Is Worship a Feeling or a Decision? A Theological Review

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Jesus said, I will build my church.
[00:00:05] Not just a building, not just a Sunday routine, but a people, alive, united, and on a mission.
[00:00:16] We worship together, lifting our voices and our hearts to God.
[00:00:22] We share life, celebrating, supporting, and encouraging one another.
[00:00:28] We grow.
[00:00:30] Learning to follow Jesus and letting his word transform us.
[00:00:35] We serve, using our gifts to make a difference in the lives around us.
[00:00:43] We go, taking the good news of Jesus beyond these walls.
[00:00:48] We pray, because everything begins with God.
[00:00:56] This is more than a place.
[00:01:00] This is more than a Sunday.
[00:01:05] This is my church.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
All right.
[00:01:14] Good morning, good morning.
[00:01:16] How's everybody feeling?
[00:01:19] Feeling great?
[00:01:20] You look great.
[00:01:21] Turn to your neighbor and say, hey, you look great.
[00:01:26] Awesome!
[00:01:27] I am so glad you're here this morning.
[00:01:30] Okay, that's enough.
[00:01:31] That's enough.
[00:01:32] Some of y'all are getting carried away.
[00:01:35] You guys, I'm so glad you're here.
[00:01:39] Those of you who are watching online, those in the overflow areas, we're just so glad that we can be together this morning.
[00:01:45] And I just know that God has something really special for us today.
[00:01:50] I do want to call your attention to something that you saw on the video a moment ago, and that is the Next Steps luncheon next Sunday.
[00:01:59] And I would say this, if you are new or newer to Lake City Church, I would love to have you come to the luncheon next Sunday.
[00:02:08] We call it the Next Steps luncheon.
[00:02:11] They say there is no free lunch, but next Sunday there really is.
[00:02:15] It takes place at 1245 right after the third service.
[00:02:19] So just come to the third service and then you'll be ready for lunch right after.
[00:02:23] But you have to register so we know how many steaks to put on the grill and all that stuff, right?
[00:02:28] So looking forward to see you.
[00:02:30] That's going to be...
[00:02:31] Great, great time together.
[00:02:32] Well, I want to pray and I need to dive in pretty fast, pretty hard, pretty heavy this morning because I probably have more than the time allotted.
[00:02:42] So, would you just pray with me that God would open our hearts and our spiritual eyes this morning.
[00:02:47] Father, thank you first of all for this amazing day that you have made.
[00:02:52] Lord, it's an incredibly beautiful day and we just say thank you for it and now we ask that you would speak to us through your word.
[00:02:59] May your word just come alive inside of us.
[00:03:02] God, give us spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to see and to hear.
[00:03:07] God, give us hearts that will receive what you want to say to us today.
[00:03:12] And Lord, everything you reveal to us, we will say yes and amen to.
[00:03:17] And Lord, we pray all of this in the mighty and the powerful name of Jesus.
[00:03:21] And everybody said amen.
[00:03:23] Hallelujah.
[00:03:24] Got some yo's out there.
[00:03:26] Come on, y'all.
[00:03:28] Well, today we are launching a brand new teaching series.
[00:03:32] I call it My Church.
[00:03:34] My church, in one of the most important and empowering passages in the New Testament, Jesus asked His disciples, Who do you say that I am?
[00:03:45] To which Simon Peter answers, You are the Christ, meaning the Anointed, the King, the Messiah.
[00:03:53] You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
[00:03:57] It is at this point that Jesus says in Matthew 16, 17, Simon, God has blessed you.
[00:04:04] No person on earth taught you that.
[00:04:07] God, my Father in heaven, has shown you this.
[00:04:10] I tell you, you are called Peter, which means a rock, and I will build my church on this rock.
[00:04:18] not even the power of death will destroy my church it's important to notice that jesus didn't say i'll build that church he said i'm going to build my church and today we're talking about my church the word church here is from the greek word ecclesia and it means his called out ones so the church of jesus christ is his called out ones called out from the world
[00:04:46] And folks, if there's ever been a time where we see the clear line of demarcation for those who are following Christ and those who are following another voice, it's this day and time right now.
[00:04:56] We are His called out ones.
[00:04:59] There needs to be a difference.
[00:05:01] We need to look different.
[00:05:02] We need to act different.
[00:05:03] We need to speak differently because we are His called out ones.
[00:05:09] And by the way, let me just throw this in for extra measure.
[00:05:14] Jesus loves His church.
[00:05:18] So if I were you, I wouldn't bash His church.
[00:05:22] Sometimes I hear people talking ugly about His church.
[00:05:26] Jesus doesn't like that.
[00:05:28] You know why?
[00:05:28] Because He loves His church.
[00:05:30] What would you do?
[00:05:31] What would you say?
[00:05:32] What would you think if someone bashed your wife or your husband or your child?
[00:05:37] You wouldn't like it very much.
[00:05:38] Jesus doesn't like it when we bash His church.
[00:05:43] He goes on to say in verse number 19, I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
[00:05:47] You will tell people here on earth what is right for them to do.
[00:05:51] God in heaven will give you this authority.
[00:05:55] These verses give us great insight into the power and the purpose of the church, or as Jesus calls it, my church.
[00:06:04] So for the next few weeks, we're going to talk about the role and the responsibility of my church.
[00:06:11] The Apostle Paul, he lays out this metaphor of the church in Colossians 1 verse number 18 saying, He, that's Jesus, is the head of the body, the church.
[00:06:26] This is the imagery.
[00:06:28] All of us who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, we are referred to as the body of Christ.
[00:06:34] And Jesus is the head of the body.
[00:06:38] So if I ask you, where is Jesus today?
[00:06:43] You would answer, according to Scripture, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, right?
[00:06:49] Right!
[00:06:50] If I ask you, where is His body, the church, right now, you would say, well, His body is here on the earth.
[00:06:57] And finally, if I ask you, why are you, why are all of us the body of Christ, why are we still on earth?
[00:07:06] I hope you would say, because He left us here to finish the job that He started.
[00:07:12] Because that's what Jesus said.
[00:07:14] He told his disciples in John 14, 12, he said, "...the person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing, but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing."
[00:07:34] Look, this is what Christians need to know.
[00:07:37] The church is not a social club.
[00:07:40] The church is not a religious organization, not even a denomination.
[00:07:44] The church is not a physical building.
[00:07:47] The church is the spiritual body of Christ carrying out the mission of Jesus on planet Earth.
[00:07:55] The mission of sharing the good news of God's love and God's forgiveness with people all around us.
[00:08:02] So the starting point for every local expression of the body of Christ is to know why they exist, to know their mission, to know why they exist.
[00:08:15] Now here at Lake City Church, we have condensed our mission into three aspects.
[00:08:21] Number one, our mission is to know God.
[00:08:24] First and foremost, to know God.
[00:08:26] Number two, our mission is to love people.
[00:08:30] And one of the things that I think really grieves the heart of God is when
[00:08:38] People who are called by His name don't love the people around them, the people around us, the people around me, because every person is a person that God made, that God loves, that Jesus died for.
[00:08:52] And so, as individual Christians and as the church of Jesus Christ, our mission on earth is to know God and to love people.
[00:09:01] Do you love people?
[00:09:03] That is what God has called us to do.
[00:09:05] You say, well, yeah, but they're really annoying.
[00:09:07] Of course they are.
[00:09:09] They're people just like you.
[00:09:10] Do you ever think about it?
[00:09:13] Sometimes you're annoying?
[00:09:14] If you don't think you're annoying, just ask your wife.
[00:09:19] She'll tell you.
[00:09:20] Thirdly, our mission is to reach the world.
[00:09:28] To reach the world, to reach out to other people all over this world of ours.
[00:09:33] In chapter 2 of the book of Acts, the church is birthed into existence as the Holy Spirit comes to indwell and empower the disciples of Christ.
[00:09:43] And from that point on, we get a glimpse of what my church, really his church, should look like.
[00:09:50] And we read in Acts 2.42, they, the church, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
[00:10:01] At the beginning of this year, I felt strongly that God wanted us as a church to just recommit ourselves to a greater emphasis
[00:10:08] On prayer, especially corporate prayer, church-wide prayer.
[00:10:12] So we, as we always do, we began the year with three days of church-wide prayer and fasting.
[00:10:17] We had, then a little later, a few months later, we had an all-night, an old-fashioned all-night prayer meeting.
[00:10:24] How many of you remember that?
[00:10:25] It was amazing.
[00:10:27] It was incredible.
[00:10:28] I didn't know if anybody would even show up.
[00:10:30] I mean, who goes to all-night prayer meetings?
[00:10:32] The place was packed.
[00:10:33] I love it.
[00:10:35] We had our miracle prayer service.
[00:10:37] We have numerous life groups that focus on prayer.
[00:10:40] And of course, we have our weekly Wednesday night live service, which is devoted to prayer and worship.
[00:10:47] What we know from Scripture and we know from experience is that prayer is the life source of the church, of my church.
[00:10:56] Acts 2 verse number 43 goes on to say this, After they prayed, everyone was filled with awe.
[00:11:02] It was literally awesome.
[00:11:05] And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
[00:11:09] All the believers were together and had everything in common.
[00:11:12] Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
[00:11:17] Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
[00:11:20] They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God.
[00:11:26] and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
[00:11:33] There are a number of things that stand out to me as I look at this snapshot of the early church and we'll get to some of these in the weeks to come but I want to start with the fact that they continued to meet together praising God.
[00:11:46] They saw corporate worship as being central to their purpose
[00:11:52] As a church.
[00:11:53] So this morning, I just want to spend a few minutes talking about worship and praising God.
[00:11:58] Is that okay?
[00:11:59] Come on.
[00:12:00] Worship is central to our purpose as the church.
[00:12:04] Now you're going to have to accept this by faith or not accept it, but I began my ministry as a worship leader.
[00:12:12] Here's the thing, and I heard some of you groaning like, oh, I can't believe that.
[00:12:18] I was never a good singer, I was never a great musician, but I've always been a sincere worshiper.
[00:12:26] And as the Lord kind of put me into the position of lead pastor, what I realized that one of my main callings as a lead pastor is to be the lead worshiper.
[00:12:42] So when the worship team is going and leading us, I'm not hidden out in the back room.
[00:12:48] I'm here.
[00:12:48] I'm a part of this thing because this is who we are.
[00:12:52] This is what we do.
[00:12:53] And the most basic understanding of being a Christian and being a part of His church is to understand that God has intentionally created you to worship Him.
[00:13:07] Listen to this, Revelation 4.10, it says, The four and twenty elders fall down before Him and worship Him, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and they were created.
[00:13:25] Did you get that?
[00:13:26] We were created for His pleasure.
[00:13:31] And He desires that we would recognize His awesome works, that we would recognize all the wonderful things that He has done, and that we would give Him credit for it.
[00:13:43] Now, the evolutionists and the atheists and the non-believers, they don't recognize His works.
[00:13:49] They don't give Him the credit that He deserves, but we do.
[00:13:52] We do.
[00:13:54] Praise and worship is not some aspect of the church that we've just made up, but rather God has given us this ability and He has ordained us to worship Him.
[00:14:07] That's why we are here, to worship Him.
[00:14:09] And here's something, follow me now.
[00:14:13] As we engage in praise and worship, two things happen.
[00:14:17] Number one, we draw closer to God.
[00:14:19] And number two, number two, God draws closer to us.
[00:14:26] David wrote in Psalm 22, 13, he said, Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
[00:14:34] What he's really saying is that God comes to live, God comes to dwell, to inhabit our praise and worship.
[00:14:41] So as a church, we fulfill Christ, the purpose of Christ's church when we worship Him, when we create a habitation for God through our worship.
[00:14:52] And that's why
[00:14:53] We sense the presence of God when we begin to sing in a place like this.
[00:14:57] It's amazing.
[00:14:58] We're actually creating a habitation, a habitat, a place where God can dwell in our lives.
[00:15:06] Psalm 96 is one of my favorite psalms.
[00:15:09] It speaks about praise and worship.
[00:15:11] Psalm 96 verse number 1 starts off by saying, Sing to the Lord a new song.
[00:15:16] You say, well, I don't sing very well.
[00:15:18] That's okay.
[00:15:19] Sing!
[00:15:20] The Bible also says make a joyful noise, doesn't it?
[00:15:24] I read that verse a long, long time ago and I decided, Lord, if you'll help me to sing and give me a beautiful voice, I'll sing really loudly for the rest of my life.
[00:15:32] He didn't give me a great voice, I decided to sing anyhow.
[00:15:35] Make a joyful noise.
[00:15:37] He says, sing to the Lord a new song.
[00:15:39] Sing to the Lord all the earth.
[00:15:40] Sing to the Lord.
[00:15:41] Praise His name.
[00:15:43] Proclaim His salvation day after day.
[00:15:47] Every single day.
[00:15:49] I thank God for His salvation.
[00:15:52] Every single day when my feet hit the floor, I'm, God, thank you for your salvation that you have given to me.
[00:16:01] Verse 3 says, Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples, for great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.
[00:16:10] He is to be feared, reverenced above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
[00:16:18] Splendor and majesty are before Him.
[00:16:20] Strength and glory are in His sanctuary.
[00:16:23] Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations.
[00:16:25] Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
[00:16:27] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.
[00:16:31] Bring an offering and come into His courts.
[00:16:34] Worship!
[00:16:36] Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
[00:16:40] Some might ask, well, what does it mean to worship?
[00:16:43] Well, here that word worship, it means to fall on your face.
[00:16:46] It means to bow down.
[00:16:50] If it's taken literally, it means to fall on your face, to physically bow yourself down, or you can take it figuratively, which means in your heart and in your mind, to bow in reverence, to bow in respect and gratitude and surrender to worship Him.
[00:17:11] The word worship appears over 170 times in Scripture.
[00:17:16] And this passage is very instructive, the one I just read, because it shows us how we should worship Him.
[00:17:23] It says we should worship Him with music.
[00:17:25] We should worship Him with proclamations.
[00:17:27] We should worship Him by giving Him glory.
[00:17:30] We should worship Him by bringing an offering.
[00:17:33] We should worship by living holy lives.
[00:17:35] That's a good one we'll need to come back to.
[00:17:38] We worship Him by witnessing for Him.
[00:17:41] This passage also shows us why we should worship.
[00:17:47] In verse 2, it says we should worship Him because God has saved us.
[00:17:51] In verse 4, we should worship Him because of His greatness.
[00:17:55] Verse 5, we should worship Him because of His power.
[00:17:57] Verse 6, we should worship Him because of His splendor, His majesty, His strength, and His beauty.
[00:18:03] Verse number 13 says we should worship Him because He is righteous and true.
[00:18:08] Now, this is interesting to me, that the Bible shows us many expressions of praise and worship, but not one of those expressions, not one time is silence mentioned
[00:18:26] as an expression of worship.
[00:18:28] Now, there are definitely times when we have silent meditation.
[00:18:33] But meditation is a different aspect of our life with God.
[00:18:36] Meditation is not praise and worship.
[00:18:39] Praise and worship is expressive.
[00:18:43] For example, Psalm 47, verse 1, it admonishes us by saying, Clap your hands, all ye people.
[00:18:53] Y'all try that with me.
[00:18:54] Clap your hands.
[00:18:56] I love it!
[00:18:59] I love it!
[00:19:01] Thank you, Jesus!
[00:19:02] Clap your hands, all you people!
[00:19:04] Shout joyfully to God with a joyous shout!
[00:19:11] Whoo!
[00:19:12] Yeah!
[00:19:14] Come on!
[00:19:16] In our worship here at Lake City, we clap, we sing, and sometimes we clap and sing and give a shout to the Lord.
[00:19:24] Why?
[00:19:24] Because God is so amazing.
[00:19:26] Because God is so awesome.
[00:19:30] Psalm 134 verse number 2 tells us, Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.
[00:19:38] I see a couple of hands.
[00:19:39] Go ahead and try it.
[00:19:40] Try lifting up your hands.
[00:19:41] Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.
[00:19:48] Now I know that some of you come from churches where you couldn't do that.
[00:19:54] And if you did, they might ask you to leave.
[00:20:02] But we're not that church.
[00:20:05] You know why?
[00:20:06] Because the Bible says, lift up your hands.
[00:20:09] Lift up your hands and praise the Lord.
[00:20:12] By the way,
[00:20:14] Lifting of one's hands is the universal sign of what?
[00:20:20] Surrender.
[00:20:21] God loves it when we surrender to Him.
[00:20:24] It is a part of our worship.
[00:20:26] God loves it.
[00:20:27] He absolutely loves it when we surrender.
[00:20:30] One of the reasons I love to just lift my hands to the Lord, it's an act of surrender, saying, God, here I am.
[00:20:37] Take me once again.
[00:20:38] I surrender.
[00:20:39] I give it all.
[00:20:40] God loves it when...
[00:20:42] We surrender to Him.
[00:20:44] Now, y'all give me just a little flexibility on this, okay?
[00:20:48] Y'all don't get upset with me.
[00:20:50] But if you can't raise your hands in worship, maybe you haven't surrendered.
[00:20:59] Just think about it.
[00:21:01] Just think about it.
[00:21:03] Again, as the people of God, His church, we have been created to praise and worship Him.
[00:21:07] Listen to what God says in Isaiah 43, 21, This people have I formed for Myself, that they may proclaim My praise.
[00:21:17] We were intentionally formed to praise and to worship Him.
[00:21:22] The first century church that we read about in Acts chapter 2, they were a praising and a worshiping church.
[00:21:27] They didn't go to church just because it was Sunday.
[00:21:31] They didn't go to church to be entertained.
[00:21:33] They didn't go to church even to be blessed.
[00:21:35] They went to church to worship their King of Kings and their Lord of Lords.
[00:21:41] And today, Jesus is still saying, I'll build my church.
[00:21:45] And His church places a very high priority on spirit-led praise and worship.
[00:21:53] Now, I'm almost out of time, but before I wrap it up, I need to share with you three quick realities about worship.
[00:22:00] Here they are, number one.
[00:22:02] Number one, worship is a response to God.
[00:22:05] It's a response to His character.
[00:22:07] It's a response to His love.
[00:22:09] 1 John 4, 19 makes it clear.
[00:22:11] It says, we love Him.
[00:22:12] In other words, we worship Him because He first loved us.
[00:22:16] And so we're simply responding to His love.
[00:22:19] Because God loved us and because He called us, because He saved us and provided for us, we respond by declaring His worth in our worship.
[00:22:30] One definition of worship says it's to give God His worth.
[00:22:36] The word worship is derived from an old English word worth-ship.
[00:22:43] Worth-ship.
[00:22:44] Interesting.
[00:22:45] So when we worship God, we are proclaiming His worth.
[00:22:50] We are responding to God, to His goodness, to His greatness.
[00:22:55] Number two reality about worship is that worship is a private and a corporate experience.
[00:23:03] See, worship doesn't begin when Pastor Justin and the worship team starts playing worship songs.
[00:23:09] No, worship really begins in your own private times with God.
[00:23:12] And think of it like this.
[00:23:16] A praising church must begin with praising Christians.
[00:23:22] A worshiping church has to begin with worshiping Christians.
[00:23:27] If we're all just praising God and worshiping God throughout the week, and when Sunday rolls around, we come together, or Wednesday night rolls around, we come together and we begin to sing, I mean, the place just explodes.
[00:23:41] It explodes with unified, amplified worship.
[00:23:46] We can't keep it in.
[00:23:47] And have you noticed that there is a special revelation of God's presence in that kind of corporate worship?
[00:23:56] We know that God's here.
[00:23:57] We sense His presence.
[00:23:59] And that's why Scripture encourages us to worship together, like we are this morning.
[00:24:05] Psalm 95 verse 1 says, Come let us, plural, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
[00:24:13] Let us, plural, shout.
[00:24:16] Verse 2, let us, plural, come with thanksgiving.
[00:24:19] Verse 6, let us bow down.
[00:24:21] Verse 7, let us kneel.
[00:24:23] Worship is both a private and a corporate experience.
[00:24:29] And then thirdly, the third reality about worship is that worship is a choice.
[00:24:35] Now you can choose to worship or you can choose to be a bump on a log.
[00:24:42] But it's your choice.
[00:24:45] David had this to say about that.
[00:24:47] In Psalm 34 1 he said, I will bless the Lord.
[00:24:53] You know, if you're going to be a praiser, if you're going to be a worshiper, you have to will it to be so.
[00:24:58] It doesn't just happen.
[00:24:59] It doesn't fall on you like something just drops out of the tree.
[00:25:03] This is something that you will.
[00:25:05] I will, David says, bless the Lord at all times.
[00:25:10] David, are you sure?
[00:25:11] At all times, even the tough times, the difficult times, the down times, the low times, I will bless the Lord, he says, at all times.
[00:25:20] His praise shall continually be in my where?
[00:25:23] My mouth.
[00:25:23] David made the choice to praise and worship God at all times continually.
[00:25:30] So when you're sleepy and you really don't feel like worshiping God, you make the choice.
[00:25:35] When you don't feel good and you sure don't feel like worshiping, you make a choice.
[00:25:40] When you're down and you're heavy-hearted and whatever's going on, you don't feel like worshiping, you make a choice.
[00:25:47] And I just want you to remember this, that praise and worship isn't a feeling.
[00:25:54] Well, Pastor Rob, I'll praise the Lord when I feel like it.
[00:25:58] No!
[00:26:00] Praise and worship isn't a feeling.
[00:26:02] It's a decision.
[00:26:04] It's a decision to recognize God's amazing worth.
[00:26:09] Jesus says, I am building my church.
[00:26:13] And my church is a worshiping church.
[00:26:16] The question I want to ask you this morning is, are you a worshiping Christian?
[00:26:21] Are you a praising and worshiping Christian?
[00:26:24] I hope you are.
[00:26:25] I hope you'll decide to be.
[00:26:27] Let's pray together.
[00:26:28] Father, thank you so much.
[00:26:31] For the opportunity that we have, for the privilege of coming into your presence and worshiping you, to exalt you and to exalt and proclaim all that you've done, the mighty name of Jesus, the mighty and powerful name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the fact that you've saved us, you've washed us, you've cleansed us, you've healed us, you've provided all of these things, God, we worship you and we say thank you in Jesus' name.
[00:26:57] Would you go ahead and stand together with me?
[00:27:01] While our heads are still bowed and our eyes are closed in this moment of prayer, I want everybody who says I choose to be a
[00:27:10] I choose to be a worshiper.
[00:27:12] Would you just lift your hand with mine?
[00:27:15] Because I just want to pray a special prayer of blessing.
[00:27:18] Everybody says, I want to be a worshiper.
[00:27:20] Father, you see hands all over this place.
[00:27:22] Lord, I pray that you would help us to be like David, that we will.
[00:27:27] We make a decision of our will.
[00:27:29] We'll bless you.
[00:27:30] We will bless your name at all times, regardless of what's going on, good or bad, hard or easy.
[00:27:37] Lord, we will bless your name.
[00:27:40] Oh God, may your praises continually be in our mouth.
[00:27:46] Lord, help us not only as individuals, but help us as a church to be a praising and worshiping church that brings honor and glory to you, I pray.
[00:27:55] In Jesus' name.
[00:28:00] You can go ahead and take your hands down.
[00:28:02] While we're still bowed in this moment of prayer, I want to pray one more prayer.
[00:28:10] Christians, I want you to pray really hard for me.
[00:28:13] And just a second, I want to pray for those who may be here this morning and you're not really sure about your relationship with God.
[00:28:20] The question I ask is this, if you were to die today,
[00:28:27] Do you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you're ready to stand before God?
[00:28:32] If you're not sure in just a second, I'm going to pray a prayer for you and for others.
[00:28:38] And you can know.
[00:28:38] I don't want you to leave this place today without knowing that you're right with God.
[00:28:43] So while heads are bound, Christians are praying really hard.
[00:28:46] If you say, I'm not sure, but I want to be sure, I'd love to be included in that prayer.
[00:28:51] Would you just lift up your hand right now?
[00:28:53] Just lift it up and say, please pray for me.
[00:28:54] God bless you.
[00:28:55] God bless you.
[00:28:56] Others, just lift it up.
[00:28:57] God bless you.
[00:28:58] Anybody else?
[00:28:59] Just lift it up and say, please pray for me.
[00:29:01] I want to be served.
[00:29:02] Yeah.
[00:29:04] Anybody else?
[00:29:10] All right, Father, thank you for these that have responded.
[00:29:12] And now, Lord, I pray that you would give them the assurance of their salvation.
[00:29:17] I'm going to pray a short prayer.
[00:29:19] I'm going to ask everybody in the room to please repeat this prayer after me.
[00:29:23] If you raised your hand,
[00:29:25] You just pray this prayer.
[00:29:26] Pray it from your heart.
[00:29:27] God will hear you.
[00:29:29] Maybe you didn't raise your hand, but you felt the tugging on the inside.
[00:29:33] That's the Holy Spirit drawing you.
[00:29:35] I want to invite you to pray this prayer from your heart along with the rest of us.
[00:29:40] Let's pray it together.
[00:29:41] Say, God, I know that you love me.
[00:29:44] Because you sent your son Jesus.
[00:29:47] And he died on the cross for my sins.
[00:29:51] Today I repent of my sins.
[00:29:55] And I ask you to be my Savior and my Lord.
[00:29:57] From today on, I'm going to live for you.
[00:30:03] In Jesus' name.
[00:30:06] Amen.
[00:30:08] Amen.
[00:30:08] Come on, y'all.
[00:30:09] Let's give God praise.
[00:30:10] Lord, we just say thank you.
[00:30:12] Thank you, Lord Jesus.
[00:30:14] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:30:16] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:30:17] If you prayed that prayer, I am so proud of you.
[00:30:20] I want to ask you to do one more thing after the service is over.
[00:30:23] Go out in the lobby.
[00:30:24] We have a big sign out there in front of the living room.
[00:30:27] It says, I said yes to Jesus.
[00:30:29] Some of our leaders will be back there.
[00:30:31] I have some literature that I want you to have.
[00:30:34] It will help you in your journey.
[00:30:36] But I also have a Bible, a special Bible that will help you understand what God is saying to you.
[00:30:42] So make sure you go back there and receive those materials.
[00:30:46] And thank you so much.
[00:30:47] I'm going to be praying for you this week.
[00:30:49] Maybe you're a guest with us this morning.
[00:30:52] I'm so glad you're here.
[00:30:53] Hope you'll come back.
[00:30:55] One of the things that we do every Sunday morning is we share together in the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion.
[00:31:01] You probably received the emblems when you came in.
[00:31:04] We also have them up front.
[00:31:05] I think this is gluten-free.
[00:31:07] We have the emblems on the side.
[00:31:09] But in taking communion, what we're really doing, we're celebrating.
[00:31:14] This is a celebration of the fact that God loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus.
[00:31:19] Jesus loved us so much that He gave His body and His blood for us.
[00:31:23] He was the great sacrifice that only He could make.
[00:31:27] And so the Bible says that without the shedding of His blood, there could be no forgiveness of our sins.
[00:31:33] And so we celebrate the fact that God loves us so much.
[00:31:37] Jesus paid the price.
[00:31:39] And so Father, in the next few minutes, as we just ponder these emblems, the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus, that little cracker, that little juice, Lord, we understand it's a symbol of Your love and Your sacrifice.
[00:31:56] And God, we say thank you.
[00:31:57] Jesus, we say thank you.
[00:31:59] And God, we just proclaim your greatness.
[00:32:01] Jesus, we say thank you.
[00:32:03] We love you and we praise you.
[00:32:06] In Jesus' name.
[00:32:08] Amen.