The Ways We Worship

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Conversations about tribe and things that we do and say here. And one of the things that we were talking about, I mean, obviously worship is an easy topic. That's like low hanging fruit for me to talk about. But it had been on Brian's heart to talk about a phrase that we use at Tribe that maybe we just say and we all kind of know it and we're all used to it but maybe you've never really thought deeper about it and we say it every week. We'll just wait for everyone in the.

They're getting treats. Oh, they're getting treats. I told them. They're doing what they were told to do but the the saying and if you know it, you can say it with me but and I even said it today which is when we go from this kind of worship from singing, we're going to move to the next kind of worship because I think I was raised and then the church I was at before was like, worship was the thing we just did. That was worship.

It was the singing. Then, it was the message and then it was, you know, whatever else you had going on on the docket for that day and so, but really all that we do is worship to the lord or it can be should be and so one of the things that we say at Tribe is we're going to worship him with singing and then we're going to worship him by honoring the word that's preached which might be kind of a new saying for you. We're going to worship him by honoring the word that's preached and then we're going to honor him with our giving. So, that's kind of a saying that we have at Tribe and so we just thought we would just kind of unpack that for a minute and we're going to do a worship sandwich today. So, worship in the beginning, worship at the end, and when I knew Brian wasn't going to be here, I I did really feel like the lord put on my heart to bring this word because I was like, oh, ask somebody else like, see if anybody else is available and no one else is available and so out of maybe delayed obedience.

Amanda and I are bringing the word today and Amanda just has such a heart for worship. She also has such a heart for god's word and so I think that together, hopefully, the lord can use us to all of us collectively. We want this to be a conversation. You have thoughts or connections, we have a handheld microphone in the room that Kat has over there. That's for everyone to be able to hear maybe a connection you're making.

And it's for our live stream family as well. So, Amanda,

take it away.

Here we go.

I think it's smart to define what worship is first because we could have a lot of different definitions and I found that quote we were talking about Louie Giglio is a pretty cool pastor and he said this it's easy to find what worship is you simply follow the trail of your time your affection, your energy and your money and your allegiance and at the end of that trail, you'll find a throne and whatever or whoever is on that throne is what's of highest value to you and on that throne is what you worship. That's a little scary and a little helpful.

Yes. So pray with me before we start. Lord, we ask that you would examine examine us today. Really, really examine us. We give you permission.

We just set this time aside and we say, search our heart, oh lord. Search our heart today. We long to worship you. It's what we are made for. In Jesus name, amen.

Amen. If you have your Bible with you, you can open to Psalm 100. Do you guys say Psalm or Psalms? With a with AS. What's your Bible say?

I know, right? I mean, it's the book of Psalms plural but let's see. Matt Grabowski, would you read this for us? And you can read it off the screen too but Alright.

We'll try off the screen.

One through five.

Shout with joy to the lord, all the earth. To worship the lord with gladness. Come before him singing with joy. Acknowledge that the lord is god. He made us and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Amen. That's a that's a good one. I feel like we could spend months just on Psalm 100. It's so so so good. The thing that stood out to Brian and I as we're praying over this is obviously this is about shouting to the Lord all the earth worship him with gladness and the word that really stood out to us and that I feel like is key for the key for worship and worship of the Lord is that word gladness.

And when we look at that word in the Hebrew, it's it's what you think it would be. It's you know, joy or pleasure but when you dig into the deeper meaning of that original word, it's more like the the Thanksgiving that comes from within that solicits a response. So, think for just a second done done in gladness solicits a response. So I think we recognize this as human beings. We respond when we're excited about something, right?

I mean, like God made us to respond to things. When something's funny, we laugh.

Or should.

Or you should. Depends on what you find funny. It worked, it did work. Good job. But Brian gave two definitions and we laughed about it because they were like such old timey examples.

Well, I'm a bar though, so go ahead.

That's true, that's true. He said, he was trying to think of something age old that everyone would know when you're excited that you do. And he said, when you ring a bell in a bar and you're like, get everybody a drink. Drinks on me. Because something has happened or you just won the lottery.

And so out of that gladness, you want to give people something. You want to do something about it. And then the other one he gave was, which is totally not even legal anymore, but when a baby is born and the husband is passing out cigars to everybody in the hospital.

Such a bubble gum cigars for our kids. Oh. Which is sillier than your one.

Wonder where that tradition ever got started. Let's smoke over the baby. Well, They

would tell pregnant moms to smoke to calm their nerves.

And to keep their birth weight down, yeah. Oh, science, we know so much. Know so much more. Do either of those things. I just wrote down as we were talking about that, this is our daughter Selah.

She just got home. We got home at one in the morning this morning driving her back from San Diego. And I was thinking about a practical thing recently when I was excited about something that moved me to doing something and I was thinking, you know, I was like so excited for Selah to come home and I was like marking the calendar and like having her back for the summer and there was like a day I just kept going in her room and like looking in a and going in her room and looking in her room like, okay. And then I was like, oh, like I just needed to do something more because she wasn't home yet. And so I was like, wrote her a note and put it on her pillow.

And it was so cute because when we came home, Brian had also written her a note and stuck it in the door. And then there was a note from our friend on her desk. And I thought, an interesting thing, like when you're thinking of someone, like it led to taking a pen and putting it on paper and doing something about it and so I think that that is kind of in all the three things that we're going to areas that we're going to talk about with worship that we're just going to touch on and then like I said, we're going to worship some more with song is that true worship of the lord when you spend time with him leads you to responding to him. There should be a response if you're truly worshiping him and I don't mean like works like, well, if I'm worshiping the lord, then I go do that. If I'm worshiping the lord, then I give that amount but like there's an overflow out of your heart when you truly encounter him that you can't help but respond.

You can't help but respond and when you're in his presence, that you can't not worship him when you're truly in his presence because of who he is, right? And so, I just want us to kind of think and meditate on that when we touch on these three things. So, we worship the lord through singing which is I think the most obvious or maybe the most common to people like, oh yeah, worship. I'll sing to the lord but then honoring the word that's preached and I think that that's a really good one. We'll dig into and then giving.

The first one is just we we worship the lord through singing honoring the word that's recent giving. I feel like the key to when we come to worship what can make it go from. Singing songs to actually encountering the Lord. Is the difference of getting our eyes off of us and fixing our gaze on him. I don't think that there's any like.

Huge secret to how to worship the lord other than we take our eyes and our focus off of us and we just fix our eyes on him like it's not about us, you know, and I'll just say this like kind of practical level in this. I'm not scolding anyone because I do the exact same thing. But we can get really into our preferences when we come to sing together. I look at that song or why aren't the words up or I've heard that with a slower tempo, it sounds better that way. It's only pitch.

Yeah, that doesn't, I don't sound good singing that song or you know, like especially like as a musician, for me, it's like, sometimes it can be really hard. I'm like getting, I'm listening to music. I'm thinking who's singing harmony. I'm and all that is fine. That's like we we have to deal with all that.

That's why I always say when we come into the time of singing together. I always say, let's remove the distractions from our mind. I'm saying that to myself. You know, like I'm starting to play the guitar and I'm like, oh my gosh, the monitor is not on or why is there nobody here and what's, I mean, like, I'm saying that for me like, I have to discipline my mind every time I go to enter in to song to sing over him and just and sing to him and he is so faithful when we sing those words just all my life, you've been faithful and you'll never let me down like all you have to do. Is step out and and in action of opening your mouth and singing tell him Lord.

Am trying to remove the distractions from my mind right now. Would you help me like you know what even happened this morning or you know what I'm going through or maybe you just feel distant from him, but it's a discipline to actually enter into worship. It's a discipline. Know we're like up here playing the music, but you guys know, right? Like you can come into a place where the presence of the lord is and never ever encounter him, right?

Like you can come in and enter in and you know, you you look around and you'll see people worshiping or even maybe there's an outward response. They have their hands raised or they're weeping and you're just going, you know? It's a discipline to actually enter into worship in song and it just starts by just opening your mouth and singing which is what we try to do when we start and get our heart right before the Lord.

Practically speaking, can like your phone a note open notes in your phone and whatever's distracting you write it down. There's science about that getting it out of your head and into paper like whether it's good or bad like okay, need eggs and bread and whatever it could be like that or as intense as like I don't feel like it because I have an unresolved problem with the person I care about you know like whatever it is bigger. Just write it out. Write it out whatever it takes because when you like start running for per se that's a discipline you don't just start with perfect, you know Kate perfect gate is that what it's called sure right. You don't start on anything perfect.

Have to get there Every discipline takes practice. So what if that looks like for worshiping the Lord is the same practice entering into that space.

Lisa, there's something I just wanna touch on that you said, and I'm probably only preaching to myself here, but We usually are. Very true. I used to worship used to not like, the singing used to not be my favorite part at all since sincerely. Because I used to wait for the message because it applied to me, and I wanted to see how it applied to me. And so pretty much every time I come to worship now now I I I'm learning how to appreciate it sincerely.

But I literally have to tell myself, get over yourself. And so if that is speaking to anybody, just that's helped me get over yourself. Because what it was is really pride. And so I had to literally get over that to enjoy the singing part of it. And so I really and Lissa, Amanda, I love you guys.

You guys were not my favorite. It was Brian's sermon and I no. No. You were not now But that's what I But that's the point is get over yourself. It's not about you.

It's about Jesus. And that was That's been hard for me. And it And then coming to salvation started changing that and it's still changing changing to this day. That's huge, get over yourself.

That's so honest and It's so

Mike, I'm remembering tribe, we had a cool opportunity in July, our tribe worship team to go down to Dallas and play for this conference. And I remember Holger, one of our favorite German guys, he impacted Cory a lot. He was like, I won't try to do a German accent. He was like, thank

Oh, please, Jack. Oh, no.

Can't I can't even. It will be terrifying. He just said, thank you so much for not singing songs about yourself. Do you remember him saying that?

That's right.

And we're like, oh, and you were like, I didn't do that on purpose.

Was like, I was like, do I have any lined up better about me?

Exactly. He's like so many songs. They just are like me. Bless me. Bless me.

And I was like, I think he's right. You know there's a lot of Christian songs that aren't good for a lot of reasons, but just the lyrics like I've they probably really their hearts are right. They're just like off because there's a lot of songs about like why aren't you fulfilling your promise to me like do it do it do it is the tone it gives and and what we're saying is it's not about you. At all and I that that was really good. Kate.

I just wanted to in Psalm 100, I was thinking when you were saying Lisa about you know part of worship is coming in and like taking our eyes off ourselves and putting our eyes on the lord and as you were saying that, I was thinking, you know, I know for me sometimes, it's like, you know, like putting, it's like, what does putting my eyes on the lord look like? You know, because like. Practically. Practically, it's like, am I seeing what I think is a picture of Jesus or am I just kind of like, what does that look like for me? And I realized what it looks like for me is really what verse four is talking about is enter his gates with thanksgiving.

And his courts with praise. And for me to like put my focus on the Lord and coming to the Lord's presence. So often it means I need to take my eyes off of my concerns of the day and I need to start giving Thanksgiving and I need to start in my mind, start recognizing all the things I have to be grateful for and how good the lord has been and just kind of put myself in that posture before the Lord and it really that helps me a lot to enter into worship.

Gretchen, that's that's so good, Kate. And isn't it awesome that when we're like, like I'm not feeling like worshiping God actually tells you what to do like just start thanking him enter his gates with Thanksgiving. Okay. Can do that like thank you Lord and just start just start thanking him, you know and and suddenly your heart starts to change and then start to praise him. It's just like sometimes when I don't even know what to pray and I'm I'm like, Oh yeah, the Bible actually says.

How how should we pray? Oh pray this way. Oh our father who aren't like he he doesn't leave us to have to even figure it out. He gives us a guide. Gretchen

something that you said just I think you like touched on it briefly but like asking god to help remove distractions and to step into his presence and I think like it reminded me we read Psalm 51 this morning and verse 12 says, restore me to the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. And I think for so long, I thought that I had to like like, I couldn't ask God to help me obey him or to help me enter into his presence or to help me want to put my eyes on him. I had to do that myself because it was rude to do it, you know, to not. And then I realized, like, reading stuff like this, I was like, oh, I can ask him to help me to do that. I can ask him to help me to enter into his presence.

And I think that that was such a shift for me

to be like, help me to worship you right now.

It's beautiful. Help me to remove distractions.

Do you remember that song,

10,000 It's beautiful. Yeah. Of course.

10,000 reasons for my heart to sing, I will bless you, Lord. The time that that was coming out, I had a friend in another state. Joy, do you remember this? And she lost baby after baby, and it was just such a depressing and hard time. And she took this first to heart.

She's like, I mean, I'm just gonna what am I thankful for then? Because I'm literally depressed and this is the worst and so she just started writing writing writing and she ended up it was over the course of a year, maybe longer 10,000 literal reasons that she was thankful and it completely changed the trajectory of her heart. I mean, don't don't think it took away the pain because that's a whole other sermon. How that works how you can have joy and pain in the same space, but man it sure changed the trajectory of her family and her attitude towards it and then her story. And then she let that be you know it was a she wrote a book about it and you know talks to women when they're going through the same thing.

It's like thankfulness is the response that we're talking about to worship and only the Lord knows what he's gonna do with that. Your job is to be obedient. That's the natural part and then let the Lord do his supernatural part, which is turn it into something beautiful.

That's so good. Isn't it funny like what Gretchen what you said is like we even can think like the obedience that comes to be obedient to the Lord somehow comes from us. Like we just, we always like, just because of our flesh and who we are as humans, we just always take everything back on ourselves. It's it's such a human thing to do and I think like when you're feeling that like I don't feel like worshiping the lord. I don't feel like it.

That's valid to the lord. You know, like he cares about how you feel. It might not be right and he might like help you work on it but like he cares about how you feel. You don't have to like, well, I gotta deal with all how I feel over here so that I can then come before the lord. Like he wants you to come before him and pour it out and be like, okay, lord, you know me.

You know me right now. Like, you know, I don't feel like worshiping but I'm going to open my mouth and I'm going to do this. It reminds me of just a simple like again like the action when we are encountering the lord or we want to hear from the lord. There's like a partnership. There's an action step that he usually calls us to because he wants to partner with us.

Just for our benefit, he doesn't need us. Right. He create, he works outside of time and space and he created the universe with his breath. Right. Does.

So, it's for our good good and our benefit.

That's right. I was thinking about this just popped in my head but you know, when god we felt like god was calling the idea came to run across Mongolia. We felt like god was in it and I say we ran across Mongolia. I was in a support vehicle but but we got there and we felt like we were in complete obedience to the Lord to do this thing. Brian was gonna run 1,500 miles across the country Mongolia to raise money and awareness for these hurting children in the city that, you know, you see things all the time, but then one will just, you'll it'll just sink and you think, oh lord, is that a thing I'm supposed to respond to?

We were on the plane flying over to Mongolia. We had our kids with us. We're going be there about three months is what we figured it would take and Brian had gotten a root canal. He had gotten a toothache root canal ended up getting the tooth pulled. He was in tons of pain and he had rolled his ankle while riding his mountain bike like the week before because he's like, I'm not going run the week before I'll ride my mountain bike.

So his ankle was swollen. We're sitting on the plane. I was like, Well, Lord, like here we are in all of our obedience. Like, what? Like, and it was maybe day four and Brian had run a 100 miles.

And all these thoughts, all these doubts were, like, creeping into my mind. Like, is this how fast he's gonna run? Like, I thought he was gonna run so much faster. Like, what? Like, this is gonna like And I just All these like, oh my gosh, how are we gonna do this?

You know, we're figuring it out. But anyway, I'm having all these doubts. Brian is on that very same day sitting down on the road and has completely bonked. Do you know that feeling? Done.

Mentally, physically, the motivation, done. 100 miles, done. Sat down on the road, so done, he just like ate all his snacks, drank all his water, Was like trying to convince himself, hey, bud, you did a 100 miles. That's a lot. You raised the money ahead of time.

Good job. And gave it to the orphanage. Making all these excuses, thinking it had what he was gonna say. All that to say. So he's like, finally he just is like, but Lord, I thought you said to do this thing.

I thought you were in this. And Brian just felt like a huge slap on his hand.

He was

like, are you done? Are you done thinking that this had anything to do with you? Like you're you are just the one who said yes. Like I want to use you. I want to use you but not because you you can run 1,500 miles.

He would have picked anyone that said yes,

yes and so he was like well, then what do we do and he just sat there having this conversation with the Lord on the road and the Lord said. Want you to stand up. So he's he goes. Can you take one step? I can take one step and the lord, he said that the moment he took one step, he felt like the lord say, now, I got something to work with.

Like, now, I got something to work with because now, you know, it's not about you. You had to get to the end of yourself so that now I could do every single step through you and it was it was miraculous. I can do one more step. Lord, can't I can't do this without you. You know, because we try to go out in our independence.

So, that that's kind of off the topic of worship but with that is just that the lord loves to partner with us. We have to open our mouth. We have to step out. We have to discipline our mind and ask him, lord, I don't feel like this right now. Will you give me the obedience to take that one step?

As I was looking through just like what the Bible says about worship, how many times it talks about worship two forty six times in the Bible, the word worship is used either towards the lord or something we worship like in the actual form of like giving our praise our adoration to and not in that two forty six but a separate 293 times. The Bible talks about praising the lord. Like, it's a big deal to god, our worship, and our praise and what it's directed towards. So, I just encourage you when we leave this time together, our goal today as we talk about worship is that you would have some tools, some practical tools that you can think about next time because it's going to happen when you leave here or you start to get stressed like, okay, what do I do? You know, always tell Sailor Kai like put on worship music or Kai's stressing us like put on worship music and he's like, I don't want to put on worship.

Was like, I don't care. Trust me. It will help you put on some worship music and just sit for a minute and remove the distractions and so lord help us to discipline our minds and our hearts in the area of like actually singing worship and praise to you because your word calls us to let us not think of this time at church or when we put on worship music in our cars as like song time to get to something else. Let us take every advantage of every opportunity you give us to worship you. Amen.

I have one more thing before I move to number two. The the lord woke me up at 3AM the other day and immediately, I just had this reggae song in my head because it's what I've been jamming to like while I do stuff and I was just singing. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, but it was just such a gentle tap tap tap. He's like, if you're gonna wake up at three and start singing a song, do you think you could change it to something that honors my name? I was like, really sure.

And so then I was cleaning the house.

Did you find some Christian reggae?

Yes. But it's not quite the same. But yeah, I so yeah, just little nudges. And that's the Holy Spirit nudge. Because that was just a gentle conviction, not condemnation.

It was just a gentle, you're a little bit off track, baby girl. I'm gonna stitch you back on. But as we Gosh, if you're singing, whether it's at church or at home or while you're cleaning or in your car, whatever it is, I just encourage you, it's not If you don't have a reason or a motivation, just read what Jesus did for you, even if you know it. Just go ahead and read it in the Bible. I mean, let's not give casual worship to an extravagant God who's given everything for us.

I mean, it no matter what you have going on, if you read what he did on the cross, how the veil was torn like, you, it is the most powerful and impactful thing you can possibly read. If you read it and feel nothing, do it again. Just read it again and again because he is so worthy of every form of worship we have for him and singing, have we talked about this singing and worry? I don't think like singing worship and worry cannot exist in the same space. Anxiety or worry or things that we all deal with on a daily basis cannot exist in the same space when you're worshiping your king.

There's something supernatural. This is why he likes worship better than reggae for me at 3AM because something supernatural happens. Not because of the author of the song or whatever, but it's because you are singing your praise to him, the one that the one and only who is worthy of our praise.

That's right. There was some and you can look this up, but I was reading this article the other day about how when you that it like and if there's anybody that knows this better than I do A neuroscience? Yeah. Neuroscientists? That there's actual humming.

They didn't go into singing. But humming itself, I sent it Sarah. We were talking about fixing our minds on getting out of that loop when you get in that panic loop or whatever. And they've done these studies where you can't and have the anxiety released at the same time because there's the vagus nerve that humming stimulates that.

So does cold water on your face? Oh, yes. It resets your vagus nerve and calms your nerves. Uh-huh. But like It's cool how the Lord designed it that way.

Yeah. It's super cool. And I mean, just what a cool, like, response and, like, proof that, like, when we sing, we end like, we it focuses our heart on him. It is supernatural. It's supernatural.

So, the discipline of, I mean, and I know it might seem like, I always have a hard time speaking about worship because I feel like a lot of people are like, well, yeah, that's easy for you to say like, you're a singer. You know, and like, I married a non musical human. Like, out of all respect for Brian, he's the one of the least musical people that I know. Like tempo, pitch, all the things but he loves music but you know what? He worships the lord with music and with his heart.

It doesn't, it is not about whether you sing good or you sound good or you like to sing. It is has nothing to do with that. Nothing. I mean, thank goodness that the lord picks people in the areas that they're gifted at to lead those things, right? Because there's things I am not gifted at that other people are.

We were in The Philippines one year doing ministry, Corey and I, and there we were at a worship session for this little church out in the middle of the sticks, and it sounded awful. I mean, terrible to the ears. Different songs. I think they're playing different songs on every instrument. The bass was way loud.

He just had an amp, and there was chickens that kept running in and out of the drums. Like, no joke. And you'd come in and you'd be like, oh my god. But every one of them, their hands were raised and there's hot tears streaming down their face. And I've never that's the second most powerful time I've ever felt the presence of the Lord.

And it was such a reminder, like, even through worshiping through song, it has it's not about I mean, sure. We all like a pleasant sound. Great. Get on Spotify for that. We'll come to try it.

And here, let's see, every Saturday. But it's not about how it sounds. It's about the lord and about your heart posture. Let's move to the second

one. Get over yourself

and scat yourself.

It's a t shirt. Renee has something to you.

Yeah. Renee. I I said this

before in in this setting, but, oh, know, the word came to me one day about how the lord does not hear your voice. He hears your heart and so, so what if Leo doesn't like my singing? So, what if the person next to you thinks you're singing off key and might be judging you? That's on them, man. Like, sure.

It is a supernatural thing that happens when you get rid of the distractions and sing truth.

That's true.

If there's no rational explanation to it, it is a supernatural thing and sometimes you just need to sing truth to have things break off of you. Mhmm.

Yes.

So that's I just, you know, there's been countless times in my life where I don't I'm not I'm not feeling what I'm singing but I know that as many times as I repeat truth, eventually, whatever that is that's on me is going to break off.

That's right.

And it's it's a gift to us. Yes. God doesn't need to hear us singing worship. We need, there's something in us designed to need to worship him.

Yep. Worship something you choose. Right.

Yeah. That's so true. We do have a choice what we worship. That's so good, Renee. The second form of worship that we mentioned at Tribe is we worship him with song and then we always say and now let's worship him by honoring the word that's preached and so let's turn in our Bibles to James 122 through 25 and if someone would read that and you can read it off the screen if you want that.

Brian and I both read out of the New Living Translation for no specific reason other than it's just the version we have.

But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it's like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

That's so good. It's interesting when I was reading that over and over this week. It's like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself walk away and forget what you look like. Can I just, you know, when I was thinking about that, I was thinking for me writing down in the moment when the lord put something on my heart, either a conviction or you need to reach out to that person and apologize or you're not right there like deal with that?

You know, we're right now, we're in this like group setting but like during service, if the lord put something on your heart, I just encourage you, write it down because he knows us so well. He knows that we look in the mirror and we turn around and we forget what we even look like or maybe in that moment, it's like the conviction is there and then you leave here and you get all distracted about going to the grocery store and then all of a sudden you kind of lose that and the enemy would love that, right? He'd love for you to not be obedient about what the lord just convicted you.

We don't mind it either. We don't mind forgetting. I know. Life feel easier for the moment.

But it's why Brian always says, if you're taking notes today or write in your notes because the not because what Brian's saying is like so important. He wants you to write it down. It's because the lord might speak to you a specific way and he wants you to then go and be obedient in it and so if you write it down like, oh yeah, the lord's convicted me on that because if his word is living inactive, this what we're reading right now is going to change us. That's our expectation like it's going to change us. So, honoring the word that is preached.

I think that maybe when we've said that before, I think maybe even I thought, oh, honoring the word that's preached is by like being quiet and listening to what Brian has to say. Like, that's kind of how I've I've thought of it.

That's just common courtesy. That's just called listening.

Yeah, like, I'll honor you by listening to you and paying attention and but really the honoring the word that's preached is listening to it. It says that we're going to we we can fool ourselves for if you listen to the word and don't obey it. It's like glancing in the mirror. So, you're seeing something that's real. You're seeing the truth of what you look like.

You see yourself walk away and forget what you look like but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says, and don't forget what you heard which is why we take notes or we write it down, then god will bless you for doing it. How many times have I heard something in god's word believed it, but then didn't like obey it by actually going and doing that. You know, like when we when we honor the word that's preached, you take what you're hearing in god's word today. Let him speak to you through it like maybe, you know, when we worship here at the end, maybe he's going to bring something up in your heart like you know I keep bringing up like maybe you need to apologize to somebody because that's what always happens to me is I say Lord search me and then he'll bring up something I did or said that was like not lovely or kind or just you know, that he was not pleasing to him. That's the first thing but I could stop right there.

You know, but what he's what he he's not he's bringing that up so that I can repent of it but then I also need to like obey it and I need to which is normally like you need to go to Brian and you need to apologize, you know, for what you said on the drive to church this morning.

Metaphorically.

Metaphorically. Nobody else knows how that is but but that's the obeying it part. I feel like we just stop with the hearing of the word and frequently we don't go and then obey it. That's how you honor his word is by obeying it.

And it changes you from the inside. When you honor the honor the word and you dig in and you take notes and you really study scripture and you get like the blue letter bible app is incredible. You've heard Brian talk about that because it digs into the meaning of the words and yeah, it's like it changes you from the inside. And so then you're So again, it's not about works. It's about your heart posture being calibrated with the Lord's.

And when you're changing on the inside, naturally your outside things will change. You don't even have to try. You'll be kinder. The nine fruits of the spirit, Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Those things will occur naturally when your heart posture on the inside is right.

When you're honoring the word. The word of God.

That's right.

I like how you just said that back here, Alyssa.

Oh, there you are. I was like scanning, scanning for Lanisha.

Because the scripture has been replaying a lot recently for me this exact passage of three verses and the lord has really been working and showing me whenever I would read this, I would only ever read it in like an action step. Like, only follow through on the things that he says for us to do as in worship, as in tithe, as in like honor your parents. Like, I only ever thought of it in that. All

good ones.

All good ones. Still do that. Still do that. But I only was taking it in that way and it wasn't until recently when the lord's like, you need to really read what I'm saying right here and it's also an emotional sense as well because in the Bible, it says, not to have doubt and believe in the lord and come to him and ask him for things, the desires of your heart and let him speak to you and love you in that way and he really called me out. It's like, you will read those scriptures.

You'll go, oh, that's so good and then you'll close your Bible, you won't ask or you'll still have the doubt in your heart or you won't listen to the wisdom that I've given you. Instead, you're just following the other action steps. So, I say that as an encouragement. If you've been doubting or anything that the lord will do any form of breakthrough to your life, His word is true and stands firm in that and I encourage you to ask the lord for forgiveness, for doubt, and ask him for the desires that have been on your heart that you know that you should have asked him for.

It's good.

Or you'll you'll take a screenshot, post it on social media, and not do it. I

I have found that when I take a minute before starting reading my scripture, if I ask for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, it opens up and Brian's encouragement to look for different scenarios and what it took to get into that scenario. I have not only enjoyed my reading more but feel more fulfilled. Because he will honestly impart what we ask. Mhmm. In his name.

Amen. I just want to jump in here because it's been the women. It's time for a man to speak. And then.

The ladies, the ladies.

Years ago, I memorized some pretty simple songs, praise songs. And what I do when I get up in the morning is like, I don't want to talk. I just want some coffee. I'm going to go outside, walk around. But I have learned if I just belt out these songs that I memorized, I don't feel like it, I croak,

I stink, but I don't

care, I'm going for it. I never feel like worshiping the Lord before I have coffee in the morning.

Never. Do the dogs howl?

Well, I'll tell you what, it gets gets me going that I have my coffee and the next thing I know, oh man, I wanna get down on my knees. I want to worship. I want to pray. So, anyway, I throw that out there for the men.

Just do it. Even if you don't feel like it,

your feelings will follow.

Yeah.

I'm listening to all these, you should act this way and do this. And I agree, I really want to read a quick verse here. And what I would ask folks is, have you had a person in your life that you respected and had such a deep admiration and close relationship with that if they were to suggest or ask you to do something, you would be like, well, of course. Or even like with I was lucky to have a great dad. My dad told me to do a lot of things I didn't want to do or didn't even agree with, but there was a deep love.

And I and I of course, I usually eventually did it. But this verse, John 14, if if you love me, you will obey my commandments. And that's the heart of a lot of this is do do we love god and why would we love god? Well, because he loved us first. Mhmm.

And so to go even deeper in all of this is who is he and and how much, how great is his love and how wide and how deep and nothing can separate and so much of the love of god is driving this and and what a beautiful thing and bless everybody here to to find that and cling and experience and have that joy.

Mhmm. That's right. It's good, John. Okay. Well, I'm going

to piggyback off that. Thank you for teeing me up. I had heard this quote once that this kind of reminds me of but never call yourself ugly because you don't see the way your face looks when you're reading something that you love or you don't see the way you look when you laugh or like when you're lit up with joy or even when you're sad and you cry, you know? And like I thought about that a lot and then I'm just thinking like, you know, I don't know that I could describe what I look like to someone in like great detail but I could describe my husband's face in every moment. I could describe your both of your faces in every moment because we've had so much interaction and there's so much love there.

And so I think of that in this that like if we going off of what John said, if we love the Lord and if we fill our hearts with him and we gaze upon his face and we look at his word and we really dive into it, then we will want to obey him because like John said, if when we love someone, it's we'll do whatever they say, you know? Well, within reason. But like, and so I think it's the same thing here. Like if we love the Lord and we gaze upon his face and memorize the lines of what he's saying and the lines of what he's doing and how he's moving, then obeying him will come more naturally.

Mhmm. Yeah. Even if it hurts, it'll just feel like a natural response. I I am like, as we're talking since that there's some people in here who are like, okay. Agree.

Agree. Agree. But, like, it's just so hard. Like, I hear what you're saying. My mind understands but my heart doesn't and I just feel strongly like sin is a big deal and it puts a wedge in between you and god and so, if you're, maybe this isn't the reason but maybe there's something big or small.

There's a sin or like an unforgiveness that you're talking about this like that that's what's blocking you from this full expression of what we're talking about. Not that you'll just immediately start singing and you'll just have so much joy like Lee and then first thing in the morning, that's not necessarily the case but if you're like, I hear you. I understand it and I even agree but I just can't do it. I haven't been able to. Honestly, there's probably some kind of sin or unrepentance that needs to be handled first so that you can enter into what we see in the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies and then when Jesus died on the cross, we have full access to that for him.

So, just do not and that's a this is a whole other sermon but like, please don't let sin or unrepented something wet get in the way because the enemy is so sneaky and he'll take the tiniest little thing, you know, like, oh, they're sending the doors open, the doors open. He'll put his foot in there real quick and then over time, you'll just open yourself to more and more and your heart will get harder and harder and what we're talking about today which today is beautiful and you agree with, you'll be like, that's bullcrap. Don't don't get to that point. Do you have something, Clay?

Let me bring the mic to Clay. Let me just pray that in this moment. Lord, maybe as Amanda said that, someone's heart is beating out of their chest because they've got some sin going on in their lives. We're all sinners that are forgiven but maybe there's some active sin that they are aware of right now in this moment where they sit in the chair. Lord.

They don't have to leave today with that weight of sin. That's right on them. That if they confess that sin, You're faithful. You're faithful. You already paid the price for those sins.

You went ahead and you did it ahead of time, paid in full. That's right. But we can wear the shame of that because of our choices. So, lord, I pray for any heart in here that while Amanda said that like, yeah, that's great. That's great.

Sure, read the word and then obey it. That's great but you can't even like receive that as revelation today because there's just active sin in your life. Lord, I pray for courage for those people that at the end while we worship that they would first take it before you ask for your forgiveness and that they would then reach out to someone and confess their sin and receive prayer today so that you can bring it out in the light and that the enemy wouldn't have any power over them. That's right anymore because we are made new in you in Jesus name.

Amen. Listen to Psalm 32. Oh, what we're about gladness and worship. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those who record the lord and has cleared been cleared of their guilt, whose lives are in complete honesty.

Doesn't say ease. It says honesty, authenticity. And he says, when I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long. Day and night, gosh, we've all been there. Am I right?

Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me in the most loving way. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. But finally, this is where we want you to be today. Verse five, I finally, I confessed all my sin to you and stop trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the lord and lord, you forgave me and all my guilt is gone.

Psalm 32. So beautiful. Clay, do you have something?

So I'm going to go a little old school and kind of tell you that I mean, we live in Jackson or in the surrounding area. Most people, if you surveyed in this room, would say we are blessed to see God's creation. And but I just I warn you, I encourage you to seek god first. Yeah. In the mornings, when you're getting your day started and you want to think about everything but god, ask god to show you something.

Stop being in entertainment mode and wanting to fulfill your needs from an entertainment standpoint to do things that you like. I had to go through cancer to realize that I needed God every day. I needed to submerge myself in his word. And that I'm a sinner today. I'm a sinner tomorrow.

I'm a sinner the next day. And if I'm not seeking God, I just I think I'll back it up. I just want to encourage. I've gone back to my paper bible. I love my iPhone, don't get me wrong.

Great to take notes and it is so easy. But I think in the not too distant future there's going to be a day when you wake up and you go, what's wrong with my phone?

Oh, boy.

Something has happened. Maybe tomorrow, maybe one hundred years from now. I may not even be on this world at that time, but I'm just telling you what I've done. It took me a long time to realize that I needed to seek God first in everything that I do and it started in the morning sometimes with coffee, sometimes without but in the at the end of the day, it's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

So good.

As we kind of land the plane, we're going to just talk about the third one. So, you've heard us say there's hundreds of way to worship the lord. There really is because worship is where you put your time, your energy, your affection, your money, your thoughts, everything and so, when we're together at Tribe, we only have the time frame to do three, the worshiping through song which we talked about today, worshiping through the honoring of his word which we're actively doing right now and then this last one, you hear us say every week and we'll just kind of it deserves more time. We'll just kind of hit it. It's when we bring our tithe and our offering to him, that's an act of worship and to go off of what Alyssa was saying at the beginning, it's because gosh, money is neutral.

It's not good or bad. It's neutral but what you do with it makes it good or bad and there's a scripture that's been taken out of context, mostly taken out of context for all the time. The love of money, people say is the root of all evil. So, you shouldn't have it and the even the scripture like the rich, it's easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than to get into heaven and you're like, what? There's context around that.

There's actually very meaningful. You'd be like, oh yeah, duh. If you read the whole story and the whole context but people have this weird thing with money whether you have a little, this is the craziest part. Whether you have like little to none or more than you could ever use. Money is a tricky thing for us humans and that's why the lord asks us to bring our tithe and our offering because it can money can tie us up no matter how we feel about it.

It can be a tricky thing and so the lord is so brilliant and he knows that and while it's the way for now that we make exchanges and again, it's neutral. It's not a bad thing inherently but man, if it get, if it grips our heart whether because we have too much or not enough or anywhere in between, God knows that's a hindrance between us and him and so, when we bring our tithe and our offering to tribe and every local church, I know bring, you do that because not only, I remember that that story I told when I was little, I thought that the offering, the physical money floated up and as a little kid, I was always watched when the ushers brought it in.

I was like, the money, it's gonna float. Like, it's

so silly. It does the work of the ministry. It goes to provide groceries for people in our town. It goes to help people move like we we get to be the hands and the feet of Jesus. So, when you bring your tithe and your offering and if tribe isn't your home church, don't give to tribe.

Give to your local church to do the work of the ministry where you're being fed. There's scripture that talks all about that. Malachi three ten, we won't take the time to read it but it says bring all the ties into the storehouse so there'll be room enough in my temple. This is Jesus talking. If you do, says the lord of heaven's armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you.

I will pour out a blessing so great. You won't have enough room to take it in. Try me, he says. This is the only word in scripture you see the lord say this. Put me to the test.

Try it. God just knows that money can. It doesn't automatically but it can grip our heart in a way that takes our eyes off of him. So, that's why it's a simple practice to your local church where you bring a portion of your hard earned money to him so that you're staying calibrated. It's like a proactive measure so it doesn't grip your heart in a negative way.

So, and it does the work of the ministry. It's just a brilliant way that the lord has designed that for the local church. Second Corinthians nine six through eight says, remember this, when we think about ours, it it says a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. Really take that to heart.

For god loves a person who gives cheerfully. We talked about that. Yeah, the gladness. It's not like, okay, lord, I'm giving cheerfully. I'm fake happy.

That's not at all what it's talking about. It's this heart posture where you're just, like you said, you've come to the end of yourself and you're like, whether I have a lot or a little, god, I'm giving a portion of my finances to you because I love you, because I trust you, and because this is a natural act that will keep me calibrated with your heart. It could be a reactive measure like I gotta get back on track and it's meant to be a proactive measure like, ah, this will keep me on track. You know, if you drink water before you're dehydrated, it's a good thing, right? You don't want to get to that point.

You can fix it but it's better to drink water before you feel dehydration. So, just think of that when we bring our tithe and our offering to the lord, you're bringing a portion of your finances and like it says in second Corinthians, ask the lord what you should give. 10% is the standard. 10 actually tithe means 10% and that's what we see in the Old Testament and you've heard Brian talk about like the cross of Jesus on the cross and so many things from the Old Testament like are filtered through the cross and some of them stay the same, some of them are eliminated, and some are edited and so when we we look at the scripture and we say, god, what do you want me to give? It's okay if you give 10%.

That's a solid You're you're being biblical but I really think you ask the lord because sometimes, he'll surprise you and it's usually a number that you're not pleased with but he just knows your heart. He knows the exact dollar amount that will get you off track and so he's he'll say give this or give, you know, something might come in, a bonus check or something we're expecting and so often, this has happened to you, I think. The lord's like, just keep passing it. Don't even sign it. Just keep passing along.

You're like, okay. So, when we bring our tithe and our offering to the lord at every every Sunday service, we do it corporately because we see that in the word and it's just a way that we worship him because we're taking our focus off of our finances and we're putting them on the lord and just saying, gosh, it's yours anyway. It's yours anyway. What would you like me to give? And that blesses his heart and that's a that's a form of worship that he loves us to give.

I just see this picture if you just close your eyes with me. That really the like John said, like, there's all these, oh, we should do this and we should do this But it all comes down to being close to the lord. He just wants to remove anything in our lives. Anything in our lives. Anything in our lives that would keep us at a distance from him.

Anything that would look like an anchor, our sin, our finances, whatever. He, whatever it is. He just wants, he wants to take our little hands and pry open our fingers from whatever it is that we think that we're holding on to, that would keep us. From running into his arms.

Do you know what I keep hearing again and again is that worship is a sacrifice. Every time no matter what form it is, you see in the Old Testament, they brought sacrifices as a form of worship like animals. We don't do that anymore but every form of worship is a sacrifice. And that's so pleasing to the lord. One more thing I'll read and then Hebrew Hebrews thirteen fifteen says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to god.

Proclaiming our allegiance to his name and don't forget to do good and share with those in need. These are sacrifices that please god. Oh, like highlighted. Yes, there's works of giving to the poor and doing those things but man, worship is a sacrifice. You have to give something up to worship him and like we've said, he is more than worthy of it.

Continual all the time. The Bible says to renew our minds. How often? Daily. He must know something about us humans that we don't accept about ourselves.

He must know. It needs continual daily sacrifice and discipline.

Amanda, just give us just briefly how we give it tribe and then let's just worship and let the lord. Let's do what that scripture said, not just hear it but do it.

Exactly. We've done, we'll just roll right into it here at Tribe. You know, we worship him through our giving in a few different ways. If you are brand new, we don't pass buckets like traditional church but there is a little box at the exit when you leave today. You can drop cash or check.

Also, try jh.com. There's a giving link on there. You can see see that and then the easiest way and you'll see this on your screen here is that you just open your smartphone and you type a number like it's a new friend to 84321. And then you type in the amount you want to give. And this is our natural part, right?

As you as you text send, just pray over it. I encourage you. Let the Lord do his supernatural part after you pray over that number and what he's telling your heart to give. When you types, when you hit send, just be like, ugh, lord, it's yours. Do your will with this.

And he honors that obedience every single time. So, let me pray over that and then we'll spend our last few minutes together just soaking in yet another form of worship. Heavenly father, thank you for who you are and how you love. You are so faithful. We can be terrible sometimes and yet you knew that and you sent your son to die for us anyway.

What extravagant love and grace you have for us. You love us so deeply and so dearly. Nothing is more important to you than us. Wow. So, father, as we think about worshiping you in these different ways, today, as we bring our tithe and our offering to you, whether it's today, during service, or different rhythm.

However, we get paid and whatever rhythm we're on. God, thank you for accepting what we bring to you as our hearts are calibrated to you in obedience. We give freely because we love and trust you and you have never let us down. Sometimes, it's been preached incorrectly that like, you gotta give a certain number. This is terrible and in Jesus name, amen.

Sometimes, it's been preached terrible like if you give a certain amount of money, you'll get your blessing or if you give, you know, $99,009.99 right now, no joke. Your prayer will be answered. What a disservice to the kingdom. That's not how god works. He's not a manipulator.

So, as we bring our tithe and our offering to him today, let's just have our hearts be calibrated to his. Lord, we love you so much. Thank you for honoring us as we honor you. In Jesus name, amen.