This sermon is a prayerful plea for God's presence and transformation in the church service, asking for healing, clarity, and the power of God's Word to impact lives. It addresses the importance of staying true to biblical truths and the dangers of straying from God's Word. The speaker emphasizes the need for genuine emotions in worship and acknowledges the significance of God-given emotions in our relationship with Him.

Lord, we do pray that You would have Your way in this place tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that You would begin to mend those who are broken tonight. Lord, those who need a touch from You, I pray that Your Spirit would be here. Lord, You are welcome here tonight. Lord, this is Your service, this is Your church. We built this church on the foundation of Your Son, and we ask that You bring Your life-changing Word to these people. Lord, I pray for clarity, I pray for direction, I pray for precision. Lord, let me not go beyond what You want me to say. Lord, but at the same time, let me speak boldly through Your Word, through Your counsel. Lord, would You have Your way in the service tonight? Lord, let Your Word be living and powerful in the lives of these people who embrace it. Lord, I ask that You fill this empty vessel. Lord, please give me the strength to not shy away from some of these difficult truths. And I pray that people are changed tonight. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, I have the same problem tonight as I have most Saturdays. I have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. So with that said, if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. And some of you, if you've not been here before, we're actually going through the book of Matthew. You're not too far behind. We just started last week in chapter 1. And we're going through chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4. And something I mentioned the first time we started Matthew is I promised myself that I'm going to follow a mission statement that I believe God has kind of put in my heart to keep Matthew very relevant and to also get into some theological truth, but also to make it very relevant to where we're living today. And the whole point of the series of Matthew is bringing centrality back to Jesus' words. And on that note, I want to encourage you to make it Monday nights. We just started a Truth Project series. Monday nights at 6 p.m. The first video was so powerful, I think we're going to rewind most of it and let it go all the way through each video. Monday nights at 6. And he made a statement last night, or actually last Monday, that I wrote down, I really pondered, and it's helped me a lot with where our culture is right now. And the teacher there said, it's actually quoting Jesus, he said, whoever is on the side of truth listens to me. Jesus said that. Whoever was on the side of truth when he was in front of Pontius Pilate, and they were talking about this issue of truth, Jesus said, whoever is on the side of truth listens to me. So that tells me that there are going to be sides in our culture. See, the big battle cry right now is intolerant, or we're worshiping the same God, or you fill in the blank. You can't have sides, Shane, that's so intolerant, that's narrow-minded. But Jesus said, he who's on the side of truth is going to be on my side. My side of truth is over here. So that tells me there's another side that's against Christ, and it's against truth. And that's what you're going to see. We keep seeing in the culture today, all these struggles with this and with that. It's the side of truth, or the side of error. And a hundred years ago, they probably read the prophets when they said, woe be to that nation, or woe be to that people who calls good evil and evil good. They're probably thinking, what's he talking about? That doesn't really make a lot of sense. What makes a lot of sense today, we are calling good, according to God's word, evil. The culture is. And they're calling things that should be evil an abomination, they're calling that good. So there are sides, and you'll see those battle lines being drawn even more clearly. I'm not talking about grabbing weapons and fighting. I'm talking about being on the side of truth. And that's what we're talking about beginning Monday nights at 6 p.m. We're going to start this series, so I encourage you to be there. With that said, we're going to actually get right into truth in chapter 2. And you'll see the title is pretty interesting. I'm sure I've drawn some attention there. We're going to talk about avoiding false worship and false prophets. You might say, Shane, how did you get that from Matthew 2? Well, hold on, let me get there. I'm going there. Because I want to bring Matthew 2 relevant in many aspects, but I also want to talk about this area because we're seeing this a lot in the church lately. With that said, chapter 2, verse 1. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. And I actually put in there not three, in parenthesis, for a reason. Because a lot of times you'll see the manger scene, three wise men, right? Well, we don't know how many wise men. It just says, wise men came from the east. I'm not, you know, tearing apart manger scenes. We have one, and there's three wise men right there. Also, Jesus wasn't a little tiny baby just born when they arrived. They came to a house, they found him weeks, could be months later. So just a part of, it doesn't have much to do with the sermon, but I'm just throwing that in there so you know. So these men came to worship Jesus. That's genuine worship. They came to worship him. Verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And all of Jerusalem with him. Let's stop there for a minute. I think we know why Herod was troubled, right? He's king. And now people are saying, where is the king of the Jews that we may worship him? So Herod's like, wait a minute, I'm troubled. And that word there in the Greek language means to take something in order and make it out of order. So Herod is troubled by this. I have this order, I have this system. I'm going to plant my successor. There's no other king. I'm king. That's what Herod's saying. And what troubled means he was troubled. You're taking something that's in order, you're putting it out of order. It would kind of be like, I thought of this when I heard this word. This pulpit troubles me right now. This is not going to work. This is out of order. I'm not going to stand here and try to do this. How would you like that, guys? Not very appealing, right? It's out of order. And this doesn't help. Everything's out of order. And that's that word there. The meaning of that is Herod is out of order. He's troubled. He's upset. What is going on here? Now something that interests me is the following statement. And all of Jerusalem was troubled with him. I can see Herod, but why is Jerusalem troubled? They're waiting for their Messiah. They've read Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and Joel, and Amos, and Obadiah, and many of the prophets. I think there's 400. I have to check. I'll tell you next week. I'll make sure. But I think there's 400 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament that were actually fulfilled by Him coming. 400. So these prophets wrote about Him. So why is Jerusalem troubled? It's the same reason many are troubled by worship today. And saying, Jesus is coming soon. You better be ready. They're not ready. That's what troubled them. The Messiah is coming. We're not ready. And that's why many people in the church, when you start talking about difficult truths, you start talking about being in right relationship with God, you start talking about repentance, and the judgment of God, and the holiness of God, and the righteousness of God. Why have we forgotten about all those things? When you start to talk about those things, I can see people start wiggling in their seats, and they start, oh, I'm troubled by this. I don't like this, because they're not ready for the Messiah. They're not ready for Christ. And that parallels with us today, and it also parallels with Jesus' time. They were not ready. So it begs the question, are you? That's the main thrust of this text, is talking about Jesus, but why did He come? Born to die. A little child born to die for the sins of the world. And they did not want to receive Him. And Herod was jealous and envious, but the people were not ready to receive Him. So I want to just encourage you, if these types of messages upset, and they make you move in your seat, and you're not ready for the Messiah, that's a good thing, because God says, all you have to do is turn to Me, turn to Me, backsliding people, and I will embrace you. I will take you. That's a promise we have from the Word of God. That's why these words don't upset me really bad, because there's the other side of the coin, God's grace and His love and His mercy. He says, all you have to do is repent, come back to Me. That's all you have to do, come back to Me. So yes, these are difficult things, but that's why Jerusalem was troubled, and that's why many in the church today are troubled. And that's why you'll see big ministries, sometimes big churches, there's a lot of big churches who are doing good things, but a lot of times, they don't want to trouble the people. Think about that. Why do I want to trouble the audience who's coming and supporting and building this big church? And sometimes we need a little trouble. We need things out of order in our lives, and sometimes God will get our lives so out of order, we're experiencing so much trouble that that is the final thing that makes us come to Him. So trouble can be a very good thing if it points us and gets us right in the right direction with God. I will tell you as a living witness, had not all hell broke loose in my life, I think I would be dead by now. Honestly. It wasn't until that trouble, everything in my life was troubled, and I couldn't see left, I couldn't see right, I couldn't make decisions, everything's coming, and it's not getting any better in our culture, all this anxiety and things, it's just fueling everything, all this fear, people's suicide rate is inclining, all these things because people are troubled. And we have the answer, and we need to proclaim that truth. So with that, let's get into verse 4. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, what Herod is doing, he's gathering the chief priests, the scribes, the people who knew the Old Testament, he's getting them together and saying, okay, tell me about this king of the Jews, because I'm feeling really threatened right now, because he's going to come and take my kingdom. So we ask them, where was the Christ to be born? So they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, See, we have that word worship earlier, now we have that word prophet. Well, how do these guys know that these are real prophets? And that's kind of the direction of my message. Verse 6, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are not the least among the rulers of Judea, but for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And that's one of the remarkable things. I'm going to talk about this next week. This is actually part 1, part 2 is next week. So if you get something from this, make sure to make it next week, because these go together. And part 2, I'm going to be talking about why is all this prophecy important? God was telling His people, listen, Thy said it then, I said it in 14 BC, I said it in 7 BC, I said it in 500 BC, with this prophet, this prophet, this, they understood, here's it coming, it's coming, the time clocks, here's what to expect, there's going to be a Messiah born in Bethlehem, the least of all the cities, out of David's lineage, He is going to come. Not only is He going to come, Isaiah would tell us that not even a bone is going to be broken when He's crucified, that they will cast lots for His clothing, that one of those among Him will betray Him. All this is throughout the Old Testament, prophesying of what's coming. It's kind of like saying, hello, this is what's going to happen. It's like me saying, this is what's going to happen on your way home. This, this, this, this, this, and this is why, so be ready. You're setting the stage. A lot of times we forget that God's Word is for His people. It's for us. The very thing we need is the very thing we're neglecting. You know where this is at? Most people's houses tuck way back here, getting a lot of dust on, I think I might pull it out for a funeral and put it back. When it's living, it's active, God breathed, and the prophetic accuracy of this book, the historical accuracy, the archeological accuracy, the scientific accuracy, the life-changing accuracy. I wake up this morning not in a very good mood, changes everything when God begins to pour His Spirit out on you. So He used His Word to confirm His Word. Verse 7, Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men to determine from them what time the star appeared, and he sent to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search carefully for that young child. And when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also. Two different kinds of worships, right? The wise men went to worship Him. And next week you'll hear about what Herod did in his worship. And another prophecy was filled, Rachel weeping for her children. She cannot be comforted because of all the hell that Herod brought to that city. So he was not coming to worship. He had a false sense of worship. Oh, tell me about him so I may come and worship. So I want to talk in a bit about this false prophecy, accurate prophecy. False worship, real worship. I want to pull and draw from this. But before we get there, let's just, you know, historically, let's talk about a few things. Bethlehem was the place of David's origin. It was just five miles from Jerusalem. So it's very central there. Herod the Great is who this person is. He ruled as king from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C. So most speculate that Jesus was born right around 4 B.C. There's different people saying this and this and this. We don't really have a date, but that's why. Because he died, he ruled, and obviously Jesus was born in his rule. I think some of you that have the MacArthur Study Bible, they have a chart in there. Other commentaries talk about, you know, when this happened. So Jesus wasn't born right on 0 A.D. Or was that 0 B.C., 0 A.D.? Right there. That's not necessarily the starting point. It's a little bit before that. So this Herod, though, was very ruthless. He was a control freak. So he had no plans in going and worshipping Jesus. He had quite a different set of plans in mind. And interesting enough, I looked at different commentaries on this, too, because I couldn't quite grasp this following the star. Because that's usually not a good thing. Astrology, this, the Magi, and all these things. It's really not a good thing that we read about in the Old Testament. But for some reason, God used a star. And a lot of times in ancient literature, they would foretell the star that would guide. And there's a lot to it. If I had another 20 minutes, I could just talk about this one part. But God used this star to direct these men who were coming with genuine worship to show them where the Christ child would be born. And so in this context, it's okay. So Herod feels threatened. These people come to worship Christ. Now here we get into the interesting things. Verse 9, When they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. So it's almost like they're following a star. Instead of the star staying way out there, it's moving. It's moving kind of closer, so they're gauging it. Right? Right? And there he is. So He used that star to guide these men to Christ. And so what we do, let's pick up here verse 11. And when they had come into the house, not a manger, not a little tiny baby, a few days old, but an actual house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and they fell down. Here's that word again. They worshipped Him. And it hit me. There's no band. There's no smoke. There's no lighting. Well, where's the old hymns? Where's the new hymns? Why is it just this? Why is it just that? Why are they standing? Why are they sitting? Why are they raising their hands? What's wrong with that guy? He seems dead as a door. What's going on? There's none of that here. Because worship is a condition of the heart. And a lot of times it is manifested in our actions, but let's not think that jumping up and down or just sitting or this or music is worshipping God. Because many people can come in here and go, well, let's see, Shane should be up there in 20 minutes, and I'm kind of worshipping, and boy, In-N-Out Burger sounds good on the way home, and I'm worshipping God. No, you're not. The heart's not engaged. You could be worshipping God driving to the Sierra Mountains with no music on, versus in here thinking that we're worshipping God. So always remember that worship is a condition of the heart, a broken, humble heart seeking God. Now, it can have music. It's a wonderful gift of God. I'm going to get into that in a minute. So when they saw Him, they opened their treasures. This is interesting. They gave their best gift. You know, frankincense, myrrh, gold, all these things. These are expensive gifts. They gave it to the Christ child. And no matter what your opinion is on Christmas, this and that, that's kind of where that whole tradition comes from is giving gifts, not charging up and this, and just giving a few, you know, giving things. And one thing we like to do with our kids is have them choose one of their best gifts and give it to a family in need. It's got to hurt a little bit. That's the whole point. You don't get 18 gifts from your grandma and five from us. We miss the whole point there. That's a whole other sermon. I'll wait until December. But so they brought these gifts befitting a king. And that's kind of where we leave off. They come to worship Him. So what we have is they're coming to worship Him. Herod says, tell me where He's at so I can come and worship Him. Uh-uh. Two different kinds of worship. And then they talk about what the prophets have foretold. The prophets. Well, what is a prophet, Shane? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you what a prophet is. Throughout the entire Old Testament, it is somebody who was basically saying, thus saith the Lord. They're in somewhat of a position of authority or of influence. And they're saying, here's what God has to say to you. Now, there was false prophets in His day. Well, how would you know the difference? And that's what Part 2 is going to be next week. So now I've got the little carrot dangled out there for Part 2. Now I'm going to touch base on that this week. Don't worry. But this is an important thing because when we talked about He was on the side of truth, is on Jesus' side, well, how do we differentiate between somebody in a position of influence, let's say me up here, preaching, how do you know it's truth? How do you know I'm a true spokesman for God? Or a false spokesman for God? You've got me up here saying that I don't think, it doesn't matter how many laws we pass in favor of same-sex attraction, God's Word is crystal clear from here on out. We've got somebody else, just came out in the news two weeks ago, Rob Bell, church in San Francisco, says we've got it all wrong. It's okay, we can embrace that lifestyle. Well, who's right? Who's the false proclaimer of God's truth here? You see the difference here? I'm going to say if you don't repent and trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is eternity separated from God. I say it with tears in my eyes, but it's the truth. A few years ago he writes a book that says in the end we're all going to be saved. There's no hell. Who do you believe, folks? You see why our culture is so confused in the church? And it doesn't have to be confusing. What's our standard? This is the plumb line. It's amazing when you talk to bankers who study or they prepare them for counterfeit money, they don't look at counterfeit money. They don't look at counterfeit money. Nope. They look at original 20s, 5s, 10s, and 100s all day long. They get down the texture, the number, the coloring, everything. They get the original down. So when error comes, they already know what the truth looks like. So that is going to be your major deciding point on what is true, what is false. Know the Word of God. You don't need a priest, you don't need a pope, you don't need Mary. You need the Word of God. Christ is our high priest. He is our mediator. He justifies us. So you go to the truth of God's Word. That's how we differentiate. You see the difference there between true and false? So it's vitally important. What about true and false worship? You can go to some cult and they're jumping up and down and doing all kinds of stuff. Whoa, they're really worshiping, are they? Where's their heart at? What are they worshiping? And this way, as hard as it is, and I get invited to these probably every six months. Well, it depends how often they're going, but these ecumenical, you know, hey, pastor, we want to have a pastor there, and we have a Buddhist priest, and we have this, and we all just want to kind of come together and worship God. I love them if they're my neighbors. We'll have lunch. I'll barbecue with them. I'll witness to them. I'll clean their yard. But you can't go and worship God together. It's not possible. You cannot learn how to worship the one true and living God by following false religions that deny the one true and living God. So the co-exist bumper stickers sound nice, but they're not realistic. And actually, they don't even have it right because theoretically, we are co-existing. Right? I mean, they live next door. We're co-existing. Now, if it said co-worshipping, that's where you run into trouble. And I know what they're trying to say is it's all one God. We're all going in the same direction, and we're not. Jesus said who's on the side of me is on the side of truth. Jesus said narrow is that gate. Very narrow is the gate, and broad is the road to destruction. There are many that go through it. And He would go on to say, strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many seek to enter this, but they do not. Why? Because it's narrow. You've got to humble yourself. You've got to say, Lord, I do need You. I humble myself tonight. I give You all of my life. I repent of my sins. Most people say, heck no, I'm not doing that. I've got my God right here in my pocket. I pull Him out when I need Him. I'm in trouble. I worship Him how I want. And we have it wrong. So there's this side. There's this false and this truth. Now on this side of truth and proclaiming God's Word, I said this a few weeks ago, and I'll say it again. Nobody has 100% accurate theology. I do not have 100% accurate theology to the T. That's why on one hand I'm very careful not to get too opinionated on controversial issues. We can speak boldly and clearly in God's Word, which He is crystal clear on. But all these other superficial issues on church government, or gifts of the Spirit, or women in roles of leadership, or total depravity, and Calvinism, and Arminianism, and limited atonement, and all these things that, oh, everybody's divided in different camps. Who has the perfect theology? God does. This is perfect truth. So I'm not saying that I am perfect and everything I say is right. That's actually a sign of a false prophet. Those who declare God's truth falsely want you to follow them and them alone. They're not open, and they're not teachable. But now I'm jumping to myself. So let's begin this whole point on this issue of true worship. I want to talk to you about true worship. Now I'm going away from the text a little bit because obviously Matthew 2, contextually, isn't talking about true and false worship. But I'm going to pull that from there. And what I thank the Lord for often is he's given me the ability in the last 10 years before I planted this church is I was able to speak at a lot of different denominations and a lot of different, well, let's just call it, I call it hymnals and hill song. You see the difference? If you don't know, some churches, they just have hymnals. You just stand up, hymnal number 22, there's an organ playing. I spoke in Sun Valley a few weeks ago down a couple of miles from John MacArthur's church and it was this Sun Valley church, community church and they had hymnals. It was a lot different than hill song. A lot different than here. But I felt God just singing that oh wondrous cross and looking at the words and just worshiping in that setting. But I've also been to hill song type environments. If you don't know what that is, it's the band. It's a full band. Sometimes we have that here. I mean the lights are down, it's loud and people are worshiping God. So who's worshiping God? You see I've found strong men and women of God in both camps. So the reason I thank Him for showing me that is because on this camp, they think those people are on air. Oh they're getting too emotional. You can't do that. And then these guys over here think oh those old fuddy daddies, organ hymnals, they don't even know how to worship God. Nope. We need more grace here folks. We cannot judge the heart of man. So we have to remember that, that true and false, we're not talking about true worship, I'm not saying well you need to act just like this. True worship is a condition of the heart. And God has made us differently. I'm actually probably more conservative in my approach. You won't catch me running up and down the aisle or jumping up and down. It's just not my... I don't get real excited at sports events. I don't, you know, you get money back on taxes, I'm like okay, great, thanks. Where's the excitement? Other people on the other hand are ecstatic and they're excited so we have to cherish and honor both of those things. So when it comes to worship, I want to throw in two things here. Judgmentalism prevents worship. As soon as we become judgmental about a certain group, it prevents genuine worship with God because we're judging them. You're not worshiping God like me. Well, what is worshiping God? I mean, is there any difference from the man right there singing Amazing Grace with a hymnal as tears run down his face? Then the group over there just praising God and worshiping. Is there a difference there? If you could see the heart, there might not be. So worship is a heart issue. And also, worship is a thermostat and it's a thermometer of the heart. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, what does a thermostat do? It regulates, right? So worship regulates the heart. If you're feeling down, you're feeling this, you're dealing with depression or anxiety or fear, all these things, worship can lift that up. It can lift your heart back up. It gauges the heart after God. A heart that never worships is a heart that's not following heart after God. That's just right where the rubber meets the road. If you're not worshiping God, you are not in a deep, genuine relationship with Him. Because those who are have to worship God. It's a byproduct. It's like saying, I took a shower but I'm not wet. It's not going to happen. But it's also the thermometer. What does a thermometer do? It goes in and it measures the spiritual depth and width and humility of a heart-seeking God. So worship comes in and those who do not want to worship God, there's something wrong and cold in the heart. I'm not talking about having seasons in life. We come in sometimes and we're just in a bad mood. Lord, I need You to work in me today. That's welcome to the world. But a person that continually comes in doesn't want worship. I remember a guy a few weeks ago, I said, let's come in and worship because I'm going to sit in my car until that's over. Really? And your heart's going to be open and receptive to everything I have to say, huh? It just doesn't make sense. So it's also a thermostat, but it's a thermometer. It gauges the heart. I can tell a person's relationship with God by how they worship. Not necessarily raising hands or this or that. But just their heart. It just comes out. Is it this? Oh, now it's this. Let me text. I'm going to act like I'm using my Bible on my phone. That's how people get away with it now. Oh, I've got my... I'm watching him. No, they're not. So if you're not engaged, there's something amiss in the heart there. And I'll tell you a little secret. I used to do this and I still do it. I went and visited John MacArthur's church a few weeks ago. I actually went there before I spoke at this other church. And there are different places. I often watch the pastor, what he's doing before he gets up and preaches. Watch that sometimes. If they're distracted and just... They should be engaged. Now, again, they're seasoned because I will do that from time to time. So I'm not saying that. But I've been to churches before where they just sit in the front row and they're just looking at worship. Okay, it's my time pretty soon. The heart's not engaged. All I'm saying is it's a thermostat and a thermometer. It measures the temperature of the heart. Think about this. If we realized... Why do people get so emotional sometimes? I just heard of a couple came to Christ in front of a drug house this week. They were at McDonald's. I'll tell you if you want more of the story. I'll tell you. Actually, it was Russell. You guys know Russell who was here. He went and he met with this guy and the life is falling apart. She's pregnant, on meth, pregnant. And I'm like, oh, that right there. Oh man, but he prayed for them. They just fell to their knees. They got them already in rehab centers in front of a drug house out on the east side. So what happened there? That was my point. They met the risen Savior. They have to worship Him. They have to. He just bought them for a price. He just delivered them. He just redeemed them. They're giving their lives over to Him. He's saving me. He's gonna restore me. They have to. How can you not? So that's the problem with many Christians. I don't know what I believe. I have no real genuine relationship with me. Because if He's redeemed me, He saved me from a turn He separated from Him. Not only has He saved me and redeemed me, now He's going to guide me. He's going to heal me. He's gonna direct me as a loving father, guiding their son, guiding their daughter. Come on, let me show you how to do life. Let me help you get through this. You're gonna get a little bit excited. I would think. People get more excited at the Dodgers than they do Jesus Christ. And they come to church. So worship is just a byproduct of that. How can you not? We get so excited over all these things, but not over Christ. It's because we're either quenching and grieving the Spirit of God, because He's so distant from us. We don't have a heart of worship. We don't have a broken, humble heart. We just want just enough of Him just to get in heaven, so I can live like hell all week. Well, that's not biblical Christianity. That's not worship. That's problem one. Problem two is they never met the risen Savior. And I've told this story many times before. You guys can go watch my testimony online. But when He finally broke this prideful, arrogant man, and I'm still a prideful, arrogant man, working on humility by the grace of God on a daily basis. But when He finally did, and I worshiped Him, and I just got on my couch, and I just began to pray and weep and pray. The Word of God became alive. I couldn't put it down. I don't want TV. I don't want junk. I don't want movies. I need the Word of God, because in it I live and breathe and have my being. Everything changes. Now my view on marriage changes. Now it's not all about me. It's all about glorifying Christ. Now everything changes about being a father. It's not a bunch of kids who are inconvenienced. It's little kids that I'm mentoring and shaping and developing. Everything changes. Now my life is a life of worship to God. You can't fabricate that. If people want to debate it all day long, I say, well, I'm just glad I don't believe that way. He's changed my life. He hasn't changed yours. I don't know what to tell you. You need to repent and turn to Him. See, so worship is just a byproduct of that. So when she's singing, nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood of Jesus, it's my only victory. There's no other victory outside of the cross. Oh, that rugged cross. That rugged cross. That's the man of sorrows, beaten and betrayed by his own. I put Christ on the cross. How can I not worship? How can that not break me? You see, it's just a byproduct of a right relationship with God. That's what worship is. So we need it. Well, this is the worship. Worship is just your heart pouring out your heart to God. And whatever that looks like, I don't know. He's poured His Spirit so hard into me sometimes I couldn't get up and preach at certain conferences. I was just, Lord, just take this off me because I'm going to break. I can't even get out a word. Lord, please, I just want to weep. That's called personal revival. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing because God's removing all this junk out of your life saying, get that garbage out and let the power of the Spirit flow into your life so you can change. That's how you quit addiction. That's how you kill an anger problem is you bow at the foot of the cross. You say, I'm not Lord of my life anymore. You are Lord of my life. I give you everything. That's worship. There was no band when He broke me. There was no music. There was just the heart breaking and weeping. That's worship. So let's make sure we put this in the right perspective. People are like, well, He's getting more worked up. Wouldn't you? If He's radically changed your life, if He's radically changed your life, I should be beating my wife tonight, not holding her when I get home. You don't understand. I should be going home drunk and cussing at her. You don't understand. God has changed my life. That's what some of you need. Some in the church need to experience the risen Savior. We've got religiosity, but we have no relationship. And that never works. That never works. It's only submitting to the blood of Christ and allowing that to cover the sins and then bowing at the foot of the cross and saying, You're Lord of my life. I give it all to You. And then you watch a transformation. And all I'm supposed to do is be a witness. See, the good part about my job is I'm not selling anything. I don't care if you sign up. I don't care if you give. All I'm going to do is say bye, hi, and go and go home and see my family when I get home. I'm not selling anything. I'm just the witness. That makes my job very easy. Are you going to change tonight? Are you? What about you? Come on. Aren't you? I don't have to. God does that changing. How? With the hammer of God. Coming out and crushing that pride and that arrogance. He had to crush me many times. He still has to. Because as soon as we think we're humble, guess what happens? Now we're not humble. Now we're prideful. Now we can fall. It's funny. The church is pretty full tonight. Last week it was a lot more empty. It's like, Lord's like, you can't gauge it by attendance. You can't gauge it by people getting upset. You can't gauge it by this. You've got to gauge it by, Lord, what are you doing in my life? What do you want to do? And one of the callings I feel of Westside Christian Fellowship is almost like a hospital. I put this in my journal a year ago. We have people from all, you guys don't even know, the different churches that come here. And what I call double dipping. Well, it's because Saturday night, and it's almost like they're being revived and they take that back to their churches and back to their families. They come. They're being revived. They take that back to their churches and their families. There's people coming and they're doing, the hospital is, God's doing business. He's rebuilding and reshaping the healing. And then they go and take that out in the valley. So you might not have a huge mega church. Which I'm fine with. Because as soon as you do, you start measuring attendance on look at what I've done instead of looking at what God did. The best, when I get most excited is when I hear of lives being changed. Like, thank you Lord, that's why we did this. I don't want to just come here and play church. Let's fill in somebody for worship. I'll give a message. Okay, and we'll go home. That's not what I came here for. I came here to preach a glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and watch people be broken at the foot of the cross and give their lives over to Him and then restore and rebuild their marriages and their families and their relationship with others and their relationship with God. That's true worship. So with that said, it's a much longer introduction than I planned on, but it was needed. Matthew. We have to be very careful of false worship and true worship. I'm going to get into that. True worship. Matthew, he said, the Wiseman said, or actually the records, not the Wiseman didn't say this, but the Matthew records, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? They said, we have seen a star and we have come to worship Him. So the first point is probably going to be up there. It must flow from a broken, thankful heart focused on truth. So the first step, I'm sure some of you now truly want to worship God, right? Well, that's the definition. It must flow from a broken, thankful, humble heart focused on truth. This is why all religions can't worship together. Because they oppose truth. This is God's truth of the Bible. His truth is absolute. We come in and we worship Him based on truth. In the same way that we can fabricate religious acts, we can fabricate worship like Herod was going to do. But the Wiseman had to worship Him. And this is the first point on true worship. But we're talking about false prophets. And what I mean by that term is a little loaded in our culture as well and in the church. If I mention prophet, what do you guys think of? Oh, these guys, you know, just beaming from their, just kind of weird and this and that. But really it was somebody who spoke for God. They kind of like, thus saith the Lord, that aligns with Scripture. That person of influence that's speaking God's truth. So true prophets, let's contrast it with false prophets. They know nothing of brokenness and humility. They are arrogant, rebellious, divisive, and unteachable. Okay? So if you ever wonder if it's a home group, a church, whatever, if somebody is rebellious, unteachable, and arrogant, they are probably not proclaiming the truth of God's Word. Now, I'm going to be real careful here because I put this on a post-it note this morning. I felt that God just kind of spoke, you know, I'm careful with this too, but He ministered to my spirit. He spoke to my, whatever you want to say, and it was crystal clear. Do not judge too quickly. So as I'm talking about this false prophet issue, I don't want to judge too quickly. And in other words, if somebody is rebellious, divisive, and unteachable, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're a false prophet of God. They could just be Aries they're struggling with and they're maturing. But a false prophet of God is somebody in position of authority, and this is one of their characteristics. They are arrogant, rebellious, divisive, and unteachable. And a scripture they all like to use is this one in 1 Chronicles. They use this when you start to challenge them. Hey, you know, do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. Don't touch God's anointed one, do my prophets no harm. You're coming against me, brother. You're quenching the spirit of God. No, I'm not. I'm using discernment. That's much different than judgmentalism. I'm called to use discernment. You're called to use discernment. What I'm telling you today, you're supposed to filter through the discernment filter. You should have a good working knowledge of the Bible. You need to process what I'm saying. So that's one of the characteristics there. And those speaking the Word of God, myself included, we are not above this. We are subject to it. So it's almost you're speaking like this. I am subject to the Word of God. I come underneath it. It holds me accountable. It sets the standard, not me. It dictates truth, not me. I simply am a vessel to proclaim what's in there. You see the difference? A lot of these guys dismiss this. And so let's go back to what I said earlier. And I want to be careful here. But I would consider that guy I mentioned earlier, Rob Bell, very dangerous because of these things. At first, a few years ago, you could watch some of the videos. Okay, that's interesting. Good points. But then you see this slide away from truth. So as a pastor now, you're writing a book saying that there's no hell, we're all going to be saved. Ooh, boy. Somebody's wrong here. Now you're saying that homosexual marriage is good and God-given and God-ordained and you guys just need to wake up and get with the times. Oh, Rob. Oh, shoot. See, now I've got to come against you. You've made this public. Now I've got to say something. You see how that works? It's not an attitude of me going, I'll wait until I tell this guy. I actually don't want to say anything. I come up here and I don't want to say, why aren't we just all on the same page? But when they depart from truth, I have a biblical mandate to say, listen, here's where they're departing from truth and it's very dangerous. Now he's part of this emergent church that I've talked about before. Basically, it's liberalism repackaged. They're going away from the word of God. They're embracing things that should not be embraced and that's a very dangerous thing. Now take this back to the point I just said. These men are unteachable, arrogant, and they're rebellious. I've read their biographies. They are very upset at the established church. They have this perception of God as an angry God and all this legalism. So now they're going to the polar opposite instead of saying, okay, yeah, we need to bring some more love back in the church. They're going the polar opposite and begin denying these things. And when people challenge them, they're unteachable, they're arrogant, they're rebellious. Why? Why? Because they have the truth. They have the truth. We don't. We're in error. So his definition of me would be a rigid, legalistic, narrow-minded fundamentalist. And what have I said before? The road is very narrow. There are fundamentals of the faith that we have to refer to. Obeying God's word is not legalism, it's wisdom. So you see the difference? So as much as I wish I wouldn't have to say these things, people like that need to be challenged. And I get all kinds of questions, and I don't even know if I should say some of this stuff, but I get asked it. I'm not going to go into it, but people like Joel Osteen, and you fill in the blanks. I say I don't know. I haven't heard a sermon in 10 years. I'd have to talk to people. I'd have to read their theology. I can't just come out and say they're a false this if I don't know anything about them. So that's why I don't take a hard-line stance unless I know and have read and researched and say listen, there's some dangerous things here that are being said. So be careful. So that's what I meant by don't judge. I don't want to just judge. Because I don't know. I don't know these people. I haven't read anything. I haven't watched certain things. So I'm not in a position to say that. I will say this, so from what little bits I've seen or read, if anything, he should be a motivational speaker. Because you can't be a pastor and avoid the difficult truth. That's like being a Christian, or that's like taking a shower and not getting wet. So I would tell people just be careful. Don't just be filling your mind with positive this and positive that and God wants to bless you. Those are biblical principles. That's motivational. But to be a pastor, I believe it was Paul who told Timothy preach the word, which means the totality of the word. Everything that's in the word. Preach the difficult truths and the easy ones. Preach what's uplifting and preach what's going to condemn. Timothy, be ready in and out of season because the time will come, which we live in now, when they will no longer endure sound doctrine. They will look for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Why does Rob Bell have best-selling books? Telling people what they want to hear. There's no hell. We're all going to end up in heaven. I knew it. Yeah. Tell me again what I want to hear. And they're persuaded by opinion rather than biblical truth. So that's one of the marks. I'm not going to ever get through this if I don't hurry up. Number two. Number two. And I've got to be very careful on this one too. I could spend a whole sermon right here. Number two. Emotional responses often follow true worship. This week I went back and I looked at all the people who worship God. I didn't see much of, well, Hosanna. I mean, I saw people bowing down in the presence of God. Holy is our God. Falling on the face. Worshiping. Now I'm not saying that has to happen. But what I'm saying, because we can work this stuff up too, which I'll talk about in a minute. But there should be an emotional response that follows true worship. I just broke it down 20 minutes ago why I experienced true worship. Because what happened? I experienced God. When my fourth child was born, talk about emotions. I mean, I couldn't even, I'm not going to cry here. There's doctors around. I'm like, oh my Lord. They hand me this little baby and she's just, oh man. Where does those emotions come from? You get married on your wedding day. Where's all that emotion? So how is it when we worship God we become emotionless and it always gets in. You got this camp and you got this camp. And they say, oh, that's just emotional worship. Sometimes I want to say good. Good. Good. I know what they're saying. They're saying, well, you can't just worship with emotion. But there should be some emotion. God has saved us and redeemed us. We're coming to worship Him. He's going to get our life back on track or heal or restore. That should, I don't know, call me silly, but that should spark some kind of emotion. Right? Real estate agents close a deal. I hear emotion all the way down the hall. Right? Dodger fans. Yelling, screaming, painting their bodies. But why is worship a cemetery? Why? Have you ever thought about that? I have. It doesn't make a lot of sense unless we're worried about what people think. So my whole point on this was emotions can be good and God-given. Can you imagine just being a puppet and not experiencing any emotions? Here's your baby, Dad. Oh, thanks. That's a tax write-off. Here you go. Walking down the aisle to get married. Let's read this thing out. There's no emotion. Just Dad. Can you imagine it? So God gave us emotions for a reason to feel deeply, to hurt deeply, to hurt deeply. So we break and we turn to Him to feel these loving emotions. I thank God for emotions. I don't run from them. I mean, sometimes I'll preach. It feels like just rocks are coming out of my mouth. Like, how quick can I get to that door? Hurry up. And other times, like tonight, I feel pretty energized. I feel a difference. There's God filling me with His Spirit. There's this emotional response. Where does that come from? Is that bad? Oh, shoot, I shouldn't do that. I mean, where does that come from? But that's only one side of it. Because I do see the other side of the emotional side that gets carried away. And you guys know I talk about that. Isaac, get this ready. But I talk about this often. I talk about the circus environment. I talk about all this weird stuff. A lot of people are going, what are you talking about, Shane? What are you talking about, Shane? Well, now I'm going to bring you what I've been talking about. And this is what I'm talking about is not good emotional worship. So let's watch this for just two minutes and I'll come right back. This is probably the worst that I've ever seen. And yet his influence is growing enormously, especially amongst the youth. Lord, I love your heavy, drunken glory. I firmly believe in toking the ghost, right? I'm a little Jehovah-wanna. And so we just... And the thing is, it's free. You just reach in your pocket. Wow, look at what's there. You just take a little... A little whiff of the glory. A basic question here. At what point does something go from being only tantamount to blasphemy and become real, actual blasphemy? This is the stuff that John Crowder and his friends have been spreading all over the earth. Welcome to Sloshfest, which they hold every year, attracting hundreds and hundreds of people. And of course, if anybody questions what they're doing, they're immediately accused of being a religious Pharisee. So apparently we're not even allowed to use our discernment, even though the Bible commands us to do so. Here's the well-known author and speaker, Jim Gold, taking part in the drunken glory with Crowder and his accomplice, Ben Dunn. And here's Ben Dunn ministering this drunkenness anointing to the young people at Bill Johnson's famous Bethel Church in Redding, California. In fact, a lot of this movement now is targeting young people. Now, Bill Johnson is a very famous charismatic leader, author of the book When Heaven Invades Earth. But what people don't realize is that Bill's church in Redding is one of the major centers for this drunkenness anointing in North America. They specialize in what they call the fire tunnel, where they impart this anointing to all the young people. Can you imagine walking into a room that sounds like this? We worship You. We worship You. You get the picture? False fire versus real fire. And those are Christian churches. I have friends that have went to those. Now, I want to be careful because I think some people go with the right intentions. They want to have more of God. They want to worship Him. It's the leaders who I want to hold responsible that allow this stuff. And what I ask is three quick questions. Something like that. Are they truly drawn closer to Christ? Is their marriage being stronger and restored? Or are they leaving there just as carnals when they arrived? See, it was so cool. It was such a rush. I experienced this. I'm at such a high. That's what you can say when you leave Magic Mountain, folks. So you see my dilemma tonight is you need to worship God. There needs to be emotion. But we cannot gauge it by that alone because look what can happen. I mean, if that happened here, I'd say, hold it, guys. Uh-uh, this is not feeling right. What is going on here? But see, the leadership is allowing that. That was another mark of the false prophets that go along with this is they actually encourage. Now, these people, this guy he said wrote a book and all this stuff, that's his video. I don't know these guys, so I'm not saying. What I saw looks pretty alarming. And that guy toking the Holy Ghost and all that, that is blasphemy to me. That is ridiculous. And I've seen other clips where he's just wearing this gown like a priest would. I mean, just the people acting weird and bizarre. That's not God. Jonathan Edwards, you know who he was, a theologian in the colonial time of American history in the 1700s? They experienced what was called the first great awakening in America. And I've read his journals and I've read his things. And some things happen. People would fall out prostrate. They'd be worshiping God. They would be broken. They would be shaking and standing in the presence of God. I've spoken at men's conferences where I see guys shaking. They can't stop because God is breaking them. Right there on that chair, he can't stop weeping. The ushers have got to come and pray with him. That's genuine revival. God is breaking his people. But he said, he wrote a book on the true work of the Spirit. He said, when something happens, when God's Spirit moves, Christ is exalted. The devil is opposed. Not these manifestations, weirdness taking place. Christ is exalted. The enemy is opposed. There is a deep respect and love for God's truth in his word and a deep respect and a love for God and others. A person's whole attitude changes. Where this, you don't see that. I know people that go to these events, they're just as carnal as when they arrived. That something, they just got emotional. So that was my whole point is showing that, is to show you the dangerous side. Because I don't want to say, oh, you just have to be emotional. Not necessarily. But there should be some emotions. I mean, if you just got a text, hey, your number's been drawn and you just won a million dollars, wow, you might get, you might get a little emotional. Yeah. So we have to remember that. Genuine worship requires, or actually has an emotional response. And you remember the Bible records, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly. And I want to, I also put this down to just encourage some people. I want you to always remember to press through regardless of your feelings. Because even though we, I might have beat some people up just a few minutes ago. Let me encourage you. I don't expect everybody to come in here with broken, humble hearts worshiping God because life stinks and sucks on some days. I'll just lay it out there. Doesn't it? Sometimes I don't want to come to church at night. I don't. I've been honest about that before. But I have to. But once I get here and you hear the worship, oh man, Lord, because see, I didn't allow my feelings to guide me. Many people miss church because they don't feel like it. Well, welcome to the world. Do you think you're going to feel like going to church every single weekend? The enemy just loves you to go to church. You look forward to Duck Dynasty. Does it ever amaze you that he doesn't oppose those things? I can sit and watch Fox News and O'Reilly and all this stuff for hours. I've watched a few things that people told me about it and they showed me. I have my thoughts, but I won't go there. I've heard the guy preach on YouTube too. It was pretty good. But any time that culture, I mean they've got the big rings and the money, you just kind of, well okay, all I'm saying is be careful. Don't get caught up in these things and have that take the majority of your time. I'm going to get out of that hole real quick or I'm going to dig myself in a big hole. So, under two here, you cannot fabricate emotional worship. It must be genuine. I just explained that, right? And that reminds me of the prophets of Baal. Do you remember that story? Some of you do, some of you don't. When God was challenging his people, Elisha came on the scene and he said, return to God. How long will you falter between two opinions? And he said, okay, if you're God, be God. Go ahead and have him bring down fire. Elisha said, let the God who answers by fire, let him be God. And these prophets of Baal, 450, made this huge altar. And God wasn't answering. So he said, maybe you're God sleeping. And they start jumping up and down and cutting themselves and bleeding and like that. It reminds me of that. That's what they were doing on this altar, trying to get their God to bring fire. Wake him up. God must be sleeping. Nothing, nothing, nothing. So then Elisha took water, drenched the entire altar with water. So water was filling around the whole thing. And he said, let the God who answers by fire, let him be God. And all of that was consumed in a moment. Everything licked up. That's the one true and living God. That's not false fire. That's real fire. That emotional, stirring things up, like it's a Holy Spirit pep rally. You've got to be very careful. Very careful. Emotions cannot control us. They should be a byproduct of truth. They should not gauge truth. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. I could have just said that and avoided this whole point. Okay? So emotionals, our response to truth is good. When our emotions respond to truth, that is very good. When they just respond to respond and try to be and try to work things up, it's not very good at all. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit. I might have to do part three. I've got four more pages. but I'm also realistic. I can understand when, you know, I probably should have closed the service about 20 minutes ago when I was all passionate and had Chelsea come up and went into time of worship. That's what we probably should have done instead of me just keep speaking, speaking, speaking. But anyway, let me leave you with a couple of thoughts. John MacArthur said, and actually, you guys, I quote him a lot, but me and him differ on this area of worship and the gifts of the Spirit in some things. So I don't, you know, there can be opposite, I mean, there can be disagreements on things, but you still respect and cherish, you know, the beliefs of those other people. In other words, he's more of the hymnal and, you know, you don't, no raising hands. I mean, I went down there to a Massachusetts church and I saw 3,000 people. I didn't see one hand raised. I saw 3,000 people. What? No, why? Why didn't you do it, Shane? He goes, well, I'm sitting right in the middle of 3,000 people. And it was different. It's a hymnal. You sit down and then you have a reading and then you stand up and then you sit down and it's like, you know, but that's how they worship. Am I going to say, well, they're not worshiping God? Of course not. These guys are worshiping God. But that's how they were raised. That's worship to them. So you see the difference there, the distinction? And what happens is a lot of times they come against emotionalism because of that. That's why a lot of people come against emotional worship because of that. That's all over the church, hyper-Pentecostalism, hyper-charismatic. That's what that, they just get whoosh, out there. So we have to be very careful. Now, can God still work in that? See, that's why a lot of these people don't get challenged. You say, I saw God working. I saw God working in a drug house last week. I saw, God works in front of a bar, an A.V. hospital. Just because God's working doesn't mean something necessary. He might just honor the people's sincerity. They want to get healed. They want to get delivered because the people are searching after God. It's the leadership that upsets me. John MacArthur said, so if you want to know what truth is, truth is that which is consistent with the mind, the will, the character, the glory, and the being of God. Everything that is consistent with God is truth. That sums it up for you. And I just want to read a few things on your article you have in your bulletin. I pulled this off offline. David Koppelian, I think his name is. I've read other articles, but this one really stood out. He made the point that suicide, catch this, suicide has surpassed car crashes as a leading cause of injury death for Americans. Didn't I tell you this a year ago? You're going to be seeing more and more as our nation gets more paralyzed and more fear factor and more all this. You're going to see this. They need God. These are byproducts of a nation rejecting God. So if this is happening because you reject God, what's the solution? God. But even more disheartening is the world's greatest military, the United States military, which I love and I cherish and I think God blesses greatly with this, died more than died last year by suicide than in combat. Yeah. Killing themselves. Especially if they don't know God. One third of the nation's employees suffer chronic debilitating stress and more than half of all millennials, kids 18 to 33, experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night. I would say a lot of that is because of their parents instilling fear into their kids instead of love and grace. And they're going to bed in this fear factor mode. At this point, I often joke too about caffeine sometimes because I saw some teenagers come in and they ordered a triple latte frappe with an extra shot and I'm thinking, no wonder you have high levels of stress and anxiety. You're fueling, man, you're on high alert there. There's not much difference in a little line of crystal meth than that. I mean, it's not much. I'm just saying, be careful. Shocking new research from the Federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows that 1 in 5, 1 in 5, 1 out of 5 of all high school age children in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD. 1 in 5. Why when I grew up it was 1 in 500? What's going on here? And there's a lot of speculation, I know, but I'm just saying, these are statistics. Children ages 6 to 12 have been medically diagnosed with either ADHD, anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder. 1 in 5 pre-teens. That's why the title of this article is Americans Snapping by the Millions. I won't even tell you the stock of antidepressant medication and how that is just everybody's grabbing for the pill instead of the cross. Now, of course, I'm careful here. I'm not one that says, you should never take this and that. It should be a last resort, never a first. Never a first, I don't believe. I think God should be the first resort. And let me read this. Incredibly, 11% of all Americans 12 and older, listen, 11% of all the people in the United States 12 and older are taking SSRI antidepressants. Those are the highly controversial, mood-altering psychiatric drugs with the FDA's suicidal warning and the alarming correlation with school shootings. So, what we're going to give you for your suicidal thoughts might actually might that's a side effect, it might actually lead to some very detrimental things. So, just telling you. That's why I always go, the hope is in Christ and Christ alone. Because that's how you realign everything. That's how you realign everything that's in your life. The worship. This whole thing on worship. That's how these things can many of these things can get cured in our families, in our homes, from anger, depression, whatever it is. I've seen God cure it. I've seen God work in the heart. Because a lot of these things start in the heart. The sinful heart, the sinful prideful heart needs to be dealt with and cleansed. God's word says, if you cast your cares upon the Lord, He will sustain you. Paul says, be anxious for nothing. Jesus said, my peace I give to you. He told Timothy, you don't even have a spirit of fear. So where is all this coming from if it's not of God? That's the importance of worship. Many of you know, I've quoted Ian Bounds before. He said, when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live. Let me add a little line in there. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. When faith ceases to worship, it ceases to live. The reason the church in America is dying on the vine, the reason many in this room are dying on the vine is you're not worshiping the one true living God. We have a form of godliness. We don't want to truly worship. I always ask people, if I'm going to counsel or I'm going to talk with people, I say, tell me about your worship time. Nine times out of ten, you want to know what that is? What are you talking about? I read the Bible now, no worshiping. Just reading the Bible is not worshiping. Seminary students do that. I'm talking about worshiping God. We spend time in the morning or late evening, just you and him, just God dealing with your heart, breaking your heart, worshiping him. How much of that is happening? That's my number one question. Why? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is going to speak. Out of the abundance of the heart is how you're going to deal with life's issues. If there's a worshiping broken heart, you'll get rid of half your problems right there because that's what does it. You come up out of the prayer closet realizing you're not God, realizing you're not right, realizing I might be the reason I'm in the situation I'm in instead of excusing everything and everyone. That's what worship does. It puts you right center with the true living God, the presence of God, worshiping him as he breaks you, as the hammer of God comes out and crushes you and molds you and shapes you. That's how you do this, is you break through, through worship. So as Chelsea comes up, we're actually going to close on that note on worship. And that's what genuine worship looks like, is the heart crying out to God. And when I talk to people all the time with issues, nine times out of 10, they do not have a life of worship. They can read the Bible, they listen to podcasts, but they do not have a life of worship. Why? Because it's difficult and challenging. Yeah, that's right. Anything in life worth having is difficult. God wants you to press in and press in. Put the Bible on the shelf and get on your knees and cry out to God and worship him. We can sit on Facebook for an hour and a half, but we don't know what to pray for. With God, I don't know what to pray for. You don't know what to pray for. Lord, would you heal my marriage? Lord, restore my soul. Lord, I'm so angry and upset this week. Lord, would you take that away? Lord, help me not be angry at my kids. Lord, help me cherish them and love them. Lord, would you pull this nation back to you? Lord, bring revival. Lord, we need revival. If you don't revive us, we're going to fall. We're going to crush. Lord, that person down the street I'm praying for, would you bring him to Christ? Would you heal him of this? Lord, my son, my daughter is far away from you. Would you bring them back? That's just off the top of my head. You can go. You can pray. You can seek. That's a heart of worship, a heart that's experiencing the risen God because he's changed their life. That's worship. That's worship. That's the heart of God. The heart of God is to have your heart engage with his. Not in reality because he is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. He's not a physical body. But you know what I'm saying. Our heart must beat with that crying Abba, Father. The spirit within us is crying Abba, Father and you've got to break through that. You've got to say, come hell or high water, I'm going to worship the one true and living God. I worship money. I worship success, but I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to worship God. I worship my friendships, my this, my that. I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to worship God. You have to fight against that because the flesh wants to destroy you. My flesh does not want to worship. My flesh right now wants to say, well, that concludes the service. Let's go eat. Isn't yours? God, I wish that guy would hurry up. An hour long sermons. I want to go to church with 30 minute sermons. I'm not just going to do the introduction in 30 minutes. I have a lot to say. But with that said, let's just close in prayer. Lord, I ask that you would move tonight. Lord, during worship. Lord, that people have never met you in a mighty way would just begin to know you more intimately tonight. Lord, have the words of this song. Lord, ring true, pierce their hearts. Lord, I pray that you would bring that prodigal son home tonight. Lord, have him fall at the foot of the cross. Take this back home and surrender his life to you. Lord, are the wayward daughters. We're praying for our children, Lord. Have them sustain a living relationship with you, Lord. Rebuild marriages tonight. Lord, begin to break the pride and the arrogance from our hearts. Lord, we ask that the hammer of God come out tonight and begin to shatter self. Shatter selfishness. Shatter everything that is pulling us away from you. As we worship you tonight, Lord, have your way in this place. Let people believe you're changed and transformed by the glorious gospel that you have given us. Thank you for your son. We thank you for the cross. Amen.