When Mercy Meets Praise | Pastor Jason McKinnies | Purpose House Church

So, let's turn first to Exodus chapter 25, then we're gonna go to Leviticus, we're gonna jump to Hebrews, and then we're gonna teach you a song at the end of this. And we'll have a little fun. It's a good day, isn't it? My OCD is kicking in. Is it square? Okay. All right. Unusual pulpit for the day. Exodus 25, you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I will give you. And there, I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the testimony about everything, which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. Now, let's look at Leviticus chapter 16, verses 14 and 15, and then we're gonna jump just to a couple verses in Hebrews. This is Leviticus, and now he's talking to what they need to do with this. He said, you shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. And before the mercy seat,

he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside of the veil. So we're in the holies of holies, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and then sprinkle it before the mercy seat. So he's like, I want you to build this. And then when in the work of the priesthood is to come in and sprinkle blood seven times here on this, sprinkle it on the east once, sprinkle it seven times in the middle, then go out and kill the goat and do the same thing with the goat and with the blood of the goat. Then in Hebrews chapter nine, verse four, and I was talking about what this arc of the covenant, which had the golden censer and the arc of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded and the tablets of the covenant. So I do wanna preach to you, but I really wanna teach you something, show you something that God is giving to us as a pattern, if you will. And there are moments in scripture where God doesn't just give us words. He actually is trying to paint a picture for us.

He's trying to lay out a pattern for us and he gives us really a model of how heaven actually is working. And our desire here on earth is to have heaven on earth. And so God is giving us a model of heaven and how heaven operates and how heaven works. And so what stands before me or sits before me is one of the greatest models or pictures or patterns in all of scripture. We call this the arc of the covenant. And when people think about the arc of the covenant, they often think of power, glory and God's holiness. And that is absolutely true. And this thing would go with them in battle, enemies trembled, but yet they didn't hold it with reverence and when God's presence was there, there was nothing impossible for them. But then what most people don't realize though, is that when you start reading the text about this arc of the covenant and you start thinking about the text that we read to you and especially in Hebrews chapter nine and verse four, if you slow down, you look at it closely, you will see that this arc is really not just a display of victory. It's actually contains some failures. There's a lot of failures contained on the inside of this, but you can't see the failures because God took the failures and he built around it, built around the sides of it, had gold overlaid over the top of it

and then put cherubim on top of it and then covered it with his blood. This is the picture, the pattern. And so we could say for one instance of this, that this box, if you will, this God box, this glory box, this arc of the covenant really has three stories of failures inside of it. Now, when God told them to construct it, he said, I want you to take Acacia wood and I want you to build the box out of Acacia wood and wood in the Bible is often a type of flesh. So we're gonna build a type of flesh around it. And then I want you to overlay that flesh with gold. Gold is deity. And so when the presence in the glory of God, this is really talking even about us because now the glory of the Lord rests inside of us. So we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And so we're flesh. But then he's like, I want you to overlay that with gold because flesh can't stand in his presence. And so something has to cover you in order for you to be in his presence. And what covers you? The blood of Jesus covers you. But then he said, I want you to put three things on the inside of that little, that arc. And now listen, if this is the flesh and something is inside, we're seeing then that the failures

that are on the inside of it are really sins of the heart. There's sins that happen on the inside of a man. And then God says, I want you to put those in that box so that people can be reminded that there are sins of the flesh, certainly, but we can overcome that. And then there are sins that are in the heart. And I want people to be reminded of how easy it is to have sins of your heart and for you to overlook them. Because we will constantly repeat them because if we don't learn from history, we repeat it. And so he says, inside of that arc, I want you to put three things on the inside of that arc. And so on the inside of that arc, he says, first, I want you to put in there this golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and then the 10 commandments. And so we have the 10 commandments over here. And this represents idolatry. The idolatry is of the heart. And so Moses goes up the mountain. And when he goes up the mountain, he's going up there to talk to God for 40 days. And for 40 nights, he's going to be up there. God is going to give him some, just 10 rules for the people to obey. Because now listen, we couldn't get one right in the garden, but now we're gonna go to 10. And so when Moses comes down the mountain,

the people have already violated all of these laws before Moses even got down the mountain. They built a golden calf, and they have idolatry in their heart because we would rather worship something tangible than something that is victorious. Because we would rather get ahold of something that we can control than go up the mountain and see God because the thunder and the lightning and the presence and the glory of God is much harder for us to deal with than all of our bondages. That's why some of you, even though I got as brass tacks as I possibly wanted to today about what's going on in your life, you are still holding on to it because it's much easier for you to deal with your bondage than to deal with God. And you're violating what God is writing. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. And before Moses ever got down the mountain, instead of building this, they had built a golden calf. They built a little cattle over there, and they're dancing around there, and they're worshiping that, but they won't worship God that way. Can I just tell you that that sin still operates in mankind today because it's a sin of the heart. We would cheer and scream for the Cardinals. We would cheer and scream for the Dallas Cowboys.

I'll get upset about Notre Dame football. I'll get invested in that. I'll read the stats. I'll read all that. But when God desires something from me, I'm like, no, I don't think I can do that. My friend, this sin is running rampant in the modern Christian church today. God is third or fourth or fifth place in our lives. And God is saying, listen, I've already covered that up once and I need to remind you to stop violating my law all the time. Then he says, all right, from there, then he says, there's another incident I want you to be reminded of. And it's Aaron's rod that budded. And so it was in, they're having this battle over leadership and they're having a battle over authority and Kora is like, no, no. Our people think that you take too much on you, Moses. You take too much on you. And so we don't think that you're really the person for God. And God said, all right, here's what I want you all to do. I want all of you to bring your dead sticks. Go get your dead stick. Go get your dead sticks out and bring your dead sticks and you lay them all down on the ground. And I'm gonna show you what real authority is. Real authority is the one stick that buds and has life in it even though it's disconnected from everything else

at my word, that thing is going to bud. And that's the person that I'm going to have in authority. And if you don't realize that this generation of people and I'm not talking about an age of people, I'm talking about this generation has a real issue with authority. We have issues in our schools. We have issues on the job. We have issues with the president. We have issues with the governor. We have issues with this pastor. So we moved to 10 of the churches and the issue is not those in authority. It's the fact that you don't like to be under authority. That's why when the pastor says, hey, I need you to live this way. or act that way, people tell me, do my face. That's just stupid, pastor. That's just the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. But my friend, if you want to make heaven your home, you ought to be careful how you handle those that are in authority over the top of you. Amen. Jesus said, I'm even under authority. And so the ones who, and let me tell you how that story ended. Not only did that rod bud, but then there were thousands of people who died over the fact that they would not submit to authority. Do I think that there are people that are in authority

that should not be in authority? Absolutely. My job though, is to pray for those that are in authority. And then, so we have just a dish, rebellion, sin of the heart. And may I tell you that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft. Some people misquote that line like, well, it's like the sin of witchcraft. No, it is the sin of witchcraft. And people talk about, well, I don't know if I'm a witch or not. If you're rebellious in your heart and rebellious in your mind and rebellious in your spirit, you are practicing witchcraft. And I don't know if you know this or not, but this society, while it has a real hard time with authority, doesn't have an issue at all with witchcraft. How do I know that? My Lord, we celebrate it all the time. We're celebrating all these mediums and palm readers and the divination is the spirit of divination. Tell me what's gonna go on in my future. The reason why you have to go ask somebody else about it is because you're not praying to God about it. I'm gonna preach until I get happy. Well, I might as well quit, because I'm happy now. But I think I'm gonna preach until I get happy. I think some of us just, oh, I feel targeted, but that's because the Word of God is coming at you.

So then, the third thing, we have the pot of manna that's gonna come into this ark of the covenant. So now we have this miraculous thing that's now coming to the ark of the covenant. I want you to think about how these people got. They got so used to the miraculous that they begin to complain about the miracle. The whole, Exodus chapter 16, verse two, the whole congregation complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And then in Numbers chapter 11, there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. Well, if it wasn't for the manna before your eyes, you would be starving to death. All we get is preaching and singing. All we get is preaching and singing. And all we get is worship and praise in the Word. If it wasn't for praise and worship in the Word, you would be starving. But people complain about it. They complain about, church services are too long. I don't like all that manna. I wish that woman up there would stop leading worship like that, complaining about the manna. There's first churches of the Frigidaire all over the place. But I pulled the worship pastor aside this morning and said, I need you, despite how you feel today, how many bruises are on your body for trying to perform gymnastics when you should not do it.

I need you to make sure that people are ushered in to the presence of God in their lives. In spite of the fact that since October, she is facing one of the most, the craziest issues I've ever seen anybody face. But I would have been telling her all the time, but I would have been telling her on our walks, these are not physical, they are not hormonal. These are spiritual attacks that are coming against you because you're leaving this house in worship. And so, listen, I can stand here and tell you, that's my wife and I can do all that. But I stood down there just a few moments ago and read my text message about another pastor's wife who committed suicide. And people say the pastor should go ask for help. The reason why pastors don't go ask for help is because it's weaponized against them when the enemy is warring with them. She is not in sin, she's not in anything. The enemy wants to take out the worship leader because if you take out the worship leader, then you get the word out. And then you become the first church in the frigid air and you become a box of failures instead of the glory of God. And we might as well write Ichabod above the door. Now, I know some of you are already on your phone trying to figure out what's going on with Pastor Melissa. There is an attack of the enemy against this church,

against the leadership of this church, against every aspect of this church. He is attacking every one of these musicians. He's doing everything he can to destroy the will of God for us to take the promised land. And my friend, if you're a part of this church, you also are under attack. So we're gonna ask God to pour manna down as long as he wants to pour. We're gonna ask God to pour miracles down and worship and praise and the Word as long as it takes for the body to get set free every single week. They complained about a miracle. God's raining the supernatural down and they called it boring. So we have idolatry, we have rebellion, we have a complaining and a murmuring spirit and God said, you know what to do with that? Take all that and put it in the box. I'll show you that you can't out complain my glory. You can't out rebel my authority. And you can't get any idol that's stronger than I am. When God shows up, idols fall over. Ask Dagon. If you don't know that, head to the starting place. Dagon wound up falling over multiple times, head off, toes off, hands off, everything off. God's saying idols are going to fall to me. Everything's gonna come under my authority. And complaining and murmuring spirits have to turn into praisers and worshipers. But what God didn't do is God did not destroy the evidence. He didn't bury it so no one could find it. He said, I actually, I want you to preserve it. And I want you to put it inside of that box. So every piece of their failure became a permanent artifact in the holiest place of furniture that they own. That should stop you for a moment. Every failure that the enemy accuses you of, God said, I'm gonna forgive you of it. And I'm gonna put it under a place where you and I are gonna meet.

The reason why I wanted to put it there is that when I meet with you on top of it, you need to be reminded of what I brought you out of. Because you weren't always able to meet with me and have a good relationship with me. You used to be a person in idolatry. You had a complaining spirit. You were a rebellious little witch. And I brought you out of that and I applied the blood over you. Now I'll meet with you on top of that. And when we look down, we see a box of all of our failures. And then when we look up, we see a God who wants to meet with us. That ought to cause you to praise God that he didn't allow the failures of your life to keep you from meeting with him. So he says, I want to put them in a permanent place. I'm going to appoint them. So God does not ignore failures. He assigns it a place. It was under the mercy seat where the high priest would sprinkle the blood seven times. And he says, all right, I want you to create for me a mercy seat or the kaporah or a covering. Now the modern translations all say a mercy seat. And most of them would see it like this right here where these two cherubim are meeting together. That God would come down and sit there on the mercy seat or like a throne. He would have the seat like a throne. But there's also another definition of seat. And so we have what we would call a county seat. Here in Williamson County, we have Marion is our county seat. God said, I'm going to meet you on the mercy seat. And what happens at a county seat? What happens there? We have people who are in government that make decisions. They make rules. They make ordinances that affect everything that is under their control.

And God said, I will meet you right here at the mercy seat where God, where you come up under his authority. God produces ordinances and rules and laws that govern what's going on. Around you. Like this one, by my stripes, you are healed. That is an ordinance of God that by his blood, he's meeting you here at the mercy seat where the blood has been applied. He's like, Hey, listen, I'm going to meet you there. And when you come with a disease in your body, I'm going to remind you of an ordinance that because you're under my authority and we're meeting at this, you're healed. You're forgiven. All things are made new. And you look down and you're like, well, don't you remember my complaining spirit? And God was like, I don't see that. You remember that. That's why you praise me. I don't remember that. That's why I meet with you. Because something had to interrupt what was going on in your life. And you're meeting with me. And so he says, I want you to cover it. And every single piece of failure God places on top of that. He places these cherubim and they called it the mercy seat. Exodus chapter 25 verses 21 and 22. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark and in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim, which on the ark of the testimony about everything, which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. So, once a year, one meeting of interest. man, one sacrifice, one moment, the high priest would enter the most holy place and he would apply blood to it. Now his job was not to open up the box and look at all the failures. Oh yeah. I remember when. Not the job of leadership to remind you of your past. Not the job of the people of the church to dig into it and find out what you did and what you didn't do. The job of the high priest was to come once a year and apply blood to it. He shall

take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. And before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Now here's the thing. If they had to come every year and get blood applied to it, once a year they were constantly reminded that if the blood wasn't applied to it, those failures would come back on them. We don't have that. Hebrews tells us without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Romans chapter three, when God set forth as a propitiation or a substitution by his blood. So when God looks down at your life, he's not seeing your failures first. He sees the blood first and nothing is more powerful than the blood of Jesus. And the blood of Jesus sits between the holiness of God and your history. And every time heaven looks at what you've done and where you've been, the first thing it encounters is the covering. Now Hebrews chapter 10 verses three through four, and then I'm going to read 12 through 14. But in those sacrifices that happened, they're the blood of the bulls. There is a reminder, this is Hebrews 10 verses three through four. There is a reminder of sins every year, for it is not possible. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Skip down to verse 12. But this man, speaking of Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time, waiting until his enemies are made his footstool for by one offering, he has perfected forever, forever those who are being sanctified. So he's like, all right, we don't want to remind you every year of it. Once it's gone, it's gone. Never to be remembered against you again. Now, if that is a promise, there has to be a warning. The warning is this. In first Samuel chapter six, they had just lost the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant is now over with the Philistines and it's moving from city to city to city, six different cities it goes to. And every city they're opening up the inside of the ark and they're peering inside of it. They're trying to look at the failures of the people of God. The enemy is looking inside, trying to see what had happened to them. And God smoked all of them and they all needed preparation H. That's Bible. He smoked them with hemorrhoids. He smoked them with boils on their body. In other words, he was saying, listen, what I have covered up, it is not your business as the enemy of the person who has been forgiven to be looking at what I have forgiven. God took it serious. He's like, listen, if they were something in their past, you don't need to be digging down through

there. I don't like people digging through what I have covered up. And listen, we are in a church age right now where we want to uncover everybody's sins and rejudge them. Hello, Julie Royce. You don't even know who that is. She's a blogger who thinks it's her, her whole ministry is to clean out the church of everything. My friend, we ought to be careful about going into things that have been covered by the blood of Jesus. I'm glad this church don't know who she is. She irritates the fire out of me. Every time a church starts growing, every time a church starts doing something, she finds five people who used to attend there and they got this issue and they got issue. I'll tell you what the issue is. The issue is they're in witchcraft. So there's a warning. And he said, God struck the men of Bethshemesh because they looked into the ark of the Lord. Second Samuel chapter six, us and then reaches out and he touches and grabs ahold of the ark of the God and God struck him there. God doesn't want you to handle his glory with irreverence. Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked who can know it. I can touch it. I can, I'm, I'm strong enough to know what was going on in people's lives. Really? I've asked God to wash my brain out with mouthwash. God is not being arbitrary here. God is making a declaration. He's saying, what I have covered, no one has the permission to uncover it. Not the accuser, not the enemy, not your past, not the people who remember what you used to be, not even you should uncover your past. When God covers something with his blood, he is guarding it. So what the blood is covered, no one has the right to expose it. Then he says, I have a pattern here. He says, I want you to place the cherubim. This is heaven's architecture, by the way. Man didn't come up with this idea, God did. This is heaven's blueprint. And he says, I want you to set something

on top of the mercy seat. Not just gold, not just an ornament, but two cherubim. Two angelic figures crafted in pure gold. Wings stretched wide, hovering over the covering. And there's a detail, though, that changes really everything. Here's what he says in Exodus chapter 25, verse 20. The cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. Now, this is not a decorative design. This is divine architecture. There's a reason why God wanted it. God wasn't just telling the Israelites how to build a box. He's showing them how his glory actually moves. This is how the glory moves. First, things gotta be covered with the blood. Then angels are over the top of it, covering and hovering over the top of it. Now, let's look at Isaiah chapter six, in verse three. It says there, and one, talking about these, the seraphim, one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. So these angels are facing one another, and they're not aimed at the congregation. They're not looking around. They're not looking for an enemy. They're looking at one another

over the top of God's mercy. And when they see God's mercy and God's grace and what God is willing to forgive for people to be able to worship him, they're like, he's holy. And the other one says, yeah, but they were idolatrous. But he forgave them that, he's holy. But they were complaining about his manna, he's holy. Then they were complaining about the quail, he's holy. They were in witchcraft and he forgave them, he's holy. They were messed up in drugs and alcohol and he forgave them, he's holy. And every time God forgives something and every time the blood is applied, the angels are like, he's holy. I can't believe he, I mean, we were in heaven. I didn't think that one was gonna make it, but he died for that one. He gave his life for the whole world so that that one could be covered. I mean, if that one is covered, we need to hover over the top of that and say, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, the one who was and is and is to come. And now what happens when they start crying back and forth over the top, when they start shouting back and forth, he's holy, he's holy. See, sound has sound waves and sound actually creates some action. Here's where it says it, the next verse.

They're shouting to one another, calling out to one another. He says, and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with the smoke. And so when they're shouting holy, holy back and forth, all of a sudden the glory of the Lord starts coming down in the middle of it and the posts of the door was shaken and the smoke filled the entire house. So they're not facing outward. They could care less what's going on around them. All they're worried about is what they see God is accomplishing through his mercy and through his grace, stretch out their wings, cover it. So one is speaking, one responds. Sound is exchange. And whenever sound is exchanged, the glory fills the space. Now the church mirrors this design. Now look at this room. There's a platform on one side or a stage or whatever we're supposed to call it. And then there's people on the other side, one facing the other. Ephesians chapter, so this is not accidental at all. This is a heavenly blueprint. This is a divine design. The structure of corporate worship is modeled by the tabernacle. It's modeled before any of us were ever born. It's modeled.

Ephesians 5, 19 tells us speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Then Colossians chapter three, verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So we're to do it one. to another. It's not just Pastor Melissa's supposed to sing, we also in the congregation are supposed to sing. And when she starts singing and you start singing, they start singing up here and the worship team starts singing and the musicians start playing and the sound goes that way. Then you start singing and there is a sound that goes this way. Can I tell you what's missing in heaven right now? There was one who was in charge of worship who kind of fell. Do y'all know who he is? I mean he fell. We don't really need to name his name because he's not important because you're the replacement of him. And so when worship fell out of heaven, God said I'm going to make a design to make it look like and feel like what I used to feel when that old angel of light used to dance before me and clap his hands. And he's all the creation according to Ezekiel and Zechariah about Lucifer. He is a worship machine. He's the drums, he's the stringed instruments, he's the breath, he's the woodwind, he's the brass wind, he's everything. God said I know how I'll replace that. I'll design a tabernacle and design the church to create what I'm missing in heaven. So when you start worshiping and they start worshiping and they start singing that way and you start singing this way, all of a sudden sounds meeting in the middle. And you know what happens when sound meets in the middle? The pillars begin to shake and the room starts filling with smoke. And the glory of the Lord starts filling the whole pattern. So 2 Chronicles is indeed it came to pass when the trumpeters and the singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments and music and praised the Lord saying for he is good and for his mercy endures forever that the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house

of God. What was happening? They were in one mind and one accord. They were in unity and the singers were singing and the instrument players were playing and God said I love that. And that's what David wrote. He said and he inhabits the praises of his people. God doesn't just walk by when you're praising him. He said oh they're praising me. I'm going to sit in the middle of that and be enthroned a seat in the middle of that praise. I'm going to, I'm going to love on that glory for a moment. So they come in one voice, one sound and the glory came. Psalm 22 3 but you are wholly enthroned in the praises of Israel. So God doesn't just show up and attend. He inhabits them. He receives them. He sets up residence inside of it. He builds his throne in the middle of the sound of worship. Now fast forward to Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost had fully come. They were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a what? A what? A sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Now the conditions were this. Before the glory came, before the fire fell, before tongues fell, there were two things present in that room. Unity and a sound. Unity, one mind, one accord. And then look what followed. It filled the whole house, overflowing transformation. Three thousand souls are added to the church in a single morning. It wasn't random. It was God's pattern, his blueprint on display. So the mercy seat, we have the cherubim facing. Sound is exchanged. The glory begins to fill it. Acts 2, one accord, sound from heaven, house is filled, lives are transformed. Same pattern, different generation, same God. The ark was the picture. Acts 2 was the experience. And what God has done twice in scripture, he's still doing today. So if the ark was the picture and Acts 2 was the experience, you're actually the next chapter. Because the book of Acts has never ended. Heaven operates on a sound. The Bible describes the voice of God in many ways, multiple ways. And every one of them is a different register, if you will, of heaven's frequency. It was known as a still, small voice in 1 Kings 19. In Ezekiel 43, it was the voice of many waters or the sound of many waters. Psalm 29 and 3, it was like a thunder. In 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, it's the sound of like a trumpet. So heaven is not silent, nor should his church. Heaven is alive with sound. Heaven is structured by sound. Heaven is released through sound. Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 through 10, a great multitude, which no one could number, crying out with a loud voice, saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb, how the blood is applied. Revelation chapter 14.

Verse two, and I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps and they sang as it were a new song before the throne. So heaven is operating on a frequency of worship, declaration and agreement. God said, take their failures, put them into a box, cover it with blood, place angels over the top of it, let them face one another, and when the sound is right, when the blood has been applied to it, I will sit in the middle of it. It's what it was in the Ark, it's what it was in Acts chapter two, and that's what it can be at Purpose House. How I learned this whole dynamic though, was in Sunday school. I learned it through two songs, you're only gonna hear one today. How many of y'all remember this one? When the praises go up, the blessings come down. That's the principle. When the praises go up, the blessings come down. What is the blessing? Blessing is the glory of God coming down onto your life. That way, when you're at the threshing floor and the wind is blowing, you remain while everything else is scattered. Anything that is not in your life, that is in your life that should not be in your life,

when the wind blows, it's not heavy enough to stay. So we send up praise, we send up Judah, and then God says, I'm gonna sit, I'm gonna sit right there. So God must be heavy. I'm gonna sit right there. Sit there on praise. So I've taught you this principle, this blueprint. The other song we would do is one we used to get in trouble singing because we were in the basement of the church with metal chairs on a concrete floor. What would normally happen, what started off as a contest turned into the glory because you can be kind of sacrilegious in your praise and then God will still show up because God's like, hold on a second. You just think you're having fun. Let me let you feel me. And the whole dynamic would change. Everything in the room changed. And so if you're in the choir here today, if you're on our choir teams, you're on our worship team, you know what to do. You're supposed to come on the stage so you can just come up both sides of the stage and we're going to practice this dynamic. The frontline teams, all y'all. I see you down here hiding. I don't want to run you over.

So we would do this song. And usually it was the boys against the girls. Boys always won because tenors have a sound that can shake a room. Why do you think the devil fights against men? Because he's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. Why do you think the devil fights against men worshiping so much? Because when men begin to worship, the whole house begins to shake. When the pillars start shaking, the house begins to shake. But we're not going to do it boys against girls. I think that these 40 or 50 people up here can out-sing all of you. Game? You don't know about that? I got a pair of gloves. You ready? Yes. All right, which one do you want?

We don't care. Oh, we'll eventually get to the mics. All right, you ready Pastor Melissa? You wanna lead us? Yes. Y'all know this song? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. You ready? Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. You guys need a choir director. Stephanie. Praise ye the Lord, hallelujah. Stephanie. Praise ye the Lord, hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord, hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Praise be the Lord! Hallelujah, Hallelujah! Praise be the Lord! Praise be the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise be the Lord, Hallelujah! Praise be the Lord, Hallelujah!

Praise be the Lord! Praise be to God!