March 16, 2025 • 35 mins
What if everything you thought you knew about worship was just scratching the surface?
The conversation moves beyond typical Sunday morning expressions into the profound territory of what it means to worship God with every fiber of our being. Through personal stories, biblical insights from Mark 12, and practical examples, this episode challenges our limited understanding of worship as merely singing songs on Sunday mornings.
Drawing from ancient Jewish traditions like the Shema prayer and the timeless poetry of the Psalms, we discover that true worship flows from a deep understanding of who God is—the unchanging Creator, Redeemer, and King above all kings. This recognition should transform not just our sanctuary experience but every aspect of our lives.
Perhaps the most compelling takeaway is how authentic worship naturally extends into how we treat others. Jesus purposefully connected loving God and loving neighbors as inseparable commandments. When we genuinely worship God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving our neighbors becomes a natural outflow of that devotion.
Through everyday moments—from hospital rooms to Walmart checkout lines—we see how worship manifests in unexpected places. The powerful image of "As we enter, we worship. As we exit, we serve" encapsulates the complete picture of what Jesus called the greatest commandment.
Ready to expand your understanding of worship beyond Sunday mornings? This episode will challenge you to examine how you're loving God with everything you are and how that love transforms your relationships with everyone around you. Listen now and discover what it truly means to make your entire life an act of worship to the King.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
So let's talk about worship, and I want to go kind
of bigger, broader with thiscategory, because I think a lot
of times when we talk aboutworship, our primary focus is
always almost always Sundaymorning, and it has to do with
some kind of instrument or somekind of song that we're singing.
(00:25):
And so let me just give you alittle bit of background.
Some of you know me and you'veheard this story before.
I didn't grow up in the church.
I just started going to churchwhen I was 15.
Thanks, ryan.
A great friend of mine invitedme to his church and I remember
the first time I went to thechurch I went to New Word of
(00:46):
Life Fellowship, which is overon Lover's Land.
It was the first church that Iever went to and I remember the
first thing when I walked in,they had a pretty cool worship
team.
They had some guy on a keyboard.
There was a lady behind himwith like this huge set of
bongos that wrapped around her.
They had a drummer.
So, set of bongos that wrappedaround her, they had a drummer.
(01:07):
So they had bongos, a drummer,a guitar player, a bass player
and their keyboard player.
And the first Sunday I wasthere, the song they played was
Days of Elijah, and I don't knowif you know that song, but you
probably do.
But that song is like Dottieknows, dottie knows that song.
That song is intense.
I don't know if you've everlike listened to it, but it's
(01:28):
not like a let's just sit hereand fold our hands, it's not.
And so this worship team wasplaying this song and I was just
enthralled, like I was likethis is so cool and the lady on
the bongos was going crazy and Iwas just mesmerized.
Prior to this moment, I hadnever picked up an instrument in
(01:48):
my life, but I found myselffascinated with the music and
there was something about thatmoment that stuck out to me,
that worship and, mind you, I'mnot even a believer yet but
there's just something about thepraise of that moment that
really just kind of it drew mein.
So a couple months go by and Ihad a youth pastor his name was
(02:11):
Mike Deviney and he's puttingtogether a youth worship team.
He's like, hey, you know, weneed someone to play bass, so
you play bass.
I was like never, never touchedan instrument in my life.
He's like all right, I canteach you.
20 years later, still don't.
There was something aboutworship in my life that's always
(02:35):
been important, even before Iwas a believer.
Now, once I've come to theknowledge of Jesus and I
accepted him, it changed evenmore for me.
I think about worship and Ithink about music a lot, because
a lot of times that's how weworship.
I think about some of thedarkest moments in my life.
There's a song called Do itAgain by Elevation Worship that
(03:02):
I played on repeat in thehospital after Danny lost our
first baby.
I remember sitting in thehospital and just letting that
song play again and again andagain and again, because it
reminded me as terrible as thismoment was.
God's going to do it again.
He's going to bless me.
(03:23):
He's going to take care of thissituation.
He's going to continue it again.
He's going to bless me.
He's going to take care of thissituation.
He's going to continue to liftme up.
I think back to that Days ofElijah moment and I remember
that I fell in love with thatsong early on.
I've stood in rooms with peoplewho had ten pieces in their band
(03:44):
.
I've worsh in rooms with peoplewho had 10 pieces in their band
.
I've worshipped in churcheswhere it was acapella only.
I've stood outside in themiddle of the night, with
teenagers at 2 in the morningcrying out to God and
worshipping, with a kid on aguitar who had just learned how
to play.
I've worshipped in the hospitalroom.
(04:06):
I've worshipped in the hospitalroom.
I've worshipped in thesanctuary, I've worshipped at
the foot of beds or the onesthat I loved when I lost them.
Worship is such an integral partof who we are.
And here's the thing what makesworship significant.
(04:27):
It's not the music, it's notthe songs, it's not the lyrics,
it's not even the bridge.
If you guys know anything aboutmusic, the bridge of a song is
that like catchy hook thateveryone sings Like.
Usually, if I like a song, it'sbecause the bridge just kind of
sticks with me.
What makes our worship so uniqueand so powerful is the God we
(04:51):
worship.
He's unwavering, unchanging,unbothered by the world around
us.
When you look up the definitionof worship, worship is to show
great respect, love or devotionto someone or something that is
(05:13):
considered sacred or important.
It can involve acts of praise,rituals or devotion.
When we worship God, we showhim respect, we show him love,
we show him devotion.
When we think of worship, wefocus primarily on the worship
(05:34):
we participate in Sunday morning, but it goes beyond Sunday
morning.
Worship is something thatshould bleed over into our lives
.
We're going to find ourselvesin Mark, chapter 12 today,
verses 28 through 34.
(05:55):
But before I read the text,we're going to set the stage
because I think context isimportant.
So, mark 11, verses 1 through11, jesus this is the triumphal
entry of Jesus into the city ofJerusalem, riding on a donkey.
It's Palm Sunday.
(06:17):
This is the nation of Israelacknowledging Jesus as king.
Okay, mark 11, verses 12through 26,.
Jesus curses a fig tree that'snot producing fruit.
He goes into the temple, flipsover the table and then he has a
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talk shortly after that aboutfaith and how faith can move
mountains.
By the way, the fig tree andthe flipping over of the table
were related to each other.
They kind of spearhead, orsorry, the fig tree story
bookends that, because Jesus isusing the fig tree as an example
to show that what's happeningin the temple is not really
what's supposed to be happening.
(06:58):
It's not producing the kind offruit that it's supposed to be.
Mark 11, 27 through 33, jesusis questioned about where his
power comes from, but he leavesthe Pharisees with questions
they refuse to answer andtherefore he refuses to answer
them.
They ask about his power and heasks them about John the
(07:20):
Baptist and where he came from,and they don't touch it.
So Jesus leaves them kind ofbewildered.
Mark 12, verses 1 through 12,jesus tells the parable of the
tenants and we see the son ofthe vineyard owner being
rejected.
The same way Jesus is about tobe rejected.
So the parable of the vineyardis actually showing what Jesus
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already knows that when the trueking, when the true son, comes,
his rejection is imminent.
Mark 12, verses 12 through 17,.
Jesus says pay your taxes.
Ah man, no one laughed at that.
I thought that was going to bea sorry.
So he has a conversation aboutwhat belongs to Caesar.
(08:02):
He says give to Caesar whatbelongs to Caesar and what God
belongs to God.
Mark 12, verses 18 through 27,.
The Sadducees come and talk tohim about who's going to be
whose spouse in the resurrection.
By the way, they don't evenbelieve.
That group doesn't even believein the resurrection.
So again they're trapping him.
(08:23):
And then we get to Mark,chapter 12, verses 28 through 34
.
It says starting in verse 28,it said One of the teachers of
the law came and heard themdebating, noticing that Jesus
had given them a good answer.
He asked them, of all thecommandments, which is the most
(08:44):
important?
So this teacher comes and he'strying to get I believe he's
trying to get some clarity.
I don't think he's trying tocause a problem necessarily, but
I think he's trying to get someclarity.
So that, of all thecommandments and we've talked
about this, when you go backthere's about 632 commandments
(09:05):
that have been recognized out ofthe Old Testament and the New
Testament.
And so the teacher says out ofall of them, which one matters
the most?
Verse 29,.
So the most important one, jesusanswered, is this Hear O Israel
, the Lord, our God.
The Lord is one.
It says love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all
(09:29):
your soul, with all your mind,with all your strength.
The second is this Love yourneighbor as yourself.
There's no commandment greaterthan this.
Well said teacher.
The man replied can you imaginelike giving Jesus a high five?
Good job, jesus.
You said the right thing.
You're right in saying that Godis one and there's no other but
(09:53):
him.
To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding,
with all your strength, and tolove your neighbor as yourself
is more important than all burntofferings and sacrifices.
When Jesus saw that he hadanswered wisely, he said to him
you are not far from the kingdomof God.
And from then on no one daredask him any more questions.
(10:14):
So if you go, if you knowanything about Judaism, so,
starting in verse 29, so verse29 to about 32 or 31,.
In the Jewish culture it'scalled the Shema.
It's this really importantprayer.
I actually have a friend ofmine who recently invited us
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over.
She practices Judaism.
She invited us over for a SederI've never been to a Seder but
it's like a Passover meal and soI reached out to her and I just
kind of wanted to kind of pickher brain a little bit.
And so the Shema is the mostimportant prayer in Judaism
(10:58):
because it sets the tone.
It sets the tone and it kind offocuses the heart on what is
our purpose, why are we here?
And so it starts.
So Shema, the word itself meanshere in Hebrew, and the prayer
begins with these words ShemaYai Yisrael, adonai Eloheinu,
(11:25):
adonai Echad, which translatesto and if you go back to verse
29, this is essentially whatJesus says.
He says the most important oneto introduce is Hear O Israel,
the Lord, our God, the Lord, isone.
So he starts out thisconversation, he says Hear O God
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, so hear what I'm about to say.
And then he says to hisaudience to love God with
everything you have, and then tolove your neighbor as yourself.
And so this prayer that we findin Judaism is said usually in
the morning and the night beforethey go to bed.
(12:12):
They tend to share it at mealsand they tend to share it
whenever they start off theirservices, and the hope is, and
the prayer is, that they arecalling out to God and saying,
oh, hear us, oh, god and Jesus.
So he brings this into light,right?
So this is an Old Testament.
(12:34):
So the idea of loving your Godwith all heart, soul and mind is
in Deuteronomy.
And then he pulls out ofLeviticus where he talks about
loving your neighbor as yourself.
So these are things that arereally common to the culture,
and the worship of God for themis essential, it's built into
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their life.
You know it's crazy, becauseyou and I go to church on Sunday
.
Church was their existence, thetemple was everything to them.
That's where they socialize,it's where they met, it's where
they built relationships.
They spent so much timeregularly coming in to worship
(13:19):
Regularly, coming in to thetemple.
It was built in who they are.
And so Jesus, when he's talkingabout worship, he says listen,
the most important thing isfirst to love God with all of
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your soul, all of your heart andall of your mind.
You know, I wrestled with thatthis week.
And I think I wrestled with itbecause I think, when we come
across passages like this, theinitial response should be am I
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loving God in the way that I'msupposed to be loving Him?
Am I loving God in the way thatI'm supposed to be loving Him?
Am I worshiping God in the waythat I'm supposed to be
worshiping Him?
I've already read this oneearlier.
Psalm 95, 1-7 says Come, let ussing for the joy of the Lord,
(14:24):
let us shout aloud to the rockof our salvation, let us come
before Him with thanksgiving andextol him with music and song,
for the Lord is the great God,the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths ofthe earth, and the mountain
peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,and his hands formed the dry
land.
(14:44):
Come, let us bow down inworship, let us kneel before the
Lord, our maker, for he is ourGod and we are the people of his
pasture, the flock under hiscare Psalm 100, verses 1 through
4, to shout for joy the Lord,all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness,come before him with joyful
(15:05):
songs.
Know that the Lord is God andit's he who made us and we are
his.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
Enter the gates withthanksgiving and his courts with
praise.
Give thanks to him and praisehis name.
Psalm 145,.
I will exalt you, my God theKing.
(15:26):
I will praise your name foreverand ever.
Every day I will praise you andextol your name forever, my God
the King.
They speak of your glorioussplendor, of your majesty, and I
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will meditate on your wonderfulworks.
They tell of the power of yourawesome works and I will
proclaim your great deeds.
They celebrate your abundantgoodness and joyfully sing of
your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious andcompassionate, slow to anger and
rich in love.
The Lord is good to all.
He has compassion on all.
(16:08):
He has made All your works.
Praise you, lord.
All your works.
Praise you, lord.
Your faithful people extol you.
They tell of the glory of yourkingdom and speak of your might.
And let me tell you, as I readthrough the Psalms, I realized I
don't give God enough.
It was built into their mindsetand I love this song because
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they reflect on the goodness ofGod, because all of their
worship is tied to theirunderstanding of who God is the
creator of the universe, the onewho made us, the one who shows
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compassion and mercy, the God ofgrace, the God who brought us
through the Red Sea, the God whoslayed Goliath, the God that
protected Daniel and Shadrach,meshach and Abednego in the fire
.
That same God is the God westand before and we worship.
That same God is the same Godwho was with me in the room when
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we lost our child.
That same God was with me whenI graduated from school.
That same God is with meeverywhere that I go, because my
worship of him does not dependon me.
My worship of him all dependson who he is.
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I don't come with theexpectation every Sunday morning
.
I don't come.
I shouldn't come to this placethinking what is God going to do
for me today?
I shouldn't come to this placethinking what is God going to do
for me today.
I should come to the throne andsay God, what can I do for you?
That's what it is to worshipsomething, that's what it is to
prioritize something.
That's what it is and Codytalked about this to be
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uncomfortable.
And I'm not just talking aboutmusic on Sunday morning, I'm
talking about everywhere that wego.
You and I should live in such away that it makes us
uncomfortable.
Sometimes, you and I, whenwe're worshiping God, when we
read something in the scripturesthat makes us uncomfortable, we
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should sit with it.
We should learn from it, weshould try to understand what is
God trying to sow us.
We, above all, inside andoutside the church, should be
glorifying God so much.
The world cannot help but takenotice, because our worship of
the God who created us is notdependent on us.
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It's all because of what he did.
Nt Wright says this.
He says the Jewish law beginswith worship, with the love of
God, because if it's true thatwe're made in God's image, we
will find our fullest meaning,our true selves, the more we
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learn to love and worship theone we are designed to reflect.
Made in God's image, we willfind our fullest meaning, our
true selves, the more we learnto love and worship the one we
are designed to reflect.
No half measures heart, soul,mind and strength, that is,
every aspect of human life, isto be poured out gladly in
worship of the one true God.
Whatever we do, we are to dofor him.
If we truly live like that fora single day, god's kingdom
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would have come on earth as itis in heaven.
And this is the point.
Jesus seems to think thatthrough his kingdom work, this
commandment is now within ourreach our reach.
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Listen, it all goes back to howyou and I understand the God of
creation.
It all goes back to who we knowand who we believe that he is.
I, I think sometimes we lack inour worship because we lack an
understanding of God, the Godwho created all of this, the God
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who raises people from the dead, the God who heals people from
sickness.
That's the God you and I serve.
I like this shirt that I have on.
I bought it a couple months agoat a concert.
On the back, in big whiteletters, it says Jesus is King.
Months ago at a concert.
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On the back in big whiteletters, it says Jesus is King.
I like wearing this shirtbecause it starts an interesting
conversation.
I had someone come up to me theother day when I was wearing it
and they're like Jesus, jesusis King.
I'm like yes, there he is.
Why would you say that?
Well, a couple reasons.
One, he died for you, I mean.
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So that kind of establishes himas the one who was willing to
sacrifice everything and a greatking sacrifices, I was like.
And two, at the end of theworld, when it all comes to an
end, the only one who's going tobe standing is him.
No country, no parliament, nopresidency.
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The only one who's going to bestanding at the end of creation
is going to be the one whocreated it.
He said well, that doesn't makehim king.
I'm like if that doesn't makehim king, I don't know what does
.
He's, overall, above all, morepowerful than all.
Will overcome everything.
Every knee will bow.
He's like well, I won't.
I'm like, yes, you will.
He's like I'd like to see that.
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I'm like I hope I see it too.
And listen, I'm not trying tobe finicky or mean, I'm just
saying listen, you don't thinkyou're going to bow to the king
of creation or the king of kings, but when he comes back, you're
not going to be standing there.
I always love when people saythis to me.
When I get to heaven, I'm goingto ask Jesus this?
No, you're not.
You're going to stand in thepresence of God and go hey, glad
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to be here.
You and I are going to worshipfor all eternity.
Do you know what that means?
For the rest of our existencewe're going to stand in the
presence of the one who createdus, giving him praise and
worship every single day,hallelujah.
I hope there's a bass guitarthere.
I hope he lets me play it.
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He probably won't, but that'swhat it is and that's the king
we serve.
The only one who's worth any ofmy worship is the one who made
me not only made me, but diedfor me.
Everything else doesn't matter.
So when I come into thepresence of God, when I
understand wholeheartedly who heis, the only thing, the only
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valid response to understandingwho God is is to worship Him.
Who God is is to worship Him.
He has given me everything thatI need.
He has saved me from my sin.
At the end of my life, he's theonly thing that's going to be
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there.
We've talked about this.
The only thing I can take toheaven with me are the people I
love.
I want them to experience thesame king that I experience.
I think about the earlyapostles, and how many of them
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died just to make sure thekingdom of God and the message
of his word was being spread.
I think about the amount ofpeople throughout history who
missionaries, who have diedgiving their life for the sake
of the gospel.
So when I come into worship onSunday morning and I'm living
out my life for God and I feeluncomfortable, I should stop and
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think.
I haven't resisted to the pointof death, but I pray that if
that's my life, if that's what Ihave to do, that I would be
willing to die for the one whodied for me.
That's worship.
I am sold out entirely and itdoesn't mean I'm perfect, it
doesn't mean I'm always good atit and listen.
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Let's talk about worship in thecontext of Sunday morning.
Some people raise their hands,some people sit down, some
people you know they do a lower.
If you watch Tim Hawkins he'sone of my favorite, he does you
know what I'm going right.
He does like this worship thinghe talks about like and I'm
going to mess it up but like thedifferent types of worship, you
got like the new believer, yougot the person who's been at
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church a little while.
You've got the person whothinks this is just ridiculous.
And you've got the person whoeveryone thinks is crazy, right,
you know, I think about David.
I would like to say personally,as long as you're not worshiping
naked, I think we're going tobe okay, right, but I bring that
up because sometimes we getcaught up in.
Well, I'm not doing this.
Listen, worship is a posture ofyour heart.
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That's where it matters whenyou come to the presence of God.
If I need to raise my hands toworship God, then I'm going to
do it.
If you don't need that, that'sokay, that's you.
But you and I, our heartsshould be the same.
As I stand before the King ofkings, I should give him every
part of me, I should quietmyself in his presence.
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I should worship him with myheart, my soul and my mind and
with all my strength.
I came across this and I wasreading it this week, and it's
by Edwin Searcy and he writesthis and he has a song.
He has a book called Odd toHeaven, rooted in Earth, and
it's a bunch of prayers by a mannamed Walter Brueggemann and he
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writes this.
He says we are people who mustsing you for the sake of our
very lives.
You are a God, who must be sungby us for the sake of your
majesty and honor.
And so we thank you For lyricsthat push us past our reasons,
for melodies that break open ourgivens, for cadences that
locate us home beyond all oursafe place, for tones and tunes
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that open our lives beyondcontrol and our futures beyond
despair.
We thank you for the longparade of mothers and fathers
who have sung you deep and trueAmen, amen.
We will not keep silent everagain.
Amen.
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You and I are supposed to makesuch a noise that the world
around us can't help but notice,because you and I are the only
ones worshiping the king whodeserves it.
But, as I said in the beginning, let me step away from just
Sunday morning, because how youand I worship in our everyday
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life is just as important.
I was in Walmart this week.
I went to Walmart on Mondaybecause I had to buy a trash can
, because I have a cat outsidethat's not my cat, that won't
stand in my trash can, and so Ibuy a trash can with a heavy lid
, and I hate that cat.
I don't know who it is, I'venever seen it before, but I know
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it's there and so I went toWalmart and I bought a trash can
and I bought some eye dropsbecause I was having like an
itchy eye.
That's irrelevant, you don'teven know that, but you do.
So I went to Walmart and I ranto Walmart and I was walking up
to the front of the store andthe checkout lanes on this side
of Walmart were closed.
It's like 10 o'clock andthere's like a guy standing
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there like opening it up and I'mlike I don't know when you guys
do this, but I feel like youshould have done this an hour
ago.
So I'm already kind offrustrated because I could walk
to the other side of the storeit's not that far, because those
ones you know you see acrossthe aisle are the green lights
and I could go over there andjust self-check out.
I said no, I don't want to dothat because my car is on this
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end and I'm dragging a trash canthrough Walmart and people
already think I'm weird.
Some lady's like you want acart.
I'm like no, it's got wheels.
So I find this line standingthere and I step into this line
and there's this young ladysitting at the register and
there's another, an older woman,who's standing at the end near
the bag area and they're bothtalking to each other.
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And so I'm standing there andthey're not looking at me.
And they're not looking at meand I'm like you guys see me,
right.
I mean, I'm really hard to miss, just in general.
So I'm standing there with thistrash can in hand and I'm
getting kind of annoyed becauseI'm thinking, man, I could go do
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self-checkout.
And so they're talking and allof a sudden I startout, and so
they're talking and all of asudden I start paying attention
to what they're saying.
And so the young lady, theregister, she's talking to this
lady bagging groceries and shesays, yeah, she's like my youth
pastor said that if youunderstand the Old Testament, it
really helps you understand theNew.
And I'm like, hey, this Now I'minterested in your conversation
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.
By the way, shame on me for myresponse.
Initially, because there's amoment happening here that God
has ordained that, for whateverreason, he's allowed me to
participate in it.
Am I uncomfortable because Ihave to wait?
Yes, but do I think it's moreimportant about what's happened?
(29:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely so.
She's talking to this younglady and they're talking about
different things and she'sasking about the Bible and
they're kind of going back andforth and the whole time I'm
just enthralled because I'm justlike this is neat and I really
want to interject because I havea really hard time, not right?
And so I'm just like, let metalk, like I hope you ask a
(29:57):
really big theological question,because we're going to sit down
and we're going to talk aboutthis.
Right, and of course I didn't.
But I sat there and I watchedthis happen and she turned to me
and she checked me out and Iwas walking out you know the
older lady.
I was like this is really cooland she's like, oh yeah, her and
I are in a Bible study togetherand she's just accepted Christ,
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so we're trying to help herfigure it out.
And I was like that's worship.
That's worship in its fullestextent.
Here they are in the middle ofthe store, in the middle of
Walmart, having a discussionabout Jesus and how it could
change someone's life.
And shame on me.
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Shame on me for thinking thatme scanning out was more
important than that conversation.
That's worship.
Worship goes beyond Sundaymorning.
It has to, because when I comein here and I'm reminded of how
good God is, I can't go outthere and be quiet about it.
I shouldn't.
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I worship Him with my life,with everything that I am.
So that's my challenge to youthis week.
What does it mean to reallyworship God in spirit?
To worship God with my heart,my soul, my mind, my strength,
(31:24):
not in spirit and truth.
We're going to get there.
Cody's going to talk about thatin a couple weeks.
Don't want to get ahead ofmyself, but what does it mean to
really worship God the way thatI'm supposed to and it's
interesting, by the way, and Ilove how this is connected when
you learn to worship God for whohe is, loving your neighbor
comes naturally.
There's a reason.
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Jesus connects them and wedidn't talk about that enough.
We will.
We will next week.
But when you learn tounderstand who God is and the
worship that you offer him, howyou live your life outside of
here and how you treat thepeople around you matters,
because you realize that allthose people were created by the
same God who created you, andhow you love them is a
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reflection of how you love him.
That should be convicting.
That should sting a little bit,because if I truly love God
with all my heart, soul, mindand strength, then loving my
neighbor should not be thatdifficult.
So I'll leave you with this.
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There was a church I was at acouple years ago and I liked how
their sanctuary was set up.
There's only a couple doors inand there weren't like any exit
doors out the back I mean, I'msure there were, for the sake of
fire stuff but above the doorof their sanctuary, as you enter
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into their worship time, aboveevery door there was a sign that
says as we enter, we worship.
I was like man, that's cool.
So I go to the service and I'mthere and we go through the
service.
As I'm walking out the door Irealize there's another sign on
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the other side of the door thatsays as we exit, we serve.
I was like if that doesn't sumup the greatest commandment as
we enter, we worship.
As we go into the world, weserve.
That's our act of worship.
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That's what compels us to standin line at Walmart and share a
conversation with two ladiesabout faith.
That's what compels us to gointo the world and love our
neighbors as ourselves.
That's what compels us to gointo the world and be able to
say Jesus is king and mean it.
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Into the world and be able tosay Jesus is king and mean it.
Are you really worshiping Godwith your heart, soul, mind and
all your strength?
And I think that that is aquestion that you and I have to
ask ourselves every time weenter into this place and every
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time we leave it Bye.
Let's pray.
So let's talk about worship, and I want to go kind
of bigger, broader with thiscategory, because I think a lot
of times when we talk aboutworship, our primary focus is
always almost always Sundaymorning, and it has to do with
some kind of instrument or somekind of song that we're singing.
(00:25):
And so let me just give you alittle bit of background.
Some of you know me and you'veheard this story before.
I didn't grow up in the church.
I just started going to churchwhen I was 15.
Thanks, ryan.
A great friend of mine invitedme to his church and I remember
the first time I went to thechurch I went to New Word of
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Life Fellowship, which is overon Lover's Land.
It was the first church that Iever went to and I remember the
first thing when I walked in,they had a pretty cool worship
team.
They had some guy on a keyboard.
There was a lady behind himwith like this huge set of
bongos that wrapped around her.
They had a drummer.
So, set of bongos that wrappedaround her, they had a drummer.
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So they had bongos, a drummer,a guitar player, a bass player
and their keyboard player.
And the first Sunday I wasthere, the song they played was
Days of Elijah, and I don't knowif you know that song, but you
probably do.
But that song is like Dottieknows, dottie knows that song.
That song is intense.
I don't know if you've everlike listened to it, but it's
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not like a let's just sit hereand fold our hands, it's not.
And so this worship team wasplaying this song and I was just
enthralled, like I was likethis is so cool and the lady on
the bongos was going crazy and Iwas just mesmerized.
Prior to this moment, I hadnever picked up an instrument in
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my life, but I found myselffascinated with the music and
there was something about thatmoment that stuck out to me,
that worship and, mind you, I'mnot even a believer yet but
there's just something about thepraise of that moment that
really just kind of it drew mein.
So a couple months go by and Ihad a youth pastor his name was
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Mike Deviney and he's puttingtogether a youth worship team.
He's like, hey, you know, weneed someone to play bass, so
you play bass.
I was like never, never touchedan instrument in my life.
He's like all right, I canteach you.
20 years later, still don't.
There was something aboutworship in my life that's always
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been important, even before Iwas a believer.
Now, once I've come to theknowledge of Jesus and I
accepted him, it changed evenmore for me.
I think about worship and Ithink about music a lot, because
a lot of times that's how weworship.
I think about some of thedarkest moments in my life.
There's a song called Do itAgain by Elevation Worship that
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I played on repeat in thehospital after Danny lost our
first baby.
I remember sitting in thehospital and just letting that
song play again and again andagain and again, because it
reminded me as terrible as thismoment was.
God's going to do it again.
He's going to bless me.
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He's going to take care of thissituation.
He's going to continue it again.
He's going to bless me.
He's going to take care of thissituation.
He's going to continue to liftme up.
I think back to that Days ofElijah moment and I remember
that I fell in love with thatsong early on.
I've stood in rooms with peoplewho had ten pieces in their band
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.
I've worsh in rooms with peoplewho had 10 pieces in their band
.
I've worshipped in churcheswhere it was acapella only.
I've stood outside in themiddle of the night, with
teenagers at 2 in the morningcrying out to God and
worshipping, with a kid on aguitar who had just learned how
to play.
I've worshipped in the hospitalroom.
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I've worshipped in the hospitalroom.
I've worshipped in thesanctuary, I've worshipped at
the foot of beds or the onesthat I loved when I lost them.
Worship is such an integral partof who we are.
And here's the thing what makesworship significant.
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It's not the music, it's notthe songs, it's not the lyrics,
it's not even the bridge.
If you guys know anything aboutmusic, the bridge of a song is
that like catchy hook thateveryone sings Like.
Usually, if I like a song, it'sbecause the bridge just kind of
sticks with me.
What makes our worship so uniqueand so powerful is the God we
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worship.
He's unwavering, unchanging,unbothered by the world around
us.
When you look up the definitionof worship, worship is to show
great respect, love or devotionto someone or something that is
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considered sacred or important.
It can involve acts of praise,rituals or devotion.
When we worship God, we showhim respect, we show him love,
we show him devotion.
When we think of worship, wefocus primarily on the worship
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we participate in Sunday morning, but it goes beyond Sunday
morning.
Worship is something thatshould bleed over into our lives
.
We're going to find ourselvesin Mark, chapter 12 today,
verses 28 through 34.
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But before I read the text,we're going to set the stage
because I think context isimportant.
So, mark 11, verses 1 through11, jesus this is the triumphal
entry of Jesus into the city ofJerusalem, riding on a donkey.
It's Palm Sunday.
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This is the nation of Israelacknowledging Jesus as king.
Okay, mark 11, verses 12through 26,.
Jesus curses a fig tree that'snot producing fruit.
He goes into the temple, flipsover the table and then he has a
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talk shortly after that aboutfaith and how faith can move
mountains.
By the way, the fig tree andthe flipping over of the table
were related to each other.
They kind of spearhead, orsorry, the fig tree story
bookends that, because Jesus isusing the fig tree as an example
to show that what's happeningin the temple is not really
what's supposed to be happening.
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It's not producing the kind offruit that it's supposed to be.
Mark 11, 27 through 33, jesusis questioned about where his
power comes from, but he leavesthe Pharisees with questions
they refuse to answer andtherefore he refuses to answer
them.
They ask about his power and heasks them about John the
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Baptist and where he came from,and they don't touch it.
So Jesus leaves them kind ofbewildered.
Mark 12, verses 1 through 12,jesus tells the parable of the
tenants and we see the son ofthe vineyard owner being
rejected.
The same way Jesus is about tobe rejected.
So the parable of the vineyardis actually showing what Jesus
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already knows that when the trueking, when the true son, comes,
his rejection is imminent.
Mark 12, verses 12 through 17,.
Jesus says pay your taxes.
Ah man, no one laughed at that.
I thought that was going to bea sorry.
So he has a conversation aboutwhat belongs to Caesar.
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He says give to Caesar whatbelongs to Caesar and what God
belongs to God.
Mark 12, verses 18 through 27,.
The Sadducees come and talk tohim about who's going to be
whose spouse in the resurrection.
By the way, they don't evenbelieve.
That group doesn't even believein the resurrection.
So again they're trapping him.
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And then we get to Mark,chapter 12, verses 28 through 34
.
It says starting in verse 28,it said One of the teachers of
the law came and heard themdebating, noticing that Jesus
had given them a good answer.
He asked them, of all thecommandments, which is the most
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important?
So this teacher comes and he'strying to get I believe he's
trying to get some clarity.
I don't think he's trying tocause a problem necessarily, but
I think he's trying to get someclarity.
So that, of all thecommandments and we've talked
about this, when you go backthere's about 632 commandments
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that have been recognized out ofthe Old Testament and the New
Testament.
And so the teacher says out ofall of them, which one matters
the most?
Verse 29,.
So the most important one, jesusanswered, is this Hear O Israel
, the Lord, our God.
The Lord is one.
It says love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all
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your soul, with all your mind,with all your strength.
The second is this Love yourneighbor as yourself.
There's no commandment greaterthan this.
Well said teacher.
The man replied can you imaginelike giving Jesus a high five?
Good job, jesus.
You said the right thing.
You're right in saying that Godis one and there's no other but
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him.
To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding,
with all your strength, and tolove your neighbor as yourself
is more important than all burntofferings and sacrifices.
When Jesus saw that he hadanswered wisely, he said to him
you are not far from the kingdomof God.
And from then on no one daredask him any more questions.
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So if you go, if you knowanything about Judaism, so,
starting in verse 29, so verse29 to about 32 or 31,.
In the Jewish culture it'scalled the Shema.
It's this really importantprayer.
I actually have a friend ofmine who recently invited us
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over.
She practices Judaism.
She invited us over for a SederI've never been to a Seder but
it's like a Passover meal and soI reached out to her and I just
kind of wanted to kind of pickher brain a little bit.
And so the Shema is the mostimportant prayer in Judaism
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because it sets the tone.
It sets the tone and it kind offocuses the heart on what is
our purpose, why are we here?
And so it starts.
So Shema, the word itself meanshere in Hebrew, and the prayer
begins with these words ShemaYai Yisrael, adonai Eloheinu,
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adonai Echad, which translatesto and if you go back to verse
29, this is essentially whatJesus says.
He says the most important oneto introduce is Hear O Israel,
the Lord, our God, the Lord, isone.
So he starts out thisconversation, he says Hear O God
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, so hear what I'm about to say.
And then he says to hisaudience to love God with
everything you have, and then tolove your neighbor as yourself.
And so this prayer that we findin Judaism is said usually in
the morning and the night beforethey go to bed.
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They tend to share it at mealsand they tend to share it
whenever they start off theirservices, and the hope is, and
the prayer is, that they arecalling out to God and saying,
oh, hear us, oh, god and Jesus.
So he brings this into light,right?
So this is an Old Testament.
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So the idea of loving your Godwith all heart, soul and mind is
in Deuteronomy.
And then he pulls out ofLeviticus where he talks about
loving your neighbor as yourself.
So these are things that arereally common to the culture,
and the worship of God for themis essential, it's built into
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their life.
You know it's crazy, becauseyou and I go to church on Sunday
.
Church was their existence, thetemple was everything to them.
That's where they socialize,it's where they met, it's where
they built relationships.
They spent so much timeregularly coming in to worship
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Regularly, coming in to thetemple.
It was built in who they are.
And so Jesus, when he's talkingabout worship, he says listen,
the most important thing isfirst to love God with all of
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your soul, all of your heart andall of your mind.
You know, I wrestled with thatthis week.
And I think I wrestled with itbecause I think, when we come
across passages like this, theinitial response should be am I
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loving God in the way that I'msupposed to be loving Him?
Am I loving God in the way thatI'm supposed to be loving Him?
Am I worshiping God in the waythat I'm supposed to be
worshiping Him?
I've already read this oneearlier.
Psalm 95, 1-7 says Come, let ussing for the joy of the Lord,
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let us shout aloud to the rockof our salvation, let us come
before Him with thanksgiving andextol him with music and song,
for the Lord is the great God,the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths ofthe earth, and the mountain
peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,and his hands formed the dry
land.
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Come, let us bow down inworship, let us kneel before the
Lord, our maker, for he is ourGod and we are the people of his
pasture, the flock under hiscare Psalm 100, verses 1 through
4, to shout for joy the Lord,all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness,come before him with joyful
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songs.
Know that the Lord is God andit's he who made us and we are
his.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
Enter the gates withthanksgiving and his courts with
praise.
Give thanks to him and praisehis name.
Psalm 145,.
I will exalt you, my God theKing.
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I will praise your name foreverand ever.
Every day I will praise you andextol your name forever, my God
the King.
They speak of your glorioussplendor, of your majesty, and I
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will meditate on your wonderfulworks.
They tell of the power of yourawesome works and I will
proclaim your great deeds.
They celebrate your abundantgoodness and joyfully sing of
your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious andcompassionate, slow to anger and
rich in love.
The Lord is good to all.
He has compassion on all.
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He has made All your works.
Praise you, lord.
All your works.
Praise you, lord.
Your faithful people extol you.
They tell of the glory of yourkingdom and speak of your might.
And let me tell you, as I readthrough the Psalms, I realized I
don't give God enough.
It was built into their mindsetand I love this song because
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they reflect on the goodness ofGod, because all of their
worship is tied to theirunderstanding of who God is the
creator of the universe, the onewho made us, the one who shows
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compassion and mercy, the God ofgrace, the God who brought us
through the Red Sea, the God whoslayed Goliath, the God that
protected Daniel and Shadrach,meshach and Abednego in the fire
.
That same God is the God westand before and we worship.
That same God is the same Godwho was with me in the room when
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we lost our child.
That same God was with me whenI graduated from school.
That same God is with meeverywhere that I go, because my
worship of him does not dependon me.
My worship of him all dependson who he is.
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I don't come with theexpectation every Sunday morning
.
I don't come.
I shouldn't come to this placethinking what is God going to do
for me today?
I shouldn't come to this placethinking what is God going to do
for me today.
I should come to the throne andsay God, what can I do for you?
That's what it is to worshipsomething, that's what it is to
prioritize something.
That's what it is and Codytalked about this to be
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uncomfortable.
And I'm not just talking aboutmusic on Sunday morning, I'm
talking about everywhere that wego.
You and I should live in such away that it makes us
uncomfortable.
Sometimes, you and I, whenwe're worshiping God, when we
read something in the scripturesthat makes us uncomfortable, we
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should sit with it.
We should learn from it, weshould try to understand what is
God trying to sow us.
We, above all, inside andoutside the church, should be
glorifying God so much.
The world cannot help but takenotice, because our worship of
the God who created us is notdependent on us.
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It's all because of what he did.
Nt Wright says this.
He says the Jewish law beginswith worship, with the love of
God, because if it's true thatwe're made in God's image, we
will find our fullest meaning,our true selves, the more we
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learn to love and worship theone we are designed to reflect.
Made in God's image, we willfind our fullest meaning, our
true selves, the more we learnto love and worship the one we
are designed to reflect.
No half measures heart, soul,mind and strength, that is,
every aspect of human life, isto be poured out gladly in
worship of the one true God.
Whatever we do, we are to dofor him.
If we truly live like that fora single day, god's kingdom
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would have come on earth as itis in heaven.
And this is the point.
Jesus seems to think thatthrough his kingdom work, this
commandment is now within ourreach our reach.
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Listen, it all goes back to howyou and I understand the God of
creation.
It all goes back to who we knowand who we believe that he is.
I, I think sometimes we lack inour worship because we lack an
understanding of God, the Godwho created all of this, the God
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who raises people from the dead, the God who heals people from
sickness.
That's the God you and I serve.
I like this shirt that I have on.
I bought it a couple months agoat a concert.
On the back, in big whiteletters, it says Jesus is King.
Months ago at a concert.
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On the back in big whiteletters, it says Jesus is King.
I like wearing this shirtbecause it starts an interesting
conversation.
I had someone come up to me theother day when I was wearing it
and they're like Jesus, jesusis King.
I'm like yes, there he is.
Why would you say that?
Well, a couple reasons.
One, he died for you, I mean.
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So that kind of establishes himas the one who was willing to
sacrifice everything and a greatking sacrifices, I was like.
And two, at the end of theworld, when it all comes to an
end, the only one who's going tobe standing is him.
No country, no parliament, nopresidency.
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The only one who's going to bestanding at the end of creation
is going to be the one whocreated it.
He said well, that doesn't makehim king.
I'm like if that doesn't makehim king, I don't know what does
.
He's, overall, above all, morepowerful than all.
Will overcome everything.
Every knee will bow.
He's like well, I won't.
I'm like, yes, you will.
He's like I'd like to see that.
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I'm like I hope I see it too.
And listen, I'm not trying tobe finicky or mean, I'm just
saying listen, you don't thinkyou're going to bow to the king
of creation or the king of kings, but when he comes back, you're
not going to be standing there.
I always love when people saythis to me.
When I get to heaven, I'm goingto ask Jesus this?
No, you're not.
You're going to stand in thepresence of God and go hey, glad
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to be here.
You and I are going to worshipfor all eternity.
Do you know what that means?
For the rest of our existencewe're going to stand in the
presence of the one who createdus, giving him praise and
worship every single day,hallelujah.
I hope there's a bass guitarthere.
I hope he lets me play it.
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He probably won't, but that'swhat it is and that's the king
we serve.
The only one who's worth any ofmy worship is the one who made
me not only made me, but diedfor me.
Everything else doesn't matter.
So when I come into thepresence of God, when I
understand wholeheartedly who heis, the only thing, the only
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valid response to understandingwho God is is to worship Him.
Who God is is to worship Him.
He has given me everything thatI need.
He has saved me from my sin.
At the end of my life, he's theonly thing that's going to be
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there.
We've talked about this.
The only thing I can take toheaven with me are the people I
love.
I want them to experience thesame king that I experience.
I think about the earlyapostles, and how many of them
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died just to make sure thekingdom of God and the message
of his word was being spread.
I think about the amount ofpeople throughout history who
missionaries, who have diedgiving their life for the sake
of the gospel.
So when I come into worship onSunday morning and I'm living
out my life for God and I feeluncomfortable, I should stop and
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think.
I haven't resisted to the pointof death, but I pray that if
that's my life, if that's what Ihave to do, that I would be
willing to die for the one whodied for me.
That's worship.
I am sold out entirely and itdoesn't mean I'm perfect, it
doesn't mean I'm always good atit and listen.
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Let's talk about worship in thecontext of Sunday morning.
Some people raise their hands,some people sit down, some
people you know they do a lower.
If you watch Tim Hawkins he'sone of my favorite, he does you
know what I'm going right.
He does like this worship thinghe talks about like and I'm
going to mess it up but like thedifferent types of worship, you
got like the new believer, yougot the person who's been at
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church a little while.
You've got the person whothinks this is just ridiculous.
And you've got the person whoeveryone thinks is crazy, right,
you know, I think about David.
I would like to say personally,as long as you're not worshiping
naked, I think we're going tobe okay, right, but I bring that
up because sometimes we getcaught up in.
Well, I'm not doing this.
Listen, worship is a posture ofyour heart.
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That's where it matters whenyou come to the presence of God.
If I need to raise my hands toworship God, then I'm going to
do it.
If you don't need that, that'sokay, that's you.
But you and I, our heartsshould be the same.
As I stand before the King ofkings, I should give him every
part of me, I should quietmyself in his presence.
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I should worship him with myheart, my soul and my mind and
with all my strength.
I came across this and I wasreading it this week, and it's
by Edwin Searcy and he writesthis and he has a song.
He has a book called Odd toHeaven, rooted in Earth, and
it's a bunch of prayers by a mannamed Walter Brueggemann and he
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writes this.
He says we are people who mustsing you for the sake of our
very lives.
You are a God, who must be sungby us for the sake of your
majesty and honor.
And so we thank you For lyricsthat push us past our reasons,
for melodies that break open ourgivens, for cadences that
locate us home beyond all oursafe place, for tones and tunes
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that open our lives beyondcontrol and our futures beyond
despair.
We thank you for the longparade of mothers and fathers
who have sung you deep and trueAmen, amen.
We will not keep silent everagain.
Amen.
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You and I are supposed to makesuch a noise that the world
around us can't help but notice,because you and I are the only
ones worshiping the king whodeserves it.
But, as I said in the beginning, let me step away from just
Sunday morning, because how youand I worship in our everyday
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life is just as important.
I was in Walmart this week.
I went to Walmart on Mondaybecause I had to buy a trash can
, because I have a cat outsidethat's not my cat, that won't
stand in my trash can, and so Ibuy a trash can with a heavy lid
, and I hate that cat.
I don't know who it is, I'venever seen it before, but I know
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it's there and so I went toWalmart and I bought a trash can
and I bought some eye dropsbecause I was having like an
itchy eye.
That's irrelevant, you don'teven know that, but you do.
So I went to Walmart and I ranto Walmart and I was walking up
to the front of the store andthe checkout lanes on this side
of Walmart were closed.
It's like 10 o'clock andthere's like a guy standing
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there like opening it up and I'mlike I don't know when you guys
do this, but I feel like youshould have done this an hour
ago.
So I'm already kind offrustrated because I could walk
to the other side of the storeit's not that far, because those
ones you know you see acrossthe aisle are the green lights
and I could go over there andjust self-check out.
I said no, I don't want to dothat because my car is on this
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end and I'm dragging a trash canthrough Walmart and people
already think I'm weird.
Some lady's like you want acart.
I'm like no, it's got wheels.
So I find this line standingthere and I step into this line
and there's this young ladysitting at the register and
there's another, an older woman,who's standing at the end near
the bag area and they're bothtalking to each other.
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And so I'm standing there andthey're not looking at me.
And they're not looking at meand I'm like you guys see me,
right.
I mean, I'm really hard to miss, just in general.
So I'm standing there with thistrash can in hand and I'm
getting kind of annoyed becauseI'm thinking, man, I could go do
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self-checkout.
And so they're talking and allof a sudden I startout, and so
they're talking and all of asudden I start paying attention
to what they're saying.
And so the young lady, theregister, she's talking to this
lady bagging groceries and shesays, yeah, she's like my youth
pastor said that if youunderstand the Old Testament, it
really helps you understand theNew.
And I'm like, hey, this Now I'minterested in your conversation
(29:15):
.
By the way, shame on me for myresponse.
Initially, because there's amoment happening here that God
has ordained that, for whateverreason, he's allowed me to
participate in it.
Am I uncomfortable because Ihave to wait?
Yes, but do I think it's moreimportant about what's happened?
(29:36):
Oh, yeah, absolutely so.
She's talking to this younglady and they're talking about
different things and she'sasking about the Bible and
they're kind of going back andforth and the whole time I'm
just enthralled because I'm justlike this is neat and I really
want to interject because I havea really hard time, not right?
And so I'm just like, let metalk, like I hope you ask a
(29:57):
really big theological question,because we're going to sit down
and we're going to talk aboutthis.
Right, and of course I didn't.
But I sat there and I watchedthis happen and she turned to me
and she checked me out and Iwas walking out you know the
older lady.
I was like this is really cooland she's like, oh yeah, her and
I are in a Bible study togetherand she's just accepted Christ,
(30:17):
so we're trying to help herfigure it out.
And I was like that's worship.
That's worship in its fullestextent.
Here they are in the middle ofthe store, in the middle of
Walmart, having a discussionabout Jesus and how it could
change someone's life.
And shame on me.
(30:39):
Shame on me for thinking thatme scanning out was more
important than that conversation.
That's worship.
Worship goes beyond Sundaymorning.
It has to, because when I comein here and I'm reminded of how
good God is, I can't go outthere and be quiet about it.
I shouldn't.
(31:01):
I worship Him with my life,with everything that I am.
So that's my challenge to youthis week.
What does it mean to reallyworship God in spirit?
To worship God with my heart,my soul, my mind, my strength,
(31:24):
not in spirit and truth.
We're going to get there.
Cody's going to talk about thatin a couple weeks.
Don't want to get ahead ofmyself, but what does it mean to
really worship God the way thatI'm supposed to and it's
interesting, by the way, and Ilove how this is connected when
you learn to worship God for whohe is, loving your neighbor
comes naturally.
There's a reason.
(31:46):
Jesus connects them and wedidn't talk about that enough.
We will.
We will next week.
But when you learn tounderstand who God is and the
worship that you offer him, howyou live your life outside of
here and how you treat thepeople around you matters,
because you realize that allthose people were created by the
same God who created you, andhow you love them is a
(32:07):
reflection of how you love him.
That should be convicting.
That should sting a little bit,because if I truly love God
with all my heart, soul, mindand strength, then loving my
neighbor should not be thatdifficult.
So I'll leave you with this.
(32:31):
There was a church I was at acouple years ago and I liked how
their sanctuary was set up.
There's only a couple doors inand there weren't like any exit
doors out the back I mean, I'msure there were, for the sake of
fire stuff but above the doorof their sanctuary, as you enter
(32:52):
into their worship time, aboveevery door there was a sign that
says as we enter, we worship.
I was like man, that's cool.
So I go to the service and I'mthere and we go through the
service.
As I'm walking out the door Irealize there's another sign on
(33:14):
the other side of the door thatsays as we exit, we serve.
I was like if that doesn't sumup the greatest commandment as
we enter, we worship.
As we go into the world, weserve.
That's our act of worship.
(33:35):
That's what compels us to standin line at Walmart and share a
conversation with two ladiesabout faith.
That's what compels us to gointo the world and love our
neighbors as ourselves.
That's what compels us to gointo the world and be able to
say Jesus is king and mean it.
(33:57):
Into the world and be able tosay Jesus is king and mean it.
Are you really worshiping Godwith your heart, soul, mind and
all your strength?
And I think that that is aquestion that you and I have to
ask ourselves every time weenter into this place and every
(34:19):
time we leave it Bye.
Let's pray.
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