How to Connect with God through Adoration | Jasmine Weiler | Mercy Culture Church

All right, if you want my notes, text notes to 59090. I think we say this every week, but I got a lot of notes. And so we're gonna just go and we're gonna have a good time. This reminds me of when we had services during COVID. Was anybody here back then during that time? Raise your hand if you were here during that time. And it was basically like nobody was here, but just a few of us like this. And what marked me about that season was the way the Lord filled the room. It was just such a different, sweet, distinct presence of God that would come into the room. And I'm believing he's gonna do that in the room and on the live stream as you are at your homes this morning. But let's go to the main text. The main text for this morning is Mark 12, verses 41 through 44. And it says, Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which makes a penny. And he called his disciples to him, and he said, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

This morning, I came to tell you that you can connect with God through adoration. The title of today's message is Connecting With God Through Adoration. Will you pray with me? Lord, we love you. We thank you for your sweet presence already in the room this morning. And we just say, Lord, we don't make room for you. You can have this whole room. You can have every single room that's represented on the live stream right now. Every bedroom, every living room, every kitchen, every car, wherever every person is, Lord, we say you can have the whole room. Come and get your glory. We just say no spirit, but your spirit, but the Holy Spirit is welcome in this place. Lord, I pray for your supernatural clarity in this room. I pray that you give me your words, that you would speak through me this morning, that even as I preach this message, I pray that you would deliver your word, your revelatory word that every person needs, the fresh bread that can only come from you to every single person listening this morning, Lord. Would you teach us how to encounter you through adoration, Lord? And so we say, speak, Lord, your servants are listening. In Jesus' name, amen.

We've been stewarding a prophetic word this year that this is a year of encounters and visitations, that this is an Exodus 3-5 year, a year of holy ground. This is where you choose your daily encounter and God chooses your holy visitation. And right now, we're in the middle of a Connect With God series. This is where we get to share all the different ways that we believe you can connect with God. There's only one way to God and it's through Jesus, but in Jesus, there are many ways to connect with God. And we believe that when you learn how you best connect with God, then you spiritually grow, your relationship with God grows. If you try to connect with God the way that I connect with God, it may be a little difficult for you, but you have a unique way that God has given you to connect with him. And we want you to learn how to find that way. We want you to connect with him every day of your life. And so if you haven't heard the previous sermons that have been preached already, I wanna encourage you to go back and watch the other sermons in the series. So far, we just got started, so you're not too far behind if you haven't heard them yet, but go watch the rest of the series. But today, we're focusing in specifically on connecting with God through adoration.

And I want you to just text adoration to 59090 if you want resources beyond this message this morning on how to connect with God through adoration. We even have a seven-day devotional that we've prepared for you for this week on how you can connect with God and grow in connecting with God through adoration. But let's just jump in. A simplified definition of connecting with God through adoration is ministering to God's heart through worship. When you connect with God through adoration, melodies and songs usher you deeper into the Lord's presence. Now, if you are in this room right now or even watching online and you know you connect with God through adoration, that's one of the main ways you connect with God, just raise your hand. Raise your hand, yeah, be happy. Most of you probably need to text auditions to 59090. But if you raise your hand, you probably are the reason there are views on the Encounters podcast on YouTube. Like, you're probably the reason. Your most used apps are probably YouTube and Spotify, and I would guess you probably have premium on both because you hate commercials, amen? You know what I'm talking about? You probably get slightly irritated

every time worship ends on a Sunday. Like, not like full irritation, but like just a little like, we could've went a little longer. Like, you probably have that inside of you. You can probably tell me what moment 001 of Mercy Culture worship is. Yeah, see, see, I knew it. Some of you, and then you probably hang out with Pastor Danny a lot in your house. He's probably constantly on your screen singing Adonai in some way, shape, or form, right? Raise your hand if you struggle to connect with God through adoration. Don't be scared, it's okay, just say it. Hold your head up high, it's okay. You're gonna learn, we're gonna learn how to do it today. We're gonna grow in it together today. But what I wanna say is don't look down on the people who don't connect with God the way you do. And so a lot of you just raised your hands that you connect with God in adoration. A few people in this room raised their hands and they're like, man, I wanna grow in that. That's maybe not my top way of connecting with God. The reality is those people probably have other ways of connecting with God than all of you adoration people. They may connect with God through learning. They may connect with God through meditation. And so while you're screaming your guts out

during the encounter song, they may be sitting there meditating on the Lord, and you don't get to look at them and side-eye them and be like, psh, they're not encountering God. The reality is they may be meditating on a facet of God that they just discovered, right? And so we don't look down on people who don't connect with God like us. When Connor and I, my husband Connor and I first got married, I would have worship playing in the house all the time. I would just play it all the time. And then Connor would come in the room and turn it off and turn on a sermon. And then I would go back in and turn it off and turn on worship. And we would just do that all the time. And we'd kind of be like irritated at each other, like, bro, just leave the worship on, you know? And he'd be like, girl, don't you care about the word of God, you know? And it took a while for us to realize what was going on. We connect with God differently. And so I wanted to connect with God through adoration, and he wanted to connect with God through learning, but we don't get to look down on each other for those other ways. We get to understand each other more. And the best way to stop looking down on other people who don't connect with God the way you do is to become obsessed with connecting with God in every way,

is to become obsessed with learning. So this entire series, the point of it is not to check out when we're not talking about the way that you like the most. The point of it is for you to learn how to connect with God in every way, right? Why wouldn't you wanna learn how to connect with God in every way that there is to connect with God, right? And so every time a new way is released, every time you see a new way, that should be your cue. Oh, this wasn't mine, but I'm gonna grow in it this Sunday, amen? So I'm thankful though to be a part of a church that's passionate about worship, that's passionate about connecting with God through adoration. We've preached, we've had many messages and podcasts about worship already released in this house. And I wanna encourage you to go check out those messages. And it's another way to grow in connecting with God through adoration is to go back and listen to some of those sermons and podcasts about worship. But my favorite thing about the definition that we've given for adoration is connecting with God through adoration is ministering to the Lord through worship. My favorite thing about that definition is that adoration is all about ministering to the Lord. That that's the whole point of adoration.

It's ministry to God. And every time I say it, I just think this is crazy that me and you have an opportunity to minister to God. Right? Y'all with me? Like, are y'all aware of how wild that is? Like if somebody ever ministered to you or to your family, you get around somebody, they do something really kind for you, they serve you, they serve your family, you're just like, oh my gosh, I love that person. They're just, they really ministered to me, they ministered to my heart. Y'all know what I'm talking about? And somebody just blesses you. That same feeling, you have the ability to give that to God. You have the ability to make God feel that way where you get to minister to his heart, where you get to please him. And I believe one of the examples of that, one of the songs that we've been stewarding as a house is the encounter song. And I believe that song is a song that ministers to the heart of the Lord. And one of the reasons I think it's a song that ministers to the heart of the Lord is because the whole song is just, we're singing directly to him. We're not really asking him for anything except for him to talk to us.

Like, it's so beautiful, but we get a chance to minister to the Lord when we sing that song, when we adore him, when we worship him, we get to minister to the heart of God. And when I was invited to speak about this connect with God way, if I'm super honest with you guys, I was pretty frustrated. Not because I don't like to talk about worship, but because I love to worship so much and it's such a central part of my life that sometimes it just feels really hard to like articulate stuff. And I'm talking about like, if somebody walked up to me and like, can you tell me how to go upstairs? You'd be like, why? Because you just know how to do it, it's just in you. If somebody said, hey, do you know how to breathe? You'd be like, no, describe it. I don't know how to tell you how to do that because it's just what we do, right? And so I've been frustrated trying to figure out how to articulate this message to you guys. And I feel like the Lord said something to me that was so sweet. He reminded me, Jasmine, all you get. to do this morning is give away your relationship with them. It's not complicated.

Just give away your relationship with this house, with this congregation. And so that's what I wanna do with you guys this morning. Is that all right? I wanna give you three keys for connecting with God through adoration. Just try to make it super simple. Three things that I do that help me connect with God through adoration that I hope helps you as well. The first thing, and I kinda mentioned it earlier, is to saturate your home in worship. Saturate your home in worship. My husband and I have a room in our house that's constantly playing worship music really loud to kind of blast through our entire house. It's one of the strategies the Lord gave us to protect the atmosphere, to establish the atmosphere of our home. But I've been doing that since I was in high school. Since I was in high school, I would leave a TV, a laptop on, and I would always leave worship on in my room when I was out and about, when I'm going grocery shopping, when I'm out hanging out with people, there's worship in my house playing. Today, right now, there's worship in our house that's playing, and so I believe this is very important because the Bible says that the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. That means when there is praise released,

when there is worship released, that word inhabits means he'll come and he'll just sit on it, right? And so I'm not just telling you to play a sound of worship in your house. I'm telling you when you saturate your home in worship, you create a place for God to come and sit down in your house when you're not there, right? When you're not in there yet, he'll come and sit down, and then how much would your life change if you left work, all the stress and the heaviness and stuff, whatever, that comes up at work? The moment you walk into your house, God's just sitting there because he's inhabiting the praise that's in your home already, right? Like, what if you created an atmosphere for the presence of God to rest in your home? And I think sometimes we wonder why there's anxiety or fear in our home, right? We'll have people struggling constantly with fear or with anxiety. Some of us, that's a very familiar thing in our home. And maybe this isn't you, but for some of you that struggle with that, could it be because there's something else saturating your home? If CNN and Fox News is saturating your home, don't be shocked when fear and anxiety show up. If you have coarse-joking songs that have sexual promiscuity in them, your movies that have sex scenes in them,

if that's what's saturating your home, you're creating a resting place for lust. You're like, well, why can't we get free of pornography in this house? Why is everybody addicted to pornography? My husband, my wife, kids, why is there pornography? Well, maybe you're creating a place for it to rest. But if you saturated your home with the presence of God, where God can come and sit down, maybe you get to partake in the peace of God when you walk in. Maybe you get to partake in the joy of the Lord when you walk in. Maybe your kids will just start prophesying when they walk in the house. Maybe when you're eating dinner, the spirit of prophecy will come and rest on you and y'all just start prophesying over each other while you're eating dinner, right? You get to decide the atmosphere of your home. So my practical advice is to guard the atmosphere of your home. The atmosphere of your home dictates what is welcome in your home. Number two is give God your imagination. This is number two and just a key for growing and connecting with God through adoration. Give God your imagination. You'll hear at Mercy Culture, we'll often say or sing phrases like, right now we just want you

to put God on the throne of your heart. Y'all know what I'm talking about? We'll say phrases like that or just look at Jesus. And I just want you to know we're not psycho, okay? When we say that, we don't actually think that you're going to surgically open up your chest, grab the physical hand of Jesus, yank him down and put him inside your heart on the bloody beating heart in your chest. Like we know that's not real, okay? We're not like, we're not psycho. When we say we want you to look at Jesus, we don't think that he's actually gonna stand there although he's doing that with the Muslim community a ton right now, right? We don't think that, maybe that's not gonna happen. What we're saying is in your imagination, we want you to envision yourself giving God the throne of your heart. In your imagination, we're saying see Jesus. Imagine the face of Jesus while we're singing right now and sing to him. And so some of you are like, well, that's kind of weird. Why do you want us to use our imagination? Is that kind of mystical and new agey? Well, let me ask you this. Are you aware that you use your imagination for other things? Did you know that your imagination is what leads you into fear a lot of times? Right?

There's things that you are fearing that has never happened to you that you've never even seen. You saw them in your imagination and it led you into fear. So why can't your imagination lead you into the presence of God? Right. Why not? If you're letting your imagination lead you into lust and you're imagining someone else's wife or husband in a way that you shouldn't be. Right. The imagination does that, too. So why not give God your imagination, dedicate your imagination to the Lord and allow Him to use it to lead you into the holy place? That's what we're saying when we say, see Jesus, look at Jesus, put Him on the throne of your heart. That's what we're encouraging you to do. Some of you have been imagining Chick-fil-A for the last several days. You've been imagining. The Lord's been ministering to you through your imagination. You know what I'm saying? She said it's not that good. That's crazy. You're probably a Whataburger woman, aren't you? Texas. OK, I'm done. I'm done. I'm going to get in trouble. OK. Do y'all really think Whataburger is that good? All the Texas people, I'm judging your discernment right now. OK, so practical advice for giving God your imagination. Put on the full armor of God every day. And when you put on the helmet of salvation, ask for the mind of Christ and dedicate your imagination to the Lord. Make it a part of what you do when you put on the full armor. Lord, I thank you that I have the mind of Christ and I give you my imagination. You can use it however you want today. Give it to him. Number three, one of the keys on growing and connecting with God through adoration is find the door. And this is a phrase that you'll hear used in our worship community a ton. This is something that is just between me and the Lord. That's how I connect with God. Again, that I'm just giving away to you. But when I'm in my time with the Lord, when I'm in my daily encounter and I'm reading through the word of God. So, for example, I'm reading through the Lord's prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

Sometimes when I get to that phrase, give us this day our daily bread. Like say today, that's the day that that phrase is highlighted to me where I feel the Lord's pleasure. I feel his presence. I feel an increase of the Lord's presence when I read that that specific line. When we're talking about finding the door, we're saying pay attention to the place where the Lord is breathing and then lean into it more. It'd be really easy to be reading through the Lord's prayer in order to check a box, a checklist of reading your daily reading plan. And it is good to get the word of God in you. But a way to connect with God through adoration is to stop when he breathes on something. And so if he breathes on that line, it means I don't go to the next line just to finish. It means I'm stopping because he has something for me here that he wants to reveal about himself. Right. And so then I'll just say that line over and over and over again. And then maybe the next thing he highlights what I'm saying, give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Maybe the next thing is bread. And that's the next door. And so I go and I'm like, Lord, what is it about bread? He starts speaking to me about Jesus being the bread and he's not just the bread, but he's the hunger and the bread. And now I'm in a whole different place of encountering the Lord. Right. So there is these doors of revelation that the Lord gives us as we just pay attention to where he's breathing, where his pleasure is, where he's speaking about things. And we do it a lot in worship. So I'm telling you about my daily encounter, how I do that in the word. But when I'm worshiping God, I do that as well. Some of you are super frustrated with mercy culture because we sing the same thing over and over and over again. Sometimes I'm like, don't you sing verses at this church? Why are you saying that one line of the bridge 12 times today? You know, like part of what we're doing is we're finding the door is because we sang through that bridge, but there was oil on the one line. And so we're going to stay there because he has revelation for us there. Something new that we get to see about him there that's going to cause us to be in awe and wonder of who he is. Right. And so I want you to learn how to do that, to begin to do that in the presence of God in your daily encounters, but also as you worship, we'll be leading you through a song. And that's awesome. But there's going to be moments where we're singing a song and there's one line of the song that sticks out to you. You have permission to stop singing with us and to forget about us. And you just sing that one line of the Lord. Right. You have permission to do that. The way that I know that I found the pleasure of God on something on a line or a phrase on a melody is by an increase of the Lord's presence. That's how I know when I found his pleasure. Matthew three, verses 16 and 17 says, and when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the spirit of God. Descending like a dove and coming to rest on him and it says and behold a voice from the heaven said This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased The pleasure of god is often accompanied by his manifest presence in this case

His manifest presence came through a dove resting on the shoulder of jesus Right lord said i'm pleased and the dove came to show the manifest presence of god And so his pleasure is accompanied by chill bumps or electricity or a gust of of wind or like fire Consuming you from the inside or like water refreshing your soul I know that song. I played me just now. You didn't even start singing with me, right? Okay, that's fine Uh, but like there's all these physical ways that the lord will show you that he's pleased with something He will show you his manifest presence and I want to just be clear with this though. We don't Wait on a feeling to worship god Okay, so i'm not saying when you feel those things then worship god I'm saying while you're worshiping pay attention to when you feel those things Don't wait until you feel those things to worship. That's not that's not where our worship should be coming from It's not uh, that's not that's not the root of our worship and so practical advice Pay attention to where to when you feel his manifest presence and stay there james 4 8 says Draw near to god and he will draw near to you I love this scripture because it's a promise that just if you move towards god in any way shape or form God's saying i'm gonna i'm gonna move towards you And so even as i'm as i'm sharing these three things i'm talking about finding the door I'm talking about your imagination giving god your imagination. I'm talking about Saturating your home and worship if you feel like you miss one of these moments You feel like man, I didn't find the door. I missed that moment in worship Uh, I want you to just know it's okay The goal isn't for you to check the box of all these things that i'm talking about in order to connect with god through adoration The goal is to move towards him He's pleased with just the smallest movement of your heart towards him. The bible says that he will move towards you as well. Amen um connecting with god through adoration Is all about worship, but the question is that I want to ask you guys Is why do you worship?

What is your motivation? For your worship. Why do you lift your hands? Why do you sing? Why do you sing your guts out when we get to the encounter song? Why why do you worship? What is the reason for your worship? I've been leading worship corporate worship for about 15 years and i've seen people Worship from many different places for many different reasons And I wanted to just share with you guys four different types of worship that i've seen That reveal the reason people worship. Can we do that? Y'all okay? We're all right We I mean it's uh, it's 12 41. There's only one service. You guys are at the late service You should be wide awake. You should be feeling good. You should be got your protein shake in you your coffee, whatever you got Uh, you guys should be good but let's go through these four different types of worship that reveal our reasons The first one is need-based worship This is when you worship because you want god to take care of your needs When your needs are the starting place for your worship Uh, this is what I call the genie in a bottle worship This is when you show up and you got your hands lifted But in your mind you're like man i'm about to give god these hands because I need him to pay my bills Right, you're you're you're worshiping with a motive of him fulfilling one of your needs Uh, your worship is dictated by the size of your need. So you sing louder if you have a bigger need You raise your hands more. We ain't seen you at the front worshiping in like six months But because you need your bills paid you're right here Right, that's that's need-based worship And I think it's important to say it's not bad To bring your needs before the lord or ask him for things But if you only worship with requests on your lips or requests in your heart Your worship will stop when your needs are not met Your worship will stop when he doesn't meet the need if you're worshiping him because of your need And so that can't be the reason that you worship It cannot be the reason you worship number two Cannot be the reason you worship number two

Is works-based worship? This is when you worship god because you want to see signs wonders and miracles The works of god the signs wonders and miracles are the starting place of your worship those who are passionate about seeing god move a lot of charismatic people a lot of mercy culture people Is that all right Can I say that? Yeah This is the one that a lot of us will be challenged with You Someone called this crew the adrenaline or dopamine junkies. When you worship God because you want to feel something. You want the goosebumps really bad, you want the chills, and that's why you're worshiping. You're worshiping because you want God to do something awesome. When I was in college, I went to this university in Pittsburgh, and revival broke out on my college campus. It was crazy. People were getting healed and delivered and set free, salvations. It was wild. And I remember going into the presence of God, and every time I would go to worship, I'd be like, Lord, thank you for what you did. That was awesome. And then I would be asking him to do it again, and it was almost like my expectation was, this is gonna happen every day, or something's wrong. And I remember one time I came before the Lord, and he said, hey, do you want me today or the miracles?

Which one are you here for today? And I was so convicted, because just like that, the signs and wonders and miracles of God are promised from him. They're amazing, they're beautiful. It's amazing. But just like that, it became the reason I was worshiping, because I wanted to see him do something amazing in the earth, or in the places that I was in. And so this is when you're more impressed by the flame than the author of the flame. This is what causes us to strive and try to make visitations happen. One of the things that I believe we have to be vigilant with this year, in the year of encounters and visitations, is doing more to try to get God to do more. And I think Pastor Isaac addressed it at Solemn Assembly one of the nights we were here, and it keeps coming up, but like, you can't worship more to get God to be better. He's just good, and you can't force the hand of God. There are things that we can do that make him smile, that bring him pleasure, that make him excited to stay around, but like, you can't force the hand of God. And we have to remember that the part of the word of the year is that you choose your daily encounter, and God chooses the holy visitation. You don't choose that. Amen? It's not bad to acknowledge the works of God,

but it can't be the reason you worship, because if it is, your worship will stop when the signs, wonders, and miracles stop. The number three is understanding-based worship. This is when you worship God because your understanding is satisfied. Your ability to understand God is the starting place of your worship. Now, those who connect with God, primarily through intellect and learning, are most at risk of this one. This is when you're only okay with worshiping after you've completely wrapped your mind around the theological background and understanding of what God's doing in the room. A friend of mine was sharing with me that when he first came to Mercy Culture, he couldn't worship God because he was so distracted by the flags and the dancing and trying to figure out where it is in scripture, and if it's biblical, and trying to figure it out. And he couldn't engage with God because he was distracted, because he wanted his worship to be on his terms, not on God's, right? And if that's you in the room, just like a super small practical advice thing that's not in my notes, is like, if you're distracted by flags or distracted by the dancers, you're distracted by those things,

I wanna encourage you to give God your imagination and close your eyes. I don't mean that in a snarky way, but literally. Don't miss God because you don't know about the flags yet. Go later in your time with God and ask God about the flags, but don't miss God while he's in the room when you should be worshiping, right? Just minister to the Lord, focus on Jesus, close your eyes and look at Jesus and minister to him. And so if you wait to worship until it all makes sense, your understanding has become a prerequisite for your worship. It's important to pursue understanding. The Bible literally says there is a such thing as the spirit of understanding. So like understanding is good, it's important, but if it's the starting point for your worship, your worship will stop anytime you don't understand what's happening. Number four, and this is the one that I want us all to grow in together. This is the one that we should all be leaning into. Number four is worth-based worship. Worth-based worship. This is when you worship God because he's worthy of your worship. The worth of God is the starting place for your worship. A question for you with this one is, could you worship God if he never did another thing for you? If he never did one more thing for you in your life,

would he still be worthy of your worship? Could you give it to him? Worth-based worship has nothing to do with anything God can do for us, but everything with who he is and what he is worthy of. We sing about the worthiness of God all the time. We have that song, ♪ Worthy are you Lord, worthy are you God. ♪ Right, we have that song. We have, ♪ You're worthy of it all. ♪ ♪ Is he worthy? Is he worthy? He is. ♪ Like we have all these songs about the worthiness of God. And as I was preparing this message, I felt like the Lord was like, they don't know what the worthiness of God is. They don't understand what it means. And it dawned on me, you can't connect with God through adoration and continue to do it and grow in it without at some point growing in the revelation of the worthiness of God, because they're connected. So let me ask you this question. How much is God worth? How much is God worth? Some of you are glitching right now trying to answer the question. And you should. You actually should be glitching

trying to come up with an answer. If you came up with an answer, you were like, hmm, a hundred chuckles. You know what I mean? Like you're wrong. You're incorrect. Like it should be that it causes your systems to glitch, to figure out how much, how to articulate how much he is really worth. Here's how I process it. You can't understand the worth of God without understanding the difference between the nature and the character of God. All right, I need you guys to just like, really just hone in with me for a second. This is very heady. All right, y'all with me? This is a kind of a heady point, but I promise you it'll change your life if you can just hear it, if you can catch what I'm about to teach you right now, okay? The nature and the character of God is who God is. That's his nature. And how that nature is expressed towards us, that's his character. So the nature is who he is. The character is what it looks like for that part of his nature to be expressed to you and me. So the nature of God answers the question, what kind of being is God?

God's nature is who he is independent of you. Who he is independent of us. Who he is independent of our needs. So God in his nature is holy. There's never been one like him. God in his nature is love itself. God in his nature is eternal. He is eternity itself. God in his nature is self-existent. God is omnipotent. He's all powerful. God is omnipresent. He's fully present everywhere at the same time. God is omnipotent. He has all power and cannot be overpowered. God is omniscient. He knows everything fully and perfectly. God is I am, the response and the answer for everything. And those are just a few parts of his nature. This is who he is when nobody is watching, when nobody is responding, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of the situation. That's his nature. Now his character, the character of God answers the question, how does God relate, respond, or act with us, right? God's character is how he shows up in relationship with you. His holiness shows up as righteousness

when it comes to you. His love shows up as mercy when it comes to you. His power shows up as healing and deliverance when it comes to you. His self-existence shows up as provision. His true, him being true, shows up as justice. And so God's character is his nature in action. Y'all follow me? Y'all with me? So let me ask you this. Would you rather someone acknowledge what you do, whether you're a therapist or a carpenter or a teacher or whatever it is, would you rather somebody acknowledge what you do or acknowledge who you are, that you are kind, that you are present, that you are faithful? Like which one would you prefer? When you meet somebody new, what's one of the first questions you ask people, somebody that you meet that's new? The first question you ask, what do you do? Right? It's kind of annoying, to me at least. It's an annoying question, but it's our American culture. We just ask that question. It's just a normal thing to ask, right? And it's not a bad question, but the reason I think it bothers me and maybe it bothers some of you

is because we all know that our value is actually not connected to what we do. We all know that our value is actually wrapped up in who we are, not what we do for people, right? The same is true about God. His value is not wrapped up in what He does for you. His value, His worth is not hidden in what He can accomplish for you. And so this is important because He desires to be known by you beyond your need. He desires to be known by you for His nature, for who He is. Exodus 3, verses 13 through 14, it says, "'Then Moses said to God, "'If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, "'the God of your fathers has sent me to you, "'and they ask me, what is His name?' What shall I say to them? Verse 14, God says to Moses, answer them like this. He says, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent you. Notice he didn't say, tell them, I do has sent you. That's kind of funny, kind of cheeky, but like he could have said anything. And he chose to highlight his nature, disconnected from his hand when they said, who's coming? He said, tell them it's I am. My nature is being revealed. Y'all hearing me? This is important because we must be convinced, more convinced of who God is than we are convinced of what he does. We have to be more convinced. I know my husband is a man of great integrity. He's a man of honor. I know who my husband is. So if somebody came up to me and was like, yo, I saw your husband robbing a bank yesterday. It was crazy. He got on a ski mask and he prepped it up and it was him. And then he ran away. Like if somebody told me that Connor did that, I'd be like, I know he did. And it wouldn't be like a question. I wouldn't be like, he has been asking me about banks lately. Like I wouldn't be wondering. I would

just be like, no, he didn't. Why? Because I know him because I know who he is. And so because I know who he is, I'm not gonna question his character, his works because somebody said he was doing something. Right? What I do is I make, I make the character, Connor's character, his works, I filter it through what I know about him. And I decide something else must be going on. Right? That must have been somebody that looked like Connor or maybe Connor just was wearing a ski mask while he was making a deposit. Like something else was going on in this situation. But it's not as it seems. Right? This is how we should be interacting and engaging with God. Right? Whenever God doesn't heal the way we think he should heal or a moment doesn't happen the way that we think a moment should happen, why is it that we're so quick to question if God is actually a healer and all-powerful? Why doesn't our scenario get filtered through his nature and who he is? And we say, no, no, no, God's a healer. So something else must be going on in this. And I don't understand it, but it has nothing to do with him because I know him. Right? Why do we question his nature when things don't go the way we want? We have to be convinced of the nature of God, more convinced of who he is than what he does. My question, or to answer the question, how do I grow in my knowledge of the nature of God? It's really simple. If you're like, man, I want to, I want to do that, but I really don't know the nature of God. I don't know how that works. It's really easy. I'm just gonna give you a super easy answer to it. Pray the benediction that we pray over you every Sunday. Pray it every day. Exodus 33, 13 says, teach me your ways that I may know you and find you favor. You're asking God, I really want to know you. I really want to know you. And then as you keep that, that, that request, that, that want, that desire on your lips, then you'll start finding, as you read, as you read the word, that his nature will be revealed to you. As you worship, his nature will be revealed to you. The Lord will do exactly that. He will show you who he is. But it's important that you understand his nature, who he is, is what makes him worthy. It's what makes him worthy. It's not his hand. I've seen it over and over again where people think his worth is in his hand, and it's not.

Yes, we love when God heals. We're thankful when he delivers. We're thankful for when he provides, but that's not what makes him worthy. This is why many of you have struggled with disappointment in different seasons. It's because you were caught up in what he did with his hands, and it was more important to you than who he is. So then when he doesn't do what you want, you end up disappointed in God. He didn't heal, so now you can't worship him as a healer. He didn't deliver, so every time we sing a song about the deliverer coming in the room, you get irritated, right? God wants to show you who he is. God's worthiness preceded your neediness. He was worthy before you had a need. That's why this is an important distinction. He's a provider, yes, but he was the all-sufficient one before you ever needed something from him. He's a deliverer. He delivers us into victory, but God was all-powerful before there was even an enemy, right? He's the one who leads us as a good shepherd, but he was loved before we ever needed a loving leader his his worthiness preceded every need that you can think that you have and so practical advice is aim your worship at the attribute of God that your disappointment is questioning aim your worship at that part of God I remember several years ago a friend of mine passed away she had cancer and she ended up passing away in a group of us we were praying and believing that God would heal her and I was scheduled this is back when we first started mercy culture I was scheduled to lead worship and we were having rehearsal on a Saturday and we rehearsed we were gonna sing the song king of my heart that just says over and over you are good you are good and that's the song that I was supposed to leave I get out of rehearsal get into my car and I get the news that my friend passed away after a battle with cancer I remember sitting in the car thinking I'm not leading that song tomorrow I don't want to sing that God is good because I don't believe it right now I don't feel like God is good if he was good then why did I just lose my friend the cancer is what I felt in my flesh right I spent some time with the Lord God into his presence and I begin to pour out my heart before him just like David does in the Psalms where he's just authentic and real with God did you know you don't

have to lie to God you don't have to show up and just act like everything's fine when it's not he's not asking you to do that so I came and I just bore my heart before the Lord said Lord this is hard I don't know what to do where were you what did you do that it all this stuff and I felt like he was just like jazz well you just you just trust me well you just trust me you don't have to understand well you just trust me I showed up the next morning I'm like I'm stinking singing this song right in the face of my disappointment and I may not understand it but I'm gonna aim my worship at the place of disappointment as long as I can and I sat up on the stage at Paschal and I got on my knees and I wept through the entire song but I sang God you're good you are good you are good and I just aimed my worship and sometimes you have to aim it because the longer you aim it the more that you actually start to believe it the more that your flesh comes into alignment with your spirit and that's how you get breakthrough that's how that disappointment lifts off of you is when you begin to aim your worship at the one who you know existed long before the need that you had was ever there God's nature makes him worthy how do I know right now in this very moment all of heaven is connecting with God through adoration right now in this moment for all of eternity all of heaven is exalting God watch without need of anything not one prayer not like there's they're not saying Lord could you do this for us no there's no petition or need they're just singing holy they're just singing worthy over and over again there's no petition there's no need so these songs like I just said that that they're singing are all based on two central ideas or parts of God nature one that he is holy that's the song they're singing over and over again I'm like why do you think the atmosphere changes when you start to sing about his holiness just when we start saying I just want to tell you this is where I tell you you're holy start to feel that shift in the room it's because you're singing the song of heaven so the atmosphere of heaven is meeting you there right but that's the song that they're singing the second song that they're singing is about how worthy he is how do they know he's worthy if there's no need of

healing there how do they know he's worthy if nobody needs deliverance how do they know he's worthy if they don't need anything from him because they're just looking at him they're just seeing him rightly just for who he is not for anything he does and as they're seeing him rightly this song is erupting out of them over and over and over again but then it makes me ask the question well worthy of what what is he worthy of that goes back to that question I asked you earlier how much is God worth most of us use the same filter when we're trying to determine the worth of something if I take this table right here and I'm trying to figure out how much is this table worth what's the value of this table we use the same filter for a table that we do for a car that we do for anything that we're attaching value to it as humans the first thing we ask is what's the cost of it what's being paid for how much does that thing cost expensive things we assume are more valuable right the next thing we ask is we're looking for scarcity how rare is it can I find this table anywhere else this is the only table that's ever been made like this Then it should be more expensive, right? The third thing we look at is function. What can this table do for me? Does it actually work because if it's broken is not worth nothing, right? Does it work? Is it functioning number three is the or number four is the authority who decided the value? So there's a person who decided the value do I trust their their judgment of value? Are they an expert in the field? Like how that's how I know that there's value on it The last thing is quality we ask how long will this thing last Is it quality is this 30? Is it going to be around for a while or is it going to fall apart like a forever 21 t-shirt? All the women understand you know what i'm saying But this is how we process what something is worth in our minds. So we usually put God through the same filter Because that's what we do as humans a lot of the ways that we interact with each other we put that and we just do the same thing to god We usually do that same filter with god. We're asking about the cost

We're saying how much will this relationship with god cost me? Will it cost me everything will it cost me just one friend or all my friends? Will it cause me a relationship with my parents? Will it what will it cost me? It's a scarcity. Can I find love like this anywhere else? How rare is god anyway? Like can I I could probably find peace like this if I just smoke a little weed like like is is there can I find? This somewhere else We're looking we're judging him by his function. What can god do for me? Is he gonna heal me? Is he gonna deliver me? Can he actually do something? That's that's valuable for me We're looking at him with that authority that authority piece has anyone else that I admire or respect also found him worthy and valuable The people around me that I think are amazing and cool. Do they think he's worthy? And then we're looking at quality will he last Will god stay with me through the seasons? Is is he going to stay around for a long time or is this is he not going to be faithful to me? Those are the things that we're looking at and I just want to tell you Because we inevitably do that same filter on god all the time. I want you to know that god can handle your filter He can handle it. He's not intimidated by he's not afraid of it because the reality is he didn't create Or you're not putting him on the scale to try to figure out his value god is the scale He is the value like he is the one if you look at the cost He paid literally the highest cost by giving his own life as god Right. So like he paid the cost. He's very valuable as far as the scarcity part goes. There is no one like him Tell me another person like god Tell me somebody else like god Tell me somebody else who gives you peace in every season that doesn't wear off later on Tell me somebody else who shows up no matter what? Tell me somebody else There's nobody like him Tell me somebody else

that delivers you even after You don't look at him the way you should the way you you don't give him what he's worthy of tell me somebody else Tell me somebody else Creation exists by him. He has no need of anything and he is the answer to every single need So, of course he can do something for you He assigns worth it's not assigned to him So, of course we like we don't have any there's no body that we can look to that will tell us That we respect more than him how much he's valued at And then he is eternity itself I want you to know god is not worthy because he meets your criteria. He's worthy because he defines your criteria In heaven, they're singing that he's worthy of all blessing all glory all honor All power and the reality is he is the only one that can bear the weight of all of those things That's part of what makes him worthy of all of those things Tell me can you carry the weight of all glory in the earth? Can you carry the weight of all power in the earth? How would things go if you had all power we'd all be kaput Just burn up just struggling done if you were the one with all power Right, you can't handle the weight You can't handle you're not worthy of it. You're not worthy of worship You can't handle it If everybody started worshiping you you crash you crash and burn like most celebrities do because they can't handle the weight of glory They can't handle the weight of worship Only he can handle that kind of weight And so when I ask the question how much is god worth sometimes We think giving god a lot Is the appropriate response to his worth? That just giving him a lot all of this this this this like just giving him a lot and

I feel like the lord wanted me to just tell you this morning That your everything is the only appropriate response for his worth I know that doesn't sound like some crazy grand reveal, but that's what I heard him say. It's everything you have. Everything in your hands is what he's worthy of. I remember when I was in high school, man you guys can come on up, I was in high school and I just been exposed to this song called It's Gonna Be Worth It by Rita Springer. Anybody know that song? It's a beautiful song, you can go look it up later, and I remember somebody showing me the song and she just says over and over again, it's gonna be worth it, it's gonna be worth it, it's gonna be worth it all, I believe it. And I remember listening to it and just weeping. I would encounter the Lord so much through the song because hopefully like all of us, I was stewarding in high school way less things that I'm stewarding right now, right? Hopefully you're stewarding more now than you were in high school. But I'm stewarding so much, I was stewarding nothing. I was just going to school and playing sports and it was very little. And I remember these moments with the Lord where I would just be like, I was aware of it, I was like, I don't have a lot to give you, like I'm not, I don't have a lot, I'm just out here at this little school trying to do my best and I feel like the Lord was saying, then give me that, just give me that. And over and over again I'd say, well Lord you're worthy of this even if it doesn't seem like a lot, you're worthy of it. Recently I was talking to my husband and he said, Jasmine, when you've been nursing our baby at night, I have a six-month-old that I still nurse through the night, and he said, when you've been nursing at night, have you been encountering the Lord? And I was like, no, just being honest. And I started thinking about it, he's like, what are you doing? And I was like, checking Instagram, like scrolling, I don't know, you know? And he was like, I bet God wants to meet you there, I bet he has encounters for you. And I was like, huh, I bet he does, that is a good idea babe. And I realized that was an area of my life that while I would say all the time, Lord you can have it all, I would say it all the time, I mean it for like the largest things, but I realized there's these small things that I just didn't think

were worthy enough to give them, or valuable enough. And I feel like the Lord was like, no, no, that's a part of, I want everything you have. I want the midnight hour nursing moment with you. I want you to stop in that moment and just start worshiping me and encountering me, being with me. And I know there's a lot of you in the room and some of you watching that maybe when you think of encountering God, you think of these glorious moments, you think of these big moments at a corporate encounter, or maybe you think about you gave him everything because you moved, you sold everything and moved to Fort Worth to be part of this church. That's awesome. When I say everything, I'm not just talking about much. I'm talking about what about your drive to work? What about when you're stirring the mac and cheese for your little kid, because you can't eat it? Will you just stop and worship me then? Can you give me that then? What about when you're just you're just putting your makeup on in the mirror? Will you just stop and tell him that you love him then? Can you actually give him everything? Like what's in your hand? The thing that's in your hand? Let's go to the main text real quick. It says that there is this woman, there's these people giving and it says that Jesus sat down and he began to watch the treasury where they were all giving these offerings. So if you can imagine, give God your imagination, Jesus is just sitting there and he's watching people. And all of a sudden it says that the rich people came and they started giving a ton of money. They had large sums. You guys know the story. But then there is it says this poor widow who came and she gave two coins that I think for us equal one cent. And as she's giving it, Jesus calls all the disciples over. He says, guys, come here, come here, come here, come, come, come, come, and he points out this little widow lady. And he says they're all giving out of their abundance, but this one is giving out of her poverty. The thing that's everything to her, the thing that doesn't seem like it's significant, but it's all she has. That's what she's giving. And God, Jesus was so pleased by it that he called over his friends to watch. He didn't call his friends over for the guys who were giving a ton. I'm not saying that God doesn't want you to give the big things, but what I'm saying is he was really ministered to. He was really.

Pleased by this woman who just gave this little thing that was all that she had This week I was my husband and I are in the midst of moving We're packing our closing got delayed for two weeks Like just craziness box. We're living out of boxes. We're running around. We got two kids under two I'm nursing through the night. We're we're fasting. He's on a liquid fast. He's dying. Basically every day We're trying to move while he's dying, you know Like like it's just like we're gonna we got a lot going on and then i'm preparing to preach this message Right, like there's just a ton happening and that's just a little bit of it. I'm not i'm not here to complain I'm, not gonna tell you everything but there's a lot going on And i'm preparing this message and i'm like god How am I supposed to preach a message on sunday i'm tired, I don't know what i'm doing There's a stupid snowstorm coming and we don't even know if we're gonna have church like I don't know what's going on I'm struggling And I just had this moment I felt the presence of god sweep in the room And I heard him say am I worthy of this? I said yes, no, you're worthy of it You're worthy of the energy you're worthy of my tiredness. You're worthy of the midnight hour You're worthy of it if all of this if we're doing all of it just to obey you Just to please you you're worthy of it you can have it all you can have every one of these moments My question is how many of you are missing his worth? You're missing the reality that he's worthy of whatever it is That you're doing he's worthy of all of it. Will you stand on your feet with me? How many times Have you not raised your hands because you just didn't feel like it is he worthy of your energy? How many times did you not get on your knees i'm not asking you to do it right now But how many times have you not gone on your knees because you didn't was it comfortable? Is he worthy of your comfort? Is he worthy of your reputation? If you sing and you don't think you have a good voice, but he wants you to worship him with it with adoration Is he worthy of you sounding crazy to your neighbor? Is he worthy is god of all eternity worthy of what's in your hands worthy of what you have?

the answer is he is He is he is worthy. Come on close your eyes right now. Just lift your hands before the lord Come on will you start singing with me in the spirit right now? Come on come on, come on Come on, come on, come on We're not prophesying just begin to sing in your heavenly language in every home at every campus Every person watching begin to sing in your heavenly language wherever you are Worthy one we welcome you come in the room worthy one release release your words reveal your words in the room Shit Jesus you're worthy. You're worthy. You're worthy. Come on. Will you just begin to tell him that he's worthy? Tell him that he's worthy it's not complex it's not fancy. It's really simple just over and over again Just say that he's worthy. Tell him that he's worthy. Come on fill this room with the worthiness of god Lord, you're worthy. You're worthy of all this. You're worthy of songs. You're worthy of lights You're worthy of a sanctuary. You're worthy of screams. You're worthy of worship. You're worthy of melodies. You're worthy of dancing You're worthy of hands being lifted up. You're worthy of our voices. You're worthy of all of this. All of this is for you You're worthy of it all. Come on, tell him that he's worthy. Tell him that he's worthy You're worthy, you're worthy, you're worthy of this song. I want you to just take a moment and ask the worthy one to reveal his worth to you. Worthy one, come and reveal your worth to this room. Come on, ask him with your lips, with your words. Worthy one, reveal your worth to me. Worthy one, reveal your worth to us. Worthy one, reveal your worth to Mercy Culture. Come, come, reveal, reveal Holy Spirit. Reveal, reveal Holy Spirit. I just want to, it's really simple, but I want you to ask the Lord, what is he worthy of that you haven't given him yet? And I don't think it's these massive, grandiose things, but close your eyes. Just say, Lord, what are you worthy of that I haven't given you yet?

What are you worthy of that I haven't given you yet? Some of you, you don't have an incredible voice, but you have a voice. He wants you to give him what you have. Maybe you don't have a ton of time because you have four kids and you're married. So give him what you have. Sing to him while you cook dinner. Maybe you're working and in full time, school full time. So love on him when you drive. What is it that the Lord is saying? Will you give that to me? Will you adore me? Will you love on me there? Will you find me in that place? Show us, Holy Spirit. Show us, Holy Spirit. Reveal to us, Holy Spirit. Reveal to us, Holy Spirit. Reveal to us, Holy Spirit. Come on, just lift your hands. And just begin to tell him you love him. Just begin to tell him you love him. This is, we're going to take a moment right here and just minister to him. I want to challenge you. Don't ask him for a thing. Just love on him. Sing about his nature. Sing about who he is. Tell him that he's omniscient. Tell him, Lord, you're omnipotent. You're almighty God.

You're holy. You're love. Come on, mercy culture. Pour out your love. Pour out your adoration. Just love on him. Just love on him. Magnify his nature in this room. Sing about his nature in this room. Tell him who he is. Come on, come on. Tell him who he is. Tell him who he is. Beginning and the end. Come on, whatever you have to do, get out of your seat. Come to the front. Run around the room. Tell him that he's worthy and then give him worship that he is worthy of. Give him praise that he is worthy of this morning. Worthy, worthy, worthy. Worthy, worthy, worthy. Almighty God. Worthy, worthy, worthy. Almighty God. Prince of peace. Mighty God. You've given me hands, so I give you my hand. You give me a voice, so I give you my voice Worthy word, you're worthy of it all Worthy of it all, worthy of it all Of mission, of omnipotent almighty God We're coming for you all Holy, holy, holy, holy

Holy, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy, holy All powerful God Holy, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy, holy Give you what you're worthy of You're worthy of it all You're worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy You're worthy of it all Of everything you have Oh, you're worthy, worthy, worthy, Lord I give you everything, oh Lord We love you, Jesus We love you, Jesus Here's the thing about God, when you minister to Him through adoration He comes He comes and He does what only He can do when He walks in He comes and He speaks He comes and He delivers He comes and He heals He comes and He sets free Lord, we worship you, we love you