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00:00 Good morning church. Please stand with me while we read the word of God.
00:09 Today's scripture reading is taken from Psalm 95.
00:15 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our
00:22 salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and exalt him with music
00:29 and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all gods. In his
00:37 hand are the depths of the earth and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is
00:45 his for he made it and his hands form the dry land. Come, let us bow down in
00:53 worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are
01:00 the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would
01:08 hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in Mibba. As you did
01:15 that day in Masa in that in the wilderness,
01:20 where your ancestors tested me, they tried me though they had seen what I did
01:28 for 40 years. I was angry with that generation. I said, "They are a people whose hearts
01:36 go astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declare on oath in my anger,
01:45 they shall never enter my rest." This is the word of God.
02:04 Check, check, check, check. Good morning. I'm Joash, youth and young
02:10 adult pastor of FBC. Nice to meet you, Pangab Sama. Uh we are going through uh
02:17 a series on the book of Psalms and it's to help our intimacy with God. So I pray
02:23 that as we go through this sermon series that your heart will be drawn more and more to love God. Um Brandon Wong is
02:32 preaching on seeking God in your darkest hour. An Arnold Lim is lament
02:39 is praying our fears. Today I am talking about worship. And here's the outline
02:47 very simple expressions of worship, the reasons for worship and the work of
02:53 worship. Basically what is worship, why we worship and how to worship. But uh I
02:60 put that outline for a reason. How would you feel when you see someone
03:09 kneeling down in our main hall like this? How would you feel if someone did
03:15 that in our worship service? Dramatic at the very least, right? You
03:22 will feel like it's unusual. is is not normal for FBC culture, right? And maybe
03:30 some of us will judge that person dramatic, pretentious, right? How would
03:36 you feel when you see clips of churches, right? Worship service from other
03:42 churches where people are jumping up and down, dancing around. What would you
03:48 say? Huh? Concert. Look more like concert than
03:53 church. Or or maybe you'll say these people are driven by emotionalism.
04:00 But what if they told you that they were just obeying Psalm 95?
04:12 Oh, sorry. This is my fault. Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of salvation.
04:18 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let's make a joyful noise to him with song of praise. There is
04:26 making a joyful noise. There is kneeling before the Lord. What if they turn around and ask you why don't you sing
04:35 with joy? Why don't you bow down in worship?
04:41 Don't you know that your God is your rock of salvation? Don't you realize
04:47 that God is your maker and you should bow down? How would you answer them? So I predict
04:56 FBC answer. FBC will answer this way. Number one, that's not me. Anya,
05:03 that's not who I am. I'm I'm reserved. You see, I'm reserved. I'm introverted.
05:09 I'm mild and sober. But is that true? I seen some of your
05:15 Instagram reels when you attended concert and y'all shouted black ping in
05:21 my area. Yes. Very passionate. Yeah. And uh UC 10 is coming. Wow. Very
05:29 excited. Will do you think it'll be very mellow or there will be a lot of dancing, a lot
05:36 of singing, a lot of clapping, right? Got dance floors some more. Right. Surely we will be moving. Right. Some of
05:44 y'all you all watch football. When your football team score, how do you react? How do you feel? Do you say
05:52 you'll never walk alone? Or would you burst out and sound you?
06:03 I don't support Liverpool. I don't know. Some of y'all you'll play golf. You play
06:09 golf. Golf is like the quietest sport ever, right? But uh when when the Yeah.
06:16 When the thing happened, how does golf when the Yeah. There's cheer, right?
06:21 That's Yeah. There's craping. Oh, like that, right?
06:27 So, is that true? Is that really not who you are? It's true. Many of us are
06:33 reserved. But there are times where where we burst out in extroverted
06:38 celebration. You know why? Because we are all made to worship. See, as we say,
06:44 we are born worshippers. We are made to adore something. And if we don't adore
06:50 something, we will adore something else. That's not me. Or maybe some of y'all
06:56 will say, you know, God sees my heart. Huh? Joash, don't you know, we just went
07:02 through the book of Galatians. The form doesn't matter. Don't be legalistic.
07:08 Jesus say the people worship with with their lips but their heart is far away
07:14 from me or Jesus say God is spirit and those who worship must worship in spirit
07:20 and in truth. Wow, you are right. You are spoton.
07:25 In fact, Psalm 95 shows that worship engages our whole being. It's not just
07:33 the outward. It's not just the form. is the mind, the will and the emotion.
07:41 And we can see in our text the emotions is expressed through singing, loud
07:46 shouting, thanksgiving, music. We are engaging the will demonstrated by our
07:53 submission, our bowing down, kneeling down. And there is reasoning. There is
07:59 reasoning. It involves hearing God's voice, listening and accepting what he
08:05 says. The psalmist right is calling us to worship God with our whole being.
08:14 So when was the last time you worship God that way?
08:20 When was the last time you worshiped God with your whole being?
08:26 When we worship God with our whole being, we assign ultimate value to God.
08:32 J Per J Packer he defines worship as a contraction of
08:38 worthhship. Worship is ascribing worth acknowledging God's value.
08:44 The act of worship is a response to a revelation of God's worth. That's what
08:50 worship is. Whatever we assign ultimate value to, that's what we will worship.
08:56 That's what we will give our whole being to. I'm uh I tried to think of an
09:02 illustration that will fit the multiple generations here today. So
09:08 let's say you have a grandchild and you are disappointed with your grandchild.
09:13 Very difficult to be disappointed with grandchild but hear me out. You're very disappointed because your grandchild is
09:19 very poor at studying. The cute face is over. Now let me see your academics.
09:26 And so very poor result. And you feel very sad. And then uh you see your
09:32 grandchild every day just do Tik Tok dance only. Please la focus on studying.
09:38 But no, she keep doing dances. So annoying, so disappointing. Is this my
09:43 grandchild? But then one day you realize she can
09:50 sing. She was recording a cover and she was going up up up.
09:58 She was it was a golden moment and then suddenly you realize my
10:05 grandchild is a genius not in academics but she can be the next K-pop star.
10:14 And so what will you do? What will you do? You withdraw all your all your EPF saving. You withdraw out. You liquidate
10:20 all your assets and you and you decide to move to South Korea. You bring your
10:27 grandchild over there and you drag her to every audition possible, every
10:33 reality show possible to make sure she gets the publicity she needs to become a
10:39 K-pop star. The realization of her worth affect your
10:46 whole being. You are moved your mind, your will, your emotion.
10:53 You give yourself entirely because of the worth that you realize.
10:59 That is worship. Whatever we find most valuable, we give of ourselves. And we
11:07 do that all the time. The things that we are interested in, our our careers, our
11:13 children, our relationships, our ministries.
11:18 Why don't we do that with God?
11:24 The truth is we don't worship God with our whole
11:29 being because we don't think God is worth it.
11:37 We don't think he deserved it. The the the thought of God, right, doesn't move
11:42 us with our whole being. We are not that impressed with God.
11:51 And what the psalmist is inviting us to do is take a long hard look at God. Are
11:57 you sure he is not worthy of your worship? Are you sure he's not worthy of your whole being being given to him?
12:07 We need to take a long hard look at the wonder and the beauty of God. The
12:13 psalmist is inviting us to gaze upon his beauty and he gives us reasons why. Why
12:21 should we worship? All three reasons start with G. So that you can remember the first G is greatness.
12:29 God's greatness. For the Lord is a great God, a great king above all gods. In his
12:34 hand are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountain are his also. The sea is his for he made it. His hands
12:41 form the dry land. Let's spend a few moments reflecting on
12:46 the greatness of our God. He is the great king above all gods. Uh
12:53 for for the Israelites, this is not just semantics. This is not just boasting.
12:58 This is historical fact. Israel's history is a testament that
13:04 their God is the God above all other gods. the the 10 plagues that they went
13:10 through, they were not just random disasters. They were targeted judgment.
13:16 God versus the Egyptian gods, exposing them as powerless.
13:22 The walls of Jericho fell. The Israelites conquered the land of Canaan.
13:28 Each victory revealed that God is the great king above all gods.
13:36 In his hands are the depths of the earth.
13:42 In the past, nations would race, right, arms war to or to run to the to be the
13:49 first to go to the moon to create the atomic bomb. And today, the battlefield, right, shifted to nano particles. These
13:57 these things are so small, right? Is 800 times smaller than a strand of hair.
14:04 It's how our smartphones are better, faster, stronger. It's how medicine is
14:10 advancing now. And so now the countries right they are racing to secure these raw elements so
14:19 that they can create the nanop particles so that they can be in charge of the supply chain
14:24 the mining rights the best researchers whoever secures these resources they
14:29 have the most power most leverage.
14:34 What does the psalmist say? The psalmist saying in his hand are the depths of the
14:40 earth. All all this fighting for power, all this desire for dominance, who has
14:46 greater control, God says, "You're just playing in my sandbox. You're just in my
14:52 backyard. You're just in my playground." The heights of the mountain are his
14:59 also. uh the one on the right is the Hubble Space Telescope. The one on the left is
15:07 Hubble Ultra Deep Field. this picture. And basically what they did was they
15:12 take 10 days and they point at a tiny spot. It's like if you take a needle and you stretch out your arm and then you
15:18 look at that the eye that tiny spot they took for 10 days in a row. And this is
15:24 the image that they capture. Every spot
15:29 every speck of light is a galaxy.
15:34 The estimated 10,000 galaxies shown here in this picture and each galaxy contain
15:42 millions of stars just that one tiny spot
15:47 on the sky. It's no wonder that the psalmist say the heaven declares the glory of God. The
15:55 sky above proclaims his handiwork. The sea is his for he made it.
16:05 Uh in ancient times uh the the sea was a symbol of chaos of danger. The unknown
16:12 you cannot tame it is beyond human control. It's random. It's dangerous.
16:18 Yet Psalm 95 declares with a quiet authority. The sea is his. He made it. There's no
16:28 battle. There's no struggle for dominance, just ownership. God owns it.
16:35 God is not intimidated by chaos. He owns it. He contains it.
16:42 The sea is his and his hands form the dry land. So unlike the chaotic sea, the
16:49 dry land represents stability, provision where life flourishes.
16:55 And to say that God's hand formed the dry land is to highlight God's power,
17:00 but more importantly, God's care, intentionality in caring for his creation. This is not
17:08 distant. This is hands on. This is a porter shaping a clay.
17:15 The land that we walk on, build on, depend on was fashioned by the same
17:21 hands that created the stars and hold the depths of the earth.
17:27 And this leads us to our second reason for worship. God is great and God is
17:34 good. Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God and we are the
17:42 people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. The psalmist reminds us that God
17:49 is our maker. The same hands that hold the depths of the earth and form the dry
17:57 land made us and guides us as sheep.
18:04 Again, they the Israelites, they can look back at their history to show that how how God birthed a nation from a
18:12 barren woman named Sarah. And as a shepherd, God guide led them through the
18:18 wilderness into the green pastures from slavery in a foreign land to citizen of
18:27 a land flowing with milk and honey. If God is all powerful but not good, we
18:35 would have to kneel down in fear. But because God is good and caring, we
18:42 can surrender in grateful worship.
18:49 Can you think of a time that God displayed his greatness in your
18:55 life? Can you think of a time that God was
19:01 good to you?
19:06 If you have, you have all the reasons you need to worship God with your whole
19:14 being. The beauty of Psalm 95, right, is that
19:20 it starts off with the bigness of God and then it zooms in to the care of God
19:25 towards humanity. God is utterly transcendent, holy, magnificent, beyond
19:32 us, but yet he is also imminent. He is near. He is relational. He is intimate.
19:39 He is close to us. So beautiful, God's greatness and God's goodness. If
19:47 only the psalm ended here. But why does the psalm continue with a
19:57 warning? God's greatness. You should worship God
20:02 because of his his goodness, but you should worship God because of his grave
20:08 warning. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as at Mibba, as on
20:15 the day at Masa in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they have seen
20:22 my work. For 40 years, I loathe that generation and said, "They are a people
20:28 who go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. Therefore, I saw in
20:34 my wrath, they shall not enter my rest."
20:39 Why so kill joy?
20:44 Why? Why break the mood? Why? Why spoil the mood? I tell you why. Because after
20:51 considering God's greatness, after considering God's goodness,
20:58 many of us are still not impressed. Right?
21:04 Maybe during the response song later you will sing a little louder. Oh, God is
21:09 great. That God is good. Yeah. Maybe maybe you will lift your hands a bit
21:15 higher next week, you know, and maybe it will last for a few weeks, but then
21:21 later what happened? Back to status quo.
21:28 Same old, same old. Why? Why are we not
21:33 moved to worship God with our whole being? You ready? Why the psalmist say
21:41 is because you don't trust God enough.
21:48 And he points to the history of Israel to make that point.
21:54 The psalmist reminds them of their ancestors. Those who were who came out of Egypt in the wilderness before the
22:01 promised land. These people, they have witnessed the 10 plagues. They have
22:07 crossed the Red Sea. They they saw God make a highway
22:12 to an ocean. They tasted sweet water that was once
22:18 bitter. They had mana from heaven. Bread. Bread
22:24 that tastes like wafer with honey every day.
22:30 And then one day there was no water for the people to drink. Now, how do you
22:38 think the Israelites reacted when there was no water?
22:44 How do you think they reacted? Did they say let us be patient with God? He has come
22:50 through so many times. Let us trust him.
22:56 Did they say you know what? Let us let us declare our faith to God. Let us
23:02 throw a worship party. Let us sing aloud until our our throats get horse. Let us
23:09 let us yell and shout in celebration. Let us say we trust God. God, we trust
23:15 you for you will quench our thirst. After all, you have shown your greatness. After all, you have shown
23:21 your goodness. Is that what the Israelites did? Tell you what they say.
23:29 They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and
23:36 our livestock with thirst?" They said, "Is the Lord among us or not?
23:42 Is God here or not? They have they have seen God's work yet
23:48 they still put him to the test.
23:54 And I'm sure all of us can relate to that. The Christian life is not an easy
23:59 life. We all go through highs and lows. We experience seasons of dryness, of
24:06 drought. Some of us are going through one right now. We are in our pain and we
24:11 can't help but question God, doubt him, question his intentions.
24:19 Although God is all powerful and that God is our shepherd, sometimes we don't
24:25 like where he is leading us. We don't like where we are.
24:31 We are in pain. We are suffering. There is no water here.
24:40 And so I can't worship. It's hard for me to worship with my whole being because I
24:48 don't sense God's greatness. I don't sense his goodness in my life. I I
24:54 cannot I cannot sing joyfully. I cannot I cannot bow down and surrender because there is no water here.
25:04 And and God is very merciful actually. He's very gracious. He welcomes our
25:10 doubts. He He welcomes us to express our doubts. Uh Abraham Abraham was slow for
25:17 for Abraham. God was slow in keeping his promise. For Job, he questioned God's justice.
25:28 For for Thomas, Thomas demanded physical evidence.
25:33 And in all those times, God met them in their doubt.
25:39 But the psalmist warns us, if we don't deal with our distrust towards God, if
25:47 we let it fester, we let it grow and build and we keep questioning God's
25:54 intention, his character, eventually our hearts will be hardened if we remain
26:01 suspicious of God. we risk ending up like the Israelites in
26:06 the wilderness. See the events in Masa and Maribba, right? It's not just a one-off event,
26:13 you know, it was an ongoing attitude of the Israelites. So, so God provided them with water from
26:21 the rock, right? And then God made a covenant with them
26:26 on in Mount Si. God forgave them of their idolatry when they made a golden
26:31 calf. And God dwelt with them through the tabernacle. And God led them cloud
26:37 by day, pillar of fire by night, guiding them towards the promised land. And when
26:44 the water ran out again, how did they respond?
26:52 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? Again,
27:02 they cry out, "I don't trust you."
27:07 So, imagine one day your child shouts and yells at you, "Mom, it's 6:00
27:15 p.m. Where is dinner?" And then you rush out from your home
27:20 office. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I I was distracted because there was an emergency at work. Uh, sorry I had to
27:26 attend to that, but now let me cook for you. And then your child respond, right? You
27:33 want me to die? Is it woman? You want to kill me? Is it
27:39 now? When it happens for the first time, it shock you. But then you will stoop down and say, "Son, what's going on?
27:48 Why? Why are you so angry? You know I always cook for you, right? You know I always supply and provide for you,
27:54 right? Come on. Give me a hug. It's okay. I'll cook for you now. Huh? I
28:01 don't want you to die. Don't die.
28:08 But then imagine it happens the second time, the fifth time. What would you do? You
28:16 probably go for counseling, right? You probably seek professional help. Maybe you go first. Then eventually you think,
28:22 I think our family need family counseling. Something is going on with my child. You try right now. What
28:28 happens if it happens every day for two years? 6:00. You want me to die? Is it?
28:37 What does that do to your relationship with your child?
28:43 At first, you show care, right? Oh, what's going on? But now, how you feel?
28:50 This guy,
28:57 how would you feel towards him? Now imagine how God feels.
29:08 John Kelvin said to trust to distrust God's power is really to impeach his
29:14 faithfulness to judge his character
29:19 and that's why God said in verse 10 for 40 years I loathe that
29:26 generation lo disgusted personally disgusted with the generation and I said
29:33 they are people who go astray in their heart they have not known my ways
29:38 They have seen my greatness. They have experienced my goodness. And yet they
29:43 still don't trust me. They don't know me at all.
29:49 The psalmist warns us. If we don't deal with our distrust
29:57 towards God, if we remain suspicious towards God for very very long, we let
30:04 our hearts become hardened, we forfeit
30:09 the rest that actually God wants to provide for us. We will not enter God's
30:16 rest. And it's very simple really. When we
30:22 don't trust God, we seize control. You know, inside out too, anxiety, seizing
30:30 control because all the thoughts in the her head, there's a bunch there's a crew. You didn't watch a movie. Okay.
30:37 You know, you know, sometimes when we worry, right, the all sorts of scenario
30:42 that play in our head, right? and we get stressed out and we get troubled and we
30:49 get worried and then we get God, God, why haven't you done something? Why haven't you moved? Why haven't you
30:54 changed this situation? And you think because God isn't going to
30:59 come through, I'm going to have to resolve it myself. I take control.
31:05 And so you you're a businessman and you have to keep everything. You have to be
31:12 on top of everything, right? Because one bad day it will it will cause a ripple effect down the road and eventually your
31:19 business close. So every day you have to be on top of things, right? Uh you you
31:25 are a corporate man. You work in the office. Every day you have to show that
31:30 you are competent. I I I won't cry in the meeting. Even though you criticize
31:36 me, I won't cry. You if I show any weakness, oh, I won't get the promotion. And so I have to flex. I have to show my
31:43 competence. I have to be good enough. Or you worry about your child. What will
31:49 my child be? He won't be a K-pop star. He won't be a doctor. Oh, how how what I'm going to do? I'll send him to to
31:55 this tution. Send him to that class. And then suddenly you become what? A
32:01 helicopter parent, right? Doing ministry also.
32:08 God, I have I have to do everything. I have to settle. I'm the only one who can do it. I'm the only one who can fix this
32:13 problem. When we don't trust God, we end up
32:20 sleepless, burdened, restless.
32:26 Actually, God wants us to be bold and of sound mind, but we live in fear. God
32:32 call us to not worry, but we are full of anxiety. God invites us to his rest, but
32:38 we become restless. God calls us to worship him, but we're too busy
32:45 fighting fire, building our own kingdom. And if we keep refusing to trust God, we
32:53 also end up forfeiting eternal rest.
32:59 This is a picture of heaven. Can you all read it together? So, can you read it together? Ready? One, two, go.
33:28 For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide
33:33 them to springs of living water and God will wipe every tear.
33:41 This is what heaven is like. Is a picture of ultimate rest, unbroken
33:48 worship, and perfect security in the presence of God.
33:54 If you don't trust God, why would you want to be here?
34:00 Think about it. You won't trust him to provide for you.
34:06 You won't trust him to feed you or shelter you. So why would you want to be there?
34:12 You don't trust him. Why would you? You have to serve him. You know, you have to worship him day and night. Why would you
34:19 want to be there? Why would you want to worship someone when you doubt their character?
34:27 And so when we live a life of distrust, when we
34:33 build, build, build bill, eventually God gives us exactly what we want, a future
34:40 without him. If we remain distrusting towards God,
34:47 our hearts go astray. We won't know his ways. Instead of rest, we get rough. We
34:54 get loathing. and we become restless.
35:01 And in case you don't know that by now, you don't know this by now, God doesn't
35:06 want that for you. He doesn't want you to miss out on the rest that he has prepared for you. You see, this psalm is
35:14 for the doubters. This psalm is for is for those that God sees that are
35:20 troubled in their hearts, not sure of God's greatness and God's goodness. God
35:25 sees us and loves us enough to intervene. If we keep on going this road, we will
35:31 become restless forever. And if you're listening, if you're
35:36 listening to this here right now, God is offering you rest. He wants you to have
35:42 peace beyond all understanding. He wants you in heaven with him so that he can
35:47 lavish his kindness towards you forever.
35:52 But you need to learn to trust him now.
35:58 If you want to be a restful, non- anxious person, if you want eternal
36:04 life, you need to fix your distrust towards God.
36:10 How do we fix our distrust towards God? I distrust God and so I don't worship
36:17 with my whole being. And when I don't worship my whole being, I risk becoming restless and losing eternal life. How to
36:25 solve distrust? The answer, come and worship God. That is the command for us
36:33 today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. What did God command? God command us to come and sing for joy.
36:42 Let us shout aloud to the rock of salvation. Let us humble ourselves and bow down to our maker. He is our
36:48 shepherd. Come worship him with your whole being. Why?
36:54 Because in worship, we adjust our perspective. We realign our perspective
37:02 with God's reality. In worship, we adjust our vision not
37:08 merely as an intellectual exercise, but as a holistic reorientation of the
37:14 heart, the mind, and the will. It is where distorted self-perception and
37:20 narratives are exchanged for divine clarity.
37:25 In worship, we we are battling our doubts. In worship, we are engaging our
37:33 reasoning. We are moving away from thinking about the troubles of our life
37:38 to thinking about the greatness and the goodness of God. Instead of constantly
37:43 being anxious worrying about our circumstances, we dwell on the character
37:49 of God and we adjust our perspective. We see that God is bigger than our
37:56 problems. Think back to your home again. Your your child at night suddenly calls for you,
38:04 shouts, and then he then you rush in say why why you scared? Why? What's going on? Why are you shouting? You got
38:10 nightmares. Said, "No, no, no. There's a monster on the wall. There's a monster on the wall.
38:16 And then you switch on the light. What happened? Monster is gone. Then you explain to your child, you know
38:23 why not? You see your your bunny? Your bunny is at the wall at the window
38:28 there. The light shine through the the shadow looks bigger. It's not a monster.
38:34 It's just a shadow. That's what happens in worship. God
38:41 comes to us and reminds us that the troubles in our lives are small in
38:48 comparison to the magnificence and the love of God.
38:56 Worship engages our reasoning by reminding us of God's truth and then it
39:03 stirs our emotion through the beauty of his presence and his goodness and
39:09 activates our will to live in obedience
39:16 to sing aloud to bow down and and it's not always in that order.
39:23 Worship is is not always reasoning first then move our heart then our action.
39:28 Sometimes it's action first. You have to do it. You have to raise your hand. You have to sing for joy. You have to bow
39:34 down. And then your body activates your thinking like why am I doing this? Why
39:40 do I need to do this? Because God is great and God is good.
39:46 How how how do I worship when I'm doubting God? How
39:53 do I worship when I don't trust God? How do I worship when there's no water?
40:01 And the answer is you have to do the work. You have to worship through your
40:08 doubt. You have to commit to it. Three times in
40:13 our text, the word come, come, come. It means show up. Show up even when you
40:20 don't feel like it. You think I like to go to the gym? You know, before I go to the gym, I in
40:28 my mind I take a very long time to consider whether I should go or no. I don't really want to go, but I have to fight. You know, Josh, you should go.
40:35 But can't I can't just God just give me the six apps? No. No. You have you have to
40:41 go. You have to you have to show up. You have to you you think I go because I got mood to
40:48 go. No. And if I wait for the moon, I won't ever
40:54 go. Right? You don't just you you have to just show
40:59 up and don't just show up. You have to engage. You can't just go through the motion. You can't go to the gym and just
41:06 scroll your phone and just No, it's the mind to muscle connection,
41:12 right? Yes. Yes. I got to learn the lingo a bit.
41:19 It's the same with worship. Don't wait until your feelings show up. Sing aloud.
41:26 Make a joyful noise. Bow down. Do the work. You got to show up and and be
41:31 present. The text say come into his presence. What does that mean? It it means that you have to be you have to
41:37 engage. You have to be present. You have to be there. You have to do the work. You have to think. You have to think
41:42 through. Think about the the words that are being sung. Think about the words that being preached. You cannot just
41:48 like uh when is this going to be over? You cannot do that. You have to engage.
41:54 You have to consider the character of God. You have to preach to yourself.
42:00 And things won't change immediately. What? It takes time. Takes time. Give
42:06 yourself at time. But keep at it. Keep at it.
42:13 Keep at contemplating Christ.
42:20 Jesus is the reason we can completely trust God.
42:28 God is our shepherd. But we are sheep that gone astray. All
42:34 we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
42:41 all. We're supposed to follow our shepherd, but we go our own way for our distrust, for all our refusal to give
42:48 God the glory and the honor that is due to him. We don't deserve any good from him, any
42:55 kindness. We deserve his loathing, his wrath. We deserve restlessness.
43:02 And yet Jesus, the good shepherd, comes and lay downs his life for us.
43:09 On the cross, he received the loathing and the wrath we deserve. Jesus absorbed
43:14 God's anger meant for us. By his blood, by his broken body, we can enter into
43:22 God's presence to worship him, to be sheltered by him, and to be guided into
43:28 springs of living water. Jesus is the reason we can trust God completely.
43:37 He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not
43:42 also with him graciously give us all things.
43:49 Do the work of contemplating Christ. Whenever you come before him, whenever you doubt, whenever you come to worship,
43:58 think about Jesus. There is no way I should distrust this person if he's
44:04 willing to give me his son. I can trust him
44:09 and I should worship him. Lastly,
44:16 community. You need to worship in community. Our text very frequently, it keeps telling
44:24 us, right? Come, come, come with the church. Come, let us sing. Let us
44:30 worship. Let us kneel. We are the people of his pasture.
44:37 Worship him. Come. You can
44:44 you can you can honestly you can you can worship alone. You can you can worship
44:50 alone. Sure. And I experience I tell you some some of us we experience that we
44:55 worship in our car, right? And it's like awesome, magnificent, marvelous. But in
45:02 community, you get more help. We encourage one another to trust God more.
45:17 Uh my last point, right, is you don't have to be in the worship team to lead
45:23 people to worship. You don't have to be. Now these people
45:29 they are privileged because they got sound system and so they can project and
45:35 yes they are in a privileged place to help you but you know what all of us can help one another to worship God. If you
45:44 are here you are not just a regular worshipper. You are a worship leader. You carry a
45:52 story of God's faithfulness. You have a testimony of God's goodness.
46:01 And even if you are in a season of trial, people see you lifting up your hands.
46:07 People get encouraged by that. There's a there's a story by Piper. He
46:15 he said when he was preaching, someone in the balcony died. heart attack, died,
46:20 not because of his preaching, heart attack. And then so the wife followed him to the
46:30 hospital and the mall and do whatever. And he when he was preaching, he saw her
46:36 coming back halfway second service. She came back
46:41 and like who who why would you come back? Right? It's like come on be with
46:46 be with your the husband's dead already. be with your family, grieve together, don't worry about church, don't be
46:53 legalistic, don't think you must come to church on Sunday. But she came back, came back. So at the
47:00 end of the service, the pastor went to her, "Sorry for your loss. Why did you come back?"
47:07 And she said, "I got to get the word."
47:13 some sometimes uh okay can God minister to that lady in the hospital at the mock
47:20 where she is can just memory verses the Holy Spirit can bring some things into her mind but she knows if I go to the
47:28 church I can get help my family can encourage me I need someone to preach
47:33 over me I need someone to sing over me and sometimes that's what we need we
47:39 need the community we need someone to trust God for us
47:44 when when our hearts feel like we cannot trust God, we need someone else to hold
47:49 us and say, "Hey, you can. I trust God. Let us sing. Let us shout aloud.
47:57 Let us worship him." That's what she needed.
48:03 Sometimes that's what we need. On stage you have a few people leading
48:10 you in singing, in praying, in hearing the word, but offstage
48:17 you have hundreds of worship leaders with thousands of stories of God's
48:23 greatness and God's goodness. And if we are intentional in our conversation, in
48:28 our makan time, in our life groups, if we are slow to go to our cars,
48:34 we might just find and experience another worship moment.
48:42 You can you don't you don't need to sing so well to be a worship leader. You have
48:48 a story. Open your lips and give praise to God.
48:56 Let's pray.
49:04 Father, we come before you. Many of us are doubting, not not
49:10 trusting. We're struggling to worship you with our whole being. Holy Spirit, I ask that you
49:17 come and help us now. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the wonder, the glory,
49:25 the goodness, the magnificence of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Amen. Church,
49:33 let us stand and sing together. Let us sing over one another. Let us worship
49:41 Christ in this place. We're now going to worship together with
49:47 communion. If you are here as a believer of Christ,
49:54 you're welcome to join us. And if you don't have your alignments, please raise your hands so that the usher can come
50:00 and pass to you. [Music]
50:21 Okay, since so many people open already, you can open the elements. [Music]
50:44 Okay. [Music]
50:49 When we participate in communion, we are telling God,
50:55 "Today I will not harden my heart. I choose to trust you.
51:03 This is my act of worship to trust you.
51:09 And we are doing this together with our brothers and sisters. Together we are confessing our need for
51:18 a savior. That our sin is great but our savior is
51:24 greater. That we are bad but God is good. And
51:32 because of his kindness and his mercy towards us, we live.
51:37 [Music] And so we worship together as we partake
51:42 this communion. On the night that Jesus would betray, he
51:48 broke bread. He gave his disciples and he said, "This is my body broken for
51:53 you." On the cross, Jesus body was broken. He deserved our worship. He deserved our
51:60 praise. But instead, he was mocked. He was cursed. He was spit at. He was
52:07 beaten. His body was broken for our sins.
52:13 And by his broken body, we have a new and living way to enter into God's
52:18 presence and worship him. Let us take the bread together.
52:25 [Music]
52:36 In the same way, Jesus, took the cup,
52:42 gave the disciples, and then he said, "This is my blood poured out for you for
52:48 the forgiveness of sin." Jesus poured out his blood for us so
52:54 that we may receive the gift of life to so that we may make peace with God.
53:02 So that we can enter his rest. So that we can have a father who cares for us
53:08 and a shepherd that guides us to springs of living water. Church, let's take the
53:16 cup together.
53:26 On that cross, Jesus dying, the wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him
53:34 was laid. Here in the death of Christ, I live. Church, let's keep singing.
53:45 Stare in the ground his body lay. Light
53:51 of the world by darkness slay. Then bursting
53:58 in glorious day up from the grave. Yeah.
54:05 Heat. [Music]
54:15 Heat. Heat. [Music]
54:27 Heat. [Music]
54:43 Heat.
54:50 Heat. Heat. [Music]
54:60 Heat. [Music] Heat.
55:06 [Music]
55:14 Yeah. Heat. [Music]
55:33 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
55:38 [Music]
55:46 [Music]
55:55 [Music] Glory to God. Glory to God.
56:03 In Christ alone we stand. What a privilege it is to enter into the
56:08 presence of God to worship with our brothers and sisters to do that work
56:16 to realign our perspective to remember the greatness and goodness of God. Thank
56:21 you Jesus. What a privilege. Church receive this benediction.
56:27 May Christ dwell in your heart through faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love may have the strength
56:34 to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length and height
56:40 and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be
56:45 filled with all the fullness of God. Amen.
56:53 Church, after a moment of silent prayer, you are dismissed. There is prayer
56:58 points that I put out for you if you want to pray along.
57:03 And the pastors and elders are up front ready to pray with
