WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.260 Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.880 This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons. 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:30.420 We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:31.260 the latest message. 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:32.460 Thanks for listening. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:45.620 Well, good morning. 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.280 Glad that you guys are with us. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:52.200 If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Psalm 134. 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:54.860 That's where we will be this morning. 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:58.340 It is a good day to be here. 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:02.600 If you're a first-time guest, I just want to thank you so much for being here and being 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:03.940 here to worship with us. 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:07.940 We are grateful and honored and privileged that you would have taken the time to be here with 00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:09.160 us this morning. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.160 At the end of the service, I'll be back here at the welcome table. 00:01:12.460 --> 00:01:16.180 I would love to speak to everyone, but primarily I want to focus in on if you're a first-time 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:20.280 guest, I'd love to meet you, learn your name, and just have the opportunity to thank you 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:22.940 face-to-face for being here and worshiping with us. 00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:26.440 And then if you have any questions about our church, who we are, what we're about, it's 00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:27.160 a wonderful place. 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:30.880 I would love to take the time to be able to answer those questions for you. 00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:35.880 Well, as you turn there, I want to kind of share a revelation that God in His kindness 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:40.880 and His grace gave to me last night that is completely separate and removed from the message. 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:44.500 If you don't mind if I kind of chase a rabbit before we get started. 00:01:44.660 --> 00:01:50.860 So, my kids love music, and they've got one particular band that they love. 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:52.200 The band is Need to Breathe. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.760 Now, I don't know if you like Need to Breathe, but my kids love Need to Breathe. 00:01:55.980 --> 00:02:01.380 If you were to rate your love or the love of a band in particular, a musical artist in 00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:04.700 particular, I would say in my life, Need to Breathe is a solid eight. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:06.200 I like to listen to them. 00:02:06.320 --> 00:02:09.040 I got all their albums downloaded on my phone. 00:02:09.160 --> 00:02:12.040 I don't know if that was a thing, album downloaded on the phone, but that's what I got. 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:13.880 I'm old, that's what I refer to it as, right? 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:15.020 I got them all downloaded. 00:02:15.140 --> 00:02:17.260 It's better than saying I have their CDs, I guess, right? 00:02:17.480 --> 00:02:18.720 So, I got them downloaded on my phone. 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:22.300 I love them, but my kids on a scale of one to ten are like a twelve. 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:27.660 And so, if Need to Breathe is going on tour, they want to watch Need to Breathe. 00:02:27.660 --> 00:02:29.800 And so, we'll take them to see their concerts. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.600 Now, normally, Need to Breathe comes to Columbia, which is wonderful for us. 00:02:33.820 --> 00:02:35.440 We go to the concert, we're home. 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:41.120 But this year on their tour, they decided to go to Greenville on Saturday night, last night, 00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:42.760 and go to Charleston tonight. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.600 And so, my wife and I were talking, and she said, let's take the kids, let's go to Greenville. 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:49.600 And she said, what night do you want to do that? 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:51.900 And I said, well, the concert starts at seven. 00:02:51.980 --> 00:02:52.700 We should be all right. 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.360 Let's go to Greenville. 00:02:54.620 --> 00:02:55.320 We'll go there. 00:02:55.420 --> 00:02:56.360 That'll be in plenty of time. 00:02:56.420 --> 00:02:57.340 I can get home and rest. 00:02:57.420 --> 00:02:59.520 She said, are you sure it's not going to go too late? 00:02:59.620 --> 00:03:00.420 Like, no, we're fine. 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:02.620 The concert should be over three hours. 00:03:02.720 --> 00:03:04.800 Thinking typically should be over by ten. 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:05.480 We're clocking. 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:05.980 We're booking. 00:03:06.220 --> 00:03:10.200 If you walk anywhere with me, you know I move quickly, all right? 00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:12.400 So, keep up or you will get left behind. 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:13.560 My family knows that, all right? 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:15.920 So, we're sitting there at the concert last night. 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:17.660 It was a wonderful concert. 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:21.380 If I'm talking louder than normal, I still can't hear well, right? 00:03:21.640 --> 00:03:25.560 And so, but we're there at the concert, and the first band comes out, and they play. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:28.940 And I didn't know that there was a first band, but there was a first band, and they played. 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:30.740 And then Switchfoot came out, right? 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:34.220 And so, Switchfoot played, and they kept playing, and they kept playing, and they kept playing. 00:03:34.420 --> 00:03:37.660 And then we're waiting for Need to Breathe, and Need to Breathe came out, and they started playing. 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:45.360 And at 10.30, I look at my watch, and I lean over, and I whisper into my wife's ear, 00:03:46.260 --> 00:03:48.480 man, they ain't even done the encore yet, right? 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:53.460 And she looked at me in her kindness and the love in her eyes and said, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.380 wow, you're getting old, right? 00:03:56.460 --> 00:03:57.300 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:03:57.540 --> 00:03:58.160 That's it. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:03:58.680 That's it. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:06.040 And so, rolled into the driveway at 1.30 this morning, and so I'm running on coffee and the Holy Spirit, right? 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:10.800 Which is most Sunday mornings for me anyway, so it was a wonderful time. 00:04:10.940 --> 00:04:13.620 So, we're looking at Psalm 134 this morning. 00:04:13.720 --> 00:04:20.820 If you were with us last week, we started this new series, and it's a neat kind of creative way 00:04:20.820 --> 00:04:25.800 that we're doing things with this series, and I really appreciate the extra time and energy 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:30.700 that our worship team that our worship team is putting in to every week they got to learn a new song, right? 00:04:30.700 --> 00:04:31.720 And that's not normal. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:37.860 Most churches don't do that, but that's what they're doing as we're playing these and as we're using these in times of worship. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.420 Joanne led us in our Lord's Supper in the performance last week. 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:42.220 That was wonderful. 00:04:42.220 --> 00:04:51.820 And so, what they're doing is each week, the song that is sung will reflect directly the Scripture that we're reading. 00:04:51.980 --> 00:04:58.280 And so, the Psalm 134 that they did was a rendition that the Robbie Seaband did, and they led us in that in worship. 00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:01.840 And so, it's kind of a neat time and a neat opportunity for us to worship. 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:04.200 Well, this week, we're in Psalm again. 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:05.380 We'll be here for eight weeks. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:06.920 We're in Psalm 134. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:11.780 I want to kind of explain a little bit about why this Psalm is the way that it is. 00:05:11.820 --> 00:05:13.160 It says the things that it says. 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:22.380 And if you're looking at your Bible, your paper Bible, you'll kind of notice on the top there, at least mine does, it says a song of ascent. 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:28.260 And that's a very specific thing that we're going to see in some of the Psalms. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:38.580 So, the Psalms together, collaboratively, were poetry or were songs that were written by different writers, most of them David, 00:05:38.580 --> 00:05:47.180 but different writers of Scripture, and they were a reflection of God and their relationship and their interaction with Him. 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:59.000 But if you read through the Psalms as a whole, Psalm 120 through Psalm 134 are all of these which are considered songs of ascent. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:00.460 And so, here's what these are. 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:11.860 About three times a year, during the time that the Psalms were written, the Jewish people would return to Jerusalem for different religious festivals. 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:20.640 Now, Jerusalem is a city that was up on top of a hill, and then even within there, the temple was on the hill in Jerusalem. 00:06:20.820 --> 00:06:31.420 And so, as they would journey on their way to Jerusalem, as they would journey up the hill on the way to the temple, these would be the songs that they would sing. 00:06:31.940 --> 00:06:40.180 And so, literally, what you're reading in your text, what I read in my text, is that as they are going, and don't worry, I'm not going to sing, that's what they do, right? 00:06:40.340 --> 00:06:46.460 They're singing, come bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:50.020 Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:55.300 May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth. 00:06:55.520 --> 00:07:01.060 And so, as you read all of these from Psalm 120 to 134, that's what all of these are. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:02.960 So, that gives us a context. 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:05.280 What did you do on the way to worship today? 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:11.940 What they were doing is they were preparing themselves for what they were about to encounter. 00:07:13.080 --> 00:07:16.400 Now, for me this morning, I was like, man, I'm going to keep my eyes open, right? 00:07:17.260 --> 00:07:18.800 But what do we do within there? 00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:28.040 And so, we see this beautiful reflection of these individuals as they are preparing their heart as they journey into worship. 00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:30.260 So, I want to ask you a question this morning. 00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:32.620 It's a question that you just get to think about. 00:07:32.740 --> 00:07:35.420 Like, we're not going to walk around and make everybody share their answers. 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:39.760 We probably have a lot of different answers in this room, but here's the question that I have. 00:07:40.140 --> 00:07:42.800 Why did you come to worship today? 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:51.320 Of all the things that you could have done, of all the places you could have gone, of all the things you could be a part of, 00:07:52.080 --> 00:08:06.360 Why did you choose today to get up out of your nice, comfortable bed, to come here to gather with a group of people, to sing a few songs, to hear a message preached? 00:08:07.020 --> 00:08:09.600 Why did you choose to do this today? 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:15.800 This week, I found an interesting study, and maybe some of you will align with some of these. 00:08:15.880 --> 00:08:24.860 But in 2018, Pew Research, and so, they're like a think tank out of D.C. that focuses on religious research. 00:08:25.260 --> 00:08:29.860 They did a survey, and they asked, and I quoted them on this because it was important. 00:08:30.260 --> 00:08:35.940 Those who attend religious services at least twice a month. 00:08:36.900 --> 00:08:39.220 So, we're not talking about people that just show up for Christmas or Easter. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:50.580 We're not talking about people who just showed up back years ago, but people who roughly have regular attendance to a, some form of religious worship gathering. 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:53.360 They asked them this question, why do you attend? 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:54.900 Why do you attend? 00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:03.440 And then they gave several answers for them to choose from, and you could choose more than one, but then they published their, their top 10. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:13.040 And maybe you will find that, that your heart kind of echoes the hearts of some of these individuals in asking the question, well, why do you go to church? 00:09:13.540 --> 00:09:17.260 Reason number one, top reason, was to become closer to God. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.800 Great, great reason to come to a, to a service. 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:23.160 Number two, I get this, I'm a parent. 00:09:23.880 --> 00:09:26.920 So, children will have a moral foundation. 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:30.320 Great reason to get up and to come here today. 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:34.820 Number three, to make me a better person. 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:41.040 So, they're thinking about themselves, they're, they're seeing themselves, and they recognize they need to be better. 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:47.240 Number four, for comfort in times of trouble, right? 00:09:48.280 --> 00:09:51.520 Number five, I find the sermons valuable. 00:09:52.040 --> 00:09:57.840 And in a poll, we polled 100% of you guys, and it came back 100%, that's your reason, right? 00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:00.160 Just agree with me on that, it encourages me this morning. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:05.260 Number six, to be a part of a community of faith. 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:12.640 Number seven, to continue a family's religious traditions. 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:20.420 Number eight, I feel a religious obligation to go. 00:10:21.880 --> 00:10:27.060 Number nine, to meet new people and to socialize. 00:10:27.060 --> 00:10:33.580 And number 10, to please my family or my spouse. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:47.200 The top 10 reasons across denominations and across faiths, according to the Pew Research in 2018, of why people attend religious services. 00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:50.500 Now, there are a lot of reasons that they are given here. 00:10:50.680 --> 00:10:55.460 And you can imagine there are probably others that were not included since this is the top 10. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:58.720 And I'll be honest with you, I think some of these have great value. 00:10:59.540 --> 00:11:02.080 I think some of them, maybe not so much, right? 00:11:02.420 --> 00:11:04.840 But you and I, we all have our reasons. 00:11:05.400 --> 00:11:11.180 Here's what stuck out to me about this, and this is what we're going to kind of press into as we look at Psalm 134. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:20.620 It is this, all of these answers, whether I agree with them or disagree with them, or they're somewhere in between, 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:24.260 all 10 of these, what struck me is they all center on the individual. 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:28.600 They all center on the individual, on the person. 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:30.380 Let's look at them. 00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:32.420 I want to be closer to God. 00:11:32.660 --> 00:11:35.080 Great, it's great, it's phenomenal. 00:11:35.400 --> 00:11:38.940 I want to be closer to God as well, but it's still focused on me. 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:44.480 Number two, my children, to have a moral foundation, right? 00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:48.660 Like, my kids, I want my kids to have this benefits me. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.800 In times of stress, in times of loss, I want comfort. 00:11:55.480 --> 00:12:03.380 I think all three of these reasons are great and wonderful reasons that are there, but they still focus on me. 00:12:04.020 --> 00:12:06.260 And even those that I think have less value, right? 00:12:06.680 --> 00:12:08.820 To please my family, right? 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:09.760 I don't want to listen to it. 00:12:09.800 --> 00:12:11.460 They just, so I'm just here. 00:12:12.380 --> 00:12:15.720 I feel an obligation of religious tradition. 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:19.280 It still focuses on me. 00:12:19.820 --> 00:12:22.100 Now, here's what I want to be honest with you guys with. 00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:27.140 I'm not saying that if you were here for any of these reasons, that you're wrong. 00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:33.520 If you came here this morning because you need to feel comfort, you could have looked for comfort in a million different things. 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:38.640 And I'm so glad that this morning that you have your opportunity to find your comfort in Jesus Christ. 00:12:39.260 --> 00:12:40.240 And we celebrate that. 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:51.660 I'm not saying it's wrong if you're here this morning because you want this moral understanding of God's word in your kid's life and that they embrace that and then take that on. 00:12:51.780 --> 00:12:52.480 I'm not saying it's wrong. 00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:55.380 It's what I desire for my kids as well. 00:12:55.660 --> 00:13:04.560 I'm not saying that it's wrong if you're here this morning because you're feeling a little distant from God and you want to draw closer to him. 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:14.720 All of these are wonderful reasons for you and I to live in the benefit and in the blessing of our relationship with the Lord. 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:26.880 But, but, if I am the only reason that I am here, then we may be missing it altogether. 00:13:27.680 --> 00:13:35.180 If it ends and begins with me, then we may miss it altogether. 00:13:36.020 --> 00:13:40.360 So why would we come to worship if it's other than ourself? 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.660 And I believe this is what Psalm 134 is pointing us to. 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:49.640 That as these pilgrims would journey from far away to come into Jerusalem, 00:13:50.420 --> 00:13:55.420 as these pilgrims would get great sacrifice so that they can find themselves where they would be, 00:13:55.420 --> 00:13:59.380 they find a great reason for it in this, in gathering and worship. 00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:03.860 And what I want us to see is that in this, in worship, we bless God. 00:14:04.760 --> 00:14:06.080 In worship, we bless God. 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:07.240 Let's look at verse one. 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:18.760 Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:21.720 The Christian life, I'm going to be honest with you. 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:26.820 If you're, if you're wondering, if you're one of those people here and you're, you're kind of iffy on what it means to be a follower of Christ. 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:33.640 Like, let me say, as a person who lived half of my life far and in rebellion from the Lord, right? 00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:37.980 And then God saved me and seen the transformation and what he's brought me to. 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.080 The Christian life is about the blessed life. 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:49.200 It is so wonderful to see and to experience how God works and moves and blesses me in this life. 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:52.760 And you and I are blessed so many ways by God. 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:58.620 You and I, within the congregation of the body of the believers that he gives us, are blessed. 00:14:58.620 --> 00:15:05.640 You and I, in the context of the gifts and talents that he allows us to use for his kingdom, are blessed. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:14.120 You and I are ultimately and supremely blessed that in Christ and in our salvation that we are blessed. 00:15:14.380 --> 00:15:23.900 And so you and I being blessed by God, you and I being blessed by one another is an important part of Christianity, of our faith. 00:15:23.900 --> 00:15:30.720 It's so important that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, like his longest recorded sermon, that this is how it begins. 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:35.180 Blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:37.300 Like, Jesus is speaking the truth. 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:41.760 And to follow him means to be blessed. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:48.920 But it's very interesting because in worship, we're called to bless God. 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:50.960 To bless God. 00:15:51.900 --> 00:15:52.780 To bless God. 00:15:53.900 --> 00:15:59.760 So, when you're blessed, when I'm blessed, what does that mean? 00:16:01.040 --> 00:16:08.740 It typically means that we have received something, that someone has done something for us, right? 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:11.000 It's how Christ blesses us with salvation. 00:16:11.160 --> 00:16:13.560 You and I did nothing to earn it, nothing to deserve it. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:18.760 And he blesses us with his salvation, with the work that he did for us. 00:16:18.760 --> 00:16:22.280 When we're blessed by others, just think of a few, right? 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.080 You go and you bake a cake and you take it to someone. 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:26.240 You bless them. 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:32.000 You see someone and God lays it on your heart to write them a note or to send them a text message of encouragement. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:33.420 And so that blesses them. 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:36.760 You've got someone in your life who you know is financially struggling. 00:16:36.920 --> 00:16:40.000 And you go to them, not with a loan, not with strings attached. 00:16:40.060 --> 00:16:40.780 But you say, you know what? 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:42.380 God's laid you on my heart. 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.000 And I want to bless you financially in a way. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:46.320 Like these are the ways. 00:16:46.540 --> 00:16:53.260 We do something for someone that they cannot do for themselves or that they do not do for themselves. 00:16:53.520 --> 00:16:55.080 And so we bless them with that. 00:16:55.280 --> 00:16:58.280 So what can you and I do for God? 00:16:59.420 --> 00:17:00.640 What can we do for him? 00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:07.860 Well, when we bless him, we bless him by what so many of us just did. 00:17:08.800 --> 00:17:15.020 We praise him, we exalt him, we worship him, right? 00:17:15.080 --> 00:17:17.800 Like what we do in here matters. 00:17:18.700 --> 00:17:21.340 Not because we need to check a religious box. 00:17:22.120 --> 00:17:24.620 Like my heart breaks for the individual who says, 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:32.220 The only reason why I attend a worship service twice a month or every Sunday or whatever day that they gather 00:17:32.220 --> 00:17:35.400 is so that I can fulfill some religious obligation. 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:37.260 That's not what we're here doing. 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:39.820 You and I are not checking the box and then moving on. 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:42.800 But what we do in here matters. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:45.620 And we need to make sure that it is about him. 00:17:46.580 --> 00:17:47.720 And so we worship him. 00:17:48.980 --> 00:17:51.340 We proclaim who he is. 00:17:52.060 --> 00:17:54.020 And we seek to bless his name. 00:17:54.740 --> 00:17:56.520 You know, we simply, simply this. 00:17:57.260 --> 00:18:00.420 We worship God for who he is. 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:02.220 And that's what we see in scripture. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.560 Just a handful of them that we see. 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.440 We worship him because of his counsel. 00:18:07.840 --> 00:18:08.980 Psalm 16, 7 says, 00:18:09.100 --> 00:18:12.160 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. 00:18:12.260 --> 00:18:15.280 Also, my heart instructs me. 00:18:16.040 --> 00:18:18.380 We worship him for his holiness. 00:18:18.600 --> 00:18:19.920 Psalm 103, 1. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:23.960 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:26.400 Bless his holy name. 00:18:27.100 --> 00:18:29.240 And we worship him for his majesty. 00:18:30.040 --> 00:18:31.040 Psalm 104, 1. 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:32.920 Bless the Lord, O my soul. 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:36.340 O Lord, my God, you are very great. 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:39.680 You are clothed with splendor and majesty. 00:18:40.060 --> 00:18:43.960 And so we bless him not out of our circumstances. 00:18:45.340 --> 00:18:47.780 We bless him not out of our feelings. 00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:55.940 We bless him not based out of who we are or where we are, but we bless him based out of who he is. 00:18:56.620 --> 00:18:57.140 Right? 00:18:57.900 --> 00:18:58.860 My feelings change. 00:18:58.860 --> 00:18:59.440 My feelings change. 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:02.280 My perspective changes. 00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:09.440 There's things about me constantly moving and changing and adapting in my life. 00:19:09.540 --> 00:19:18.460 And so if I worship God based out of all of these things that are in my life that ebb and flow and change and move, then so would my worship. 00:19:19.100 --> 00:19:21.480 But he is the great counselor. 00:19:21.860 --> 00:19:23.680 He is holy. 00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:25.880 He is the creator. 00:19:26.320 --> 00:19:29.240 He alone in his majesty. 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:29.580 Right? 00:19:29.780 --> 00:19:31.020 And so we bless him. 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:33.540 We worship him because of who he is. 00:19:33.540 --> 00:19:41.180 And this, this is what God tells us, is your life's purpose is to bless God. 00:19:41.860 --> 00:19:41.980 Right? 00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:44.960 Your life's purpose is to bless God. 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:51.360 Isaiah 43, 7 says, everyone who is called by my name, who I created for what? 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:52.240 My glory. 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:53.720 Why were you created? 00:19:54.020 --> 00:19:55.000 Why was I created? 00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:55.940 For his glory. 00:19:56.520 --> 00:19:58.920 Whom I formed and made. 00:19:59.240 --> 00:19:59.380 Right? 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:01.480 This is your purpose in life. 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:04.280 1 Corinthians 10, 31. 00:20:04.660 --> 00:20:09.040 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, what? 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:11.220 Do it all for the glory of God. 00:20:11.780 --> 00:20:16.320 And every beat of every moment of every fiber of who we are, this is what we do. 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:19.300 Now, I'm not saying that you and I don't live in the benefit from this. 00:20:20.620 --> 00:20:23.460 But I have this illustration that come to me this week. 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:31.760 Oftentimes we cast our eyes, is what scripture tells us, to set our eyes on him. 00:20:32.100 --> 00:20:33.120 And that's our worship. 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:38.520 But so many times the positioning and the posture of our heart is not looking at him, but looking into a mirror. 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:42.160 That we are the object of our worship. 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:48.120 Instead, all of our worship being pointed toward him. 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.840 And so in worship, we bless God. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:52.880 But let's, let's keep reading. 00:20:53.020 --> 00:20:55.080 Read verse 2 of Psalm 134. 00:20:55.720 --> 00:21:02.100 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. 00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:07.660 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. 00:21:07.780 --> 00:21:15.460 What I want us to look at is this isn't just where we are and what we do, but it's in responding in worship. 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:19.400 That this is what God has called his people to do. 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:21.460 And we continue to see this in the Psalms. 00:21:21.740 --> 00:21:22.920 Psalm 63, 4. 00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:26.640 So I will bless you as long as I live. 00:21:26.760 --> 00:21:29.680 In your name, I will lift my hands. 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:31.960 Psalm 141, 2. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:40.600 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:43.740 And so like, right, we're going to, we're going to have a lesson on, on raising hands. 00:21:43.840 --> 00:21:44.840 I want to say this, right? 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:45.740 I get it. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:51.360 Some of us in here, man, we walk in and we hear that first drum beat and it's like, boom, I'm ready. 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:51.660 Right? 00:21:53.800 --> 00:21:54.400 We're there. 00:21:55.020 --> 00:21:55.680 We're there. 00:21:56.240 --> 00:22:03.880 Some of us are like my son at the South Carolina football game when we played to Kentucky and lost a few weeks ago, but I've moved on past that, right? 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.180 And we get there and they got those towels as you walk in, right? 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:09.220 And so we all grab towels. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:10.560 We're good Carolina fans. 00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:11.600 We're going to grab the towels. 00:22:11.820 --> 00:22:14.280 And so we're in there and then I'll look over. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.860 And so it's, it's Aaron, Emma, Grayson, and me. 00:22:19.280 --> 00:22:20.580 And so we're all right-handed. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:25.420 So, right, the towel goes to the right hand and sandstorm hits, right? 00:22:26.060 --> 00:22:29.640 And Grayson starts waving that towel, whoop-ow, whoop-ow. 00:22:29.840 --> 00:22:33.640 And what I'm noticing is my daughter almost has a concussion, right? 00:22:33.780 --> 00:22:36.820 Because he's just hitting her over and over in the head. 00:22:36.860 --> 00:22:39.780 And she's like, Grayson, he's like, uh-uh, I'm in the moment, right? 00:22:39.800 --> 00:22:40.700 I'm swinging this thing. 00:22:40.820 --> 00:22:42.300 And that's some of us with worship, right? 00:22:43.080 --> 00:22:44.320 I served under a pastor. 00:22:44.540 --> 00:22:46.100 I love him to death, Phillip Lee. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:47.800 I served under a pastor at Cedar Creek. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:50.720 And he asked me one day, he's like, man, why don't you sit beside me? 00:22:50.860 --> 00:22:53.480 He said, you always leave a chair in between us. 00:22:53.480 --> 00:22:55.640 I was the campus pastor and he was the senior pastor. 00:22:55.880 --> 00:22:58.380 And I said, man, because you almost hit me every week, right? 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:02.020 Because if I'm there and all of a sudden the moment catches you, you're like, whoa, there 00:23:02.020 --> 00:23:02.520 you are, right? 00:23:03.080 --> 00:23:03.880 And so we have that. 00:23:04.740 --> 00:23:05.860 I'm a hand raiser. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.960 And some of you, though, like when you come in here, you're like, that's a little weird, 00:23:10.020 --> 00:23:10.200 right? 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:10.980 Like, what are we doing? 00:23:11.540 --> 00:23:12.040 Where are we at? 00:23:12.100 --> 00:23:13.540 Like, what is this whole thing that's going on? 00:23:13.600 --> 00:23:15.360 And so I do it. 00:23:15.360 --> 00:23:18.480 So I wrote down as I've interacted. 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:23.780 Now, there isn't one right answer that when we draw from Scripture of why people raise hands. 00:23:24.600 --> 00:23:30.760 Even when you look at this, like God gives this as an opportunity in the Psalms in a response 00:23:30.760 --> 00:23:31.360 of worship. 00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:37.440 But there's not a reason that's given or mandated within Scripture about why it's done and when 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:37.860 it's done. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:39.080 But it's what we see. 00:23:39.800 --> 00:23:43.320 And so I want to kind of answer the question, and there may be other reasons for this, but 00:23:43.320 --> 00:23:49.160 what I've experienced in my life and in my pastoral experience of why people raise hands. 00:23:49.360 --> 00:23:51.220 And it's a response. 00:23:52.340 --> 00:23:53.640 It's a reflection. 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:56.860 And typically one of three things. 00:23:57.760 --> 00:24:03.120 One is that the words that I am proclaiming, it is the moments of agreeance and truth. 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:05.520 And so within that, I say yes. 00:24:06.380 --> 00:24:07.260 Yes, God. 00:24:07.740 --> 00:24:09.280 Yes, what we just proclaimed. 00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:10.420 Bless the Lord. 00:24:10.740 --> 00:24:12.020 Yes, this is true. 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:14.000 And I raise my hands with it. 00:24:14.580 --> 00:24:19.220 There'll be other times that we see, and it's an act of surrender, right? 00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:22.000 And so I raise and lift my hands. 00:24:22.860 --> 00:24:24.640 I give up my ways. 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:29.000 I give up who I am, Lord, and I surrender to you. 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:37.040 Another that it can symbolize is an act of dependence, right? 00:24:37.560 --> 00:24:39.520 Of desperation of, God, I need you. 00:24:40.600 --> 00:24:42.060 I lift my hands, Lord. 00:24:42.560 --> 00:24:48.040 I am empty, Lord, and I desperately, desperately need you. 00:24:49.020 --> 00:24:51.940 And so when you see people respond in these different ways, right? 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.660 One hand, two hands this way, like, here we go, all kinds of things, right? 00:24:55.660 --> 00:24:59.640 If you were to ask them why, more than likely, it's one of these three. 00:25:00.600 --> 00:25:02.320 And God puts it in Scripture. 00:25:03.520 --> 00:25:06.940 But we're not here to say that you're not worshiping God if you're not a hand raiser. 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:10.460 I'm not here to say that if you don't do this, then you don't love the Lord. 00:25:10.540 --> 00:25:11.540 You're not a mature worshiper. 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:12.940 That's not where we are. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:19.360 Because I do want to say this, that when it comes to worshiping God, when we see this within the heart of Scripture, I would say it's heart over hands. 00:25:20.180 --> 00:25:20.300 Right? 00:25:20.300 --> 00:25:20.940 Heart over hands. 00:25:21.860 --> 00:25:26.600 In John chapter 4, Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman at the well, right? 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:37.840 And long story short, right, she comes and she asks Jesus, as he's kind of confronting her and some sin and some things that are going on in her life, not kind of he blatantly is, right? 00:25:38.060 --> 00:25:40.720 She asks him a question concerning the proper place of worship. 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:43.840 And I love Jesus' response, John 4, 23. 00:25:44.500 --> 00:25:55.300 But the hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers, true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit and truth. 00:25:55.860 --> 00:26:01.100 For the Father is seeking such people to worship him, right? 00:26:01.780 --> 00:26:03.120 She wants to know what it's all about. 00:26:04.200 --> 00:26:08.960 And Jesus says about in spirit and truth, about the transformed life, about who we are. 00:26:09.280 --> 00:26:18.040 So we can walk in here every single week and be the person who's spinning around, throwing hands up in the air, and you're thinking like, man, that guy is really into worship. 00:26:18.260 --> 00:26:19.820 Like, look how he's responding to the Lord. 00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:26.460 But if the heart's not changed, if the heart's not transformed, then give him an Oscar. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:27.560 Well done. 00:26:29.780 --> 00:26:30.920 Because it's about here. 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:41.300 And then the beauty of that is what we see in Scripture when the transformation of what God has begun to do plays out in the life of the individual. 00:26:41.660 --> 00:26:52.200 And whether it's a head hung with eyes closed, whether it's someone singing and proclaiming so off-tune that it's not funny, but it's the sweet, wonderful sound that God hears. 00:26:52.460 --> 00:26:53.720 It's the hands lifted. 00:26:53.940 --> 00:26:55.160 It's the brokenness of there. 00:26:55.340 --> 00:26:59.280 It's the heart above the hands, right? 00:26:59.500 --> 00:27:07.120 And so when we come to worship, when we bless him, it's out of the transformation of who we are. 00:27:08.420 --> 00:27:10.240 It comes from, this is what I was. 00:27:11.140 --> 00:27:12.600 Lord, and this is what you've done. 00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:16.900 And so this is the overflow of this. 00:27:18.100 --> 00:27:20.180 All right, and then lastly in verse 3. 00:27:21.780 --> 00:27:30.020 May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. 00:27:30.700 --> 00:27:33.600 Now this is the part that we like, right? 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:42.600 When we worship this way, when they would go up there, what would happen is that after worship, the priest would stand. 00:27:43.320 --> 00:27:50.860 And as everyone would leave the temple, they would look at them and say, may the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. 00:27:51.040 --> 00:27:54.000 May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:59.400 May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. 00:27:59.540 --> 00:28:01.600 And this is what the priest would say to them. 00:28:02.420 --> 00:28:03.860 And so you're thinking, man, that'd be fantastic. 00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:07.520 Hey, Boca, like work out there and hit everybody up with a blessing as they go, right? 00:28:07.520 --> 00:28:08.140 Like this is where we are. 00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:09.040 This is where we are, right? 00:28:09.340 --> 00:28:10.360 Well, here's what's taking place. 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:11.500 Here's what's happening. 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:13.260 Here's why we are blessed. 00:28:13.820 --> 00:28:17.120 It's being blessed and being a blessing. 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:21.520 Being blessed and being a blessing. 00:28:22.420 --> 00:28:26.920 We begin by saying this message that you and I, we are blessed by God. 00:28:27.320 --> 00:28:30.240 And we are blessed by God for a very unique purpose. 00:28:30.840 --> 00:28:31.260 We are. 00:28:31.660 --> 00:28:37.340 We're blessed by God for our gifts and talents and all that we are and all that who he is so that we will bless him. 00:28:37.540 --> 00:28:39.280 It's what this whole message has been about. 00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:41.560 That we bless him with our praise. 00:28:41.800 --> 00:28:44.600 We bless him not only when we gather, but we bless him in our cars. 00:28:44.820 --> 00:28:45.960 We bless him in our homes. 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:47.420 We bless him at our jobs. 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:49.840 We bless him at every single moment of our life. 00:28:49.940 --> 00:28:56.060 That we're doing all that we can and all that we are to live for his name, for his glory, for his renown. 00:28:56.180 --> 00:28:57.160 That we bless him. 00:28:57.160 --> 00:29:01.020 But also, we are blessed by God so that we will bless others. 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:04.680 And this is filled within the context of scripture. 00:29:05.260 --> 00:29:13.260 When Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love God and love others, that wasn't a new defining moment in there that has been continued on. 00:29:13.560 --> 00:29:20.080 And in Genesis 12, verses 2 and 3, when it talks about the nation, the people of God, of who they are to be. 00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:21.020 This is what God says. 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:24.160 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:26.140 And he doesn't drop a period there. 00:29:28.320 --> 00:29:31.680 And I will bless you and make your name great. 00:29:32.220 --> 00:29:33.960 And again, there's not a period there. 00:29:35.980 --> 00:29:37.880 So that you will be a blessing. 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:41.780 And I will bless those who bless you. 00:29:42.140 --> 00:29:44.840 In him who dishonors you, I will curse. 00:29:44.840 --> 00:29:48.940 And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:29:49.220 --> 00:29:50.500 And here's what it's pointing to. 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:51.300 Jesus. 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:52.560 Jesus. 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:57.980 Jesus, the lineage from Abraham that would go all the way through that Christ would come from. 00:29:58.320 --> 00:29:58.420 Right? 00:29:58.740 --> 00:30:00.320 So I will bless you. 00:30:00.860 --> 00:30:02.380 And then here's what you will be. 00:30:02.780 --> 00:30:05.660 You will be a blessing to others. 00:30:06.300 --> 00:30:06.420 Right? 00:30:08.120 --> 00:30:09.000 You're blessed. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:11.160 I'm blessed. 00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:15.280 I'm blessed beyond belief. 00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:18.240 I'm blessed beyond what I deserve. 00:30:19.340 --> 00:30:20.420 And God blesses me. 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:22.780 God blessed me with his salvation. 00:30:22.940 --> 00:30:23.920 He blessed me with his son. 00:30:24.140 --> 00:30:25.680 He blessed me with his spirit. 00:30:26.360 --> 00:30:27.620 God blessed me in creation. 00:30:27.780 --> 00:30:28.760 God blessed me with you. 00:30:29.540 --> 00:30:33.120 God blesses us in so many different ways. 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.560 And for us, it's the easy to say, this is what I've gotten. 00:30:36.840 --> 00:30:37.960 This is what I've received. 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:39.540 And so it's me and God. 00:30:39.600 --> 00:30:41.720 I'm going to bless him because he's easy. 00:30:41.820 --> 00:30:41.980 Right? 00:30:42.100 --> 00:30:42.920 Like this is it. 00:30:43.020 --> 00:30:45.200 Like it's the feel good goose bump moment. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:54.400 But as they leave the temple, as they go from the temple, may the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. 00:30:54.520 --> 00:31:01.480 And what they know is that they've been blessed for a purpose and for a reason, not only to bless God, but to bless others. 00:31:02.560 --> 00:31:03.200 To bless others. 00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:07.800 So in just a moment, I'm going to wrap up here and we're going to go back to blessing God. 00:31:08.680 --> 00:31:16.180 From the cries and the depths of our heart of who he is and what he has done, we will bless him. 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:18.760 But I want to give us a challenge this week. 00:31:19.780 --> 00:31:23.860 I want to give each and every one of us a target to look at. 00:31:24.520 --> 00:31:33.760 And would you leave from here in the blessing of the Lord, but looking for the opportunity to bless those around you. 00:31:34.580 --> 00:31:34.740 Right? 00:31:35.700 --> 00:31:38.740 Maybe you need to do what we mentioned earlier. 00:31:39.700 --> 00:31:43.120 Maybe you need someone who's going through a difficult time, a difficult season. 00:31:44.060 --> 00:31:54.260 And a word of encouragement, a handwritten note, a phone call, a text message, a stop by their house just to encourage them and to love them could be a blessing for them. 00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:57.580 Maybe you need to bless someone with an act of kindness. 00:31:57.780 --> 00:31:59.480 Do something for someone. 00:31:59.780 --> 00:32:09.080 Take a moment out of your schedule, out of your day, to cut your neighbor's grass, to move their trash can down to the road, to pull it back up for them. 00:32:09.080 --> 00:32:09.220 Right? 00:32:09.260 --> 00:32:13.560 To wash their car, to have a moment to bless someone with an act of kindness. 00:32:14.100 --> 00:32:22.080 Maybe you've been blessed financially and God's laying on your heart an individual that you need to go to, not because they've asked, not because they've begged. 00:32:22.080 --> 00:32:24.780 Maybe they have and blessed them financially. 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:30.840 Maybe you need to reflect the nature of Christ in your life and you need to bless someone with grace. 00:32:31.100 --> 00:32:32.040 They've hurt you. 00:32:32.180 --> 00:32:33.180 They've offended you. 00:32:33.300 --> 00:32:38.540 And what you can begin to do in the process of this week is bless them through grace by forgiving them. 00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:41.700 All of these things are wonderful things that could be done. 00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:45.960 All of these things glorify God and show that we've been blessed. 00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:50.120 And so we seek to bless others, but they just scratch the surface. 00:32:51.660 --> 00:33:07.000 Because the one desperate thing that the world needs, that God gives us, that makes us unique, that makes us special, that we can go and bless the world with. 00:33:07.820 --> 00:33:11.720 Which is what Genesis 12, 2 and 3 talks about. 00:33:12.800 --> 00:33:15.300 Is maybe we can go and bless someone with the gospel. 00:33:16.600 --> 00:33:19.040 To sit down and share with them the hope that we have. 00:33:19.900 --> 00:33:21.260 Of who Christ is. 00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:23.220 And what Christ has done. 00:33:24.080 --> 00:33:27.000 The price that he paid on the cross. 00:33:27.880 --> 00:33:31.740 The death that he overcame and the tomb that he walked out of. 00:33:31.780 --> 00:33:33.380 And the life that he's calling us to. 00:33:34.220 --> 00:33:38.060 And that we don't earn it and we don't deserve it, but he gives it to us. 00:33:39.120 --> 00:33:43.340 And maybe that as we leave here, because we've been blessed. 00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:45.200 Because we know. 00:33:46.100 --> 00:33:47.120 Because we've experienced. 00:33:48.220 --> 00:33:54.180 You and I can go and bless others with the hope of Jesus Christ. 00:33:54.860 --> 00:33:55.540 Would you pray with me? 00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:04.220 Lord, we are here this morning. 00:34:05.780 --> 00:34:07.120 And Lord, may we bless you. 00:34:09.820 --> 00:34:15.520 May the words that we say be the reflection of our hearts that bless your holy name. 00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:28.740 May we lift up our hands and lift our hearts in joyful adoration to who you are and what you've done. 00:34:29.740 --> 00:34:32.880 Lord, we thank you for your kindness and your compassion. 00:34:34.040 --> 00:34:36.980 Lord, we thank you for your counsel that you give us. 00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:41.780 We thank you for your peace that settles within us. 00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:45.700 Lord, we thank you for all that you've done, Lord. 00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:48.700 And we respond by blessing you. 00:34:50.420 --> 00:34:59.580 Lord, may we this morning, though, receive and understand that as we've been blessed by you, as we bless you. 00:35:00.640 --> 00:35:02.880 Lord, that we're called to go out here and bless others. 00:35:05.820 --> 00:35:10.620 And so, Lord, spiritually speaking, help us get our eyes out of the mirror. 00:35:13.500 --> 00:35:19.340 Of looking at ourselves and focused in on us. 00:35:21.640 --> 00:35:30.440 But as we see you, Lord, show us the broken, hurting world around us. 00:35:31.660 --> 00:35:34.280 The lives of the many. 00:35:36.720 --> 00:35:38.520 Maybe we need to drop off a pound cake. 00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:44.860 Maybe we need to pay for someone's groceries. 00:35:48.060 --> 00:35:51.580 Maybe we need to forgive the person who doesn't deserve it. 00:35:51.620 --> 00:35:52.640 They haven't asked for it. 00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:57.000 Lord, you've forgiven us. 00:35:58.660 --> 00:36:00.220 And so, Lord, we need to forgive them. 00:36:03.160 --> 00:36:07.960 Lord, more importantly, maybe we need to bless someone with the gospel. 00:36:11.180 --> 00:36:13.300 Lord, help us see people the way that you do. 00:36:14.860 --> 00:36:23.480 Help us look for moments and opportunities, doorways, to share the reason why we have hope in Christ. 00:36:29.080 --> 00:36:39.280 Lord, help us pause for a moment in our chaotic, hectic lives. 00:36:41.540 --> 00:36:44.780 And focus on why we're here. 00:36:47.820 --> 00:36:48.880 To bless you. 00:36:52.260 --> 00:36:56.160 And to share, Jesus, the lost and broken. 00:36:58.660 --> 00:36:59.880 It is in your name we pray. 00:36:59.880 --> 00:37:17.000 Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. 00:37:17.500 --> 00:37:19.820 We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message. 00:37:20.320 --> 00:37:23.820 If you'd like to learn more about who we are or explore additional resources, 00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:28.860 visit us online at www.willowridgechurch.com 00:37:28.860 --> 00:37:32.420 or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook and Instagram.