why do you feel like worship is not as important as it should be? I mean, we kind of discussed a second ago why people may be hindered from it, but so maybe it's the same thing, like, maybe that's just one of the things People don't think it's as important as it should be, and maybe that speaks to maybe we don't really understand worship the way we should.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't believe we do. I don't believe we allot ourselves the time to properly meditate on these things, on what worship truly is. But the number one thing I believe that Christians don't take it so seriously or they don't find it important is they don't understand that the Lord inhabits our praises. Yeah, that's right. Scripture tells us that. Scripture tells us that in Psalm 22.3. Yeah, and when you really understand this I just got to speak this out because I get fired up about this when you begin to realize like, that's why y'all are going to see me praising in the church, You're going to see me praising wherever I'm at. I'm going to be aiming to praise him.
Speaker 2:True that. Look a little side note here, personal as well. I've played pickleball with you a couple of times now outside in the community and, Brother Frankie, you bring your praise music and you turn it up and can I just say it's contagious. You know, it absolutely is contagious to be around an opportunity where there is a brother or a sister in Christ that is unashamed to worship God, no matter where they are. So I didn't mean to interrupt you there, but it is a contagious thing, amen.
Speaker 3:Thank you for testifying to that. But I want to say this to the listeners and anybody that has a doubt about it or a questioning like why am I not worshiping in spirit and truth? And I want you to understand this when the Lord inhabits your praises, you got to begin to understand that as he inhabits those praises, it brings him into the present circumstance or situation that you're facing. It means he's coming to life. You're making him manifest into your situation, and when he shows up on the scene, that's when things change. When he shows up on the scene, things begin to look different. When he shows up on the scene, things begin to look different.
Speaker 3:When he shows up on the scene, life takes place over death, and no longer does this situation seem unimaginable, no longer does this situation seem like there's no way out, no resolve. But he is the resolve. And when you praise him, when you praise him and it don't make sense, when you praise him and you feel down, you got life hitting you, a storm comes in and he inhabits the praise and he begins to get into that room. Man, everything changes. Like you talk about, the room matters, but who is in the room matters too, and if Jesus Christ is in the room, man, that's the room I want to be in, absolutely, brother.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and doesn't that speak to the—that goes right back to the intimacy. I think culture sometimes especially now when you see the YouTube videos and all the worship that's coming out now, these worship videos I think culture pushes worship towards a performance, and it's so. Not a performance. Worship praise, it's not performance. It's this intimate relationship, it's this thing that we do that honors. It's honor from our lips to the Lord. It's not a performance.
Speaker 2:No, it's not because a lot of these videos are coming out to be attractive, but really to a worshiper at heart, I'm just going to say it's unattractive, because that's not what worship is and it is a performance is a lot of what we see, unfortunately, nowadays, which kind of just segues into this question. You know, how does the enemy or what does the enemy do to try to keep God's people from true worship?
Speaker 1:Well, to that point, minimize it, water it down, wash it up with things that aren't really of the Lord.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah absolutely Amen.
Speaker 1:What do you think, Frankie?
Speaker 3:We know who the enemy is. He's the father of all lies, yeah, but it's his job to get back to the heart, and I believe that we need to be guardians of our garden. And what I mean by that is our garden, is our heart and mind. The Bible talks about it in Mark 4. You got the parable of the sower. It talks about the position of the heart. You got four different type of souls.
Speaker 3:So it's the enemy's job to get back to your heart. He's trying to get back to the root. He's trying to get back to creating bitterness and division, because he knows if he can do that, he can get to your heart, and where your heart really is is is the Lord, you know. So he does this in many ways, but one of the tricky ways he does it cause he, he's a master at his craft. I'm not trying to give him more glory than he deserves, but he has no power over us. But he'll plant those seeds of doubt in our hearts and minds. He mimics everything the Lord does. So the Lord tells you what you think about will grow in you, and that's seeds that are being planted.
Speaker 3:So the enemy is always planting seeds, but we're supposed to put the supernatural filter in our hearts and minds. That's the Word of God. You're supposed to take every thought captive. His Word tells us to do that and when you don't, that thing slips past the supernatural filter and it begins to fester and grow. And you'll quickly begin to realize when it's taking root, because your mouth will start speaking things that you know you ought not to be speaking. But we don't really have that revelation in our minds that when the Scriptures tells us that there's power of life and death in the tongue you know and that we can speak our own calamity into our own life, we don't realize that. As believers we don't think we have that kind of power and authority, but his word tells us that we do.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I want to give you guys something to consider. Psalm 150, verse 6 says let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Again, that's Psalm 150, verse 6. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So to me, everything means everything, which includes everyone.
Speaker 2:And when we come into God's house on Sunday morning or we're coming into the Father's house in a midweek service and there's a corporate call to worship that is given, many things can try to compete for our worship. You know we're talking about like what does the enemy do or what is he using to stop people from worshiping? Many things can try to compete for our worship. Many different distractions can rise up, even in the house of the Lord, if we're not careful to try to hinder us from worshiping the Father in spirit and truth, from thoughts about our morning waking up, coming to church God forbid, it was a rough morning getting children together. Or a spouse is arguing with the other spouse in the vehicle on the way to church, so there's an argument in the car taking place. Maybe they're going to be thinking about rather than worshiping. They're thinking about what's going to happen after the service, or where are we going to go to eat, or maybe the temperature in the room is too hot or it's too cold, right, the noise level of the music is too loud, or maybe the song that's being played is not their favorite right? Maybe there's some children in a row, two rows up for you, or over to the left or to the right, or three rows back or just behind you, or maybe even in your row that's just acting up right, and they're being used to distract you. So distractions can be everywhere.
Speaker 2:But John 4, 24, jesus says that God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. So when I worship brothers, when I worship in spirit and truth, I'm choosing to lock in. I'm making a conscientious effort to lock in. I'm determined that nothing's going to get in the way of me worshiping God, and so I'm focused and I'm tuned in to what I'm actually singing to God. It's more than just words coming out of my heart, but I'm thinking about what I'm singing and I'm also thinking about how the truth is. I'm singing this right to the Father, amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think all those distractions you just talked about can be lumped into what you said, frankie, as well. There's an enemy and his whole goal is to distract us and take us away from relationship with the Father, and so all of those things that are happening can be lumped into this spiritual warfare. And you know, the Bible teaches us how we can combat spiritual warfare, how we can be victorious over that warfare, is through worship. Worship leads to victory in so many different of the Old Testament stories. So I would like to encourage anybody who might be struggling during their worship with this attack from the enemy Use worship and wield worship sort of as spiritual warfare against the enemy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Psalm 28, 7 says this the enemy. Absolutely, psalm 28, 7 says this the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts and I am helped. My heart exalts and with my song I give thanks to him. So Psalm 28, verse 7 starts off basically complimenting what you just said, pastor Jim, is a compliment to it. You know, the Lord is my strength and my shield, you know. But it ends with I'm going to give God the song unto him and it's going to be through a heart of thanks and with my song I give thanks to God.
Speaker 2:So worship really is an opportunity to give thanks to God, but it's also an opportunity to do what he created us to do, right, he created us to worship. So when I step into church I come prepared to worship. You know, like man, when I wake up and it's church day, I know I'm focused, that this is the day that I'm coming into the house to corporately worship. You know, when it's not a church day, I'm worshiping at the house or I'm worshiping in the vehicle, I'm doing my thing.
Speaker 1:But so it's a little different when it's individual worship, but I'm going into the house prepared to worship. It reminds me of that song. This is how I fight my battles. Yeah, oh bro.
Speaker 2:And it really is a gift, right, the fact that we've got an opportunity to worship the Lord. Can I just straight up say it is a gift that God puts air in our lungs, gives us bodies to get to the church, in a place to be at and worship without persecution. He gives us an opportunity to worship him and it just blows my mind how we can have mature Christians, air quotes around that, mature Christians that just choose not to worship. You know, they just choose not to worship. But I think that the reason they choose not to worship is basically some, if not all, of what we've already covered so far in this episode, Something just came flooding into my mind.
Speaker 3:I got to share it with you guys and the listeners. The reason the enemy distracts us not only in our everyday life, because he's there, he tries to be there, but the reason he truly tries to distract us in the corporate worship and setting is because he's the old spiritual worship leader in heaven. Think about that. That was his main job as the lead cherubim in there was to lead the worship service in heaven. So when we praise, we're praising God doing his job. That was meant for him. We're doing it for him now and so he's going to try to distract us any way he can we become the worship leaders.
Speaker 3:We become the worship leaders, right, right, and he's so jealous of that. Yeah, he can't stand that Can't stand it. So it's time for us to praise even more. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so good we're doing what he should have been doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he should have been doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great point. I was studying the Word this morning and come across 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. And let me just kind of fill this in and I'm going to let you guys talk about it. I'm interested to hear what y'all think.
Speaker 2:2 Chronicles, chapter 20, we got the Moabites and the Ammonites and there's some Munites and they come against Judah and Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat is told that there's a great multitude coming against them and in the 18th and the 19th verse this is what it says. Second Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 18 and 19. Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head, with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord, and the Levites of the Kohathites and the Korahites stood up down before the Lord worshiping the Lord, and the Levites of the Kohathites and the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. All right, so here we have the enemy. Let me just kind of set the table. Here we have the enemy coming to town and rather than call it quits, rather than cower in fear, the people come together and they worship God. Now can I just say we all need to try that one on for size. There's a problem coming. It's out there, no doubt. But I'm not going to focus on that right now. I'm going to worship God because he's worthy of praise at all times in my life, not just when things are going right.
Speaker 2:And here's what I want to get you guys' take on, because in 2nd Chronicles, 20, verses 20 through 23,. This is what it follows up with. And they rose early in the morning, remember, knowing that the enemy is there. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, jehoshaphat stood and said hear me, judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in what God is saying.
Speaker 2:All right, those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire as they went before the army and say give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. And when they begin to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, moab and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, so that they were routed, for the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. So I'd like to just say this, and I'm going to get out of the way and let y'all take it Worship makes your enemy flee. What you guys think about that, they put the worshipers before the warriors. That's powerful stuff, worship leads to victory.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I have 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, 21, and 22, in my notes. Look at God work and right next to it I wrote worship leads to victory.
Speaker 2:Praise the Lord, amen. That's so good, bro. I love that that's so good.
Speaker 3:I love the fact that in scripture it said that they rose early. Oftentimes we're not willing to get up. I've been feeling the Lord tell me, get up sooner. Yeah, prepare Me too. Prepare, and do it by praising me, because that was the army, right? The army, it said the worship leaders were in front of the people that were actually there to fight physically. That's right. So the army really was those who were praising the Lord fearlessly. They did all the fighting that needed to be done.
Speaker 2:Bro, it was such a beautiful thing to read and just consider how they had to worship before there was a battle, you know. They had to worship and really they didn't even really have to go out there and attack these people. They did it to themselves, you know. So the battle was already won, the victory is already had in this thing called worship.
Speaker 3:So what they were doing in essence, then, is they were putting the spiritual in front of the physical. And how many times in our life do we always we'll do it backwards, right? Yeah, that's right, we'll put the physical in front of the spiritual, but they did the spiritual in front of the physical and they did all the fighting for it.
Speaker 1:I think that that shows a level of faith and where your faith is. And so oftentimes, when we put our physical in front of the spiritual, it's because we don't truly understand the power of the spiritual, the power that we have in the Holy Spirit living and residing inside of us. Remember, Jesus said that we're going to do greater things than even him. Why? Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. Amen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's right. A couple weeks ago I mentioned at church about the power in worship, the power in music, and I brought to example just something that the Spirit was showing me with King Saul and how, when King Saul had been disobedient and God had removed the anointing and his presence off of King Saul's life, how God allowed a spirit to come upon Saul. That was evil, and you know Saul was tortured with it. Saul, that was evil, and you know Saul was tortured with it, and it was punishment for all that Saul had done and his disobedience. And the only thing that caused that spirit to leave was when David would come in and play worship. You know so. You just think about the power and the victory that comes through worship.
Speaker 2:No other music, no other music do we see or do we read about or do we know about, has the power and the authority to make demons flee. You know so. To me, that's just another reason I don't want to miss an opportunity of worship, because there's power in it. You know that even demons have to flee. David wasn't in there casting out demons. He just went in there worshiping with the worshiper's heart. He truly had a heart to worship the Father. And when real worship gets up in the room. The enemies got to get up out of there. Amen.
Speaker 3:So I'd like to tell just speak to the listeners, and then myself and Brother Lee and Jim both that Esther 4.14 says, brother Lee and Jim, both that Esther 4.14 says, for if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And I'm here to tell everybody, including myself, that's listening, that has ears to listen, that we are here for such a time as this to praise the Lord. We're here for a time such as this to worship Him and we ain't gonna let nobody else do it for us. And it's our time.
Speaker 3:That's why we're here in the present, that's why we're here in history, and it's His story. We're here to tell His story in history about who Jesus Christ is, what he's done, what he's going to do and what's already finished. And we're born for such a time as this. It's time that we praise. It's time that we praise with everything we got. Oh, praise the Lord, my soul, everything. It's time to do it.
Speaker 1:Amen, that's so good, and we ain't got to wait for a Sunday morning worship service or recharge service.
Speaker 3:It's beyond Sunday, bro.
Speaker 1:It's beyond Sunday, so it's every single day of your life, every single moment of your life. We should be letting all of our actions be worship unto the Lord. It's not just when music is playing, it's not just when you put a CD on, it's our entire lives should be in surrender. That heart of that posture that we talked about in the very beginning of the podcast, that posture of surrender and obedience to all things Christ, that is a form of worship in and of itself. So everything that we do, everything that we say, everything that we think it should all be unto the Lord, as if we were worshiping 24-7.
Speaker 2:I think that today we have given the listeners a great call to worship and, whether it's in the house or out of the house, wherever you find yourself, when there's a call to worship, we have to be obedient to do what is going to please and honor the Father.
Speaker 2:So let's pray. Father, I'm grateful for this opportunity that you've given us today to come into this house, into this studio, and to talk about the importance of worship, why it's important to you that we were created to do it. What benefits does it have for us? You know we've talked about a plethora of things today on this topic of worship and I pray, in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ, that it has answered some questions for some people. I pray that it has given people peace and comfort on the issue of worship, lord, and I pray, most of all, that it encourages everyone to begin to take worship more seriously and to have a hunger and a desire to want to worship you, because you're worthy of it at all times. And we ask all this in the mighty name and the cleansing, powerful blood of Jesus Christ and everybody, my friends, said together amen and amen. Thank you so much for listening. We look forward to seeing you next week on Beyond.
Speaker 1:Sunday God bless. Hey, frankie, I just want to say thank you for being in the house today. Thank you for participating and giving such good word and good wisdom. I really want to thank you for being here, brother. Amen, amen, god bless y'all. I'll see you next time.
