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True worship is active, not passive - it's a commanded response that doesn't wait for our soul to catch up. We are called to make a joyful noise, serve with gladness, and know that the Lord is God. Scriptures: Psalm 100:1-5, Galatians 6:9, Philippians 2:14-15, Daniel 11:32, Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 61:3
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Hi, thanks for tuning in to this Week's message at C3OC. We hope that it blesses you, equips you, and fills you with faith. Let's dive in today. I want to focus on us having the right response. The right response when we are setting up moments for worship. And I believe Psalm 100 is one that lays out for us such an incredible revelation that we are able to grasp and be able to run with to develop that culture of worship within us. Amen. Psalm 100. Give me an Amen when you're there. Amen. There you go, Cecily. Always on the ball. Psalm 100. It says this. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Yeah, there you go. Make a response right there. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Yeah, there you go. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 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 ever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100. It's one of those very familiar psalms, right? If you've been around church for a while, you've heard this psalm, and it rolls off the tongue very easy. It's a psalm that we could domesticate and tame very quickly. That it's kind of like a colloquial saying that we just breeze through. But I'd say this, that familiarity, because we've become so familiar with some of these scriptures that it begins to lose the emphasis that God is trying to drive home within his people. Familiarity is one of the enemy's quietest strategies. It does not have to make you reject the Word. It just has to make you not surprised by it. I found that familiarity is the beginning point where we can begin breeding dishonor. It begins to make us so familiar with something that it starts carrying no weight in our lives. We've become so familiar. You know, when you make friends with your boss and. And you become so familiar that all of a sudden the. The joking with them in the workplace in the wrong settings can start now. Getting a little bit risky. There's just a little bit of static that starts to develop in the air. And it's not saying that familiarity is a bad thing, but we have to be cautious that it's not leading us down a road of dishonor that we wouldn't just read enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise, and we go. That's super encouraging, but there's no weight to it within our lives that God is actually commanding us. He's giving us keys to freedom in our life and keys to be in the midst of where God is familiarity. If we're not careful, it's going to breed dishonor. So I want to shake something loose before we jump in. Because you didn't choose to open this psalm today. This is something that, as I was seeking, I feel like God had put this within my heart. And I believe it's going to open us up. Instead of you opening up the Scriptures, it's going to start opening us up and go to work within our own lives. This psalm is not a gentle invitation. It is a summons. It is a declaration. It's a command rooted not in religious tradition or cultural preference, but in the unchanging nature of God himself. And if we can strip away all the familiarity long enough to actually hear it, something in you and I will transform today. Something in us will be reshaped and reformed as we approach our Father, as we come to worship. This psalm flows in two areas. There's two ways that this is broken up. The first is a call to worship, the commands, the activation, what you and I are charged to actually do in worship. And the second is the cause for worship. It's the part of the psalm that gives us a theological grounding. The why, the truth that makes obedience make sense in our lives. God never simply demands worship without providing us a foundation to stand upon. Every command he gives here is anchored to who he is. And he commands you and I to worship Him. And then he tells you exactly why the worship is rational, the why that we should actually do this. And so this week I want to focus on the call to worship. The call to worship for you and I. Next week we want to talk about. We're going to be preaching about the cause of worship. And so he opens up this wonderful psalm. He says, make a joyful noise to the Lord. All the earth. All the earth. Point number one is, this is your offering to God. This is your offering. The first word of the psalm. It does something. It creates a tone for what's about to come. He says, make. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. It's not a. He doesn't say, I suggest that you should make a joyful noise to the Lord. Not if you're feeling joyful. Then make a joyful noise to the Lord. Not if your personality type is a Sanguine. And you're. And you're. You're the outrageous person who cannot help but wear the brightest colors and be the smiling face everywhere. Doesn't say that. It says, for you and I, God's people, we are called to make joyful noise to the Lord. You scan verses 1, 2, 4. It says serve, it says come, it says enter, it says give thanks, it says bless his name. These are all imperatives, imperatives for us. These are all instructions, commands that are issued to every person who is following Christ. There has been so much talk or murmurs around churches that we have to kind of dull down our worship for our personality types and our preference that the expressive side of worship is not what God is calling for. I'll tell you this. I look through the psalms and it says, clap your hands, all you people. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph. It says, lift up holy hands. It says, david danced undignified as he was bringing in the presence of the Lord. I don't find that worship should be an unexpressive action for us. And for some of us, just as the command is in Isaiah, it says, wake up, wake up, shake off your dust. That's not saying, God, will you shake the dust off for me? He's saying, you wake up, you shake off the dust in your life. Start putting some action to the faith that there would actually be a response to a God who carried a cross for you, who came down in human form. There's no other God that would do that. They might come down in old mythology and they demand the respect of humanity. Jesus came down humble as a servant. He came down and was tortured and mocked, beaten, carrying a cross, called a false messiah. That's the God that we serve. And when he laid on that cross for you and I, and three days later, he rose again. There's no other God that has ever been talked about that can do that. And go visit the tombs of Muhammad. You can go visit the tomb of Buddha. You can go visit all of these places where supposedly the people are you. You go to the tomb of Christ. It's empty because he's risen and he's alive. How could we come to that God who expressed his love so deeply and passionately for us with a lackluster response. So for us, because I think we look at it like the ingredients of my life that are stocked up in my pantry, do not make the meal that I want to eat right now. I don't have all of the ingredients. The money or the relationship or all of this just does not make for joy in my life. The good news is that it's not built on ingredients here on earth. It's built on ingredients that God has already provided for you and I. He has prepared a table in advance for you. And if the first thing to go when we get worried is our appetite, right. You know, when you get super stressed, oh, I got that job interview that's coming up. I have that first date with Christine. Oh, how am I going to eat this meal that we're going out to? I'm so nervous. First thing to go is your hunger, right? So when life's trials comes, one of the first things is maybe we'll run to prayer. And there's a slow response that's happening. And so what happens is our hunger begins to die down and we begin to withdraw. We begin drawing close to anxiety and to worry and to stress as opposed to drawing near to God. And he says, make a joyful noise to the Lord. It's not a suggestion for us. It's a switch of faith that is within us, that when we begin to actually switch it, we begin to draw close to God. Amen. So I want to speak against that, like, in the sense of, like, we've got to dull down. And reverence is very. It's straight standing. No, it is expressive. I don't think we're going to get to heaven and the worship is kind of dull and dreary. It says every time that the angels and the elders are looking at God, they are casting their crowns down, say, holy, holy, holy. There's no way that this party in heaven, this praise moments in heaven are going to be like, you know, half hearted and lackluster. No, it's going to be expressive. I'm telling you, become expressive. And I'm not saying, you know, you all have to be dancers and jumping around and everything. But man, put your heart into it. Know that you were coming before the living God, your father, the author and creator of all life, the releaser of his kingdom here on earth. And so the truth is that you can trust God. The truth is your hope is set in Jesus. The truth is God wants to form strength in us. So instead of pulling Jesus and the disciples out of the storm, he actually caused Jesus to speak to the storm, for he is the creator. Worship in your storm. You can still make a joyful noise in the midst of what you are facing. Because here's the hard truth. If worship only happened when we felt like it, most of us would only worship two or three times a year. Maybe Some more for us. But if it truly, like if it just felt. Oh, it feels. I've got the feels. I've got the feels. It's so, so, so emotional. Like what? We're not coming to have emotional worship with God. We're coming to have a spiritual alignment with God. And I need to command myself, Bless the Lord, all my soul and all that is within me. Listen, all that is within me is not always good, right? Anger, frustration, impatience, envy, greed, whatever it is, I command my soul. Bless the Lord. I trust him above all. The truth is the command to worship does not wait for your soul to catch up. It doesn't wait for your soul to catch up. You are the one who puts command over your soul. Bless the lord in Hebrews 4:12. It's such a fascinating scripture and I believe so important for this generation at this time. For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than a two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit that is so important for us because there are too many Christians and people who are seeking a spiritual outcome, but doing it with a soul response. It's the division of all of my emotions guiding my life. And all of this emotional experience within me is now determining my worship. Whether it's loud or it's, it's, it's pulled back. But the word of God that is living and active and that's why we preach something like Psalm 100. That's why we will never stray from preaching the truth of the Word of God, never trying to lighten its call for us is because it will divide a emotional relationship with Christ to a spiritual commitment with Christ. And this, this, it's, it's so important for us because there is a difference between what your soul feels in any given moment and what your spirit knows. Worship is an act of pulling your soul up to where your spirit already lives, not waiting for the soul to lead. And here's the thing about God that underpins all of this. God is happy. God is a happy God. He is a joyful God. He's a colorful God. You need not, and I've said this so many times, need not only look around a creation to know that God is fun and he's a joyful God. Look at the toucan. What the heck is the toucan? All the colors for? You got to look at all these exotic birds and all these animals, the sea cows, what do they call the manatees? You look at a manatee, like what the heck? It's just so you look at it and you smile and you're like, this is crazy. Why would he create this? Because he's an awesome God. He's a happy God. He's a God with high joy. And he wants you to experience high joy. Not a performance of happiness, but a people who have learned that joy is not in the absence of difficulty. But. But joy is in the presence of God, inside of our difficulty. Make a joyful noise. Make it, seek it, command it in your life, Expose it in your life. In the middle of your week, I challenge you. When everything is coming against you, instead of making an angry shout, make a joyful noise to the Lord. And this cancels the excuse if you cannot sing either. I can't really sing that well. It says, make a joyful noise, not a joyful note. So that's good news for my wife. I'm sorry, she's. Whenever she smiles, it makes me sings, it makes me smile. Verse number two, it goes on and it says, serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Point number two is do not hold back. Do not hold back from worshiping God. Real worship is active. It's not passive. I'll be transparent with you. I have not always served with a glad attitude. I've not always served with a willing attitude within my life. Specifically, I'm reminded of when I was younger. My dad would chop down trees every Saturday morning. It was terrible. You would hear the chainsaw start up and he was trimming trees and he was doing this. And he knew that I had a friend stay over and we were going to go surfing. And then he would come into the room and go, hey, can you help me, like, drag all the trees up, you know, to the top? And I'll tell you, the dragon took about like, you know, two or three hours. Like, it's not like, oh, I just trimmed a couple of twigs off of this tree. No. And so I would come out and I'm like, well, I don't want to get my friend to do it. And my dad's like, yeah, what are you talking about now? Get him. Get him involved. Get him involved. Like, he stayed here to wake up early. So we'd go for a surf, and then all of a sudden we're dragging. And you know what? I did it. But I did it like this. There's a dark cloud that is surrounding me. And it was very evident here. This is saying, serve the Lord with a gladness that comes from within. Tone of attitude in your life can change the context and the content really quickly. Right? I was going to get Sean up here to play, like, minor notes behind. But I just want you to imagine this. I say, it's really good to see you. And there is a dreary bum, bum, bum, bum, bum bum bum, bum, bum. There is a. There is a sound and a tone that begins to be revealed, and it comes through our service. I know we've all been there. Don't cancel yourself out and leave me hanging out here alone where there's things around the house and you just. You make it stink a little bit more. So there is a soundtrack that is running out of your life, a tone that is running out of your life, that God is saying, serve the Lord with gladness, that when you are coming to church, when you are coming to gather with his people, when you are turning up to tables, when you are bringing worship into your workplace, that you do it with a glad spirit that is within you. Galatians 6:9 it says this and let us not grow weary of doing good. If you're growing weary of doing good, it's because you're doing it on your own. Let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap if we do not give up. Philippians 2:14 15 do all things without grumbling or disputing. That's convicting, right? Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Why that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation of among whom what you will shine as lights to the world. Attitude changes everything. And God is laying out. I'll tell you this, that when you start worshiping God and start getting close to him, you cannot help but be changed. There is a change of attitude when the script in your head stops singing so loudly and you are surrendering your life to the script that God is laying out for us, the psalmist script that doesn't leave you feeling alone. You read the Psalms and he says, oh, God, where are you? I haven't heard from you in so long. My bones are withering within me. But I know that you are God. But my trust is in you, my deliverer. And this is the reminder that we consistently need. Because I may go to bed. This sounds terrible. I may go to bed a Christian, but I wake up a sinner, and I need to recommit every day to the Lord. I may go to bed calm and full of the fruit of the spirit, but I wake up some mornings and I feel stripped within my orchard. I need to come to God because it's only in his presence, in his atmosphere, where that grows within my life. The attitudes of God are growing in your life. It's rarely been given as a gift to me. You say, oh, man, I want a good attitude for patience in this life. Well, he's going to say, you got to go to the dmv. Well, he's going to say the thing that you've been urging yourself towards. I want you to wait, wait and be still. Oh, I want that joy in my life. Confronted with trial, consider it all joy when you face trials of various kinds of fruit is growing in your life. And the way that we grow, it is contrary action when everything is pushing against you. I will worship my Lord. I will worship you because I trust you. I haven't heard from you in so long, but I trust you are my deliverer. And that's what worship, the base of worship when we are coming to Him. It's the desperation of the need of God within our lives. Serve the Lord with gladness is not a statement about an internal disposition only. It's a declaration that the way you come to God, it matters. The tone you bring matters, the posture you carry into his presence. It matters because worship is not a transaction where the content is all that counts. It is a relationship where how you show up is part of the offering itself. Oh, man. The way you show up to surrender and to put something on the altar is a part of worship itself. It's a part of the offering. Look at what the scripture says again. It says, make a noise, serve, come, enter, give thanks, bless his name. This is movement. This is like the train is going full speed within you. This is traction and tracks for you to run upon. This is engagement language. None of it is passive. None of it is observational. And that matters because there is a dangerous tendency in modern church culture to become consumers of worship rather than participants in the midst of it. We settle into a stance and estimate the worth of the band before offering our worship towards God. Kind of calculating, is it worth worshiping God today? Is the setting kind of perfect? And we want to set a place with no distraction. But is it really because of that that we actually say, ah, it's worth the offering of worship here today? When you grasp the revelation of who God is, you can't help but respond to him. You can't help but hold back the shouts. You have to let it out. You have to let the tears flow. You have to let the joy start coming out. Because the biblical call is so different to Just worshiping because we feel something. You were never called to watch worship, you were called to bring it. You know, just so many weird things within church where it's like, I didn't really like that worship song. The response within me is good because it wasn't for you. It's not been sung for you and for your pleasure. It's been sung to encourage us all for the pleasure of our God in heaven. That's the response to the revelation that we have that when we step into it, we are actually coming into his presence with gladness. So that is our call, is that we are worshiping God in a stance that is active. I like to call it front footed worship. Be on your front foot, not sitting on your heels. David says it like this in the Psalms. He says, I incline my heart to the Lord. I incline my heart to the Lord. I wish that one moment set me an inclination for the rest of my life. When I was at youth camp, I was 13 years old and Tony Saxon prophesied over my life and I felt so on fire. But slowly but surely there is the comfort that settles in, right? And the moment fades and we begin to kind of recline a little bit. Before long, if we're sitting in a recline, we're going to end up in a decline. You know when you're sitting on the chair and you're kind of leaning back on the two legs and you're kind of like this, before long there's going to be a decline in your life. We have to be intentional about having an incline within our worlds, an incline within our spirit, saying, I will worship you with my front foot forward. Amen. He goes on and says in verse three, know that the Lord, he is God. Know that the Lord, he is God. This is where your revelation will flow from for your worship. This last point is know who he is. Right worship flows from, right? Knowing in your life, know thyself is a really common saying, right? Know thyself and it's, and it's a wise one to take on, to have a self awareness, to know where your emotional IQ is at, to be able to assess and to grow. But here is what I want to suggest to you here today. Knowing God is a truer and deeper wisdom in your life. And I would argue it is highly questionable whether any person can truly know themselves without first knowing God. It brings identity, meaning, purpose. And all of these find their grounding only when anchored in the One who created us. Know that the Lord, he is God, not a God among others. He's not a God that is comparable to any other God that is mentioned over history to any Muhammad or to any Buddha or to any of these Hindu gods. No, he's incomparable. He is set apart. Know that he is the Lord and that he is God. There is no other power in this world that succumbs his. There is no power that supersedes his. And those who fully accept this, there is no competition. There is no equal. Those who recognize it and keep reminding themselves of it, these are the ones who are positioned to offer worship that is truly rooted. And I'm saying this in reality because God's plan is not just for you to exist in heaven. And that's where you get to be with his presence. The Lord's Prayer. Jesus says if you pray, pray like this. His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. His death and resurrection, his sending of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, his commands for us is so that we're not just waiting for the guarantee of our heavenly life, but that you and I are positioned here on Earth to experience the kingdom of heaven. Now. That's why he sent the Holy Spirit. He said, I'm giving you a guarantee, a deposit on eternity for us to neglect any of the demands. And I demand this of my soul. I woke up yesterday and I felt a heaviness. I felt a darkness. And I chatted with my wife. She was out in the morning and she came home and she said. She came out and she said, are you okay? And I. I said, I don't know. I just. I feel dark and I feel like I want to cry. And I don't know why. I feel like I want to cry. So. Ever joyful. My wife, she's standing by me and encouraging me. I turn my heart towards worship, okay? And all I wanted to do was sit and stare at a wall. But I turn my heart towards worship because I do not want my soul to command my life like it used to. And I know this, that God is a good God. God is a happy God. God is a joyful God. God is a trustful God. He is faithful. He is loving. He is ever kind. He is ever compassionate. And that if I. I just relegate myself to. I feel like this. I'm just gonna fall into the corner instead of stepping out and saying, God, I'm gonna pursue you. So you know what I did? I did two things. I turned on worship music and I listened to it. And I stopped saying to myself the things that were echoing in my head. Oh, but it's so rational. And it's so true. No, it's a lie. I cast out all of those thoughts. The Bible says, take captive every thought. Lay it at the feet of Jesus. So do that. I put worship music on. I put my jiu jitsu gi on and I went up and I strangled some people. And then I got a belt. Promotion. Well, no, I got a promotion, but I'm telling you, I didn't want to leave the house. I didn't want to do. But there is something about standing up and saying, you know what? I'm going to blast worship music. I'm going to go and be in the midst. And you know what happened up there? I witnessed to two guys and got to pray for one of them. Why would I let my light be consumed with a false darkness that's trying to steal the hope for someone else? So know who your God is. He's not bigger than any darkness that you would face on your own. He's not bigger than any anxiety, any loss. Sorry. He is bigger than all of that. No trial is bigger. No wave is bigger. No hardship is bigger than what God can handle. And so for us who are able to magnify God like this, this in our lives, instead of magnifying problems, instead of magnifying storms, you're going to find you are close to God. You are near to him. Because if you and I have reduced God to something manageable in our lives, something comfortable, something that fits neatly inside our categorical wallet for life, then what we are worshiping is a concept and not God. And a concept cannot carry you through a crisis. Only the God can. Only the one true God can. Daniel 11:32, it says this. The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. I mean, come on, isn't that good? Now put that back up again. I want you to say this. The people. Oh, come on, that's lame. Let's do this again. The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. Do you want that in your life? Do you want that? Man, I tell you, come and pursue God in knowing him. And listen, there is scriptural side to this, but it's also an encounter side to it. My wife knows me really well. Not because she read my autobiography, I don't have one, but because she lives close to me, right? She encounters me on a daily basis. She can't keep her hands off me on a daily basis. So don't withhold from God. I'm telling you that if you want to be smart in life, get close to God, go and encounter his presence. Don't just study proverbs and not pursue a relationship with God, man. Bring it to life by the Holy Spirit being in your world, by coming before God, by making a joyful noise, serving him with gladness and knowing that he is God. Let's stand up here today. This is not mystic. This is the Creator wanting to be close to his creation. If you need fixing in your life, go to the Creator, man. He created you. He knows your inner workings. He knows and can count the hairs on your head. He knows you better than anyone else. When you go to him and you are postured towards him, the wisdom that he would speak into your life. Not just worship reserved for Sundays, but worship throughout your week in your car, sitting still and saying, God, I give you this space to speak. I serve you with gladness here today. I serve you with a willing heart, not a dutiful one. Oh, I serve you because you are faithful and you are good. And I make a joyful noise to you here today. Can we declare this over our lives saying, I will make a joyful noise. I will serve. Yeah, that's good. I will make a joyful noise. I will serve the Lord with gladness. I know, know my God, for He is God. I want you to take this and put it to work in your life. Don't just leave it in Sunday buffet. The leftover buffet. Take it home. Just one thing. I would say, make a joyful noise. This week, someone comes up, says, hey, how's life going? Oh my gosh, I'm just making such a joyful noise. I know that life might be hard in the middle of this. Oh, man. How's everything going? Oh, my gosh, it's fantastic. God is so good. Oh, he's just revealing. I'm so happy every time I get to serve Him. He is such a good God and a faithful God. He's such a joyful God, man. He lifts me out of circumstances. I might be in the middle of one, but I trust God with everything. That's why I can make a joyful noise today. Amen. Hey, thanks for tuning in. There's a bunch of different ways that we connect throughout the week, including Sunday mornings, and we would love to see you there. You can check out all the details@c3oc.com.