What is Worship?

not Victory Church, it is Victory Church now, but when we first walked through the doors it was Victory World Outreach, and in 1999 I was one year old, and I was a college student just going with my then college girlfriend, and we stumbled into Victory World Outreach, and I should have known, kind of like by the name, what I was getting myself into, but I walked into what I would just call now, my very first spirit-filled, multi-ethnic worship environment, and I don't know if you guys noticed, I'm white, anybody noticed that part? I also grew up Presbyterian, so you kind of put those two things together, and you can assume the type of upbringing that I had, my dad was a Presbyterian pastor, I loved it, and in that sort of environment it was very reserved, incredibly proper, everything's kind of buttoned up, in fact it was so reserved that we clapped one time a year, and I knew when it was going to happen, because we clapped every time that the visiting, traveling, children's choir came through town, and I was so excited when I would see them that morning, because I was a teenager, and I was like, we could like be a little bit of expressive, and so they would finish, and I'd be the first, like, and that was it, that sort of environment was like, if anybody dared put their hand up, the person next to them kind of owed it to them to help them put their hand back down, if you grew up in that sort of environment, again, very reserved, then I walk into what is now Victory Church, the church that Summer and I get to pastor, similar to this sort of environment, and I walk in and there's a Jamaican worship pastor, and there's a Latino dude on percussion, and I'm like, you can do that, like you can have that, because I grew up like choir robes in Oregon, and we're going to turn to page 324, and we're going to sing verse one and four, because the service is running a little late, and we need to beat the Baptist to lunch, you know. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about, like, if you know, you know, and I grew up in that, and I walk into this environment, and all of a sudden I see these, like, people from all over the world, like who kind of white worship different, I've seen these Nigerians, let's go crazy, and I'm seeing people from gospel backgrounds, and people from Mexico going local for Jesus, you know, wiggle videos, like, they're just going crazy, and then I just honestly, like, I'm kind of like in the back with my other like little white, like super reformed, super, like, denominational, like super proper, we're kind of like locking arms with the really reserved Koreans, you know, like, like, I think, and

after a few weeks of being in that environment, I just kind of like adopted the thing where I just said, well, I guess I'm just really not a worshipper. Well, today, guys, we're going to talk about something that every person in this room does, every person online does, and you may not even know that you're doing it. You don't even have to be a Christian to do it. You may not have grown up in church, like I did, or maybe grew up in a different denominational stream sort of background than I did, and most people don't even know that they're doing it. Here's the big idea for today is that every person alive is a worshipper. You're a worshipper. You and I are a worshipper. You are in the person you're sitting next to is a worshipper. Now I know some of you are like, no, no, no, no, no, no, pastor, you don't get it like, like I don't do the singing thing. I don't lift my hands like I'm not like the lesson, what my wife does, like she does the emotional stuff. I don't do that. Well, here's the deal. Let me just say this. Every single person is a worshipper. You may not worship God. You may not sing worship songs. You may not lift your hands, but every single person worships something. Over late, late, pastor Tim Keller, amazing man, he said this, everyone worships something. The only choice you get is what to worship, right? So you don't get to choose whether you worship. You and I just get to choose what we worship. And when you think about it in that sort of a sense, now it begins to click. Now you understand like, oh, there really are people who do worship their career, right? Like you sacrifice everything to get ahead.

Some of you guys are on your third marriage because you just keep sacrificing that thing on the altar of your job to climb the corporate ladder, right? We live in a world, let's be honest, that worship sex, right? Like who am I attracted to? What pronouns am I going to put in my bio today? Come on, somebody. Who am I hooking up with this week? How can I pleasure this thing? How can I pleasure my flesh? We worship sex and sexuality. especially in the burbs. Come on, that's what we do. Some of y'all had like, had best friends and then they like, get married and then they poof, they disappear. Or maybe they had kids and then it's like, see you when the kids are 13, right? Because they're busy like, just take a little billy and just got bubble wrap 'em, just make sure nothing ever happens to my little boy, you know? Or maybe you're living the travel ball life, come on. When I was checking out the hotel this morning, the travel ball family came down and I was like, thank you, Jesus, for giving me a sermon example today, I appreciate that. Others of us just worship sports, come on. Like the list goes on and on and on. But I mean, like, can we be honest, the best time of year is among us. Come on, it's football time, come on guys.

I'm sorry, ladies, some of y'all lost your husbands until mid-February, which by the way, I don't think Pastor James warned you guys about this. So let me be the one to warn you. I'm gonna come to this side of the pulpit so you pay attention to what I'm saying. If nobody's told you yet, I'm sorry. This year, Super Bowl is on Valentine's Day. We're gonna have some strategic decisions to make in the coming months, guys. And I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you, and I do know what to tell you. Guys, take your girl out, it's a really nice sports bar. And so you can look like right over, let me have a say, I don't know. Hey, you already had an opportunity on Friday to invest in your marriage. If you didn't take that, I don't know what to tell you. But it is, like, come on, some guys know all the trades, all the injuries, all the stats. You're talking about Bo Jackson this, and that sort of thing, you know. Some guys aren't here today because your team is playing. And, you know, I'm not innocent the same way your pastor is not innocent. Both of, we've discussed this, both of our emotions ride way too much on how 20-year-old young men play college football. He's for Bama, I'm for God's College, the University of Georgia.

Go dogs, amen, glory hallelujah. Ushers, you can escort everybody else out. No, but it's true, like, we tend to take these things way too seriously, and then here's the deal, guys, is it's been over said, but it bears saying again in this sort of context. How is it that we can go to games, or we can watch our teams on TV, and we lose our stinking minds, right? Like, there's a social media trend right now where wives, that we're ladies. Well, video, they're men watching the game, remove the audio and replace it with worship music. And it's one-to-one, man, like it is the same thing. And we will dress up, we will got the foam fingers, we go, great, we lose our voice, and then we walk into the house of God, and we're like, I'm just not a worshiper, you know? Like, what's the deal? Because here's what he showed. Whether it's sports, whether it's politics, whether it's sexuality, whether it's family, whether it's fame, success, whatever it is, everybody worships something. Louis Giglio down in Atlanta, here's how he says it. So how do you know where and what you worship? Because nobody really thinks a worshiping anything. Well, here's what you do. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your loyalty.

And at the end of that trail, you'll find a throne. And whatever or whomever is on that throne is what's of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship. Guys, that's hard, here's what I'll say. Like, even in the house of God, most of us today would say we worship Jesus, and I'm not disparaging that, but here's what I would actually say. Show me your bank account. Show me your calendar, and show me your screen time. And then I'll show you what you actually worship. See, our problem is people isn't that we don't worship. Our problem is we worship the wrong things. And when we worship the wrong things, we bring the wrong things into our life. And on the tail end of worshiping the wrong things is death and our soul and death and our relationships and depression and our mind and chaos in our world, which then begins begging the real, the most important question we could probably ask here at the very beginning is this, who or what is worthy of our worship? And if you haven't heard it recently, there is only one at the end of the day above everything that we just mentioned, who's worthy of our worship. And his name is Jesus the Messiah. Jesus the Christ crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, ascended, coming back with a sword,

coming out of his mouth, riding a white stallion with the angels of heaven, behind him. Marinatha, come Lord Jesus to judge the nations and to rescue a pure spotless bride. He is the only one. Worship worship worship. He's the only one who's worthy of worship and as as you've been in this journey through the Old Testament I'm just gonna kind of pull alongside here and probably get to something you'll get to next year in the in the book of John in John chapter 12 John introduces us to four different people who worship four different thing or worship one thing but in four different ways and And I think here we're gonna find ourselves in worship John 12 verse one So it's a story that's very familiar to some of us if you grew up in church like I did Six days before the Passover in other words, we're about to get to the cross Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived well what just happened to Lazarus last chapter in John 11 Jesus raised him from the dead and here a dinner was given in Jesus's honor. That's the setting So here's the characters Martha well, she's serving. She's the she's the sister of Lazarus while Lazarus was among those Reclining at the table with Jesus and then Mary Lazarus's other sister took about a pint of Pjernard an Expensive perfume and she poured it on Jesus's feet and wiped his feet with her hair and The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume But one of his disciples Judas Dopp dopp dopp dopp who is later to betray him objected again If you know that if you read the gospels of the guys who knew Judas like John knew Judas very well You're gonna catch a lot of shade like like these they don't hold back Judas who was later to betray Jesus objective. Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief is keeper of the money bag He used to keep help himself to what was put in it and Jesus replies Leave her alone It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me Whoo. All right. What's the setting of this party? This is what I would just call a resurrection party All right, why is this a resurrection party? Well because Yesterday Lazarus is dead and today he's saying past the salt Like and so Jesus is the guest of honor, right? That's what it says There's throwing a party and gee like isn't this such a human story and one sense, right? They're they're acknowledging Jesus did something amazing so they're throwing a party for him and there who's who is there and they're all around Jesus Everybody celebrating Jesus everybody saying man Jesus. What did you do like like like what we were weeping about yesterday? We're worshiping about today Because we're where there was no way God made away Come on Lazarus is in the grave for three days and now he's reclining at the table having dinner It does something on the inside you which begins to introduce us to what does a lifestyle of worship actually begin to look like? I'm gonna walk us through this. So what is worship firstly worship is? Response everybody say response. That's a good response. Good job Here's what I've discovered and I'm very guilty of this one of our problems as people as humans is we are forgetful We're very forgetful people. Here's what I mean. We pray and we keep moving and we never Pause long enough To realize we're now living in the answers to the prayers that we prayed yesterday It's a problem. It's a human problem. So that's why Paul says this is one of my life verses It has to be Colossians 4 - he says devote yourselves to prayer being two things watchful and thankful in other words when you pray put on your glasses and When God shows up and does it you need to turn around and say thank you Come on kill it just for a second Can we just allow a little bit of gratitude to just kind of kind of rise up in the room? Come on did Jesus saved you? Come on Jesus raised you you were seated with Christ in heavenly places the Father's done a miracle in your families done a miracle in your health He's been Jehovah Jaira the Lord your provider. He's been Jehovah Raffa the Lord your healer come on He's been the Lord your shepherd come on here the things you used to see say please for God answered it And so instead of saying please you just pause but instead the same please maybe today you just need to say thank you Thank you Jesus. I prayed and you answered and I never said I don't want to be like the 10 lepers Did only one came back to say thank you, but the other nine just kind of went on their way

I want to live a life of going back to say thank you Thank you, and and that's can I say like this? That's the vibe in this party That's the vibe in this resurrection party right here. So everybody's responding as they form a All right, so maybe you've never seen it like this, but how is Martha responding? All right, you remember this, like Martha serves, and Mary does the only necessary thing. It doesn't mean what she was doing was wrong, okay? Well, Martha is serving, so can I say like this, her worship is wearing an apron. Her way of saying thank you Jesus for what you've done in my life is I'm gonna serve you and your people. And so maybe you've never thought about like this before, but guys, when you serve Jesus and his people, that's worship. When you do it in the name, so listen, you may just think, oh, no, no, no, I'm just like a small group person. I'm just like, I'm just a greeter. I just kind of do the children's ministry. No, no, no, no, that's worship. And in fact, I say thank you. Come on, can we say thank you to those who serve in the church, that's worship. That's worship. When you serve your family in the name of Jesus, that's worship, when you serve your community, we just heard about all the things that this church is doing. When you serve your community in the name of Jesus,

well, I didn't sing a song. No, no, no, no, worship is more than that. Worship is sometimes wrapping an apron around your ways and just serving people in the name of Jesus. All right, well, what about Lazarus? Okay, Martha is serving. Lazarus seems to be doing a completely unspiritual thing. Okay, what does the scripture say? It says he's reclining. All right, so if Martha's worship were an apron, Lazarus's worship was wearing a watch. He was spending time with Jesus. He didn't want to just take the blessings of God and keep moving. No, he actually turned around and went back and said, thank you. I don't know if you've ever thought about like this. Whenever you spend time with Jesus for the sake of just spending time with Jesus, that's worship. Okay, when you fast, when you pray, when you open up the scriptures, that's worship, when you get baptized, whatever that is, like that is worship, spending time with Jesus. What about the third person in this? Mary, Mary, what is Mary doing? Mary is kind of the central character here beside Jesus. She is on her knees, cracking open her jar of perfume, pouring it on Jesus's feet, wiping his feet with her hair. Here's the deal, if Martha's worship were an apron and Lazarus's worship were a watch,

Mary's worship is wearing dollar signs. She's cracking open this incredible generosity and putting it on Jesus's feet. Why? Because her brother was dead and now he's alive. In her response, Martha's responding in her way, Lazarus is responding in his way. Mary's response is, I have this in my hand, I just give you what I have. I give you everything that I have. So think about it like this. Martha is worshiping through service, Lazarus is worshiping through time, Mary is worshiping through giving, but they're all worshiping as a response to what Jesus did in their life. But I want to introduce another thought here. Worship isn't only a response to what Jesus has done, here's how I'd say it. Worship is a response to who Jesus is and what he has done in my life. Come on, who Jesus is, not only what he has done in my life, I am here to remind us this morning, is that Jesus Christ is worthy of your worship before he does a single thing in your life, okay? Which is why you can still worship in the valley because God is good even when your life is not. Come on, Jesus has intrinsic value, intrinsic beauty. That means if he just stayed up in heaven forever, never incarnated, never put on skin and came and walked among us,

he would still be worthy of worship. The angels would still be crying out, holy, holy, holy, he is still worthy of our adoration, he's still worthy of our service, even if he never did one thing in our lives, right? And maybe we haven't connected those dots before, but worship and worth are tied together. In fact, worship is how we get worship. What we're actually saying is who I'm worshiping is worth, worth worthy of the worship that I'm ascribing to that individual. Worth, worth, worth, here's our problem. Some of the things we're giving worship to are not worthy of our worship. There's only one who's worthy of our worship, right? And there's the scene in Revelation 5, which was amazing and we sang it like just a minute ago. When the song started, I went over to Pastor James, like, I don't know why God lying that thing of that's amazing. There's the scene in Revelation 5 where it gives us this in times glimpse of what it's gonna look like. And the Father sitting on the throne and in his right hand, he's holding a scroll. And it says that scroll is written on both sides of the paper. In other words, there's a lot of instructions and it's sealed with seven seals. It's the perfection, it's unbreakable. He's holding this and what it is,

it is the in time plan of God. So in other words, whoever comes and takes that scroll is gonna be the one who executes, implements the in time plan of God for the universe, all right? And so whoever does that has to be worthy. And so here's the problem, they look in heaven to open the scroll or even look inside. And then John says, "I, John, began to weep "because no one was found worthy to take the scroll "or to open it or to look inside." And then it says one of the angels comes up and says, "Do not weep, John. "Do not weep because there is one who is worthy. "The lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome "and he is worthy to open the scroll "and to execute the end time plan of God." And here it is in verse seven, Jesus, he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people. Here is your reminder that your prayers do not evaporate. They accumulate. They're filling up bowls in heaven even right now. At one point will be tilted down back on the earth. And these people, they sang a new song. So in other words, worship is singing, but it's not only singing.

What was their song? You are worthy to take the scroll and to open it seals because you were slain and with your blood, you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation, that's us. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth. And then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. And they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. And in a loud voice, they were saying worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is within them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, amen and the elders fell down and worshiped. What they're saying is Jesus is the only one who's worthy of worship. It's a response to who he is to what he's done, which is why I always find it so humorous. It's really mainly happens in America. When men and women go through a worship service and then they leave and they're like, I really like worship today. Great, we weren't worshiping you anyway.

It wasn't about you anyway. We weren't talking about your worth in the songs. We're talking about his worth in the songs. No, no, this is why people are like hands in the pot. I'm just not sure. Dude, the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. And if he's alive, all the rules just change, which means death no longer has the final say. I have a response to that. I have to do something with that. So many people are so concerned. I don't, I just, I want my lady to think a certain way. I want the gods to not look. Ain't nobody thinking about you? Ain't nobody thinking about you in worship or I'll think about Jesus. And wait, here's the deal, guys. If we can't worship in here, forget trying to worship out there and say, why are we so self-conscious? This is about the worth of Jesus Christ. And so some of us, we fall into the trap of worshiping the beat, worshiping the style of the sermon. And what happens is we're actually worshiping our culture. No, here's what I'm trying to say. You can have a bad song that's still good worship, okay? Because listen, how I grew up,

I'm not a big fan of like songs from the 1750s to about the 1905s. Just not a big fan personally on the organ. But man, they ascribe to God as greatness. I'm telling you they do. My words, bad song, great worship, great worship. Because it's a response to who Jesus is and what he's not, that's what we're about, guys. That's what we're doing. When we gather together, everything we want to do in our life, we want it to be a response to who he is and what he's doing, all right? That's the first thing. What is worship? Here's the second thing. Worship is sacrifice. Worship is sacrifice. Jesus' worth is so great that it requires a worshipful response from us. And whenever his great worth meets our great sacrifice, something beautiful happens. Here's what it looks like, verse three. Mary, therefore, again, I'm gonna point you at my attention. Sorry, I'm not used to this. Right there, okay. To the word therefore, what's the word there for? Therefore is a response. It's a response, right? So Mary's responding to the worth of Jesus. And what is she doing?

She takes a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Cultural clues here, okay? So nard was an incredibly rare and expensive spice from Northern India. And this is when we remind ourselves that Amazon did not exist back then, okay? You couldn't get this stuff, okay? Very rare. You know, you can get it today. In fact, I ordered a spice. I got it, so I know what it smells like. Some of you need to get some this week and take it to Small Group. It's a really cool thing that you'll be able to do. But it smells like, what they say is gladiolas. It smells like flowers. Incredibly expensive, incredibly rare. And it says that Mary has a pound of it, which that's impossible, like you don't get that, like that. In fact, it's so expensive, that much is so expensive. In the Greek, it says it's worth 300 denari. One denari was a day's wage. So you would go and work a job and they're gonna give you one coin called a denari. And so after 300 days of work, which is a year, you would get 300 denari and enough to be able to have this. So in other words, this is taught, like this is crazy.

This is a year's wages, which then makes us pause and say, can you imagine what it would be like to take your year's salary and to crack it out and pour it on Jesus' feet? And in a human sense, it's gone like that. Like in just a few seconds, it's just gone. Let me remind you that no worship is wasted. See, we don't know. We think this is her inheritance. We don't know. In that culture, if a woman didn't get married, she was in trouble, because that was how she would be provided for. And so if a family had any sorts of means, the dad would give his daughter, in essence, an inheritance, just in case. And so if this is the case, I wanted to think about this, Mary took her like emergency plan. She took her plan B, like with, if all my life plans don't work out, at least I have this, she took that and poured it on Jesus' feet. In essence, saying, you're all I've got. I'm going all in on Jesus. And I love this in the book of Mark, Jesus remarks this. He says, truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Guys, I want to remind you that no act of sacrifice done for the cause of Christ goes unseen. In fact, it's recorded in the scrolls of heaven.

Some of you feel like, oh, I'm serving here in the church, it feels like nobody sees God sees. Some of you are serving in your community, it feels like nobody sees God sees. Some of you are serving your family and you're like, I don't think anybody appreciates what I do, God sees. God sees. Any knows? No worship is wasted when it's done to Jesus. Which is the question, what does sacrificial worship look like? I'm just going to run through it. This is what we just saw in these people. The first one's giving. All right, so don't tighten up. Everybody tightens up whenever we talk about money in church. We already did the offering, we're not doing another one. Okay, calm down, don't run for the doors. But here's how I'd say it, guys. I tithe out of obedience, I give offering out of love. And I've seen in Christian culture, we're asking the wrong question. Many times we ask like, what do I have to do? Not what do I get to do? Not what's the least amount I can give? Not what's the most I can give? 'Cause Mary wasn't like, all right, what's the least amount? I can respond to the fact that Jesus raided my brother back from the grave. Like, what's the least amount?

No, she was like, hold on, I have this. Like, let me give it all. And King David says it in first Samuel, I think he says, I will never give an offering that doesn't cost me anything. It's sacrifice, you want to know why it's sacrificed to give? Because every dollar I give, I could have kept. And in essence, what I'm saying is God, I believe more in building your kingdom than in building my kingdom. Listen, I'm just gonna be super honest, my church knows this, I say this all the time. I want to pull. I can't tell you how many times I've given my pull away. Okay, that's sacrifice, that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. When was the last time you gave and it hurt? Come on, this side's saying amen, and they're the pastors. Okay, I'm such. Okay, what else does sacrifice look like? It looks like serving, okay? We said that a second ago. Here's the problem, I see this in every single church. Not everybody, most people serve, but there's a few in here who feel like it's beneath you to serve. Because you're like, bro, I scratched and clawed to climb that ladder, I got the title, I got the C suite, I got the office,

I got the business card, and you wanna know, like, I'm not going back to where I used to be. But then we forget in the next chapter right after this, Jesus knew where he'd come from, where he was going, that he had all power and glory and authority in his hand, so he took off his robe and he wrapped a towel around his waist and he washed feet. So what service is saying is I'm gonna sacrificially be like my rabbi, I wanna live like Jesus, and I wanna go low so he can go high. I'm sacrificing my position and my honor and my pride to serve people in the name of Jesus. Was it what a sacrificial look like? It's proximity, proximity is worship. This is what Lazarus did, right? And so in other words, when I pray, it's a sacrifice. Now here's what I mean. It's, I'm humbling myself because the prayer at the end of the day is me saying, God, I can't, but you can't, okay? Me reading the Bible is saying, God, I don't have the answers, but you do. I don't have enough wisdom, but you do. I'm humbling, that's why it's a sacrifice, it hurts. And now if you're a Christian, you haven't felt that in a while, maybe, but listen, when you're new to this thing, you're like, man, I'm actually saying not my kingdom come, but his kingdom come?

Like that hurts. What else is it? It's also singing, okay? Now here's what we say, worship isn't only singing, but singing is worship when it's done to the Lord. Now how is it a sacrifice? Here's what I mean. Worship is sacrifice when life sucks, but you worship anyway. That's, you ever heard of a sacrifice of praise? I'm gonna offer a sacrifice of praise. That's why when you're going through the valley, come on Psalm 103, says bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. In other words, sometimes guys, you come in to service and you're like, ah, about a week, I'm tired, I didn't get my cup of coffee, I don't really feel like worshiping. And sometimes you have to look at your soul and say, hey, so, hey, you're really lazy in there. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, you're gonna get up, you're gonna praise this holy name, come on, you're gonna lift up your hands even when you don't feel like it. That's not fake, that's perseverance, that's a sacrifice of praise. They're saying, I don't feel like it, but so are you gonna do it anyway. 'Cause he's still good even when life is not, come on. And this is where we get to the Greek word for worship

is proscaneo, proscaneo. Proscaneo means to bow, means to kneel, or camera go with me. It means to prostrate yourself. Okay, what is the context for proscaneo? It's what you do in the presence of a king. So when the Caesar would show up, you better believe you proscaneo. I wrote your heads about to roll, right? What you're doing is you're acknowledging, come on, somebody greater than me is in the room. Here's our problem in Christian culture, we kinda lost some of that. And so let me just speak to the men just for a second. You need to prostrate or more. Why? Because you live in a world that wants it to be all about you. It says it's all about you. Especially if you got a title, bro. Like if you got a title like a husband, come on. You got a title of the boss. You walk around, everybody serves you, and you can walk into church and feel like, yeah, give me my latte, bro. Come on, then you walk around with your life, like everything serving you, you know? And sometimes you need to prostrate. In fact, pretty much every service, every weekend at some point during worship,

I will prostrate because I have to remind myself that I'm not the greatest one in the room. Come on, guys, especially the men. This is not a, come on, let me just be serious. Ladies, just act like you can't hear for a second. Guys, this is not a feminine thing to do. Come on, whenever, you better believe, whenever I'm singing and I take this posture, I'm not like, Lord, I lift your name on high. No, what I'm actually saying is, my captain is in the room. King Jesus is in the room. I'm taking on like more of a military posture myself. I'm acknowledging my general is in the room right now. And I'm humbling, this is a sacrifice of praise. I am humbling myself in the presence of one who's greater than I am. Okay, that's, this is sacrificial worship. What's the last one? It's just my life, it's just my life. Maybe one of the greatest revelations that you're gonna get today, maybe the greatest gift today, is you're gonna understand that worship doesn't only happen in this room. In fact, I will just tell you, the greatest worship you're gonna participate in this, and this week is gonna happen outside of this room. Here's how Paul says it, okay, Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters

in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Offer your bodies. In other words, your life is worship. It's not just that 30 minutes on a Sunday morning is worship, no, no, no, no, that's part of it. No, my life is worship. Come on, how you work your job is worship. Are you late? Do you leave early? Do you take pencils? I think sometimes we think that that guy is our boss or that girl is our boss, no, no, the Lord is our boss. I work as unto the Lord. How I work my job is showing who my God is. Come on. Do you choose to be holy? That's worship when I put a filter on my phone to keep me away from pornography That was worship Okay, trying to be pure in your relationships with the opposite sex. That's worship Come on pushing away from the third plate of food Can we talk about that one in church? We don't really talk about the gluttony thing in church because that's like the socially acceptable church sin You know I'm saying like bro, you know, let me smoke crack. At least give me some more fried chicken You know I'm saying like come on like give me something got scratched the itch brother You know like come on But come on it's worship everything we do is worship as an opportunity to be worship my life is worship my life It's a sacrifice. It's all beautiful. It's all the sacrifice to God and let me just remind you that doesn't mean there won't be haters Okay verse verse four again, but one of his disciples Judas is Garrett who was later to be try him objective Why didn't she sell the perfume and give it blah blah blah blah? Okay? Have you ever noticed that the greediest people are always the ones who want to tell you what to do with your money This is a social phenomenon today never before I think it's social medias fed this thing, but never before have have the ungodly

Tried to tell the godly how to be godly And you're like, bro, you've never even read a verse in your life in the Bible You just follow tik-tok careticks, you know I'm saying like and you're trying to tell me how to be a Christian And it let this be the reminder guys. Don't don't allow the god haters to intimidate you out of being a god lover Or you give how much to the church you're being celibate. You serve people now. No, I'm not doing it for you I'm not doing it for the applause of man. I'm doing it for the applause of heaven I'm doing it for the Lord. I want to hear well done good and faithful So I want to live that so I'm not living for the applause of people. I'm living for Jesus It's a sacrificial response to who he is and what he's done in my life Right the problem wasn't that Judas didn't understand the value of the perfume Judas didn't understand the value of Jesus And when you don't understand the value of Jesus all worship will look like a waste It'll look excessive and so I just want to caution you I don't know your heart today But listen if you would even be in a church service, you're like that's a little excessive bro like calm down like the worship things will allow today Like I would just caution you It's not that you don't understand. It's loud. It's not that you're not seeing the right thing No, you actually have an under appreciation of the value of Jesus Because I'm telling you guys there's a reason why Jesus is not on that cross because he's not on that cross And if Jesus is right now at the right hand of the father, it's from him. It's through him It's to him that all things belong, you know, um, he deserves everything and more And so maybe if the Lord's even putting on your heart today, I need to sacrificially lay down a relationship Or I've been idolizing my children I I've been spending my whole life climbing this corporate ladder and I'm sacrificing way too much It's not worth that maybe today. You just need to like humbly lay that at his feet And say god, I actually realize it now. Jesus is worth more than all of this And so I'm just going to give that up. I'm going to put into your hands because I want to worship you and you alone Okay, so worship is a response worship is sacrificed last is this really quick Worship is attractive Worship is attractive when mary pours her perfume out on the feet of jesus. Here's what it says the entire room is filled So here's what I mean What begins as only you and jesus? I promise you you continue this long enough. It will spread to the world around you

Here's what we see right after this party verse nine. Meanwhile A large crowd of jesus found out that jesus was there and came not only because of him But also to see lazarus whom he had raised from the dead So the chief priest made the plans to kill lazarus as well, which is the dumbest plan. I've ever heard in my entire life Because he's just dead like 10 minutes ago and then jesus raised him back to life and they're like, no, I know what we should do Let's kill him again Why because on account of him many of the jesus were going over to jesus and believing in him. Here's what i'm saying What we worship is what we advertise You you will attract people to the one that you worship through the way that you worship And and I want you to notice this lazarus is not preaching. He doesn't start a non-profit He's not a missionary. He's just living his life and his life. Listen his life Is an evidence of the fact how jesus raises dead things back to life And through a life lived out in the world other people are Attracted to the one that lazarus is living for who did it in his life because why you whatever you worship You will advertise which begs the question. What are we advertising? What are are you advertising politics if I went on your social feed? Are you advertising beauty products? Are you advertising a multi marketing scheme? Are you advertising? You know, you're you're whatever it is you're sport seeing whatever it is Or am I drawing people to the one that I worship his name's jesus? that I talk about, the number one light that I shine, the number one smell that emanates from my life because I wanna crack open the jar of my life and pour it on his feet. And through that, I want the fragrance of that to fill my family, I want the fragrance of that to fill my neighborhood, I want the fragrance of that to fill my community, my workplace. Because listen, as I live out for Jesus, I'm gonna attract people to the one that I worship. As I love my family, I'm gonna attract my kids to the king.

As I give, I'm actually creating space for people to come in and meet Jesus. As I serve people when they come in, I'm introducing them to what it looks like to be in the kingdom. When I sing loud, man, I'm actually showing people that the tomb is empty. I just wanna invite you. I'm not gonna be here next week. I wanna invite you to give the greatest gift to your pastors right here. Be the most worshipful church on the planet. Man, trust, canal, lift your hands, lift your voice so that unbelievers would walk into this space and understand that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. I haven't met him yet, but they have. I see that they, the tomb is empty because I see the empty tomb on their face. I see the resurrection resurrected Jesus in the way that they love me. And so this begs the thing, here's the last thought. Worship, what is worship? Define it for me. Worship is our sacrificial response to who God is and what he has done that ultimately attracts others to Jesus. Worship is our sacrificial response to who God is and what He has done that ultimately attracts others to Jesus.