Avoiding False Worship & False Prophets — Shane Idleman

Avoiding False Worship and False Prophets

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.

Jesus’ Words and the Side of Truth

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.

And 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 is 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.

The Wise Men’s Genuine Worship and Herod’s False Worship

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 parentheses 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 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 in 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 coming 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, they know, I think there's 400, I have to check, I'll tell you what this 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 also parallels with in 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.

Prophecy, the Word of God, and Readiness for Christ

So with that, let's get into verse four. 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 six, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, 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 one, part two is next week. So if you get something from this, make sure to make it next week, because these go together.

And part two, I'm going to be talking about why is all this prophecy important? God was telling his people, listen, I 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 clock, 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, tucked 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 seven, 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 a 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 BC to 4 BC. So most speculate that Jesus was born right around 4 BC.

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, it'll have a chart in there.

Other commentaries talk about, you know, when this happened. So Jesus wasn't born right on 0 AD, or would that be 0 BC, 0 AD, right there. That's not necessarily the starting point. He's a little bit before that.

So this Herod, though, was very ruthless. He was very, he was a control freak. And he was, so he had no plans in going and worshiping 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, Sussan, the majesty, or the magi, and all these things, these guys, usually 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 you know, 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? 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 worshiped 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.

True Worship as 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 worshiping 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 worshiping, and boy, In-N-Out Burger sounds good on the way home, and I'm worshiping God.

No, you're not. The heart's not engaged. You could be worshiping God driving to the Sierra Mountains with no music on, versus in here thinking that we're worshiping 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 Christmases 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, and that's not, 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 we have, 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 two is going to be next week. So now I've got the little carrot dangled out there for part two.

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, 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 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 an attorney 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 and whoa, they're really worshiping, are they? What's it do? 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, not even, 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. I'll do it. But you can't go and worship God together. It just, 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 coexist bumper stickers sound nice, but they're not realistic. And actually they don't even have it right because theoretically we are coexisting, right?

I mean, they live next door and they were coexisting. 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 sin.

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.

Discernment, Theology, and the Authority of Scripture

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 and roles of leadership or total depravity and Calvinism and Arminianism and limited atonement, all these things that 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.

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 hillsong.

You see the difference? If you don't know, some churches they just have hymnals. 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 hillsong, 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 hillsong 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 I thank, the reason I say, 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, Oregon 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 true and false, when I talk 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 who I, it's 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, and 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, I mean, don't we come in sometimes just in a bad mood, I need Lord, I need you to work with 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?

I mean, 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 a, let me text him, I'm going to act like I'm using my Bible on my phone. I mean, 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 sometime. If they're distracted and just, you know, they should be engaged. Now again, there are seasons, 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, you know, it's my time pretty soon.

The heart's not engaged. All I'm saying is there's a, it's a thermostat and a thermometer, it measures the temperature of the heart. Because think about this, if we realized, why do people get so emotional sometimes?

Emotional Responses and Genuine Revival

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. And actually it was Russell, you guys know Russell, who was here.

He went and he met with this guy, and their life was falling apart, she's pregnant, on meth, pregnant, and I'm like, oh, that right there just, oh man, but he prayed for them and people were praying, and 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, that, 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, 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?