Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.
Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 1: to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm expecting God because he spoke to me
Speaker 1: as I was preparing this message. And we're gonna start
Speaker 1: in First Peter, chapter two, verse five, and it says this,
Speaker 1: you also, like living stones are being built into a
Speaker 1: spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices
Speaker 1: acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Let me read that
Speaker 1: one more time. First Peter says, you also, like living
Speaker 1: stones are being built into a spiritual house to be
Speaker 1: a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And so today I want to talk about
Speaker 1: acceptable sacrifices, acceptable sacrifices. Let's pray. Lord, I just come
Speaker 1: to you right now. We just thank you for the
Speaker 1: promise that when your word goes forth, that it will
Speaker 1: never return void. And I thank you God for what
Speaker 1: you've shown me, help me to communicate it with clarity
Speaker 1: and with power. Lord, and I pray that something eternal
Speaker 1: will happen in all of our hearts as we seek
Speaker 1: your face today in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, thank
Speaker 1: you worship team. Don't we have the greatest worship teams
Speaker 1: serving at every campus, not just out on tour, but
Speaker 1: every single location. All right, before we begin, I got
Speaker 1: to tell you about something in our family called the
Speaker 1: big fish moment. And so the big fish moment stands
Speaker 1: for an uncontrollable emotional outburst. And if you don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm the dad of three little girls. I have twins
Speaker 1: that are ten, and I have my youngest daughter is five.
Speaker 1: And you would think that something that deals with volatile
Speaker 1: emotions would have originated with one of my three daughters,
Speaker 1: But it did not. It started with one of the
Speaker 1: adults in my family. So fifteen years ago, two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, I'm taking my then girlfriend, Ferris, who's my
Speaker 1: wife now, taking her to see a movie called big Fish.
Speaker 1: Has anyone seen this movie? All right, not a ton
Speaker 1: of you, But I was taking her to see this
Speaker 1: movie and I had, if I'm being honest, some ulterior
Speaker 1: motives because I knew it had a sad ending, and
Speaker 1: I thought this was gonna be my chance to kind
Speaker 1: of comfort her at the end in the theater. All
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit approved. But I had everything planned out. And
Speaker 1: we get in the theater and it's building up. I
Speaker 1: can feel that the emotions are building, and it hits
Speaker 1: the scene where the main character's walking down this grassy
Speaker 1: null on something sad is about to happen, and I'm
Speaker 1: getting ready and I'm about to kind of move my
Speaker 1: arm over and I look over and Ferris is just
Speaker 1: stone cold, like no emotion, and then something funny happens.
Speaker 1: My chin starts to quiver a little bit. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's that's odd. And then one tear starts to fall
Speaker 1: down my cheek, and the next thing I know, I
Speaker 1: am just ugly crying in this theater, like the kind
Speaker 1: of crying that's not signed. It's very, very noisy, and
Speaker 1: I'm like rocking back and forth. I can't look at Ferris.
Speaker 1: I can't. We have to stay to the whole theater.
Speaker 1: It's cleared out, and so we're walking out to the
Speaker 1: car and in the parking lot, I feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I can try to tell her what's going on?
Speaker 1: And I try to say, hey, you know he was
Speaker 1: going down the grassy k hoole, and then I start
Speaker 1: crying again. And I swear to you it was a
Speaker 1: twenty minute drive to drop her off at her house,
Speaker 1: and I cried the entire way to drop her off.
Speaker 1: So the next morning I call I feel like a fool,
Speaker 1: I'm an idiot, and I call her up. I'm like, Ferris,
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened last night. She goes, can
Speaker 1: you explain why it got to you so much? I
Speaker 1: was like, well, you know that one part on the
Speaker 1: grassy knoll, and then like the floodgates opened again, somebody
Speaker 1: over here just lost all respects for me. But I
Speaker 1: made a vow in that moment that I was never
Speaker 1: going to watch Big Fish ever again. And I was
Speaker 1: strong and resolute with that vow. And couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago and that is when my loving wife, my carrying
Speaker 1: just amazing wife, she went behind my back and she
Speaker 1: betrayed me. Y'all, we have this rule in our house
Speaker 1: that if our kids read a book that then a
Speaker 1: movie's made based on the book, they can watch the movie.
Speaker 1: And so my kids have heard these stories they've heard
Speaker 1: the legend, and so Firist behind my back got the
Speaker 1: girls to start reading Big Fish at night, and I
Speaker 1: didn't find out until about three nights in like Ferris,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And so they were committed to
Speaker 1: reading the book, though because not out of their love
Speaker 1: for literature, not out of their love for learning. They
Speaker 1: wanted to see their dad cry like a little girl.
Speaker 1: So about three weeks ago, I get the call that
Speaker 1: i'd been dreading. The call that triggered me, and that's
Speaker 1: when Adley says, Daddy, when you get home tonight, we're
Speaker 1: watching Big Fish. And I was terrified, but I showed up.
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna cry.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna cry. I still had a blanket to
Speaker 1: hide behind just in case. But for the first hour
Speaker 1: and fifty five minutes Strong and my kids didn't even
Speaker 1: watch the movie. They just watched me the whole time.
Speaker 1: But then he hit that grassy knoll and I cried,
Speaker 1: just like it was fifteen years ago. My kids were
Speaker 1: loving it. I was embarrassed. I didn't feel like much
Speaker 1: of a man in that moment. And once again, my
Speaker 1: loving wife shows how much he loves me by getting
Speaker 1: the phone out and videoing me. And because I love
Speaker 1: y'all so much, because I'm committed to preaching this word
Speaker 1: that God gave me, I'm gonna show y'all just a
Speaker 1: little glimpse. Now. Granted I've wiped off most of the tears,
Speaker 1: but I want you to see the difference and emotional
Speaker 1: composure between me, a forty two year old man, and
Speaker 1: my ten year old twins. So take a look at
Speaker 1: this cry again. Let me talk about it. Sick, What
Speaker 1: got you then? Well? Made those tears come? That was
Speaker 1: sitting she was crying with me in the background. He's sick.
Speaker 1: What made those tears come. It's crazy to me though,
Speaker 1: that these are the people my family, that are closer
Speaker 1: to me than anyone else on the planet. And I
Speaker 1: still was ashamed of how I felt. I didn't want
Speaker 1: them to know what I was really feeling in that moment.
Speaker 1: I mean, I kind of get it. Fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: I didn't want my girlfriend to know that she was
Speaker 1: dating a guy who cried more than her. But this
Speaker 1: is this is my family. Like, why am I ashamed
Speaker 1: of how I feel? And I think that's actually a
Speaker 1: pattern in my life and I think all of us
Speaker 1: can relate to that that sometimes it is so hard
Speaker 1: to be honest with other people about what's truly going
Speaker 1: on inside of us, because we feel like if they
Speaker 1: really knew the truth, they wouldn't love us anymore, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't respect us, maybe they wouldn't trust us. Maybe everyone
Speaker 1: would leave us if they really knew how messed up
Speaker 1: and how screwed up and how confused and how we
Speaker 1: don't have anything together. People really knew the truth about us,
Speaker 1: and so we hide it and we put up walls.
Speaker 1: And then it gets really messed up when we begin
Speaker 1: to project the same fears and those same insecurities onto
Speaker 1: how God views us. And yes, we know intellectually that
Speaker 1: God knows everything, but we start to believe the lie
Speaker 1: that if God really knew this about me, maybe his
Speaker 1: grace couldn't cover that, and we begin to put up
Speaker 1: these walls. And it really shows up for me when
Speaker 1: I come into worship, because I walk through these doors
Speaker 1: and a lot of times I'll disqualify myself from being
Speaker 1: in the presence of God before I even sing the
Speaker 1: first song. And maybe you've experienced the same thing. You
Speaker 1: feel like you have to show up and you have
Speaker 1: to look the part, and you have to have the
Speaker 1: perfect smile, and you have to have the right attitude,
Speaker 1: never mind the fact that your attitude just went out
Speaker 1: the window just trying to get your kids here on
Speaker 1: time and checked in. But all you're thinking about is
Speaker 1: the things you've done this week and how you feel
Speaker 1: in that moment. And you come in here and you
Speaker 1: feel completely unworthy to worship. You feel completely disqualified, and
Speaker 1: you don't feel like singing these songs because the only
Speaker 1: thing you feel are the weight of your inadequacies, the
Speaker 1: weight of your insecurities. And how are you supposed to
Speaker 1: worship when you feel like that? And one of my
Speaker 1: favorite songs off of the album we just released is
Speaker 1: called Hallelujah here below. It's what the album is named after.
Speaker 1: And there's a lyric in that song that has helped
Speaker 1: me so much, and it says, we're an altar of
Speaker 1: broken stones, which you delight in the offering. And so
Speaker 1: that's based on a passage where God told Moses to
Speaker 1: build an altar of unhewn stones. Those are stones that
Speaker 1: were jagged, they wouldn't cut to fit together perfectly. But
Speaker 1: God was saying, hey, worship me in a place of imperfection.
Speaker 1: And so the whole theme of that song, the whole
Speaker 1: theme of this album is that God doesn't want us
Speaker 1: to hide our brokenness from him. We can actually build
Speaker 1: an altar in the midst of imperfection. And so that
Speaker 1: verse I read earlier from one Peter continues that theme
Speaker 1: where it says, you also, like living stones are being
Speaker 1: built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
Speaker 1: offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So
Speaker 1: now we're not just building an altar with unhuman stones.
Speaker 1: We are the altar. We are the unhuman stones that
Speaker 1: the living stones that come together where the spirit of
Speaker 1: God dwells. We're the body of Christ. We are the altar.
Speaker 1: But what has been really messing me up lately is
Speaker 1: this question, if I am an alter, how come sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't feel like worshiping. You would think an alter
Speaker 1: that was designed for worship, what would feel like worshiping?
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of times I don't feel
Speaker 1: that way. And if I'm the worship pastor, I have
Speaker 1: to imagine that maybe you feel the same way, And
Speaker 1: I want to know how to do what First, Peter
Speaker 1: says where it says, offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
Speaker 1: I want to bring God acceptable sacrifices, but a lot
Speaker 1: of times my sacrifices don't feel very acceptable. Have you
Speaker 1: ever felt that way? So I just started to dig
Speaker 1: into God's word, not to prepare a sermon, but to
Speaker 1: help me to try to figure this out. And so
Speaker 1: there was a phrase in there it says, we're a
Speaker 1: holy priesthood. So I started looking through the Old Testament
Speaker 1: and looking at the priesthood and the Levites, and they're
Speaker 1: the closest things that we get to worship leaders in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament, and they were to minister in the
Speaker 1: Temple of the Lord and the presence of the Ark.
Speaker 1: And this is where Israel, the nation of Israel, made
Speaker 1: their sacrifices of worship, these acceptable sacrifices. And so I
Speaker 1: wanted to see was there something about how they honored
Speaker 1: God through their worship that made those sacrifices acceptable. And
Speaker 1: so here in first Chronicles, this is David giving them
Speaker 1: instructions on how to minister in the Temple of the Lord.
Speaker 1: This is right before the temple was about to be built.
Speaker 1: And so we'll spend some time in this text today
Speaker 1: it's chapter twenty three, and it says the duty of
Speaker 1: the Levites was to help Aaron's descendants and the service
Speaker 1: of the temple of the Lord. To be in charge
Speaker 1: of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all
Speaker 1: sacred things, and the performance of other duties at the
Speaker 1: House of God. They were in charge of the bread
Speaker 1: set out on the table, the special flour for the
Speaker 1: grain offerings, the thin loaves made without yeat, the baking
Speaker 1: and the mixing, and all measurements of quantity and size.
Speaker 1: They were also to stand every morning to think and
Speaker 1: praise the Lord. They were to do the same in
Speaker 1: the evening and whenever burnt offerings were presented to the Lord,
Speaker 1: on the sabbaths, at the new moon feast, and at
Speaker 1: the appointed festivals. And they were to serve before the
Speaker 1: Lord regularly, in the proper number and in the way
Speaker 1: prescribed for them. So in this passage, I think we
Speaker 1: see three different ways that the Levites honored God in
Speaker 1: their worship, honored God in the place where sacrifices were made.
Speaker 1: And let me get this out of the way. The
Speaker 1: sacrifices they were talking about were animal sacrifices, God no
Speaker 1: longer requires that of us, because as followers of Christ,
Speaker 1: the one and only sacrifice has already been made. But
Speaker 1: I still think there's something we can learn about as
Speaker 1: followers of Jesus, how do we bring God worship that
Speaker 1: he's pleased with? And so let's look at three things
Speaker 1: that we can learn about how the Levites brought acceptable
Speaker 1: sacrifices to God. And the first was they honored the
Speaker 1: Lord with their priority. So write that down if you're
Speaker 1: a note taker priority, because the most striking thing to
Speaker 1: me reading this passage at first was just the time
Speaker 1: commitment involved. Look at verse thirty again. It says they
Speaker 1: were to stand every morning to think and praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: They were to do the same in the evening. So
Speaker 1: that's a huge commitment of time every single morning, every
Speaker 1: single night, every single day. And I know for a
Speaker 1: lot of us it can be a win just to
Speaker 1: get to church twice a month. No judgment there, We're
Speaker 1: really glad that you're here. We'd like for you to
Speaker 1: be here a little bit more, but we'll celebrate that win.
Speaker 1: But they were worshiping twice a day, every single day.
Speaker 1: It was a commitment of time. It was a commitment
Speaker 1: to precision and process, because verse thirty one says the
Speaker 1: Levites were to serve before the Lord regularly, in the
Speaker 1: proper number and in the way prescribed for them, So
Speaker 1: there was an order to it. That's what priority is.
Speaker 1: It's ordering your life consistently around your values. So it
Speaker 1: didn't matter if they wanted to sing in the morning,
Speaker 1: they showed up, they sang. It didn't matter if they
Speaker 1: were in a bad mood at night, they showed up
Speaker 1: and they sang. It didn't matter if they felt like it.
Speaker 1: They were in their post ready to worship. But I
Speaker 1: have to wonder if sometimes the Levites felt the same
Speaker 1: way we do, that they just weren't feeling it. And
Speaker 1: if they weren't feeling it, I wonder if they wondered
Speaker 1: if it was truly worship, if maybe it was a
Speaker 1: little forced, if maybe it was a little legalistic, because
Speaker 1: I felt that way growing up. I grew up past
Speaker 1: My granddad was a pastor and my dad was the
Speaker 1: music minister at our church. My mom played the organ.
Speaker 1: It was like a real family affair there. But I
Speaker 1: was at church every single time the doors were open,
Speaker 1: and that's how I grew up, and I didn't have
Speaker 1: a choice in the matter. I was always there. And
Speaker 1: what I found is when I got to college, I
Speaker 1: started to rebel against some of that consistency because I
Speaker 1: thought it was legalistic. I was like, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't have to read my Bible every day if I'm
Speaker 1: not feeling it. God wouldn't want that. Or I don't
Speaker 1: have to be in church every time the doors are open,
Speaker 1: because it needs to you know, it needs to be
Speaker 1: an overflow of my heart. And so I rebelled against
Speaker 1: what I thought was legalism, and I found that in
Speaker 1: running from legalism, I was actually running from discipline. And
Speaker 1: those two were not the same thing. They can look
Speaker 1: the same, but they can have different motives. Legalism is
Speaker 1: doing something out of fear of man. It's out of
Speaker 1: a fear of trying to prove something to somebody else.
Speaker 1: It's trying to avoid punishment. Discipline is pursuing God, being
Speaker 1: passionate for God based on our priorities. Legalism is a
Speaker 1: bad thing that can lead to a lot of destructive habits.
Speaker 1: Discipline is one of the things I admire most about
Speaker 1: the people that I look up to, like Pastor Steve,
Speaker 1: when he's one of the most disciplined people that I
Speaker 1: know because his discipline is based around the right priorities.
Speaker 1: So for me now on this side of life, I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for my parents discipline who said, you're going
Speaker 1: to be in the house of God. We're going to
Speaker 1: be in the House of God no matter what, because
Speaker 1: it's important to us. And as a kid, whether I
Speaker 1: wanted to admit it or not, I noticed that and
Speaker 1: I knew if it was going to be between, you know,
Speaker 1: being in worship or basketball practice, they were going to be.
Speaker 1: They were going to pick church. And some of that
Speaker 1: was to save me from embarrassment at basketball, and they
Speaker 1: were good parents, but I knew that it was important
Speaker 1: to them, and it grew to be important to me
Speaker 1: because even when I was in church and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be there, the consistency of that is when
Speaker 1: God began to speak to me and God began to
Speaker 1: become real in my life because I was in position
Speaker 1: and I was in my post. And so that means
Speaker 1: for worship, when you show up even when you sing,
Speaker 1: and when you show up to worship when you don't
Speaker 1: feel it, that's not fake, that's being faithful. There is
Speaker 1: a promise that when you show up. That's so freeing
Speaker 1: to me that if I can come here, even if
Speaker 1: I don't feel it, God's going to honor the fact
Speaker 1: that we're here and that we're drawing near to Him.
Speaker 1: Because there's a promise in James four. Come near to
Speaker 1: God and He will come near to you. And I
Speaker 1: love that promise because it's not just for the mountaintop peaks,
Speaker 1: the high points of your life. That promise is for
Speaker 1: the valley. It's for the times when you feel so
Speaker 1: weak that you barely even made it into church and
Speaker 1: made it into your seat. But God sees the fact
Speaker 1: that you're drawing near to Him, and He will draw
Speaker 1: near to you. And that became so real to me.
Speaker 1: About two years ago, we were in a series in
Speaker 1: our church called Beyond. How many of you were here
Speaker 1: for that series? It was an end of the year
Speaker 1: vision series, And if I'm being honest, that time of
Speaker 1: my life was one of the most difficult struggles I've
Speaker 1: ever had with anxiety. You may not know this, but
Speaker 1: two of my daughters have different special needs. My youngest, Sydney,
Speaker 1: she has something called cystic fibrosis, and I was really
Speaker 1: wrestling with anxiety because any cold could send her to
Speaker 1: the hospital for a week. It was the realization that
Speaker 1: I was actually older than her life expectancy is. It
Speaker 1: was the pressure of having to feel strong for my family,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to let anybody else know because
Speaker 1: I'm the worship pastor. I'm supposed to be the faith guy,
Speaker 1: and so I hid that struggle from other people. I
Speaker 1: hit it from God. I was also dealing with some insecurity.
Speaker 1: You know, am I smart enough to lead a worship
Speaker 1: team like this? And all of that combined to make
Speaker 1: me feel very, very distant from the Lord, and I
Speaker 1: couldn't hear God's voice. And I remember it was in
Speaker 1: that series Pastor preached a message called There's More to
Speaker 1: the Story. And so I was in my usual Saturday
Speaker 1: night post, my Saturday night position up here on the
Speaker 1: third row by the aisle, and this is the part
Speaker 1: where I get to sit next to my lovely wife.
Speaker 1: Everyone said hey to Faris, and I was in this seat.
Speaker 1: Pastor's preaching There's more to the story, and he said
Speaker 1: something to the effect of, you know, many of you
Speaker 1: want to give up on your story because the chapter
Speaker 1: is hard, but don't judge your story by the chapter.
Speaker 1: And in that moment, God spoke to me so clearly.
Speaker 1: You know that if you've ever experienced it, it wasn't audible,
Speaker 1: but in my heart he said, all the chapters of
Speaker 1: joy and the chapters of breakthrough that you want to experience,
Speaker 1: you have to go through this chapter of trial first.
Speaker 1: But all of it is a part of the beautiful
Speaker 1: story that I'm telling through your life. Don't give up
Speaker 1: on the story because the chapter is hard. And maybe
Speaker 1: that's the word God has for some of you today.
Speaker 1: You're in a very, very difficult chapter, but that chapter
Speaker 1: does not define the story of what God is doing
Speaker 1: through your life. Do not give up. And I wish
Speaker 1: I could say that everything changed in that moment. It didn't.
Speaker 1: But what it was it was a spiritual anchor. It
Speaker 1: was a turning point that began a process of healing
Speaker 1: in my life. And I would have missed it if
Speaker 1: I wasn't in this seat that Saturday night. I know
Speaker 1: some of you are like, well, you're on staff, You're
Speaker 1: paid to be in that seat. Besides the fact that
Speaker 1: this is way more than a job to me, this
Speaker 1: is my life, this is my calling. The principle holds
Speaker 1: true regardless. There are some things that God wants to
Speaker 1: speak in your life in a sermon in four weeks
Speaker 1: that Pastor Steven's going to preach that. It's the word
Speaker 1: that you're desperately going to need to cling to a
Speaker 1: year from now in a trial that's not even on
Speaker 1: your radar. God wants to give you that wisdom. He
Speaker 1: wants to give you that strength. But if you're not
Speaker 1: in position in that seat to hear it, you may
Speaker 1: miss out. Do not forfeit the strength God wants to
Speaker 1: give you because of misaligned priorities. That's why discipline, that's
Speaker 1: why priority is so important. To be in the House
Speaker 1: of God on a consistent basis for worship, he will
Speaker 1: draw near to you. Second thing we see in this
Speaker 1: passage is how the Levites honored God with their perspective.
Speaker 1: JJ henmy the shirt. I need jaw to help settle
Speaker 1: a marital dispute for me. Going to take a poll
Speaker 1: in the room. If you're on another campus, you can
Speaker 1: vote on social media. We'll see who wins this in
Speaker 1: the end. Is this a men's shirt or a women's shirt.
Speaker 1: If you think it's a men's shirt, raise your hand.
Speaker 1: If you think it's a women's shirt, raise your hand. Oh,
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly women's in this. That does not help me. So
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, I came home from work
Speaker 1: and I just had one of those days where I
Speaker 1: felt like I was just killing it, like everything went well.
Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to tell my wife about it. And
Speaker 1: I walked in the door and Ferris says, first thing,
Speaker 1: why are you wearing my shirt? I was like, Ferris,
Speaker 1: this is not your shirt. This is my shirt. I
Speaker 1: clearly like got it off of the drying rack next
Speaker 1: to all my other clothes. She said, no, this is
Speaker 1: a women's shirt that I bought from H and M
Speaker 1: in the women's section. Look at how the sleeves roll
Speaker 1: up all Ohio. So we had a healthy debate on it.
Speaker 1: I wasn't backing down. I said, you know, I was
Speaker 1: in meetings with a lot of our worship leaders today.
Speaker 1: They're all fairly fashionable people. They would have told me
Speaker 1: if I was wearing a women's shirt. We agreed to disagree.
Speaker 1: I stubbornly wore it out to dinner that night. But
Speaker 1: the next day I had a meeting with the whole
Speaker 1: worship team, so I brought it in because I was
Speaker 1: going to prove my point I was like, men's shirt
Speaker 1: or women's shirt. They all raise their hand for women's shirt,
Speaker 1: and Jenna and Tiffany, two of our ship leaders, said,
Speaker 1: we have that exact same shirt from H and M.
Speaker 1: And I got a little upset because I saw the
Speaker 1: two of them the day before when I was wearing
Speaker 1: the shirt, and nobody said anything to me. So the
Speaker 1: moral of that story is nobody will look out for
Speaker 1: you but yourself. So remember that. But I stared at
Speaker 1: myself in the mirror wearing the shirt, and I didn't
Speaker 1: realize I was wearing a women's shirt. How many times
Speaker 1: are we looking at something and staring at something so
Speaker 1: close and we still have no clue what we're actually
Speaker 1: looking at. I think it happens way more than we think.
Speaker 1: Let's look at this chapter of this passage from First
Speaker 1: Chronicles again, verse twenty eight. It says the duty of
Speaker 1: the levites was to help Aaron's descendants in the service
Speaker 1: of the temple of the Lord, to be in charge
Speaker 1: of the courtyards, the side rooms, the purification of all
Speaker 1: sacred things, and the performance of other duties at the
Speaker 1: House of God. They were in charge of the bread
Speaker 1: set out on the table, the special flour for the
Speaker 1: grain offerings, the thin loaves made without yeast, the baking
Speaker 1: and the mixing, and all measurements of and size. So
Speaker 1: when I first read that, that to me looked like
Speaker 1: a list of chores. To the Levites, it looked like worship.
Speaker 1: I think the sound of worship that rose to Heaven
Speaker 1: and the temple wasn't just the sound of people singing.
Speaker 1: Wasn't just the sound of harps. I think it was
Speaker 1: also the sound of people sweeping those side rooms. I
Speaker 1: think it was also the sound of pots and pans
Speaker 1: clanging together to make sure the bread was made just right.
Speaker 1: And what I'm learning more and more is that some
Speaker 1: of the things that look the least worshipful to me
Speaker 1: are actually the most worshipful to God. I believe there's
Speaker 1: some of you here, somebody at our Gaston campus right now.
Speaker 1: You feel like no one notices the little things that
Speaker 1: you're doing to serve God. And God wants you to
Speaker 1: know that He notices, He sees that, and that is
Speaker 1: a beautiful act of worship unto Him, and it is
Speaker 1: more worshipful than any notes that you could sing on
Speaker 1: the stage. You know, the Levites, they didn't audition to
Speaker 1: be on the worship team and just get thrown over
Speaker 1: to the cooking team. Know all of this was worshipful
Speaker 1: under God. The way they measured everything just right, the
Speaker 1: way they prepared the bread, the way they served in
Speaker 1: the side rooms. And we have people serving in side
Speaker 1: rooms at every single location in high schools and here
Speaker 1: at Valentine and at a theater and uptown, and you're
Speaker 1: serving in these side rooms making sure that the stage
Speaker 1: is set for our kids and E kids to experience
Speaker 1: the power and the grace and the love of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so I just want to tell all you volunteers
Speaker 1: who are doing that you need to buy some jeans
Speaker 1: with holes in them, because you look like a worship
Speaker 1: leader to God. You're every bit of worship leader as
Speaker 1: anybody who stands on the stage. I actually don't know
Speaker 1: if it'd be smart for you to dress like john
Speaker 1: sour worship leaders. Maybe we should just dress our band
Speaker 1: up and have them all wear E Kids shirts, because
Speaker 1: that's what worship looks like in the side of God.
Speaker 1: Some of you need to recategorize the things that you're doing.
Speaker 1: And you think it's just a chore, You think it's
Speaker 1: just a task. You think it's just a job, and
Speaker 1: God saying no, this is worship. You are leading other
Speaker 1: people into the presence of God as you bring your
Speaker 1: gift to Him. First Corinth, the Intensus. So whether you
Speaker 1: eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for
Speaker 1: the glory of God. There's so much power when we
Speaker 1: begin to recategorize and look at things differently, because when
Speaker 1: you begin to look at what you're doing and the
Speaker 1: way you serve as worship, you begin to go into
Speaker 1: it with a little more expectation for God to move
Speaker 1: and for God to use you, and for God to speak.
Speaker 1: And you don't have to have a seminary degree to
Speaker 1: be used by God. You just have to show up
Speaker 1: and say yes. And all of that is worship. And
Speaker 1: the reason I know that Elevation Church is a worshiping
Speaker 1: church isn't because of the worship albums. It isn't because
Speaker 1: of how loud we sing. It's because of how faithful
Speaker 1: you serve at every location. So can we thank God
Speaker 1: for all the worshippers we have at our church? You
Speaker 1: thank God for you. What would you do differently if
Speaker 1: you saw it differently, if you saw it as worship?
Speaker 1: All right? The final thing we can see from this
Speaker 1: passage is the levite zonder God through their posture, through
Speaker 1: their posture. I'm just going to fess up. I have
Speaker 1: terrible posture. I have very very bad posture. A slouch,
Speaker 1: especially if I'm sitting down on a couch. I like
Speaker 1: kind of slouch back, and I'll kick my feet up
Speaker 1: on a table usually because my feet can't touch the ground.
Speaker 1: But but Schunk's corb, but our CFO, his office is
Speaker 1: next to mine at church, and he loves just to collect.
Speaker 1: He has a folder on his phone of just embarrassing
Speaker 1: Wade pictures or videos, and so sometimes he'll catch me
Speaker 1: in my little productivity, bad posture pose, and he'll take
Speaker 1: a picture of it. So the other day I looked
Speaker 1: up and I saw him just standing there, and so
Speaker 1: I'm just going to share this picture with you. Just
Speaker 1: that's when I'm in my zone, y'all. That's when I'm
Speaker 1: getting stuff done. You can take that down, bad idea
Speaker 1: to share that. I know my posture is bad. No,
Speaker 1: that's not good for my neck. Posture is important. I
Speaker 1: also think posture is important in worship, and we see
Speaker 1: it here. In verse thirty says that they were also
Speaker 1: to stand every morning and think and praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: So I was wondering, what's the significance of them standing.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Levites were at attention and they were just
Speaker 1: ready to do whatever God said to do. Or maybe
Speaker 1: they knew that they could come boldly into God's presence,
Speaker 1: So maybe that's why they were standing. A few chapters later, though,
Speaker 1: David tells them to bow, and chapter twenty ninety says,
Speaker 1: praise the Lord or God. So they all praise the Lord,
Speaker 1: the God of their fathers. They bowed down, prostrating themselves
Speaker 1: before the Lord and the King. And so sometimes he
Speaker 1: tells them to stand. Sometimes they're supposed to bow. And
Speaker 1: I know you feel the struggle when you come in
Speaker 1: here too, Church. Should I raise my hands? Should I
Speaker 1: kind of have my hands in my pocket? Should I
Speaker 1: do the hold the baby move like one hand in
Speaker 1: my pocket and one hand I'm not fully ready to
Speaker 1: commit yet with both hands. What is the acceptable worship posture?
Speaker 1: And as I was praying and studying this week, I
Speaker 1: think I found it. I found the God sanctioned, God
Speaker 1: ordained worship posture. And David talks about it in Psalng
Speaker 1: fifty one, verse sixteen says, you do not delight in sacrifice,
Speaker 1: or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure
Speaker 1: in burn offerings. My sacrifice of God is a broken spirit,
Speaker 1: a broken and contrite heart. You God will not despise.
Speaker 1: See the posture God is most concerned about when you
Speaker 1: come into worship isn't something that someone on your road
Speaker 1: can see. It's only something God can see, and only
Speaker 1: something you can recognize. And that is a heart that's
Speaker 1: bowed in trust and surrender. See. A broken heart is
Speaker 1: a heart that realizes that its only hope is God,
Speaker 1: and so it bows and surrender. A contrite heart realizes
Speaker 1: that I have no strength left. I am weak, but God,
Speaker 1: you are my strength. Even a joyful heart bows in
Speaker 1: God's presence because it realizes that every good and perfect
Speaker 1: gift comes from God, and they offer it back up
Speaker 1: to It's the posture of our heart. It's the posture
Speaker 1: of our heart that bows down. See you thought God
Speaker 1: despised your brokenness. That's not what that passage says, your brokenness.
Speaker 1: He will never despise. God says, bring your brokenness into
Speaker 1: my presence. It doesn't disqualify you. Bring it. I'll build
Speaker 1: an altar in the midst of your brokenness. God wants
Speaker 1: to use the thing that you thought disqualified you from
Speaker 1: His presence. So today, if you have a broken Halleluiah,
Speaker 1: sing it at least it's a hallelujah. If you have
Speaker 1: a broken spirit, bring it to God. He can do miracles,
Speaker 1: He can do wonders with a broken spirit. What God
Speaker 1: won't do is do something with a proud heart, a
Speaker 1: heart that thinks it has it all together, a heart
Speaker 1: that thinks it doesn't need God. And that is so
Speaker 1: freing for me. I used to think worship was all
Speaker 1: about my perfection, that I had to have the right attitude,
Speaker 1: I had to sing things the right way, I had
Speaker 1: to have had my quiet time this morning. And God
Speaker 1: says worship was never about our perfection. If it was,
Speaker 1: none of us could be in this room, none of
Speaker 1: us could sing. God did demand perfection, but we couldn't
Speaker 1: meet that standard. Jesus was the only acceptable, the only
Speaker 1: perfect sacrifice when he took up our position on a
Speaker 1: cross so that we could take up his position in
Speaker 1: the presence of God in a relationship with God for
Speaker 1: all eternities. See, worship is not about our perfection, It's
Speaker 1: about His perfection. And because Jesus was the only, perfect,
Speaker 1: acceptable sacrifice. Now we can bring our broken spirit to
Speaker 1: him and he presents it as acceptable to God. It
Speaker 1: was in First Peter all along it says you're being
Speaker 1: built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
Speaker 1: offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus
Speaker 1: is the acceptable sacrifice. He's the mediator between us and God.
Speaker 1: So we bring him our broken spirit and he presents
Speaker 1: it hole to God because of the cross of Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: and because of the blood that he shed on that cross.
Speaker 1: So we can come to God today with our brokenness.
Speaker 1: We can come to God with our pain, and he
Speaker 1: will present it to God and make it whole. And
Speaker 1: so if we recognize Jesus's position in worship as the
Speaker 1: center of our worship, as the acceptable sacrifice, as the mediator,
Speaker 1: the question is will we assume our position in worship?
Speaker 1: Will we bring our whole hearts and bow them down
Speaker 1: before God and surrender, Bring our joy, bring our pain,
Speaker 1: bring our deficiencies, bring our strengths, bring it all our
Speaker 1: hopes and our dreams. Just lay it at the feet
Speaker 1: of Jesus and trust and surrender. Will you assume your
Speaker 1: position in the House of God on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: knowing that this is where God wants to work in
Speaker 1: your life, This is where God wants to speak, This
Speaker 1: is where God wants to use you as you serve.
Speaker 1: Will you just be open handed and say, yes, God,
Speaker 1: I will be used by you because I trust you
Speaker 1: and that is my spiritual act of worship. Well, I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did,
Speaker 1: there are just a couple things I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to do. Number One, subscribe to our show. That way,
Speaker 1: the most recent episode will always be in your fees,
Speaker 1: waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly, if
Speaker 1: this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help
Speaker 1: us continue to reach others, you can click the link
Speaker 1: in the description and you can give now and I'll
Speaker 1: see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.