Worship： Cemetary, Circus, or Christ Centered — Shane Idleman

The Theology of Worship and Christ-Centered Worship

The title this morning is Worship. Worship. Cemetery, Circus, or Christ-Centered? Those are the options. You're well aware of that, correct? Cemetery, Circus, or Christ-Centered? And we're in a series on Theology on Fire.

And guess what we land on this Sunday? The Theology of Worship. Did you know that that is an aspect of systematic theology? Corporate worship? How do we conduct ourselves in different things? It's an area of theology, which is the study of God.

So, in short, the Theology of Worship is what does the Bible say about worship? We don't need to look on TV or different events or that church does this, this church does this. What does the Bible say?

Now, this had to turn into one long point, because I had three points I was hoping to get to. And what these points were, number one is the Theology of Worship. And then I want to talk about the Worship Wars.

You know what that is, right? Our church does it this way. Well, this church does it this way. And I was just in an event this weekend, I think it's still going on. It's a tent event for the valley. They're reaching out to a lot of people that normally wouldn't come to church.

And they take the church to them at a park. And talk about different worship. But believers coming together to worship. And if you think it's loud here, you haven't heard anything yet. And the worship and just the dancing.

I'm like, I can't quite do that. I can do this. But I wasn't born with that rhythm. And it's just a whole different worship. The excitement, the worship atmosphere. So you have praise and worship, but you also have heartfelt worship.

And there's a difference, there's a distinction. So what many people say, racism in the church. Sometimes I just think it's preference. Or upbringing. What resonates with me might not resonate with you.

And even this morning, early morning worship. People say, why don't we do these songs? Or why don't we do these songs? And I have a whole list from the 1970s to Keith Green to loud music. That's worship music that's wonderful for working out.

But I'm not sure it's going to fit here. So you have to take all of this in and look at what is Christ-centered worship. And I couldn't get to the worship wars. But let me just assure you that a lot of it isn't racism.

Or the black church, the white church, the Hispanic church. They will all worship differently because often of the culture. And we do things differently. So that's okay to have. As long as your preference doesn't become a gauge by which you judge others.

It's just a preference. Well, I prefer these songs. And I prefer other songs. Let me just give you an example. I don't know if you guys might take this wrong. And just to show you how preference goes, right?

That new song right now. Is it Hill's song? What is it? What's it called? Ten Billion. I just can't get into it. Me and my wife. I don't. I mean, you either, right? But people love that song. Can't we do Ten Billion?

Whatever, it's Hill's. Three times I'm like, yeah, we can. But I just don't. Why don't you feel the same thing I do? I don't know. I try. I try. I try. Every time it comes on, I try. And it just doesn't work for me.

But I can put Amazing Grace on a YouTube clip that's 25 years old. No instruments. Just a lady singing. And I'll be brought to tears. Other people say, oh, Shane, that is so outdated. We can't play that.

See, you've got to be careful here. Because preference can begin to taint our views. Unless we have the hymnals, we're not worshiping. Unless we have the contemporary worship, we're not up to the times.

I mean, all that is, as I often say, the old hymns used to be the new hymns. You know that? Old rugged cross, it is well with my soul. They were new hymns. So I think we just need to be careful sometimes and just come with a heart of worship and understand that all worship, if it's God honoring, if it's doctrinally sound, if it's Christ elevating, is worship, if the heart is right.

Worship as a Lifestyle Rather Than Mere Music

So the message is worship. Cemetery, circus, or Christ-centered. The majority of my time I'm going to be spending on the theology of worship based on the Bible. But it does beg the question up front, why do we associate it with music?

Because worship really isn't, in the Bible, isn't just music. I was just reading this week, it was interesting, the story of Abraham's servant who went to find a bride for his son Isaac. The servant, when he found the right girl, it said he worshiped the Lord.

I'm pretty sure he didn't break out in songs and dancing and things. He bowed his face and he worshiped the Lord. And sometimes it's not music. Really, if you want to be technically correct and biblically correct, worship is a lifestyle.

Come let us worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. See, it starts with our mind. It starts with our actions. My whole life should be about worship. I get up in the morning and it's worshiping God.

And as I'm working, I'm worshiping and Christ-honoring decisions in the workplace and different things, and it's a lifestyle of worship. And then when you come to church, there is a segment called worship.

But worship really starts when we get here. And it ends. We can fellowship and still be worshiping God. Building each other up and encouraging people. And it's really good to make this point because people can be singing songs, think they're worshiping, and oh, they draw an eye into him with their lips.

But their hearts are far from him. So it's not just about songs. However, worship does reflect our heart. And that's why we do worship. There's a time set aside for that. Psalm 33 .1 .3. I'm going to go to the Scriptures a lot this morning.

I hope that's okay with this Bible-believing church. Rejoice in the Lord. Oh, you righteous. Rejoice in the Lord. You know what, let me just stop. This is so hard for me because on one hand, I don't want to beat people up.

But on the other hand, I want to kind of ruffle some feathers. Throughout this whole week looking at these verses, there should be a rejoicing. The rock of Gibraltar is not in worship. They need to be broken by the rock.

You know, it's just, oh, I'm just a rock of Gibraltar. I'm just strong in here. And what time is it? And I see this rejoicing in Scripture. I see this lifting up of holy hands. I see this shouting unto the Lord.

I see there's an excitement there. So if it's not happening, what's going on in our hearts? And me included. I'm not, if you were to define me, I'm not an emotional person. I would be probably in the conservative camp.

But something happens when you're worshiping God. So it says, rejoice in the Lord. Oh, you righteous. For praise Him. For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord with harp. Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

Sing to Him a new song. Pray skillfully with a shout of joy. That's worship in the Bible. I'm not, this isn't Shane Idleman. This is biblical text. And it's funny because, hopefully he doesn't mind me saying this, but like Ronnie who helped with our worship last Wednesday, back in Lancaster a couple years ago, as he was leading worship, he'd say, just sing to the Lord.

Sing your song to the Lord. Sing a new song to Him. People would come up to me and go, what does that mean? I don't know what that means. I can't do that. Is that in the Bible? Well, yeah, the Bible isn't, let's see, let me get every line, every sentence correctly.

Worshiping is coming from the heart. And it might be a surprise to a lot of you, but I don't look at the PowerPoint too often because the heart is engaged in worship. It's crying out, God, if you don't deliver us, we are lost.

God, these school shootings have to stop. God, let the church in so we can witness to these children. God, it's worshiping. You don't have to have every line and every sentence correct and every stanza.

Why didn't the person back there flip to the next screen? What's next? It should be a heart of worship crying out for our communities. I'm just on a little bandwagon this week because I reached out to the school district when we had a local shooting.

Can we go in there? Can the church go in and minister? And they said, well, Shane, we've got highly trained secular psychologists that will be there, but thank you. No, they need real hope, real hope, real truth to be built up and encouraged.

You teach kids that come from animals, they will act like animals. There's no purpose, there's no meaning. We just leave the earth. What's that going to do? That's just going to reinforce. And I'm actually a little bit, I'm so irritated, I might write another article.

And put it, well, but put it in the paper. Put it out there to national media because these things are not going to decrease. They're going to increase. And many of you saw the news in Texas. Ten kids dead recently.

And everybody's, we've got to get rid of guns. That's the sin, it's a sin problem. Outlaw pipes and you'll stop pipe bombs. Outlaw cars and you'll stop people running people over with cars. It's a sin problem.

We have to go back to the word of God. 1963, I think it was the Engel versus the Board of Education removed the Bible from the schools and prayer from the schools. Now, I understand you can't force it.

It's hard to get prayer in the school when you don't even have it in the church. Oh, yeah, that was a right hook, in case you weren't paying attention. That was a right hook. But you can't just force it.

Let prayer back in the school. That will change things. It has to be the right prayer from the right heart. God honoring. But see, we have to be, we're so worried about being politically correct. And these organizations are going to come against us and their lawsuits and separation of church and state and all this is baloney.

We teach that evolution is fact and that God is a fairytale when the opposite is true. Evolution is a fairytale conceived by minds that don't want there to be a God. Where creation is a fact. It's so ironic.

If I write this article, they're going to think, nobody's going to think that article just came together by itself. My printer exploded and here's this article. Nope. They would think I was out of my mind.

How much more when you see this to think that all just happened? You have got to be out of your mind to believe that. Not in a mental health state, but in a state where you don't want there to be a God.

Okay, back on track. Ten minute rabbit trail. I've got to make up the time. So here's some more scriptural support. Three or four points of worship. Worship involves expression. For all of us who don't like expression.

Me. Mr. Conservative. My dad said, boys, don't cry. Mr. Keep to yourself. Emotional. Worship involves expression. 1 Chronicles 16. Ascribe, which is give to the Lord. The glory do his name. I don't know.

We might have those up, Jason, if it would help. 1 Chronicles 16. Yeah, I did change it from posture to involves expression. Ascribe to the Lord. The glory do his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

Tremble before him all the earth. The world is firmly established. It cannot be moved. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let them say among the nation, the Lord reigns. So here we say that worship is a priority.

Do you know how many churches try to get a few quick songs in? They've got it down to the minute. Okay, this song is four minutes and 32 seconds. And I'm not joking. Four minutes, 32 seconds. This song is three minutes, 80.

I can't have 80 seconds, but you know. And they've got it. And then here's this announcement for this mission trip, whatever. It's 1 .2 minutes, and they've got it down exactly. Here it is. Here's your schedule for the morning.

And you can't do that. You can't put God in a box. So worship is a priority. It comes first. Give him everything that is due his name. And that's why I said I've heard this quote, and you can argue both sides of it.

But prayer gets God's attention. Worship gets his presence. But I also believe that prayer gets his presence, of course. But there's an added benefit of worship when we worship him, because it's really getting the heart right.

Tremble, in this case. Tremble can mean excitement. See where it says tremble? Let the Lord tremble before him. And it's not this dog that's been abused, right? You know, those dogs get like this and don't pick me up.

It's not. This is a trembling can be of excitement. Yes, a fear and reverence. You're worshiping Almighty God. You might want to have it right. We might want to come in with holy hands and attitudes right.

But it's also an excitement. It's an expectancy. Did you know you should come to church expecting God to move? That's healthy. Follow the disciples around in the book of Acts for 30 years. It was written over a 30-year period.

Follow them around. They went to cities with expectancy. Paul would just go into a city, and this girl would be bugging him. And he'd just say, out of her, Satan. And then now she's set free, and now they want to kill him.

Now they want to stone him. Peter says, silver and gold I do not have. But what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ. Arise and get up and walk. And the man who was crippled from birth began to get up and walk and rejoice.

That's New Testament biblical Christianity. Expect God to move. Expect God to move. If you don't expect it, he might not move. There's a spirit of expectancy. Don't worry. I'm ready to preach this morning.

I'm fired up because this is a message on worship? On Pentecost Sunday? You know that's today, right? Pentecost Sunday, 2 ,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit fell on a group of believers in an upper room worshiping and praying for 10 days.

I'm thinking they're fasting a little bit in there, but don't hold me to that. The Holy Spirit fell upon those people, and the world was changed. And that's where actually the word Pentecostal comes from.

It's the day of Pentecost. Not a bad thing. Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit fell upon His people. And as much as I want to wait until I talk about the Holy Spirit, I'm going to just throw this out there.

Is the Holy Spirit upon you? Is the Holy Spirit truly upon you? Because this amazing Scripture that when Jesus came up to preach, He actually just came up to read a sermon. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him.

I just heard this Friday and all weekend it's been on my heart. I can't imagine. Jesus comes up. We have the Bible. The scroll's open. Isaiah. And He's looking at the people. The Bible says the eyes of the people were fixed upon Him.

And He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Not financially poor. Poor of heart. Poor of spirit. Humble. I've come to set the captives free. I've come to let those loose who have been dealing with strongholds.

And He sits down. He says, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. I mean, that just gives me goosebumps. Think about that. The Son of God said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him because God has anointed me to preach the gospel.

See, we talk about anointing often. You hear that word in charismatic circles maybe. Anointing. You know what all that means is the Spirit of God is upon a person. He has anointed us. And it does beg the question, Is the Holy Spirit upon you?

Is this endowment of spiritual power to where you Because I go expecting God to move. Because you have to expect God to move. Or expect something because the Holy Spirit doesn't check with you first. Well, Shane, what do you want to do today?

I don't know. Let's do this. So you even come to church with the spirit of expectancy. To expect something from God. So on this title, the message, Cemetery, circus, or Christ-centered worship is the opposite of a cemetery.

Worship is the opposite of a cemetery. And I've been to many churches over the years. I've spoken to a lot of different churches. And you do see the cemetery or the circus. And you see Christ-centered sometimes often in the middle.

But who said worship should be formal and dead? Just going through the motions. Piano, keys, guitar, whatever it is. It's just dead. There's no life. In a powerful worship service, there is life. There is health.

There is strength. Everything that is not found in a cemetery. So there is life in the worship. There is health in the worship. There is strength in the worship. And this point really came home to me yesterday and Friday when I went to this event.

But people are worshiping like I probably wouldn't. I guess if I were to be honest, they're a little too excited. Man, what is...golly. Boy, did I get hit with a sledgehammer when the testimony time came around.

The guy who was just worshiping and so excited. His story is that he had stage 4 cancer throughout his entire body. A year ago. The doctor said, you've got months. You're declining. There's no hope. And now, over a year later, free of this, worshiping God.

You know, you might worship a little different. Right? Just throwing it out there. You might worship a little bit different. The reason many don't worship is they haven't been powerfully touched by God.

So there's not much to worship other than some lyrics on a screen because they haven't been touched by the power of God. They don't have this power, this dunamis power in the New Testament, which comes from the word dynamite.

This Holy Spirit's power residing in the believer. So it shouldn't be a cemetery type environment. There should be life and health and strength. Worship must be true is the next point from John 4. Worship must be true.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Posture, our posture. Oh no, I'm sorry. Our direction. Yet, Jesus said this, yet there's a time coming. He's talking to a woman that he met. And he said there's a time coming and now has come when the true worshipers, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. These are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. Think about this. God is seeking worshipers. God's looking for worshipers. Okay, who am I going to find?

Who am I going to fill with my spirit? Who am I going to descend upon? Who are those worshipers? The rock of Gibraltar? Or the person acting crazy who's just looked at pornography and they think they're just going to come and worship and they plan on doing it again tonight.

That kind of worshiper? No. God says I'm looking for worshipers who are worshiping me in spirit and in truth. In power and in truth. See, this is why you can't have ecumenical movements. Can't all the different religions get together for lunch?

Yes. But not for worship. Because God is looking. To me that would be blasphemous. Because he's looking for true worshipers who worship him in spirit and in truth. Worship is not external. It's internal.

It has to be, to the title of the message, Christ-centered. True worship is Christ-centered. Worshiping in spirit and in truth. And no matter what theologian you read, a lot of different people have different twists on this.

Well, in the spirit means this. And worshiping in the spirit means this. And what do we know? We do know that you have to be in the spirit. Do you know him? Do you have a relationship with God? The right spirit in you, I guess is a better way to put it.

Is the right spirit in you? Do you truly know God? Because I know people they worship and they dress in their hippie garments. They go out in the desert and put flowers in their hair. And they're worshiping.

And they look just like a church worshiper. But what are they missing? The spirit. The Holy Spirit. And they're not worshiping according to truth. So whether, I don't know who you are or where this will go out later.

But it does beg the question, do you have a true relationship with the true one and living God? Are you worshiping the right God? Back to what I said earlier. Jesus quoting Isaiah. These people draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is based on mere human rules that they have been taught. So in spirit and in truth. So when we come to worship the Lord, I'm sure it's fine at this service and possibly the 11. But sometimes there are people coming who don't know God.

And they think because they feel something. Do you know a lot of unbelievers come here and they come back because they feel something. They'll use funny terms like there's some power there. Or there's something there.

I just don't know what it is. But there's something magnetic that's drawing. They say these interesting things. The Spirit is working on them. Convicting them. But in order to worship God in spirit and truth, they've got to submit to that God.

Surrender their lives and be filled with that Spirit. See, all worship really is, is the Holy Spirit within me jumping and leaping for joy. And wanting to worship God. It's not Shane Idleman worshiping.

Because if Shane Idleman was going to make his decision, he'd hit the nearest liquor store. Right? He'd sleep. Come on, let's get real. This is Christian church. Right? Or sleep in. Or do what? What would the real us inside of us do?

Anything but worship God. So it's when the Holy Spirit comes in, takes over, and begins to worship God that real change takes place. And then the next point. Worship is an offering. Worship is an offering.

Worship as a Living Sacrifice

And so what I said when we opened, in case you weren't here. We still bring an offering today to the Lord. Did you know that? Turtle, dove, pigeon, ram, she-goat, heifer. Those are all the things that Abraham sacrificed.

But we don't bring those things. Because that was a temporary sacrifice. Here's my goat. And the blood of the goat was shed for the sins and the remission of the people temporarily. Or if you're a poor pigeon.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So this blood had to be required. And we don't keep bringing this. What do we bring now? Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy.

In view of God's mercy. You see God's mercy. Paul's saying this. Listen, you see God's mercy. He tells us the same thing. Church, you see the mercy of God. The only reason you're sitting here worshiping God is because the sheer mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Should that not prompt worship? Should that not prompt an offering? So he says, because of the great mercy of our God. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Holy and pleasing to God. You know what holy and pleasing to God is?

Because we don't teach. I don't believe in perfectionism. Where I'm up here preaching in a perfect state of holiness. And you guys need to keep working on it. You know, some of you in the audience are.

You've reached that point of holiness perfection. But a lot of you keep striving. It'll eventually happen. You'll wake up one day and say, blessed be the name of the Lord. I am holy and set apart and I am not.

I am sin free. And as soon as you say that, you're prideful and arrogant and you're sin full. So what he's saying here, this is a beautiful thing about worship. You can unlock this key. Most people don't worship because of sin.

But if they would come and take the sin to the worship service, lay it on the altar, then they could worship. See, that's all it is. It's saying, God, I have a sin issue. God, please, would you take this anger?

Would you take this worry and this anxiety and this fear? God, I'm looking at things I shouldn't have looked at. I'm thinking things I shouldn't have. I've done things I shouldn't have. I lay it at the altar.

Now I can worship you. And now holy hands can be raised up to a God who sees the heart that is right. So that's what he means by holy. Holy and pleasing to God. Because who in the world can worship God in pure holiness?

But we do come in the righteousness and holiness of Christ. Because of what Christ has done, I can worship him. And so can you. So be encouraged in that area because sin prevents worship. But worship can help eradicate sin.

Most people don't come to the morning worship or to Wednesday worship or different things because they don't feel like it. Have you been there? Shane, you don't know what I went through this week. I've made some really wrong choices.

I can't go and worship God. That's actually the person who should be there. Because how do you clean house? You think I just come to these worship services full and pumped and holy before God and haven't sinned in three weeks?

No, we come and that's what we do. We get our hearts right before God. How about the sin of prayerlessness? It can be a convicting morning. Right? The sin of prayerlessness. The sin of not worshiping.

Because we're too busy. You know what I learned yesterday in different things? I cannot necessarily like the music and still worship. That might not be my favorite song, but I can still worship and sing to Christ.

So we still give an offering today. This is your true and proper worship. So Paul says, give your bodies as a living sacrifice. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. And I often wonder if people that say God's will is so hard I can't find it. Are they worshipers? Are they worshiping and saying, Lord, whatever you want me to do.

The reason often God's will is so hard is because his agenda is not fitting my agenda. This isn't working. What's his will? It's so confusing. It's so confusing because you're at odds with his will. A living sacrifice is, Lord, move me where you want to move me.

Keep me put where you want me to stay put. Keep me at this job. Open a different door. Lord, I'm just an offering. Take me where you want me to go. There's a lot of peace there because if something's happening, God, it's your problem.

Not mine. It's your will. You're showing me. You're leading me. Hey, I just got noticed. I'm fired next week. This is your problem. I'm in your will. Sacrifice. Here's what the sacrifice is of Romans 12.

Burn up self-centeredness. Personal agendas must die. Consume my sin, God. That's my sacrifice. The sweet smelling aroma of the burning flesh. Not literally, right? Because I was just moving a pan the other day and it got my hair off a flame and that does not smell good.

It's like I'm burning here. But there is a sweet smelling aroma of the flesh being crucified. Of the flesh burning on the altar. And something takes place that is awesome. It's a wonderful smell to God.

Because what you're saying is, Lord, you are worthy. I worship you. You're worthy. That's why I'm here. You get all the glory, all the credit. No flesh shall ever glory in his presence. The flesh should be crucified in his presence.

We're also to lay our mind on the altar. Renew our thinking to what is God honoring. This is so important because a part of sacrifice is what is God honoring in your mind. Lord, I renew my mind. How do you renew your mind?

You think about things that are noble and honest and just and upright. You renew your thinking by thinking about things that are God honoring. If you think about things that are not God honoring, what's going to happen?

Now, it's interesting. I don't want to take a long side trail here. But looking at a lot of the shootings and different things and shooters. You'll see things sometimes in the paper. I don't know if you catch it or not.

But things addicted to video games. You think those video games were Pac-Man? They're very violent games where you're actually shooting and killing people with AR -15s. There's video games that kids can play.

And they'll shoot and they'll kill other people. And they're constantly reinforcing this. Now, I can already hear the parents now that have these and let their kids do it. Oh, come on. Well, I'm not saying that happens in all cases, obviously.

But what are you programming? What are you putting in the mind? Listen, you're not going to go to one of these kids' Facebook pages who just did this. And see, they're watching reruns of Leave it to Beaver.

They were at church Sunday and worship group Monday. And it's always feeding their minds on things that are anti-government, anti-authority, anti-establishment, shooting and mayhem and violence, confusion and chaos.

It's creating this culture. So, going into the schools, you should bring the light, not continue to allow the darkness in. This is so important, conforming our minds to what is God honoring. So, it's not a circus for this very reason.

Come and let us worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness. And it really doesn't apply here too much, but there are churches. This type of message is for all churches. But you have the cemetery environment.

You have Christ-centered. And you can't have a circus environment. Where there's people, they think because they lack the Spirit of God, they lack the anointing of God, that they have to preach really loud all the time.

They have to sing really loud all the time, have the volume cranked all the way. And they've got to have people running and shouting and jumping and all these things. And it's not bad if it's legitimate.

But sometimes we think the more emotional we get, the more God's Spirit's going to be there. Actually, sometimes you'll see the opposite. Have you ever heard the phrase, you could hear a pin? That's often when God's Spirit's moving.

Jesus didn't come up with that scroll and say, oh, believe it or not, here we go. And he just starts getting crazy, right? I'm not putting that down. But now some of you woke up, though. That helped. But he didn't do that.

The eyes of the people were fixed on him. Just he walked up. Why didn't he have to get loud? Because he already had the spiritual authority. Now, sometimes people get worked up. I've tried to stop it, but I can't.

You know, because there's a passion there. There's excitement. And when you hear that pin drop, when you hear the Holy Spirit moving, you hear weeping. More than laughter. You hear traveling at the altar.

More than jumping up and down. And now there's nothing wrong with that. Don't take this in the wrong direction, correct? I'm not putting down anything. But you have to be careful to make sure the heart's right.

Because God doesn't say, boy, that church sure is loud. Boy, that pastor sure is loud. Let me come down and fill him and come upon them. That's not necessarily the case. God says, my eyes go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show myself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to me.

I'm looking for a broken, oh, see that broken and contrite heart? You see those people at the altar? That's where I'll be. Most revivals I read about didn't start at large, powerful church services. They started in basements.

In prayer rooms with a half a dozen people on their face before God. Praying and crying out for God to stir and revive. That's genuine revival. That's not a circus. And it's not a cemetery. It's Christ-centered.

That's true in biblical worship. But it does call a few things to question. But on the flip side, those who have been forgiven much worship much. You can't stop a worshiper any more than you can stop Niagara Falls.

Could you tell the prodigal son not to be quiet? Settle down. You see the prodigal son running home to the father. And you see the father running to the son. Excitement. Excitement. There should be excitement.

See, and I know I can't work it up. God's got to bring it down. All I can do is chip away at that hearted heart. And hopefully God will fill you with the spirit. Listen, they just filled the Rose Bowl with Taylor Swift.

A couple days ago. Did you know that? People say, oh, I can't do anything. I'm going to the Taylor Swift conference. They'll leave at 3 in the afternoon and get home at midnight. 7, 8, 9, 10 hours for that.

That edifies nothing spiritually. But why shouldn't we be worshipers? Why are we in a hurry? Why are we just, oh, I can't get into this. I don't know. I'm bored. The reason is maybe you haven't thought about how much you've been forgiven.

Because we look, we read the woman at the well. Oh, five husbands and the one you're with now isn't your husband. Or the woman caught in the act of adultery. We look at them as if. But if it wasn't for the grace of God, there go I.

And actually I was a prodigal son who ran home. It's interesting. You'll watch a 14-year-old, they can't worship. Often they're bored of worship. You meet a 24-year-old, still bored of worship. You get them at 34 when they've had a few kids and they realize that their idols do not give them dividends and there's no fulfillment in life, they become worshipers.

It happens. Because we realize that everything I was chasing is empty. And I've been running from the one true and living God. I have to worship him. So that's all you have to do. Listen, the reason many people are not affected by worship is you've got to get your mind on what God has done.

And don't come in here so prideful and arrogant like I used to thinking I'm a good person. I don't need this. It's amazing. 25 years ago I thought I was a better person than I think I am now. Where does that thinking come from?