You Are What You Worship - Brad Hughes (Full Experience)

Fellowship Church, are you ready to worship God in this place today? Come on, put your hands together with us. We're going to show you our new song. It's about the love of God that we sing about every single day of our lives because He's been faithful and He always will be. Come on, sing this with us. I have searched high and low I've never found a love that's better So where else could I go? Oh, Your words will last forever You're the way and the truth The life that I choose And nothing's gonna take You away My light in the dark The King of my heart Every voice, hear it I just want to sing of Your love I just got to sing of Your love Your promises were proven in blood You said it is done There's more than enough So I just want to sing of Your love Hey! You thought of me on a calvary Even though I did not deserve it You set me free So I'm free indeed Now I'm walking in a greater purpose You're the way and the truth The life that I choose

And nothing's gonna take You away My light in the dark The King of my heart I just want to sing of Your love Come on, you say I just got to sing of Your love Your promises were proven in blood You said it is done There's more than enough So I just got to sing of Your love Come on, you say Let's go Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Yeah, yeah Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh I've got a million reasons I shouldn't even be here But I will love and breathe Him It's all because of Jesus I've got a million reasons I shouldn't even be here But I will love and breathe Him It's all because of Jesus I just wanna sing of Your love I just gotta sing of Your love Your promises were proven in blood You said if it's done There's more than enough

I just gotta sing of Your love I've got a million reasons I shouldn't even be here But I will love and breathe Him It's all because of Jesus It's all because of Jesus Come on, how many are grateful for a God that we serve? Let's sing out to Him There was no way Until You made Grace upon grace Hallelujah Even though I don't deserve You did it Even though I couldn't earn it You give it Who am I That You keep me on Your mind God, I'm just grateful for You God, I'm just grateful for You ♪ All my life, you've been right here by my side ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Come on, are you grateful? ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, there's only one ♪ ♪ I give you glory for all that you've done ♪ ♪ Even though I don't deserve it, you did it ♪ Come on, even though. ♪ Even though I couldn't earn it, you did it ♪ So we say, who am I?

♪ Who am I that you keep me on your mind? ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ All my life. ♪ All my life, you've been right here by my side ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ So we say, who am I? ♪ Who am I that you keep me on your mind? ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Oh, yes I am. ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ All my life. ♪ All my life, you've been right here by my side ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ God, I'm just grateful. ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Oh, I'm grateful for you, God. If he did it for me, he can do it for you. If he did it for me, he can do it for you. You gotta put your trust in him. ♪ And I, I, I, I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ You gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I, I, I, I'm giving all that I am ♪ ♪ You gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ Sing it out. ♪ And I, I, I, I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ You gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I, I, I, I'm giving all that I am ♪ ♪ You gave me chance after chance after chance ♪

We sing. ♪ Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ You've known my life all my life ♪ ♪ You've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ We sing. ♪ Who am I, who am I that you keep me on your mind, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ You've known my life all my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ I survive and I'm here to testify, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ And I'm alright, I'm alright if they say I'm out of my mind, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Amen. ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you, we're so grateful, God, we thank you, Jesus ♪ No matter where you are, I encourage you to fix your heart, to fix your eyes on Jesus, to give him a heart of gratitude this morning, to thank him in your own words for who he is, for what he's done, for his goodness, his faithfulness. ♪ We thank you, Jesus, praise you, Jesus, praise you, Jesus ♪ So, oh my words for sure I've got nothing new How could I express All my gratitude I could sing these songs As I often do Every song I sing And you never do So I throw up my hands And praise you again and again Cause all that I have is Hallelujah Hallelujah And I know it's not much I've nothing else before a king

Except for a heart singing Hallelujah Hallelujah I've got one response I've got just one move With my arms stretched wide I will worship you So I throw up my hands And praise you again and again Cause all that I have is Hallelujah Hallelujah And I know it's not much I've nothing else before a king Except for a heart singing Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Come on my soul Don't you get shy on me Lift up your song You've got a lion Inside of those lungs Get up and praise the Lord Come on my soul Don't you get shy on me Lift up your song You've got a lion Inside of those lungs Get up and praise the Lord

Come on my soul Don't you get shy on me Lift up your song You've got a lion Inside of those lungs Get up and praise the Lord Come on my soul Don't you get shy on me Lift up your song You've got a lion Inside of those lungs Get up and praise the Lord So I throw up my hands And praise you again and again Cause all that I have is Hallelujah And I know it's not much I've nothing else before a king Except for a heart singing Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Come on can we give Jesus our gratitude Our praise today We thank you Lord Amen Hey let's read the word of God together Let's read the Bible together Read this out loud with me

Say enter his gates with thanksgiving And his courts with praise Give thanks to him Bless his name For the Lord is good His steadfast love endures forever And his faithfulness never dies Faithfulness to all generations. Anybody thankful for that this morning? Amen We know that gratitude changes something in us. And I love when science catches up with scripture. Doesn't matter what difficult season you might be walking through in your life, when you fix your eyes and your faith and your trust that God loves you, he's for you, he's with you, he's seated on the throne, he's in control. It fills you with joy, it fills you with peace, it fills you with hope. So come on, one more time, whatever season you're walking through right now in your life, just take a moment and say, thank you, God. Thank you that you're in control. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, you may be seated. Welcome to Fellowship Church, perhaps the most joyful church in all of Texas. All the planet.

It's good to have you here with us today. My name's Derek Bonneau, I'm one of our pastors, and on behalf of Pastor Ed and Lisa Young, we wanna thank you for joining us. Hello to our online family. And if you're here for the first time, church family, can we show our love and appreciation to all of our guests with us today? We believe that the church isn't just a place we come together, but it's a place we grow together through community, and we wanna help you find that. So listen, right in front of you, there is this blue Connect card. I want you to grab it, wave it at me, fan yourself off if you need to. It's starting to get hot outside. You can fill this out online as well. Just take a moment to fill this out, some basic information about yourself. Perhaps you have a prayer request. We believe in the power of prayer. We'd love to pray for you. But this will allow us to follow up with you and tell you about everything from our Bible studies for marrieds and single adults, our Connect groups for men and women, FC sports. We've got so many great ways for you to plug in and get connected. And today, if you're like, listen, I don't wanna wait for somebody to call me.

I wanna start getting involved, meeting people today. Come to our newcomer's luncheon. It's actually gonna be breakfast for you guys, but we'll be right across the hall. It's a free breakfast. We'll hang out with some cool, amazing people. It's relaxed, and we'll just talk to you about the vision, the heartbeat of Fellowship Church, and help you experience all that we have to offer. We would love to have you there. It's right after this experience. Right now, we're gonna continue to worship through bringing God a portion of what He's blessed us with. And we wanna thank all of you for your impact in helping change lives through the many ministries of Fellowship Church. You know, there's one area we wanna highlight this morning, and it is our support and recovery ministries. You may not know this, and maybe you're going through a difficult season right now in your life, but every week, we help men and women who are battling through addiction, people who are struggling with grief. We have a widow's group. We have groups for those that are getting divorced. We have groups for people battling anxiety and depression. We also have an incredible ministry that we partner with called MEND.

That is for mothers and families who have lost a child, where we come alongside them, we pray with them, we give them resources for this difficult season and transition in life. So whatever you're going through, we want you to know you're not alone. If you're looking for more information, you can go to fellowshipchurch.com. You can also tap your seat. But to all of you who give, we wanna thank you because you make all of this possible. And to those that are going above and beyond to give to the Anchor Project, thank you as well, because you're helping build the future, the future. The church looks good now, but it looks great for the future as well. Because of all your generosity, we're gonna build a student center. We break ground this summer. This is gonna be unlike anything we've ever seen to reach children and students and families for generations to come. So thank you so very much. God bless you. Today, we get to hear a great word from a great man. He leads, speaking of MEND, MEND right here at Fellowship Church. I'm talking about our MEND's ministry, Fellowship MEND. First Tuesday of every month, MEND, show up to the Source Cafe.

We have a great time of Bible study and prayer together. We've got MEND's groups that happen throughout the week. So Pastor Brad Hughes is in the house. He's gonna be bringing the word today. We're excited to hear from him, but before we do, we just wanna pray and get our hearts ready for what God wants to do in our lives. So if you would just close your eyes, bow your head, just take a moment to just think about what's going on in your life and just bring it all to God. Heavenly Father, we come here today to meet with you. And will you right now just still and silence our hearts and our souls and everything that's going on in our lives, anything that's going on in our lives. It's distracting us from you and the life that you have for us. We pray that you help us to identify it and just lay it at your feet. Thank you, Jesus, that you were greater than anything. And show us today who we are. Help us to receive your love and to put our faith in you. We love you. We praise you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Let's continue to worship as the offering passes. Let's remain seated. ♪ You give life, you are love ♪

♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, you restore ♪ ♪ Every heart that is broken, you save ♪ ♪ Great are you Lord, it's your breath ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you, holy ♪ God, we pour out our praise. Come on, let's stand and sing you goodbye. ♪ You give life, you are love ♪ ♪ You bring light to the darkness ♪ ♪ You give hope, you restore ♪ ♪ Every heart, every heart that is broken ♪ We all sing, great are you Lord. ♪ Great are you Lord, oh God you're great ♪ ♪ Great are you Lord, it's your breath ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you, holy ♪ ♪ It's your breath, it's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise, pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your breath in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you, holy ♪ The Bible says to let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. And every breath that's in your lungs, it came from God. It belongs to God. So let's join with the heavens.

Let's join with all creation as they praise Him 24-7. God is good, God is great. Sing it out. ♪ All the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will say ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord of the earth ♪ ♪ All the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will say ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord of the earth ♪ Come on, with all the earth, with all the heavens, sing it out. ♪ All the earth will shout your praise ♪ ♪ Our hearts will cry, these bones will say ♪ ♪ Great are you, Lord of the earth ♪ Oh God, it's your praise, it's your praise. ♪ It's your praise in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise ♪ ♪ It's your praise in our lungs ♪ ♪ So we pour out our praise to you, Lord ♪ ♪ It's your praise in our lungs, so we pour out our praise ♪ Pour out our praise, pour out our praise It's your grace We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys So we pour out our praise to you Oh, everybody sing Great are you Lord Come on one more time with all you got Lift it up Great are you Lord God we love you

You are great and mighty and worthy of our praise Prepare our hearts for what you want to do in our lives It's in your name we pray and everybody say it Amen You may be seated Good morning Fellowship Church, how we doing this morning? But before we get going I've got a little confession to make We just got to clear the air And I hope this doesn't disqualify me from speaking to you today But I've got to tell you I'm a Creed fan You know like the band Creed With arms wide open Can you take me higher? I do a mean rendition of higher on karaoke night So just uh That's by request only okay But I will, I will But I love the band Creed And some time ago I went to the Creed concert With a couple of friends by the name of Pastor Derek Bonneau And Pastor Dave Clark Come on guys Back me up here I'm not going down alone But we went to the Creed concert We were having a blast you know We're singing all the lyrics to all the songs We've got our arms wide open You know

We're having a blast and you know I started to look around And I realized This is like, a lot of us are very similar We all kind of look the same Like a lot of white guys You know what I mean And like even to the fashion You know what I mean Like the jeans with like the embroidered pockets And the white tank tops You know like you might wonder Do people still wear the white tank top Oh the white tank top is doing real good Okay, just go to the Creed concert But I looked around and everyone kind of looks the same We're saying the same words to the songs And I'm realizing like We have a lot in common And to be honest that would be true Of any crowd that gathers right We gather because we have something in common If I took you to Disney World You'd see lots of little families And they'd have their Mickey ears on And their matching outfits If I took you to a political rally You know you'd see people who think alike And have the same values And the same mindset

Some political rallies have people with matching red hats And some have people with matching blue hair It just kind of depends on Which one you go to But the reality is That the reason all of these gatherings Everyone kind of looks the same Is because we are formed By the things that we set our minds to The things that we give our attention to And our affections to And even spend our money on We're formed by these things In other words we are formed by our worship In the title of this talk The thought that I want us to get And grasp today is that You are what you worship You are what you worship What if I told you that worship Was a pathway not for us To just know God But to become more like Him What if I told you That so many of the things that we face And the problems that we deal with And our internal struggles Could be dealt with If we would get serious about worship And learn to worship well

What if I told you that Addictions could find recovery That marriages could find healing That sinful thoughts Could start to fade away If we would learn to worship well Because we would become more like Christ You are what you worship And so for the next 20 minutes or so We're going to talk about Why we worship, how we worship And what happens when we worship Have you ever wondered Why we worship Like is this just all like pomp and circumstance Like what are we doing here I put on my Sunday best And I drove to this building We dropped the kids off, maybe grabbed a coffee down, sing some songs, listen to a guy talk, and then go home and do it all over again the next week. Why are we here? What is this all for? What is this all about? Well, the easy answer is because God is worthy. You know, like God, the creator of the universe. I think sometimes we forget just how worthy of our worship God is. You know, he's the God who set the stars in the sky and he knows them by name.

He calls the heavens his throne and the earth his footstool. He created all things, yet for some reason, he still wants a relationship with little old me and little old you. So much so that he sent his one and only son down from heaven to earth to live perfectly, die sacrificially, rise bodily. That God is worthy of our worship. Come on, can we just take a moment to give him the worship that he deserves this morning? And if that were all there was to it, God would be well within his right. He would be worthy. If we could just worship God every moment of every day and never do anything other than that, he would be 100% worthy and we still wouldn't be able to give him enough worship. But get this, God is so good that he actually gives you some of the benefits of worship. Is that crazy? That as we worship, we actually start to become more like Christ. As we worship, we start to become more like the thing that we are worshiping. Psalm 115, verses four through eight say this. But their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, noses but cannot smell.

They have hands but cannot feel, feet but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them. In other words, if you wanna be deaf and blind and lame and dumb and dead, then go worship an idol. But if you wanna have life and life to the fullest, then worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords whose name is Jesus Christ. You are what you worship. You are what you worship. And I can't help but think of the story of Peter, the apostle. You know, at one point, the disciples had just finished some ministry with Jesus and Jesus said, you guys go ahead to the next stop, I'm gonna go and pray. And so they get on a boat and they cross the Sea of Galilee and as they do, a storm begins to rage to the point that they don't even know if they're gonna make it out alive. And the disciples look out on the water and they see this figure standing on the water and that makes no sense. So their minds say, this can't be a person, so it must be the next logical thing. They think it's a ghost. And Jesus calls out, no, it's just me. And Peter says, Lord, if it is you, then call me out on the water.

And so Jesus calls him. So he gets out of the boat and he puts a foot on the water and he begins to walk on water so long as his eyes are focused on Jesus. But what happens? He begins to worry and he begins to look at the wind and the waves and he wonders, what's gonna happen if I sink? And sure enough, he begins to sink like a rock. And I love Jesus's response. He saves Peter, he picks him up and then he looks at him and he says, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Could it be that some of us maybe at one point in our life, we were walking on water. We were in a moment in our faith where it's like, man, we were clicking on all cylinders. We were in our word, we were in prayer. We were worshiping, man. But then the worries of the world caught up to us and we started to fade. You see, Peter's problem was that he allowed his worship to wander. And I think for so many of us, we allow our worship to wander. The finances get tight and we allow our worship to wander. We have marital struggles and we allow our worship to wander. We get a bad diagnosis, we allow our worship to wander. But I believe that Jesus is looking at you and I today. with those loving eyes.

He's not asking this question to be rude or to be condescending. No, he's looking at us with a smile on his face and he's saying, why did you doubt? Did you not think I could handle your finances? Did you not think that I could handle the worries of this world, your health? Did you not think that I held that in the palm of my hand? This isn't taking me by surprise. Why did you doubt? And I just believe that God wants you to live a life of walking on water, of doing the impossible for him, of walking step by step, day by day, with Jesus side by side. He wants to see you do amazing things for God, to raise those children in the love of the Lord so that they grow up to follow Jesus, to run that business in a way that it points people straight to Jesus, to live your life, to love your spouse, to raise your kids, to do everything that you do so that people can see your good works and it would glorify your father in heaven. But here's the thing, you will never experience the abundant life that God has for you if we allow our worship to wander. And so the question is, how do I do it? You know, I get all that, Brad, but like, what do I do? Do I just like sing songs all day? Is that what I'm supposed to do?

I'm worshiping in the kitchen, you know, like I'm worshiping in the car, like, is that worship? Well, the Bible tells us what worship is. That's what's so good about God is he doesn't leave it up to mystery. And so worship starts in our private life. We worship God privately. Matthew 6, 6, Jesus says, but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. I love that. He says, go in your room, shut the door and pray to your father who is unseen, who sees what is done in secret. You don't have to post it on Instagram. You don't have to create a reel or a picture with your Bible and your coffee and like a cute little quote, you know. Just go into your room, shut the door and have a private moment with God. But the problem is we live in this culture where everybody wants to know everything that you've ever done. And so like, have you ever met like a marathoner before? It's all they talk about. Yeah, I'm getting 50 miles in this week, working up to a hundred. I got a mare next month, short for marathon.

It's like, no one says that, but like. It's like, it's all they talk about. Like you can't talk about anything else. It's like, it just makes you feel terrible about yourself. You know what I'm saying? Like that's how CrossFit used to be until everyone started getting hurt. And now we don't have to hear about CrossFit anymore. And to be clear, I did wake up at 4.30 a.m. this past week. So I'm calling the kettle black. At least I'm honest, you know, four out of seven days. So I'm basically Jocko. You know what I'm saying? But we live in this world where we want to tell everyone, you know, I had my quiet time today, you know, not trying to brag, but if we would get serious in our private worship, I can tell you some of the most profound moments of your life will be in your room with the door shut in a moment just between you and God. These moments where you will hear God speak to you in a surreal way, with your Bible open, with the worship music playing, will be so impactful. You will get ideas like you've never had. You will have dreams for your life like you've never had if you would get serious in private worship. Jesus wants to get to know you in this private time. This should be sacred time that you and I have each and every day of our life. Second Chronicles 7.14 says,

if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. How many people want to see our land healed and sins forgiven? Well, guess what? It starts with me and it starts with you. you in this private time with the Lord. We come to him and God takes out the things that need to be taken out of our heart and our soul and he downloads his heart and his soul into us and we become like the one that we are worshiping. How many know you are what you worship? And so it starts privately and secondly, it continues publicly. In the Lord's prayer, Jesus says, our father who is in heaven, holy is your name. He doesn't say my father. Jesus is setting the tone that there is a collectivism to our faith. We are not mercenaries on a solo mission doing our own thing through life. No, we are an army on the battlefield accomplishing the great cause of God. Accomplishing the great commission that God has for us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And so we have to understand that we are not alone. See, the enemy's plan for your life is to isolate you, to make you feel like you're all alone. No one else struggles with that sin that you're dealing with. Who do you think you are? You think you can show up to church? What? But can I just encourage you this morning? You're not alone. Somebody needs to hear that this morning. You are not alone. No matter who you are, no matter what you walked in with, no matter what you did last night, we're glad you're here. We love you. Jesus has a plan for your life and you're not alone. And the enemy wants us to feel like we're alone. He wants to isolate us. He wants us to feel like we're the only person in the world struggling with what we're dealing with. But when I show up to church, and we're blessed here at Fellowship Church across all of our locations, I look around, I see hundreds of others, and I'm reminded I'm not alone. I'm in this thing. There's others that are in the fight with me. See, it's so important that we worship God publicly. And God actually tells us how he prefers

to be worshiped in this setting. In Colossians 3.16, he says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Have you ever wondered why we sing songs in church? Because it's in the Bible. God tells us, I want you to sing these songs, and he tells us exactly why. He says, because the message of Christ dwells richly among you. And it's a way that we teach and encourage one another in the faith. So when we sing these songs, and we sing the truth in God's word, get this, we actually start to believe the very thing that we're singing. In other words, in other words, sometimes you just gotta sing it even if you don't feel it. I have a five-year-old son named Jackson, and one of his favorite songs is an old country song by Travis Tritt, It's a Great Day to Be Alive. He loves that song, and you know, some days I'll pick him up from school. It's been a long day, you know, maybe I'm frustrated. Maybe I got things going on at work

and things that I'm trying to think through, and I'm just, I'm not, to be honest, it doesn't feel like a great day to be alive. And I'll put Jackson in the back of the car, and he'll say, dad, play It's a Great Day to Be Alive. And so I'll put the song on, and you know, we'll start out singing, you know, I got rice cooking in the microwave. A three-day beard I don't plan to shave. It's a goofy thing, but I just gotta say, I'm doing all right. And you know, we'll get through the first verse, and we'll hit the first chorus, and then it turns out to be kind of like that scene from Tommy Boy, where like by the end of the song, I'm singing it, he's singing it, we're crying. It's like, this is a beautiful moment. I'm like, you know what, it is a great day to be alive. I got a lot to be thankful for. And you know, that's actually the point of music. You know, that's a gift from God. God created music to lift our spirits, to lift our souls to him. And it's even more powerful when we come here, and we sing the truth from God's word. And even if you walked in, and you're like, you know what, it doesn't feel like a great day to be alive. We sing that the joy of the Lord is my strength.

We sing the truth from God's word, and we sing what the Bible says, and guess what? We start to believe it as we sing it. I'm thankful that God has given us this gift of worship. Psalm 47.1 says, clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with cries of joy. So clapping your hands is an act of worship. Having joy in the house of God is important. Come on, can I just be real for a second? I greet like all of you guys, y'all know that, right? I'm out there like every Sunday. I see you walking in, and some of y'all need to let your brain tell your face that you have the joy of the Lord. You know what I'm saying? I'm talking to you guys. You know who you are. And you know, I get it, you know, we go through stuff. Life happens and all of that, but when I show up to church, I should have the joy of the Lord. I should be excited. I should be fired up because God has given me grace that I didn't deserve. He's given me mercy that I didn't earn. He's given me forgiveness. He has saved my soul. Come on, how many have the joy of the Lord this morning? Amen. Psalm 134 too says, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.

143 six, I spread my hands to you. I thirst for you like a parched land. First Timothy 2, eight, therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. See, I had to come correct on that one about lifting hands. I brought three verses, because I know we got a lot of reformed Catholics and Baptists in the room today. See, lifting your hands is in the Bible. It's not just some weird thing, you know, that crazy Christians do, you know, if you're charismatic or something like that, but it's just a sign of surrender and submission and putting something above you, admitting and humbling ourself that there is something up there higher than us, and it is the God of the universe. And so I lift my hands to put God in his proper place and to put me in my proper place. And I love this last verse from first Timothy. The apostle Paul is encouraging the men in churches everywhere to lead the way in prayer and to lead the way, lifting holy hands to God. And I love that he says holy hands, meaning that when we lift our hands, let's make sure that they're holy. Let's make sure that they're clean. Let's make sure that we're not just talking the talk,

but we're walking the walk. And here's the amazing thing, is God can clean your hands in an instant. So whatever you walked in with from last night or the week before or the month before, you just say, God, clean my hands. Forgive me of my sin. Help me to turn from my wicked ways, Lord. And if we will do that, men, we will lead this church, lead our families in worshiping the God of the universe. And so we worship God privately. It starts privately. We continue that by worshiping God publicly. And then this whole thing just gets better and better as we worship God perpetually. Colossians 3.17 says, and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. He says, whatever you do, whatever you do. If you're a homemaker, then make that home to the best of your ability. Make it amazing. If you're running a business, then run that business to the glory of God. If you work a nine to five, then do such a good job that you are undeniable, that people will take notice so that it points people to Jesus. Whatever you do, on the pickleball court,

in the gym, wherever you go, be excellent in everything that you do so that it will point people to Jesus and get this as you continue to worship God perpetually in your day-to-day life, in every single moment. When you bring Jesus to do the dishes with you, when you bring Jesus to mow the lawn with you, when you bring Jesus. Everywhere you go, Jesus will begin to give you a passion for what He's passionate about, people. And you will begin to worship the Lord by bringing others closer to Jesus, by fulfilling that great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. You see, God has called us to worship Him. And worship is not limited to what just happens in this room. Please understand that worship, it starts long before we ever step foot in here. Worship is in our Monday through Saturday. Worship is when we go in our room and we close the door and we have a private moment of worship. Worship is every moment of every day as we live the life that God has called us to live. And we do our best to live a life that is pleasing to Him. And here's the thing, you're gonna screw up, you're gonna mess up, nobody's perfect. But when we fall, we get back up and we keep worshiping and we thank Him for His grace and His mercy and how good our God is.

And then we get to come here and worship publicly and we just get to remind ourselves that we're not alone. And so for some of you this morning, you need to take the first step in your life of worship and you need to simply surrender your life to Jesus. Surrendering your life to Jesus is as simple as ABC. It starts with admitting that you've sinned and fallen short. Everyone's sinned, no one's perfect. That's easy to admit. And it continues by believing that God is who He says He is, that He did what He said He did. He sent Jesus down from heaven to earth. Jesus lived the perfect life. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. That's why everything dies. But Jesus never sinned, therefore Jesus should have never died. And so because of that, death couldn't hold Him down. He rose again three days later. And now He extends His hand to you and to me. And He says, do you believe in me? Do you believe that my word is true? And if you will take that hand, the Bible says you will never be the same. You will have eternal life through Jesus, but you will get to experience this life of worship that I've been standing on this stage talking about. And you will see the rewards of following Jesus. You will experience grace like never before,

love like never before, mercy like never before. And you will continue to grow in this walk. And like I said earlier, you're not gonna be perfect. So just let that go. But when you fall down, you can get right back up again. And guess what? You're not alone. You've got a family of believers here to help you. And so with every head bowed and every eye closed, I wanna give you an opportunity to respond to the gospel. Dear Jesus, we admit that we have sinned and fallen short of your perfect standard for our lives, but we believe that you lived, died, and rose again. And right now we commit our life to you. Help us, Lord, to follow you to the best of our ability all the days of our life. And God, I pray for every single person in this room. Let us live a life of worship in our private life, here publicly at the church and perpetually, Lord, every single moment of every single day. Let us live our lives with you in mind and let us live a life of worship. We love you, Lord. It's in your name we pray, amen. Amen. That's the kind of message resets you that you need. Hey, if you made that decision to surrender your life, to put your faith in Jesus, that is the single greatest decision you will ever make in your life.

Can we put our hands together for all those who prayed that prayer? We want you to know something, this is so important. Christianity is not a solo sport. So if you're thinking you're gonna grow as a man of God, as a woman of God, by walking out these doors and doing nothing, not telling anybody, you're not. You gotta get involved in the church and surround yourself with men and women, students who will build you up in your faith. So two things I wanna challenge you to do. The first, when we. Dismiss, you can come to the sides of the room. Our team over here at these tables, we wanna give you a Bible and a book that Pastor Ed wrote called, What's Your Next Step? Also, if you would like prayer today, maybe you're going through something, we believe in the power of prayer. We would be honored to pray with you. And then if you need to get baptized, that's the next step of going public with your faith. After you invite Christ into your life, you let the world know, I'm a new creation. The old is gone, become out of the water, represents being raised to walk in newness of life. And we baptize people every Sunday. So you can either sign up today to get baptized today, like we've got changing rooms and blow dryers for your hair, everybody.

Or you can sign up for one of the upcoming weeks. But come by the tables. And then also, I mentioned it earlier, we have our newcomers luncheon. We'll serve you guys breakfast in the Source Cafe when we dismiss in just a moment. And we'll help you get involved here at Fellowship Church. If you've got kids and FC kids, don't worry about it. We'll take care of them. We'd love to have you. Can we put our hands together for Brad? Thank you, Brad, for that message. Can you take me higher to a place where blind... Yeah. All right, that was just for Brad and for me. Any Creed fans in the house? Next weekend, Creed is gonna be on this. No, I'm just kidding. But next weekend's gonna be great. It is Memorial Day weekend, so we are gonna take time to honor our fallen heroes. We are so grateful for those who have given their lives for our freedom. We're gonna be doing some special things for them down in FC kids as well. So bring somebody back. And Pastor JC Lopez from the Mix Student Ministry is gonna be bringing the Word and some of that beautiful Cuban fire

that only JC can bring. Hey, let's stand on our feet. We're gonna declare some truths over our life before we leave today. Thank you guys for being here with us. Say this with us at the top of your lungs. Say, Jesus, thank you that in you I am loved, forgiven, and blessed. For you, I will reach up and worship, reach out to share my faith, and reach in to become more like you. And because of you, I know, everybody say, The best is yet to come. We love you guys and we'll see you next Sunday. ♪ Ooh ♪