Face To Face With The King - Worship That God Likes

Message from Josh Floyd on 12/07/2025

Transcript

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Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holt. Welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.

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So I don't know if you know this, but it's entirely possible to come to a church service and not have a personal encounter with God. And I think it probably happens a lot. It probably happens more than we want it to. It happens in my life, where I'll show up to a meeting and uh not really intentionally encounter the presence and face of Jesus. And I always regret it. But it's kind of like going to a birthday party, right? And you show up and you enjoy the cake and ice cream and you play some of the games and you win some of the games, win some prizes. I don't know, it depends on the birthday party. And then as you're walking out the door, you realize that you never wished happy birthday to the guest of honor. You're like, oh my goodness. I showed up to the invited me to this party to celebrate their birthday, and I never even said happy birthday to them. I don't even know if I saw them. It was such a good party. And I think sometimes church can be like that, where we show up and the music is great and the lighting is great and the decorations are great, and we've got our candles lit for Advent and there's just awesome stuff going on. And then we leave and we head to lunch and we realize oh man, I don't think I even said hello to Jesus. And that's what we're here for, right? Even the Christmas season, it's his birthday party. It's literally about him being born. And so many times we get caught up in the traditions and giving gifts and receiving gifts and what food we're gonna make and all the gatherings that we have planned and the parties that we have planned and what kind of outfits we're gonna wear and what Christmas shows we're gonna watch. And I hope they sing silent night at this, and I hope there's a candlelight at this. And then we get to January 1st and we never even wish Jesus a happy birthday. We never even encountered him and said hello to him. You know, most of us would never do that. We'd we'd bring a gift to somebody's party, we'd write a card, and we'd write even our own personal note. Maybe we'd write in there a special memory that we have with that person, or we'd even bless them in the card. My mom always puts like four scripture verses in her birthday cards that she sends to people, and she fills them with confetti so that when you open them, the confetti falls all over your lap, which is kind of, for some people, not enjoyable. But if you're over 60, I think she tapes the confetti that way. Over 70. Over 70, she'll tape the confetti in the card because she knows that bending over and picking it up off the floor might be a chore. So she's really intentional in the way that she celebrates people's birthdays, and you can ask her, she knows everybody's birthday, she knows when they are on the calendar, and it's like, man, that's how I want to be with Jesus. You know, there's a way that you can behave in your own home that makes somebody feel welcome when they come to visit you. Right? Like you can offer they walk in and you welcome them and you give them a hug. It's so good to see you. Thank you so much for coming. You offer them something to drink, you know, you show them where they can sit, you show them where they can use the restroom if they need to, if they need anything, you know, they you try to make sure their needs are met, that they feel welcome, that they feel like an honored guest. You say, make yourself at home. Mikasa is sukasa. That's how I want to be with Jesus. I want, I want the road church to be a place where the son of man feels welcome. He says, Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere even to rest his head. May we be a place where the son of man can rest his head and feel welcome and honored in our house. Similarly, if it's somebody else's house that you're visiting, you behave a certain way that makes them feel appreciated and honored. You know, you walk in, you take off your shoes, you're attentive to the things that are happening, you're very appreciative, you say thank you and please, and you know, when they give you something to drink, you appreciate it, you say thank you for it. And in the same way, I want to enter God's house in a way that makes him feel honored. I want my presence to bless him. I don't want to show up to church or a prayer meeting or a Christmas gathering to see what I can get out of it. I want to show up as a blessing to Jesus, the King of Kings. Like, what if we began to view our attendance on Sunday that way? I'm here to bless Jesus, to make him feel welcomed, to make him feel honored, to be grateful in my heart for the things that he's done, to adore him in the beauty of his holiness. I'm here to bring an offering in my house and his house, the house of God. So last week um Pastor Joey read Psalm 100. So I like this passage because I think it outlines a really clear pathway into the glory of God for the worship, for the worshiper. You know, I look forward to every gathering of the saints as an opportunity to encounter the presence of God, right? There's the omnipresence of God. He is ever present, he's everywhere, he's omnipresent. But there's a different kind of presence, the manifest presence of God, and I know this is true because Jesus taught about it in Matthew 18. He said, where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in your midst, which infers where there's not two or three gathered in his name, he's not there in their midst in the same way. There is a special, different, manifest presence of God that shows up when we gather together in his name. When we gather together and begin to focus our eyes on him corporately, something shifts in the room and we enter into the most holy place. I love okay, I just said Psalm 100, but actually I didn't put this verse in my notes, but it's just resounding in my heart. So 2 Corinthians 4, chapter 6. I mean verse 6. You guys need to pray for me. You're not praying for me, and you need to. 2 Corinthians 4, chapter 6. Verse 6. I'm already drunk in the Holy Spirit. Okay, verse 6. Chapter 4, verse 6. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. That's just amazing to me. The same God who said, Let there be light, he's still saying, Let there be light, and he's speaking into your heart, and he's corporately speaking into our gatherings. Let there be light, a knowledge, an awareness, a revelation of the knowledge, which that word knowing doesn't mean knowing things about God. It means knowing him personally, encountering him intimately, embracing him, being face to face with him, to know the glory of God in the face of Jesus. He actually created us to encounter his face in a way that we leave with a greater personal encounter-based knowledge of his glory. You know, Romans 3.23, it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That infers that it was our original destination. Right? If sin, if the effect of sin was to cause us to fall short of something, what does the effect of the one man's righteousness cause us to attain? I have more faith in the righteousness of Christ and its power than I do in the power of my own sin. His righteousness is greater. If by the one man's trespass all died, how much more by the one man's righteousness will all live and reign in life? So if all sinned and fell short of the glory of God, that means where we're headed is the glory of God. It's what we are specifically designed for. And we were restored back to his original purpose and intention, which is for us to be with him where he is, to see his glory. Jesus prayed in John 17, Father, I ask that they would be with me where I am to see my glory. He wants us to see him. He wants us to be close to him. When Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake, and it says that the temple curtain, which was about this thick, and it was like gold plated, torn from top to bottom. Do you know what happens when a veil is torn in the middle? What does it become? Curtains. And I think we have this misconception that when Christ died and the veil was torn, now the glory of God, that presence of God, that manifest power, that in the Old Testament, if a priest went in in the wrong way, they died instantly. That same power is still in his presence and glory. And we have this misconception that the veil was torn to let the glory out. The veil wasn't torn to let the glory out, the veil was torn to let you in. So that you could enter in boldly before the throne of grace in your time of need. He wants us to encounter him, but it's based on the measure of our earnest desire. Write Luke 11, 11 through 13. If you had a son who asked you for bread, would you give him a stone? Or if he asked you for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? No, of course not. You being evil know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more does our heavenly father want to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? He desires. He is craving to give us everything that he is. Right? Ephesians 1, he's given us every blessing in heavenly places. 2 Peter 1, he's given us all things pertaining to life and godliness in the knowledge of him. As we know him, we attain all of his perfect precious promises by which we become partakers of the divine nature. That's his intention for our lives. But the same God who wants to give you the Holy Spirit without measure is the same God who in 1 Corinthians 14 1 said, Pursue love yet earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, the pneumaticos. So there's a knitting, there's a connection to his passionate desire to pour out his spirit on all flesh and give us the fullness of who he is, and he's already done it. He tore the curtain so that we would have access to all of it. But it's based on our earnest desire. Earnestly desire. Why would Paul exhort us to earnestly desire the spiritual if we already had everything that we needed? Because there's a balance, there's this relationship, my part and his part. Right? Peter stepped out of the boat, that was his natural act, and Jesus made him float. He took his natural, added his super to it, and it became supernatural, walking on water. By grace, you have been saved through faith. Grace is his part, faith is our part. We reach up and grab it. And in the same way, we have an open door into the most holy place, the manifest presence of God, the glory of God that begins to stir up as we enter in with earnest desire in our hearts. Lord, I'm pursuing love and I'm earnestly desiring everything that you are. I want to know you more. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians was that their eyes would be enlightened to know, to know the hope of his calling, to know the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints, to know the surpassing power which is toward us when we believe. That is his foremost desire, to be with him where he is, to see his glory, so that we might know him like a husband knows a wife. Being one with him. Are you okay? I know I'm yelling a lot. I'm not yelling at you and I'm not angry. I'm just really excited and passionate. And I just want to worship God. I want to love Jesus well. I've got 120 years on this planet to love Jesus well, and then it'll be involuntary. You know, worship in the glory is involuntary. If God's glory just was here all the time, there would be no choice in the matter. Because everything bows in the glory. When Jesus reveals himself like he did on the Mount of Transfiguration, everything bows. Every living thing bows and says, holy. It's involuntary. That's why he doesn't show up. It's like a glorified game of hide and seek. You know, you know the point of hide and seek is to be found, right? It's not actually to I know the whole game is like you lose if you get found, but that's actually you win. Right? Everyone that has little kids that's played hide and seek with them knows that you've gotta hide enough that it's a challenge, but not so good that they can't find you because then they'll freak out. It's like no one enjoys a game of hide and seek that that lasts eight hours. And when I'm up here playing the piano and I'm leading worship, I'm playing hide and seek with the Lord. I'm Lord, which bridge are you gonna hide in today? Where am I gonna find you in this worship service today? Is it in the silence? Maybe it's when the violin plays. And I'm searching, I'm constantly looking in my heart with the eyes of my heart for the taste of his glory so that we can open that door. It's like my hand is on the curtain and I'm looking for the seam, and when I find it, I want to go in. And that's always the intention of our heart as we're leading worship up here. Our intention isn't to be entertaining, our intention isn't to sing songs that you may or may not like or that we may or may not like. We're looking, even when I'm planning the set list, Lord, where are we gonna encounter the face of Jesus this week? How do you want to be worshipped this week? What do you want us to sing this week? I'm not just putting together songs that I like. Sometimes I lead songs on Sundays that I don't like because he likes them. And his opinion is more valuable than mine. But that's our goal. We're playing hide and seek, and you know it says in Proverbs, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it's the glory of kings to search it out. We were actually designed to search for and find him. What does he say? You will find me when you search with all your heart. That's our goal. When we come together, it's an opportunity where two or three are gathered in my name. There I am in their midst. And it's an opportunity for us to encounter the face of Jesus in a fresh way. Where we we come to church and we leave church going, I thought I knew him, but now I know him. And then the next week comes and we goes, I thought I knew him, but now I know him. And we gather together for a prayer meeting, and his face is revealed again. And we say, I thought I knew him, but now I know him. And we grow in progressive knowledge and revelation of who he is. Until we're carriers, we're transformed into the same image from glory to glory. The glory is where you were designed to live and be transformed from the inside out into the same image so that we can represent him. Okay, I better preach my notes. Psalm 100. I'm just gonna read verse four. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. I love the whole psalm. But I I love that section because I think it gives us a context for how we can get into that most holy place. The gates of the Lord are when you go through the gates of the Lord, you enter into the outer courts. When you go through the courts, you enter into the inner courts, and then you pass through the curtain into the most holy place where the glory of God lives. It's a picture of what we can do anywhere, even at the bank, even at Chipotle. We can enter into his gates, and as we enter into his gates, not only we, but our surrounding and the people around us are now in the courts of the king. Where things begin to shift, where the heavenly reality starts to become more real than the earthly reality. Things begin to bow to his supremacy. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. So there's seven Hebrew words that are used for thanksgiving or praise. All of them can mean praise, but they have various different contexts. So I'm going to use these seven words to try to give us some practical ways that we can worship God on a Sunday morning. Okay, I'm one of those practical guys I like for people to show me, just show me the right way to do it. So the Bible shows us the right way to do it. There's hundreds of occurrences of these seven words that can give us a glimpse on how God likes to be worshipped. So the first one that I'm gonna put here is uh yada, which means to extend or throw out the hands in praise, thanksgiving, or confession. So it's the same word to throw something. Yada to throw something. So to throw out your hands in praise. It's not really like a, oh, I thank you, God, for who you are. It's like a how far can I get my fingertips to extend without my shoulders coming out of their sockets? That kind of thanksgiving. And it's the same word thanksgiving and confession. This this word is used for both, because confession and thanksgiving are both focused on someone's deeds. You give thanks to God because of what he has done. You confess something that you have done. So when you're fixed on what he's doing, it's thanksgiving. When you're fixed on what you've done, it's confession. But both are this open, wide, hands open. Lord, you said that that's sin, and I agree with you, that's confession. Lord, what you did was great, that's thanksgiving. Thank you for healing me, that's thanksgiving. Thank you for restoring my family. Thank you for giving me a home to live in. You know, we could thank God all day and never get tired of it. But we're extending our hands, throwing out our hands in gratitude. At the first service, this guy came up to me afterward and he said, Man, I really was convicted to raise my hands in service, but my shoulder's been messed up for like two weeks. So I just said, Hey, keep your hand there. I said, Be healed in the name of Jesus. Real short, simple, commanding prayer. And he put his arm all the way up. God healed him right on the spot. So if that's you and you need your shoulder healed so that you can Yada this morning, just go ahead and take that testimony as a prophetic word. God wants to heal you too, so that you can worship him. God's so cool. He loves to confirm his word with signs and wonders. So this is Psalm 9.1. I will praise Yada you, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will tell of all your marvelous works. So this is showing us that it's an expression of the heart to extend your hands. In order to Yadah with my whole heart, I need to express that physically in how I'm worshiping. You know, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, but also from the abundance of the heart, the body moves in worship. I hate to break it to you. There's seven Hebrew words for praise. None of them mean put your hands in. Your pockets. And I'm not saying that to shame you because God doesn't love you anymore or any less. Yes, he's looking at your heart. But remember that when God told that to Samuel, he was talking about the contrast between your physical appearance and the content of your character. He was saying, Don't judge David based on what he looks like, because I'm looking at his heart. He wasn't talking about the way that you express yourself in worship and praise. He's pretty specific in how he wants us to express ourselves in worship and praise. That's why he has all of this liturgy through the Psalms in the Old Testament on how he wants us to do it. He wants us to raise our hands. He wants us to get down on our face. That's one that we're going to go over later. So I'm just telling you, in order to praise the Lord with your whole heart to Yadah within the Word is to extend your hands. You actually can't Yadah without extending your hands. Now, there's other ways to praise God that don't include extending your hands. So I'm not trying to restrict you or judge you or condemn you. I just want you to consider maybe there's a way God wants me to worship him and I should conform to his preference instead of making him conform to my preference. I don't want to worship God the way I want to worship God. I want to worship God the way he wants to be worshipped, which is usually with your mouth and your body. He wants us to dance before him in an undignified way. He wants us to shout and raise our hands. He wants us to kneel and prostrate ourselves before the Lord. Those are things he wants from us. But if he demanded it from us, it wouldn't be worship. It would be slavery. And he's looking for worship that's rooted in love. You know, even both the Hebrew and the Greek word for worship, the Hebrew word it means to kneel down, to bow low, and to surrender your entire being before him. The Greek word for worship, it means to kiss. So there's an intimate love that needs to be mingled in our worship before God. It's more than me, a worthless worm bowing before an altogether worthy God. It's me, his bride, face to face with him, kissing him. Psalm 2, kiss the son. I know that's weird for us guys sometimes. It's not a romantic kiss. It's the same kiss where it says, Moses was face to face with God. That literally means he was mouth to mouth with God. It's the concept that his words are my delight, and my words are his delight. And my words feed him, and his words feed me face to face with God, with the King. That's the worship that he likes. So, you know, be honest. Worship in the way that's honest for you, that's authentic for you. But I would encourage you to challenge yourself and maybe take a step out of your dignity and your decency. And I think on the other side of your dignity and decency is an encounter with God. I remember when I was in probably fifth or sixth grade, we were going to Woodman Valley Chapel. And back then, like if you were standing, you were really charismatic. And if you were raising your hands, you were like, whoa, that person's really in need of God or something. Like, oh my gosh, they're raising their hands. And I remember one Sunday I was sitting there and I kept having this urge to stand up and raise my hands. And I was terrified because it wasn't normal. Here it's really easy. It's so normal to be loud and crazy and weird because I'm the worship pastor. So it's like that guy's a whack job, so you'll be fine. But I remember sitting there going, Oh, I just really want to stand and raise my hands. And it probably took me like 15 minutes to get up the courage to do it. And I finally stood and raised my hands, and it was like waves of love washed over me. I was like, whoa. Sometimes he's just on the other side of the curtain. And it's just one step away to encounter him, to see him in a new way. Just one step of faith. I encourage you today when we go into worship, wherever you're at, wherever your comfort zone is, just take one step through that curtain and find the one your soul loves. My beloved, my friend. He wants to meet us there in his chamber. This is what we were designed for. To meet him there. And we're transformed according to the measure of our exposure to his presence. So the second Hebrew word is Todah, which comes from Yadah. Judah comes from Yadah as well. Judah means the one who Yadah's. So one of the tribes, you know, when Jehosaphat sent Judah out, and then they did this spontaneous praise and it routed their enemies. Judah means the one who Yadah's. Todah is from Yadah as well, but it's thanksgivering. Thanksgiving offered in faith. And it's given before an answer. So it's thanking him in advance. That's what Todah is. This is what's in Psalm 100, verse 4. Enter into his gates with Todah, thanksgiving. So the inference is you're in a hard spot, and you choose to thank God for what he's about to do, even though he hasn't done it yet. Because based on his track record, you are convinced that he is entirely reliable and he's going to come through again. This is also the thanksgiving in Psalm 26 that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all your wondrous works, telling of them in advance. He healed me then, he's going to heal me now. He healed me then, he's going to heal you now. He healed that guy in the first service, he's going to heal you in the second service. He changed that person's family, he's going to change my family. He set that person free from their addiction, he's going to set me free from addiction. And I thank him in advance. We thank you, God. And it still is with extended hands. Faith-based thanksgiving. It's the precursor of Hebrews 13, a continual sacrifice of praise. So Hebrews exhorts us to continually give him thanks with extended hands in advance of what he's going to do. It's awesome. So cool. 32 occurrences. If you're on the app, I have a whole bunch more in the notes. If you'd like to look at my notes. See, thanksgiving is the fruit of meditating on God's works. Right? When you feed yourself on what God has done, on what he is doing, and on what he's going to do, the natural result is for giving thanks to erupt out of you. And your hands raise and you go, God, I thank you for setting me free. God, I thank you for dying on the cross. God, I thank you for your sacrifice. I thank you for your blessings. I thank you for what you're about to do. When you're feeding yourself on the deeds of God, the works of God, thanksgiving is what happens. Your hands raise and you begin to thank him even for the things he hasn't done yet. And it shifts your perspective from lack to abundance as you take your eyes off of what he isn't doing and put them on what he's done, what he's doing, what he will do, and thanksgiving erupts out of you. That's how Paul and Silas could give thanks to God in a prison. And Pastor Joey preached on that last week. This is how we enter the gates of God's temple. And as we enter his gates, Thanksgiving doesn't just change our mood, it actually changes our location. And now we're in the courts of the Lord. Right where you are, in line at the bank, in line at the restaurant, you start thanking God for what he's done, and the atmosphere starts to change. And you are now in the courts of the Lord. You were standing in U.S. Bank in the lobby. Now U.S. Bank's lobby is the courts of the Lord. Pretty awesome. And the people around you get to go with you because sometimes you're walking through the gate, but sometimes God invites you to be the gate. Right? Psalm 24, lift up your head, O you gates. Be lifted, be flung wide, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may enter in. Sometimes God's asking you to be a gate of thanksgiving that he can walk through and begin to manifest himself. Thanksgiving is the fruit of meditating on his words. The third word in Hebrew for praise is Shabbok. It means to shout or proclaim loudly and clearly. It's a laudatory proclamation, public, enthusiastic praise directed toward the Lord. I love that it even says it's public. Like you can't Shabbok in your bedroom. I guess you could try, but if you if you do it loud enough, then it it is public, even if you are in private. It's also a calming or commending, both the stilling of tumult, tumult, and the verbal approval of something. So it's an authoritative utterance that either elevates or pacifies. Think like Jesus calming the storm. You can shabok into the atmosphere, and things actually shift and change because we live in a voice-activated kingdom, right? God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Jesus said, get up and walk, and he got up and walked. He didn't think it, he said it out loud. So as we shout and declare the works of the Lord and the nature of the Lord, it actually changes the atmosphere and it pacifies the demonic and it elevates the presence and person of Jesus. It's awesome. This is in Psalm 145 One generation shall praise, Shabbat, your words, your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. It's like Revelation 19, 10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So when you declare the works of the Lord, it becomes a prophetic word for those that are hearing. You share what God has done in your life with the person who's never heard the gospel before, and now the gospel becomes the power of salvation for their life. And a prophetic word, this is your destiny, for God to do the same thing for you that he did for me, because his death on the cross was enough for every soul to be saved, if they will receive it. There's 11 current occurrences of that word. So when we thank him for what he's done and declare his mighty acts, it reminds us of who he is. And our natural response to who he is is praise. So praise is the fruit of meditating on God's nature. Thanksgiving is the fruit of meditating on his works, praise is the fruit of meditating on who he is. It's natural, right? Lord, I thank you for healing me. You truly are my healer. I went from Thanksgiving to praise. Lord, I thank you for delivering me. You truly are the deliverer. Thanksgiving to praise. Thanksgiving takes us into the courts through the gates. But now we're stepping from the outer courts to the inner courts with praise. And we can start to see the curtain. And we know behind that is the very face of Jesus, where the light of the knowledge of the glory of God dwells. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. This is the word halal. To boast, rave, shine, celebrate wildly, act clamorously foolish for God. It's the idea of unrestrained praise. This is David dancing in the streets with not much clothing on. Keep your shirts on today. You know? But we should be clamorously foolish in our praise for God. When we think about who He is and what He's done, our natural result should be to make a boast.

unknown 34:40

Right?

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Paul said, I will rather boast in my weaknesses so that he can be shown strong. We want to boast in God. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Psalm 34, My soul shall make its boast in the Lord, and the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Which also tells me that the proud will hear of it and be annoyed. And I think that happens sometimes. Somebody's like, oh, that guy's really loud. I really wish I could focus on my worship song right now, but he's too busy boasting clamorously and being a fool, and you don't realize, oh, you just authenticated his worship. Being looking like a fool actually makes your worship biblical. See, I'm not concerned about my dignity or my decency. I'm much more concerned about him feeling welcome and honored. And if I have to get on my face and lose snot in the carpet in order to be a gate for the king of glory to be glorified and magnified, I'll do that. I'm not afraid to do that. If he wants to hit me with his power right in the middle of this sermon and make me shake and cry on the glow on the floor right in front of you, so that his glory can be manifest in the room, he has permission to do that from me. I will not resist him. And I want to encourage you that when you have a culture of people, that their goal is to make Jesus feel welcome and honored, and they're not so worried about looking good while they do it, we start to see Jesus in a more clear way. And then when you invite people to church, the chances of them encountering him in their own life elevate much more. I want this place to be a place where people walk in and encounter God. Not where they walk in and encounter me. Then we're both disappointed. So the next word is Barak, to kneel and bless the Lord as an act of adoration and humility. David said to the assembly, Now bless the Lord your God. So all the assembly blessed Barak, the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and King. So David said, Everybody, Barak, and they were like, Okay, that's what it means to bless the Lord. In Psalm 103, where it says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, let everything within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord and forget none of his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. That word bless means to kneel down and get your face on the floor before God. It's a way different type of worship than what we're used to. You know, and I know there's chairs there, so sometimes you got to go the old school way and get down on your knees and put your face in the chair. That's okay. If the Holy Spirit leads you to do that, you should do it. But rock, bless the Lord as an act of adoration and humility. Zamar, to make music and sing songs in praise to God. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises, Zamar, to the Lord. It's making music, especially with stringed instruments. So it's biblical to actually play an instrument and sing to the Lord. And we know that because of David, but it's actually a type of praise that God likes, and it occurs 46 times in the Old Testament. So when we thank God for what he's done, it reminds us of who he is. When we praise him for who he is, he begins to manifest himself in those ways. Right? Psalm 22, it says, God is enthroned upon the praises, and that word for praises is the word tehilah. It's our seventh word. It means a spontaneous and unrehearsed song that bubbles up from the inner man. So Tehilah praise with an H, not a Q. Tehilah praise means this song that nobody wrote starts to come out of you. Sometimes it's in your prayer language, sometimes it's in your native tongue. And Paul said, I'm gonna sing in the spirit and in my understanding, so I'm fine with either way. You can sing in the spirit, you can sing in your understanding here on Sunday mornings. That's totally legal. You're allowed to do that. But that is the type of praise that it says Jesus, that the God is enthroned upon. That word enthroned means to inhabit and to be married to. It's a covenant. God says when that spontaneous praise begins to erupt from my people, I show up, and my kingdom gets established in their midst. See, God wants to show up and confirm who he is by showing you who he is. You call him a healer, he shows up and starts healing people. You call him a deliverer, he shows up and starts setting people free. There's a reality of who he is that he wants to manifest, and it's through our Tehila spontaneous praise. It's when we go past the words on the screen and we start singing what's true from our hearts. That's also the praise that routes the enemy. When Jehosaphat sent Judah out in front of the armies, it says they began to tahilah. They began to sing spontaneously an unrehearsed song, and that's when the enemy was confused and started killing each other. There's power in the unrehearsed song, the song of the people. It's my favorite thing on Sunday mornings. When I start singing and I lower the mic and you start singing. And you start singing your own song, and for some of you it's just a joyful noise, and that's totally fine. The louder it is, the more permission it gives for me to sing. Don't be ashamed of the voice that you have. The more you use it, the better it gets. And if somebody gives you a hard time for it, then you just tell them, Josh told me to sing loud. Take it up with him. Okay? Sing loud because his presence manifests in response. So thanksgiving responds to his deeds, praise responds to his nature, but focus responds to his face. Worship responds to his face. His presence. Thanksgiving, his deeds, praise, his nature, worship, his presence, his face, kiss, his face. The word for presence in Hebrew, Panim literally says face, countenance, or favor. It's not just a face like the face of the principal in the principal's office. No, it's a favorable face. And the word for presence in Greek is a face, a person, a presence. Presence in scripture always means face to face. That's our destination. We want to be face to face with the King in His glory, in His presence, encountering who He is in a fresh way for ourselves. Not just hearing about Him, but seeing it for ourselves. That's the worship that God likes. That's our destination. So, you know, John 4, it says that God is looking for worshipers, and the hour is coming and now is that those who worship him will worship him in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to be led by the Spirit in your worship. I do this all the time. If I feel like he's telling me to jump, I jump. If I feel like he's telling me to kneel, I kneel. Maybe that's weird to you for God to instruct you in how he wants you to worship, but isn't that the whole point of the Christian life? To do what he's doing and to say what he's saying. So in my worship, I want to be spirit-led. I want to worship in spirit. And I also want to worship in truth. That means nothing hidden, nothing withheld. Everything's open. Here I am, Lord. Search me and know me. I'm not holding anything back from you. If he confronts me in the place of worship, I repent quickly. Because I want to be so face to face with him. I want to be transformed by an encounter with him in his glory. So we worship in spirit and in truth. If God tells you to kneel today, kneel. Because I want God to know that when he speaks, I jump. I don't wait, I don't delay, I respond immediately. I want him to learn that about me. I want to be that. I'm not always that way. Most of the time, I'm probably not, but that's my goal for my life. I want to be the one that when God speaks, I respond immediately. Without a consideration for my own comfort, my own dignity, my own decency. I'd rather be the person who overreacts to his voice than doesn't react at all.

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Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.