From Worry to Worship

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Everybody, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, whether you're a follower of Christ or not, we all worship something. Why? Because we're built to worship.

We are made to worship. And a good definition of that is worship is a response to what we value the most. So if we value something, if we have, you know, it may be a passion we have, it may be our jobs or our money, whatever that is, if we value those things and we put that as a priority in our lives, that's usually what we worship. And we learned in week one, we kind of talked about that. What do we put our time?

What do we put our money? What do we put our adoration? What do we put our loyalty to? What do we spend most of our time doing? What do we put our efforts into?

You know, what do we do? And that may indicate, that might be a good assessment of where our worship is. So the big question for week one was, is God a part of that? Is God first in that? And then we talked about in week two, the origin of worship.

This being called Satan that we all know today, Lucifer. And we talked about the fall of Lucifer and how he was an angel who communicated or expressed or reflected the glory of God. He was one of the most beautiful, the Bible tells us that he was one of the most beautiful angels of them all. Ezekiel and Isaiah talks about that very thing. And we kind of dug into Ezekiel and Isaiah and looked at the prophetic books.

And we talked about how the fall took place. And that what we wanted to get out of that message was that the main thing Satan wants is your worship and to keep you from becoming who he once was. Because we are now in the place of what he once was. And he will do everything he can possibly do to keep us from being a reflection of the glory of God. Anything he can do to keep us from worshiping God, he will do.

And he will bridge, he will create bridges, he will create hedges in between that. So we are created the worship and that is the origin of worship. And then last week we looked at some definitions of worship. We looked at some of the original Hebrew words from the Psalms. There's seven Hebrew words for the particular word is praise.

And we use it, praise. Praise is the only word we use, but they had a lot of different particular words for praise. But what we know about it is that all of those words communicate expressions. And in fact, it's a charismatic expression of worship. So when we look at the biblical definition of worship, it's not, it's more than just living life in a worshipful way.

It's actually an outward expression of what inwardly is going on. That's what worship is. That is where we're going with worship. So we kind of challenged some traditions last week. But this week I want to talk about from worry to worship.

From worry to worship. And we're going to be looking at Matthew 6, starting with verse 25. And we're going to roll through 34. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there as we prepare. And let me just set up, let me set up what's going to happen here.

So anxiety is something that's really been on my heart a lot in this past year. And I don't think there is a person that doesn't experience anxiety. I think at some point in our lives, worry sets in. In fact, I believe that with the way our society is now, everybody kind of walks around, and studies even show that everyone walks around with kind of a low-grade anxiety condition all the time. We just got a lot of things that trigger it.

And there's so many things that can happen. In fact, we got school coming up. And my daughter starts kindergarten this year. So that's kind of a big step, you know, going into kindergarten. And my son is going into second grade.

And my son said something to her about bad teachers at school. So she's really anxious about whether she's going to get a bad. Fortunately, she's getting a good teacher because it was the same one Max had a couple of years ago. And he loved her. So that's out of the way now.

But I remember when I was young and being out all summer and then coming back to school, and after being out all that time, you're like, okay, am I going to remember how to read? Am I going to remember how to write? Is this going to, you know, and the anxiety sets in. So kids have anxiety, right? Kids have anxiety.

And then we had the stock market this past week go nuts, right? I mean, this whole bond curve, you know, kind of the inverted principle, the inverted curve took place. And what do you know? The media is just going nuts, right? Oh, man, we're coming into a recession and people are selling their stocks and everything's going crazy.

And although there might be some principles behind what had happened, I think people and the media make it out to be a lot worse than it is because we're anxious people, right? And they're selling off their things. Everybody's like, oh, this is the downturn. It's doom and gloom, you know? And that's what happens, you know, in our time.

And so people are generally anxious. And there's a sense of anxiety. And the reason this touches home is because I deal with it myself. And I can't explain it. I don't know why.

But a lot of times when I wake up in the morning, I have this sense of anxiety. It's just some people don't deal with that. They wake up and they're good. Now, when I go to bed, when I go to sleep, you know, I have no problems. I just go right to bed.

I go to sleep, no issues or whatever. But for just an inkling of a second or a minute, you know, as you're waking up, I have this overwhelming sense of anxiety about the things of that day or the thoughts of what I need to accomplish or what hasn't been accomplished. And I often have to go straight to prayer. And... Word of God in order to conquer that anxiety.

So kids deal with anxiety, people in general deal with anxiety, pastors deal with anxiety, missionaries deal with anxiety. I'm talking to a few missionaries, they're always concerned about, there's a lot of things going on even in Africa, northern Africa, and some places in the Middle East where we're ministering to people in those parts of the world, and some missionary friends, they've been asking for prayer in order to have the proper funding, number one, just the anxious anxiety of not knowing how to communicate the gospel to a people that are so different, and whether the gospel is really going to penetrate such a heavy society. So even missionaries have anxiety, pastors have anxiety, people have anxiety, kids have anxiety, your families have anxiety. We deal with anxiety. And some kings, and what we know about, you know, kingdoms and things, there are many kings that set their thrones, that set their leadership on the fear of people.

If they can make people fearful, they can control those people. They can have power. In those type of kingdoms, it's not good for anyone. But there's a kingdom that we sit under with a king who is completely different. God's kingdom is a different type of kingdom.

In fact, Jesus does not want his people to be anxious. It's a kingdom that is free from anxiety. It's a king who cares that his people don't worry about what's coming tomorrow. And Jesus' one message in scripture from Matthew 6, and I've gone on this a number of times, and I always take it from a different perspective, and I'm taking it this week, I'm going to dig a little deeper in it, and just deal with this scripture all the way through, is on anxiety. He talks about the cure for anxiety.

And the reason we know that this scripture deals specifically with anxiety is because he says, don't worry about things, right? And 25, he says, don't worry. Do not be worried. And in verse 28, it says, why are you worried? In verse 31, it says, do not worry then.

In verse 34, it says, so do not worry. So over and over and over again, he talks about not being worried. He says, don't worry. So he gives us a prescription to help us with our worry because his kingdom is not about worry. It's about something else.

It's about a different order. His kingdom is ordered differently than the kingdoms of this world, and his kingdom is free from anxiety. So let's look at Matthew 6, starting with verse 25. It says, therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life. Do not worry about your, underline that, life.

Do not worry. That's a big statement because that's really what it comes down to, our lives. He says, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? So he talks about food and he talks about clothing.

Now thinking and studying this, I, you know, one of the questions I had is why do we get anxious about food and clothing? Why, why would God put this in scripture? Why would Jesus talk to the disciples about that very thing, food and clothing? Here's, here's three things. Well, food, if you would lose food, you would perhaps lose some pleasure in life.

Because I don't know about you, I like to eat, right? Eating is enjoyable, right? We enjoy eating, and, and, and the few that don't enjoy eating, they enjoy something when they eat. Like my son, you know, he's not a big eater because he has some, some certain conditions that keep him from really, really eating well. But one thing he loves is cake.

And he had a big slice of cake last night before he went to bed. I had to make him, make him eat some real food, you know. I call it real food. You got to eat some real food before you eat some sugar, okay? And he did everything he could to eat that real food.

It took him a long time to do it, but he did it so that he could have a slice of cake. And if we lost those, those pleasures when we get together to eat, we enjoy the pleasures of life, don't we? We enjoy getting together and eating. There's something enjoyable about being around the, the dinner table with family and friends and eating and going out to eat, and there's some pleasure. And if we lost that, we would lose some pleasure in life.

Also, he mentions clothing. What would we lose if we lost clothing? You get, you, you would perhaps lose some type of approval because we, we, we like clothes and we like nice clothes. And why do we wear nice clothes that make us look like we're doing well or we look good or whatever? Uh, we, we, we want, because we might, because we like to get a nice glance, right?

Wow, that looks good on you. We like that, right? So we might lose some of that pleasure in life, the, the approval of others. And then on both ends, if we don't have food and clothing, it shortens our life. We die, right?

That, that's a really important piece to our life. If we're, if we're walking around with no clothes, with rags on, and we, we don't have anything to protect us from the sun or the winter's coming soon, oh, Lord, help us. You know, a lot of us are dreading the winter when it comes because we're mostly summer people. That's why we live near the beach, right? Um, we, we like the summer weather, but winter's coming.

And if we're out in the winter without clothes, it's a very dangerous time of the year, especially for homeless people who don't have clothes and don't have homes and don't have shelters, they deal with that. And it's a, it's a, and it shortens our life. So, so why do we think of it this way? Why, why do we, why do we even look at it this way? Why, why am I saying, okay, that makes sense?

Well, uh, and the preceding scripture, before we even get to this scripture, if you roll up the verse 24, and this isn't in your notes, I'm just giving you this as a side notes note. He says this, he says, you cannot serve God in wealth. So he goes through this big thing about serving. You can't serve two masters. You cannot serve God and you cannot serve wealth and you cannot serve the pleasures.

We don't live. Our life is not primarily given for pleasure. It's, it's great to have pleasure and God blesses us with pleasure, but our, our life is not primarily given for pleasure, but for something greater, the delight of God. Our lives are not primarily given for the approval of man, but something greater, greater, the approval of God. That's what our desire should be.

And our life is not primarily given for the extension of our lives on this earth, but something far greater. And that's eternity that waits for us. That's what we live for. Something far. Greater than the things of this life, but we get anxious about food and clothing to the same degree that we lose sight of the great purposes of a God-centered life.

We lose sight of that, and we shouldn't lose sight of the joy that we can experience living for God and God alone. And then he goes on to say, look at the birds in the air, and they neither soil nor reap, or excuse me, soil. So, they don't soil either. Well, they do soil on your car, right? For they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, so they don't worry about these things.

Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valued? Are you not more valuable than they are? And for some reason, we worry. Instead of worshiping, a God that gives us what we need, we worry about those things.

We worry. And this is not a prescription for laziness, okay? Because birds, if you look at birds, they work really hard. They're out there gathering sticks. They're gathering things together.

They're looking for worms early in the morning. The early bird gets the worm, right? They're out there. It's not a prescription to say, oh, I'm going to sit on the couch, and I'm going to eat chips and watch TV, and God's just going to bless me because he says here in Scripture, what do I have to worry about? That's not what this is saying.

But we see these birds, but they're not worried. They're not worried about, while they work, they're not expecting there to be nothing for tomorrow. They're not expecting that someday the bugs and the worms and all the things they use to build their nest is just somehow going to vanish from existence. They don't think about that because they know it's going to be there. God feeds the birds.

They don't hoard things. They go about their work as if God will provide. And the difference between birds and disciples of Christ, followers of Christ, is that we have the ability to honor and worship God through our faith. We are set apart differently. We have that ability.

And God values our faith and our worship. But we often reverse and put things in place, priorities in place that aren't meant to be there, and it brings worry into our lives. It says, which of you, by worrying, can add one cubic to your stature? Some versions say one day to your life. You know, worry actually shortens your life.

It's not good for you. It depletes health. It's no use in even being anxious because what does anxiety do? It kills you. It's poison.

And it has the reverse effect on life. He says, don't worry about your life, but if you worry about the wrong thing, if you worry about the things that I'm telling you not to worry about, it will take away your life. So you see a contradiction here. You see a different, you know, something opposite. I'm losing my train of thought here because I can't think of the word right now.

But you see something completely different happen here. You see life, and then you see death by reversing it. So he says, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, and they neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon and all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. So now he's talking about, now he brings it to a lower level.

He brings it from birds, and now he brings it down to grass. Grass. Isn't that interesting? He's talking about grass now. Grass in your yard.

Grass in the field. And he says, look, you look at this grass on the ground, and it's arrayed with glory. And he says, now if God so clothed the grass of the field, will he not also clothe you? I mean, it's there, and it's thrown away tomorrow. It's gone tomorrow.

It doesn't last any time. When the winter comes, all this beautiful flowers and everything we see around us that we are mesmerized with, and we worship in some way, and we replace a God who is eternal with those things that fade away from us, from existence in no time. And God wants to. And what we know here is that God wants to adorn things. That's what he does.

When you think of King Solomon and his glory, you know, and everything that he had, you know, God wants to do that for us. And some of you are like, well, that doesn't make any sense because God hasn't adorned me that way. And I'm looking at the world, and I see a lot of people that aren't adorned. And if God wants to adorn people, why would he say this? Because I certainly don't feel like I'm adorned.

But you have to be careful there because God has adorned you. If you are a follower of Christ, he has given you everything you need to live a life for his glory. And not only that, we have an expectation. We know the promises that he has for us, that one day he will adorn us. One day we will arrive in our heavenly home with our Lord, and he will adorn us with a crown.

He will adorn us with a robe. He will give us rings. He will adorn us. And we look forward to that day. So when we think about this, we have to be careful what it means to be adorned.

What it means to be adorned because that worship is transferred to us rather than a God who desires to adorn us. It says, therefore, do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? So he kind of repeats that. He's going over and over and over again with this whole eat, drink, wear thing because apparently it was probably something that the disciples were asking him. I mean, I like my robe.

I like my outfits. I like my food. I like my house. And you're telling me to follow you. He says, don't worry about those things for after all these, all things, all these things, the Gentiles seek.

So the Gentiles, who are the Gentiles in this particular scripture? It's in general, it's those who aren't Jews, but in this scripture, those who aren't believers, those who aren't following Christ. And he says that the people who don't believe the people, they go after these things for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. So you want to be Like the Gentiles? Seek the things that the Gentiles seek.

What it does is, it shows that your worship is at the level of the world. It shows that you're seeking the same things that someone who doesn't have any kind of belief system or any faith in the Creator, and the God who gives us everything we need, we have the same belief system that they have. And it means our hope is found in the same things, but it's not. Our hope is different. And we leave empty, and it shows we are closer to the world and further from God, but our desire should be to grow closer to God and not the world, hence the series Closer.

We want to grow closer to God in our worship to Him. In the end, if we replace our worship with other things, like the pleasures of life, and the seeking the approval of others, and our concerns about our life, if we put those in the way of true worship, then it has a contrary effect to our lives. But it says this, and I love this scripture, and this is one, when I became a believer, this was one that really took, I took heart to, and I studied, and I quoted, and I just meditated on it. It says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Seek first His kingdom.

So let me just make this one statement. When order is restored, blessing is released. When order is restored, if you want to write that in your notes, fill in the blanks. When order is restored, blessing is released. Let me say it like this.

When worship is restored, blessing is released. What does that mean? It means that living a God first life works. When God says, worship me, and worship me alone, and put me in a place of authority, put me, it works. And blessing is released.

A good God, a good kingdom, a good father, a good king wants to bless his children, and he has that available to us if we will only order our worship correctly. Order our steps correctly. So let's look at three things we can pull from this one scripture here. It says in Matthew 6, 33, and I am reading from the New King James, by the way. So if it seems a little different, that's why.

But seek first the kingdom of God. He doesn't say not to seek things. Okay? Let's get that right. It's okay to seek things.

It's okay to want things, to need things, to have dreams, to have wants, to have pleasure in this world. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that we do it without seeking him first. And what he's asking is for us to seek him first. Seek his kingdom first.

So what he's saying is that we channel our energy, we channel all of our passion into the wrong things. And what Jesus is saying, you don't want to lose that passion or you don't want to lose that energy. That seeking, seek his kingdom, seek him. It's not about having more energy to seek him. It's just about transferring the same energy into him.

Rather than focusing that energy into what other people think, what I need in my own life, you know. Because the needs are already there and available to us. It's just about us redirecting our energy that focuses in the right place. And that's God and our worship to him. So the first point is we need to redirect our energy.

And it's amazing where we direct our energy in general to. I mean, just our anxiety and all of our, all these things that trigger us in social media and on TV. I mean, they've got, you know, like this economic crisis and everything that is going on. We just channel our energy into that because we put that before God. And then what does it do?

The reverse effect is worry. The reverse effect is anxiety. And it's a symptom of that. I remember, or I know how it is when you're watching television and you get these commercials on there. And it says, if you have a mesothelioma, you know, call this number and we can, we can get you money.

You're going to die, but you know, we can get you money, you know. So you're like, oh my gosh, you know, I have those symptoms. Or, or the other day I was looking on me, you know, and I found a little black spot. I'm fair skin and I like to spend a lot of time in the sun. So, you know, I always slather up a sunscreen, but you never know.

And then you see, you see a little black spot. And first thing you think, oh my, is that, is that melanoma? Is that, oh man, you know, and we direct our energy there, right? We put our energy there. And we have all these, this wasted energy.

But energy that is transferred to worship is actually energy invested. Did you know that? You're investing it in the right place. It's about experiencing God, not that God, it's about experiencing God in a special way. Because the people who, who actually lean into God and put him worship, and put him as a priority in their worship, and, and they have no concerns, are actually benefiting from that.

Their energy, they get that energy back. They get that because there's freedom in, in that. And he's got something very special for those who focus their energy towards him. There's a special, almost like a special, not that he doesn't love anybody differently, but he opens up so much more blessing to those whose focus and his order and his first is on him. Seek first the kingdom of God.

And then it says, seek his righteousness. Seek his righteousness. Righteousness, his righteousness, if you want a definition to it, is God's right character. It's God's right path. It's his right way of doing things.

And then we see the word seek, and I love this. And when you look at the actual Greek, it, it, it literally means to thoroughly search. To come to a binding agreement or a conclusion. So there's a binding agreement that takes place when we seek him and we seek his. So, it's about thoroughly searching the Word of God to build our character.

It's about thoroughly searching the Word of God to establish a foundation to do things not according to the way the world does them, but the way that God wants them. It's about getting into the nitty-gritty. When we make a commitment to God, we are making a binding agreement with God that I am going to live righteously. I am going to do things your way, and I'm not going to be pressured by the outside circumstances to change the way I decided when I came to Christ to walk. I'm not going to walk a different direction just because the circumstances have changed, because the world does not dictate my circumstances.

God dictates my circumstances. God decides my circumstances because I know He knows what's right for me. He has everything prepared for me. He has the plans I have for me, and when the world tells me any differently, I am not going to make the decision. I'm not going to undecide what I decided years ago when I said, Lord, You are Savior of my life.

I'm not going to undecide those things. So the second point is, I'm going to establish my identity. Establish your identity. Your identity is in Christ. It is a one-time decision.

So when I go to the Word of God, and when I go to Scripture, and when I look through, and He tells me what I need to be, and what I'm doing, and as I work towards Him, and I'm becoming more like Him, I don't change. When He tells me to serve, to serve, to be a part of the body of Christ, to serve others, to serve the people He loves. I'm going to serve. When I made that decision at the altar, and when I made that, wherever you made that decision, whether it was at the altar, in your home, or with a group of people, or in a restaurant, wherever it was that you said, Lord, I'm in, you made that decision. I'm going to serve like Christ served, and I'm not going to change what He says that I should do, because I'm going to live righteously.

I'm going to do what He says, not what others say I should do. When I, dealing with my finances, when God says, give, tithe, give, I'm not going to change my mind based on my finances, right? When He told me, when I gave my life to Christ, and when I went to the Word of God, and He says, He says, you know, if you truly love me, you'll give all that you have. It's not even about 10%. It's not even about to tithe.

It's much more than that. It's a deeper issue, and it's that if you love me, because it's mine already, right? So it's just an act of worship when we give our tithing, when we give our finances, when we give to a body, a local church body, to serve the community, and serve the world, and serve missions, and we are the body that's used for that. And when I made that decision many years ago, I have never, never, never, ever strayed away from that, that I will always give God, because God's going to take what He, what's His anyway, because it's all His. And it's interesting when we try to stray away from what God has called us to do, or what God has laid out in Scripture to do, how it doesn't turn out so good for us.

The anxiousness of life, the anxiety of life sets in when we don't do it His way, because His way is the right way. It is the righteous way. And I'm going to do things according to Him, or it's just, maybe it's just basic living. Maybe it's just living for Him. And, and, but, but what happens is we often, you know, when we make those commitments, that I'm going to live for You, Lord.

I'm going to serve. I'm going to raise my children properly. I'm going, I'm going to be, this is for the men, I'm going to be a godly man in my household. And I'm going to lead my children towards the Lord. And I'm going to teach them what is right.

And I'm going to be an example. And, and, and, and, and as, as a, as a mother in your family, I'm going to, to love my husband and honor him and respect him. And I'm going to, to, to love my children and help and encourage them to follow Jesus Christ and to nurture them. And, and we together are going to partner in this family to do what God has called us to do, what God has shown us to do. We are going to do the right things because we know that it is what works.

Because that's what worship is. That I'm going to do that. We're going to establish our identity. And we're not going to re-decide because the pastor made me mad or somebody in the church may hurt me or I'm just having a bad time with, with, I lost my job or I lost my, you know, and I don't know what's going on right now. I'm not going to re-decide that because when you made that commitment, that binding agreement, seek his righteousness, when I sought him and I made a binding agreement with him, that was the conclusion.

And that's worship. That's deep worship is when we do that. We got to order things his way first. And all these things will be added to you. Verse 33, and all these things will be added to you.

See, that's the coolest part. Is that when we order things correctly, we get to enjoy the freedom. There is freedom to enjoy, if you'll write that down as my final point. Enjoy your freedom. Enjoy your freedom.

The benefits of the kingdom of God. God has benefits for them. I've got some friends in the surf community. They're just like super charismatic guys. They're kind of, uh, Mark, you know, on the Bouchards and some of you probably know them.

They're builders in the area and they just have such a, a fantastic love for Jesus. I mean, it's just crazy. They're just walking around, praise Jesus, praise the Lord. You know, you see them on the beach, hallelujah, brother Leon, how you doing today? You know, and they're just so excited.

And, and, uh, and, uh, and one of their statements is there's so many benefits to being in the family and the kingdom of God. It's unbelievable. And it's so true. There are benefits and we need to be excited about those benefits. If we seek him first and his righteousness, then those benefits are available to us.

I think of my household and, uh, uh, you know, that's my kingdom, you know, that's my kingdom from, from an earthly standpoint. Yeah, that, that, that's your kingdom. You have your kingdom because you make decisions, right? About your household. You make decisions about where you're going to live.

You make decisions about how you're going to raise your kids. You make decisions about all those, all those things, right? So I think about my kids and, and, uh, and I'm kind of, uh, Miranda would agree with me. About this, she's kind of the disciplinary one, and I'm like the fun dad, right? I want to go on adventures and things like that, you know?

And I mentioned a few weeks ago, like, Miranda was out, and we set up a big picnic in the living room. And we had a movie, and they thought it was the greatest thing. I got, like, food, and we got the layout. They're like, wow, we can actually eat in the living room. Don't tell mommy.

We're just going to do this tonight, right? We're going to eat here. And they just thought it was the greatest thing. I got them a movie, and we just had a big movie night. And I just was, you know, all over the place.

I was serving them and doing things like that. And we got to go to Myrtle Beach with my family at the beginning of this week. I spent a few days out there, got to visit the family. You know, my mother was giving me a hard time, so I had to make the trip out there, a six-hour trip, for just a few days. She wanted to see the grandkids, so I make that effort because I can make that effort, you know?

And while we were out there, I just, you know, just me and the kids, Miranda stayed at home because she had to work, and the kids were just having a great time. We went out for ice cream, and I just want them to have a good time. I want them to enjoy their lives because for so many children, for so many children, they don't have that opportunity. They grow up in households where the parents don't even care. The parents don't even know they're there.

They're abused. They're talked down to. Now, I'm not saying, go spoil your kids. I discipline my children the way I should discipline them. I tell them no if they want ice cream, and it's just not no ice cream today.

I say no ice cream, and I just, you know, it's not happening. You were bad today, or you, you know, we do that. But in the broader scope, I want what's best for my kids. And in my kingdom, I want them to live healthy kids as young adults, as young kids, and into their young adult years. And if they ask me, they, you know, kids usually don't ask this, they ask, why do you do this?

Why do you do this? Because I love you. That's why I do it. I love you. That's what God says about us.

Why do you do this, Lord? Because I love you. I want you to be a part of my kingdom. And if you seek first my kingdom, those things in life that you've replaced me with will no longer be worries, because all they will do is they will turn into worries if I'm not first in them. So the greatest cure is being comfortable and confident and secure and free in God's kingdom.

And he has that available for you today. He says, if you believe with your heart and confess that I am Lord, you will be saved. See, we kind of make this whole idea of a kingdom, some churches, and I'm guilty of it sometimes too, we make it like this thing that's way out there that we can't quite understand, and it's kind of a spiritual realm that we can't quite connect with. And we just, but really what it comes down to is that there is a king, and there is a kingdom. And the kingdom are the citizens.

Any kingdom has citizens. And what does the king do? A king that is truly a king. A king that is reigning and making decisions for the people. He is concerned about the citizens so the citizens can be productive, so the citizens can be healthy, so the citizens can be free to live life to the full.

And that's exactly what Jesus tells us, that you can live life to the fullest extent. But you've got to do it my way. Reorder. See, that's what worship is. Putting God.

It's an expression of love, as we learned last week. It's who we were made to be and who we were created. We were brought in place of what Satan once was. We are that. That's what we were made for.

We can't help but worship. And it's about everything that he's given us. Our time, our passion, our finances, our ability. It's all focused on what he has for us. Those dreams that he has laid in our hearts.

And if you, today, don't know that kingdom, you can know it today. If we would bow our heads and close our eyes. And I just want you to be honest with yourself a minute. I'm not even going to ask you to raise your hand today. I'm not going to ask you to come to the front.

I'm just going to ask you to be honest with God right now. Are you there? Have you completely believed and confessed and given your heart and your life to Jesus Christ? Are you a citizen of that kingdom? Is that you today that would say, you know, I've done a lot of bad things and I've done a lot of good things.

But you know, I just don't know. Or maybe you're on the really bad side of the house. You're like, I've done a lot, a lot of bad things. I'm so far from God and I don't know if he'll ever forgive me. The truth is that he doesn't care what you've done.

How good you are, how bad you are, how much you've wronged him. That's the beauty of Jesus Christ. It was all laid on the cross. And you can make that decision today. Just believe in your heart and confess with your mouth as we say this prayer together.

Father, Father, I believe that I'm a sinner. That I've fallen short of you. There's no way that I could be justified by what I've done in this life. But today, I confess that to you. And I believe in my heart that you are the son of God.

Today, I give my life. I surrender it to you. I'm walking with you from this day forth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.