April 14, 2025 • 25 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're excited that you joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'll get to Ed's
message in just a moment. First, we want to invite
you to head online and sign up for Ed's daily
email Devotionals to get a daily dose of encouragement sent
to your inbox, covering relevant topics like victorious living, trusting God,
(00:21):
and living for Christ in our darkening world. Each daily
email starts with scripture followed by fresh encouragement from Ed
to help you think about and apply Biblical truth to
your life. You'll also find a guided prayer at the end.
Sign up today by visiting Edyong dot com slash devotionals,
and while you're there, take a moment to browse previous
(00:43):
devotionals as well as watch and listen to messages from Ed.
Head online now to sign up and start receiving your
devotionals today. That website again is Edyong dot com slash Devotionals.
We look forward to connecting with you there. Now, let's
hear what Pastor Ed Young us for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
The Bible says, and this is kind of a sobering savement.
The Bible says that we're all made to give ourselves
fully to things. A lot of people have given themselves
fully to fashion. We've seen that, right, they think about
it into fashion, Yeah, other people give themselves fully into shopping, fully,
into decorating, fully, into snowboarding, fully into surfing. You give
(01:28):
yourselves fully to things, and we're made that way. We
have passion in life. But I've got to ask you
a question. Is your main passion God? Now, now to
stay with you for a second, is your main passion God?
Because we're made to have God as our primary passion.
(01:51):
I'll say it again, We're made to have God as
our primary passion. So if we're not careful, we can
waste our passion. We can pervert our passion, chasing after this,
chasing after that, chasing after that, chasing after this, and
we can miss the primary passion. God wants us to
(02:14):
be passionate about stuff. He wants us to have a
good time in life. He wants us to have adventure
and excitement in life. What am I saying. I'm talking
about a one word subject called worship. What worship is passion,
Passion is worship. I'm talking about worship. Worship is that
(02:36):
thing we do, that thing we as I've been saying
for a long long time. You go to a concert,
what are people doing. They're worshiping whoever the band is, man,
they're worshiping. You go to a game, people are worshiping.
We don't call it that, but that's what we're doing.
(02:59):
People enter the scene of cars or motorcycles worshiping, racing, worshiping.
We worship all sorts of things. We're into worship. To
worship something means to be passionate about a person, place,
or thing. That's what it means. The Bible comes along
and the Bible talks about that thing we do. Worship
(03:22):
is our response to God's identity. That's the first blank.
Worship is your response in my response to God's identity.
Some here have responded to God's identity, others have it.
So worship is your response, my response to God's identity.
(03:43):
And the next blank his activity. So I respond to
God's identity. Now you'll see some verses there on the
message map. Everybody sees them in all the different environments. P.
One hundred. Say with me, some we got one hundred
hours to worship God. You're saying, wait a minute, I
(04:03):
thought worship happened when we're here in this church house.
I thought worship happened when when I take communion at
this church or that church. I thought worship happened when
I lifted my hands and maybe jumped around in those
those skinny genes. Yeah, that is worship technically speaking. But
(04:25):
worship is what we do. It's that thing we do.
Worship transcends everything in our lives. Some one hundred we
got about one hundred hours a week to worship. How
can you say that there's one hundred and sixty eight
hours a week. Most of us hopefully sleep eight hours
a night. Then you talk about getting ready, hygiene blah
(04:45):
blah blah, stuff that doesn't matter. That leaves us about
one hundred hours to do? What to do?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And worship is that thing we If I worship, I'm
respond to God. I'm responding to God's identity. Who is God?
Who is God? I'm responding to what God has done,
what he's doing, what he's going to do. The Bible
(05:13):
says to God is omnipotent. The Bible says, God is omniscient,
knows everything. Isn't that amazing? God knows you're junkin funk.
My skeleton's in my closet, and he's still crazy about us.
God wants all of us to worship him. Love has
(05:34):
to have an object. When I first saw Lisa, my
wife of thirty years, I saw her at church and
They're like, Wow, this girl is hot. And as I
got to know her one day, she became the object
of my love. Love must have an object. Am I
(05:57):
going too fast for anybody here? Love must have an object.
Lisa was and is the object of my love. We
are the objects of God's love. Love has to have
an object. God loves you and me unconditionally, selflessly, sacrificially.
(06:20):
When we think about his identity, what he did for
us two thousand years ago, something we don't deserve, sending
Jesus down the cross for our sins and rise again.
When we think about the ultimate act of love. God
didn't just trash talk. He didn't just say one thing,
Oh yeah, I love you with a neverlasting love. You're
my girl, You're my boy. He didn't just say it
(06:42):
and do nothing. He boldly backed it up and is
backing it up and will back it up. God says
that he's jealous. Isn't that kind of weird for God
to be jealous? Why is God jealous? Has God of
jealous God? He doesn't want me, nor does he want
(07:03):
you to waste our worship. And he says, if you
pursue me as the primary thing in your life, you're
gonna hit on all cylinders. If you don't, it's gonna
be tough. So think about it. My response as a
person a worshiper, because everybody worships to God's identity is
(07:27):
what it's all about. Verse three. Know that the Lord
himself is God. Every time I come to church, every
time I assemble together with others, I am rebooting my
life and realizing whoa I'm not God? Because see if
(07:49):
I'm not doing that regularly with a bunch of people,
I think I'm God. And the biggest competition that God
has you and me, it's ourselves. We want to worship ourselves.
I love me some me. It's just a natural thing.
God says. They'll about the need to me, and you'll
(08:11):
discover who you're supposed to be. So know the Lord
himself is God. It is he who's made us. People say, oh, yeah,
I made it. I'm the man, I'm the girl, I'm
a self made woman. I'm a self made man. You
have got to be kidding me. Who made you? God?
God is the designer. He's a shepherd. Where the sheep?
(08:35):
Do you know his voice? God's calling you, He's calling me.
We're the sheep. And the Bible says in John ten
that Jesus has an abundant life for everybody. Here we
sang about that. We worship God as we expressed our
love to him. An abundant life means a life that
is on a whole not that level, said with me,
(08:55):
A how not that level? An abundant life, a life
full of excitement and adventure, a life not just better
than most, but a life like we're supposed to live, relationally, emotionally, psychologically, educationally,
(09:16):
whatever you want to say, on a help not that level.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We'll return to today's message from Ed Young in just
a moment. First, though, Ed and Lisa Young know the
kind of pain most of us never hope to experience,
the death of a child, and in their book A
Path through Pain, they share their family's journey through sorrow
and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and
sudden loss of their daughter. A Path through Pain is
(09:44):
our Thanks for your gift to help connect faith to
everyday life for more people through the creative connection. This
resource will help you see that God really does care
for you and in the darkest of places, his light
still shines to show you way through. So head over
to ed young dot com slash give to request your
(10:05):
copy of this encouraging resource. Again, that's at young dot
com slash give. Now let's get back to today's message.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Worship our response to God's what identity? Do you know him?
He knows you? Do you know him? How do you
know him? You bow the need to him? He's got
to be the He's got to be the one you
bow to. You are the object of God's love. Wow,
have you responded to it? I mean, it was Lisa's
choice to respond to my love. I sought her out,
(10:43):
I romanced her. She either received a love or not.
And that's the great thing about God. You have the choice,
so do I. So what's worship? Worship is our response
to God's identity, also to his activity. God's working. I said,
God's work. He is moving, Amazing things are happening Verse five.
(11:06):
For the Lord is good, his loving kindness is everlasting,
and his faithfulness to all generations. God is active, He's moving.
He's not passive, and it's to all generations. So we
as we reboot our lives regularly in individual worship and
(11:28):
also corporate worship. That's why make sure once every week
you're up here at the church. It's commanded by God
showing corporate worship to him. Make sure also make sure
that regularly you're meeting that appointment with the Lord. Because
(11:49):
the Bible is basically a bunch of love letters to
you and me, and you want to read the love letters.
Like you know Lisa when she's written me love letters.
I read them over and over, wow, and over again.
That's the Bible. How will you know how to live?
How can I know how to live if I'm not
reading the owner's manual. We're designed by the ultimate designer.
(12:11):
We need to talk to him and know him about
how to do life, how to do relationships in our career,
in school and so on and so forth. Worship is
our response to God's activity. He's moving, Have you responded
to it? He's courting you. Have you responded? He loves you?
Have you responded? Have you bowed the need of him?
The first aspect of establishing a relationship with God is
(12:35):
an act of is an act of and worship is
that thing we all right, so we're tracking now Worship,
our response, our response to God's identity and activity now
is gonna get great. I mean it's great already, but
this is going to really get great because Psalm one hundred,
(12:55):
Man is really gonna do some crazy stuff. Worship is
expressed by what we say. So it's my response to
God's identity and activity, and it's expressed by what we
what say. I mean, I talk a good game. A
lot of people I know in my travels talk a
(13:17):
good Christian game. And you've you've you've seen that. Well,
the Bible says it's all one hundred again because we
have one hundred hours of worship. Right as a believer,
we don't come to church to worship, become worshiping. Everything
we do say, touch and fuel should be an act
of what because worship is that thing we So what
I see in front of me on my computer screen
(13:39):
should be an act of. What I say about others,
should be an act of How I handle my finances
should be an act of what I think about should
be an act of man. This has got to be
blowing the hinges off some people's doors a worship because
I know some of you thought, wow, I thought worship
(14:01):
was just what we do maybe once a week or
once every other week when I come here or go there.
No no, no, no, no no no. Everything we do, say,
touch and fuel is an act of worship. It's our
response to God's what identity activity by what we say.
It's on one hundred, verse one, shall joyfully to the
(14:24):
Lord all the earth. You know what that means in
all the earth. It means a place of assembly. It
means the Church. The only thing that Jesus ever built
was the what Church, the Church. So shall joyfully to
the Lord all the earth. Look a verse four. Enter
(14:45):
his gates again. We're talking about church. We're talking about
the presence of God. We're going to enter his gates
with thanksgiving when I understand the importance of thanksgiving to God,
thanking God for who he is, for what He's done.
(15:05):
When I'm praising his name, and the word praise simply
means to brag on God. When I enter his gates
his presence with a thankful heart, everything is sweet. Everything
is sweet. I'm talking sweet like Grandmama's kool aid. Say
it with me, sweet, like Grandmama's kool aid. That's the
(15:26):
tweet of the day. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and
his courts with praise, the word praise, bragging on God
the word praise. After soldiers would win a battle, they
would shout with victory. Yeah, someone makes a tackle. Yeah
you know so much, cords touchdown. Yeah, that's praise, man, praise.
(15:50):
We just know how to praise. Are you praising the Lord?
I don't know. Are you bragging on him? Inter his
gates with thanksgiving? It's courts with praise, give thanks to
him and bless his name. Now, a lot of you,
I know, were great with technology. And if you're into technology,
you got to understand and know your passwords. Am I
(16:12):
going to rapidly for anybody. You ever heard of a
password before? Yeah? Thanksgiving is the password into the presence
of God, into that whole another level where God wants
us to go Thanksgiving. How thankful are you? Are you
spending time regularly talking to God? I would challenge you students,
(16:33):
I would challenge you adults. I would challenge everybody, single, married, grandma's,
grandpa's to journal your prayers, to write what you're thankful for?
We say it hold our hands in the air, dance
around with our skinny genes. Yeah, whoa lights best worship? Yeah,
(16:56):
just a little bit of it, though a little bit
past word is Thanksgiving. So worship is expressed by what
we say. Also is expressed by what we do. The
last thing, by what we do, by what we do.
Those people I talked about earlier. You can talk smack,
(17:18):
but so often people talk smack. Can't do jack. They
talk like I can play basketball, they can't play. They
talk like they can fish, they can't fish. They talk
like they can drive, they can't drive. They talk like
they can dress, they can't dress. You would say what
I'm saying to you. People talk a good game. We
(17:39):
talk smack, especially social media. Man, social media, Oh, we
talk so much smack, but social media, it's ridiculous. Worship
is expressed by what we do. Verse two, by what
we do. Verse two serve the Lord was glad, and
this come before him with joy singing. Now now, and
(18:00):
I hope you're tracking with me, because here's what I'm
talking about. I'm saying from Psalm one hundred, we got
one hundred hours of worship. I'm saying that if we worship,
worship will segue into work. Let me say that again.
If we worship, real worship segues into what into what,
(18:23):
because worship is that thing we wow. Serve the Lord
with gladness, come before him with joyful singing. Now, if
we're not careful, we can worship worship, serve the Lord
with gladness, right, come before him with joyful singing. So
(18:43):
if I'm really a worshiper, it's gonna translate into what
into what work work. So if I talk a good game,
I got I gotta live a good game. So we
can have our hands up. We can get into the
rhythm of the music. We can perspire, we can cry,
we can have a quiver in our lever, a spring
(19:04):
in our step, and we're like, whoa, I worship God.
I got into the presence of God. Man, I worship worship.
And then we leave this place and live like hell.
Worship can be that thing that just eases our guilt. Oh,
I worship God, and that's good. That is worshiped. Don't
(19:32):
get me wrong. Lifting your hands the sign of God,
I surrender my altar, you bowing our heads. That's a
physical act of worship, shouting. We should do all that
but I'm saying, for some in our culture today, it's
about this emotional trip. Emotion must segue into devotion and
(20:01):
this whole worship vibe that's out there today, it's of God.
But if we're not careful, we can get involved in
plastic praise and again it eases our guilt and we
get into this frenzy at church. Then we leave church
and live life like we want to live it. There's
(20:22):
a guy in the Bible, first Samuel chapter fifteen. Now
stay with me. His name is Saul. Saul was the man, handsome, articulate, ripped,
had the whole thing going on. But here's what Saul did.
Saul the King did not fully obey God. God said, hey, Saul,
(20:44):
take the Amalekites and wipe them out. Okay, Lord Saul went,
and he didn't quite wipe them out. He kept a
few more souls, a few things for himself. I'm wanna
(21:04):
read this to you. This is incredible stuff for Samuel
chapter fifteen. So Saul had partially obeyed the Lord. He
took smack. Yeah, I'm the man, I'm the king, I'm
a man of worship. I did what you told me
to do. God. I wiped him out. Oh really, God's
(21:25):
man comes on the scene. I'm talking about Samuel. Here's
what Samuel said to Saul. Samuel said, verse fourteen, first Samuels,
Chapter fifteen. What then, is this bleeding of sheep in
my ears and these cows.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
You?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Assaul said, Oh, Samuel, I'm just keeping those things to
dedicate them to the Lord. I'm gonna give those things
to the Lord. Man, they're they're gods. Samuel's like, wait
a minute. All you know God said to wipe them out.
You did not fully obey the Lord. You talk smack.
(22:10):
You didn't do jack. Now, let's pick up verse twenty
two one Samuel fifteen. Here's Samuel up in his grill.
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as
much as in obeying the voice of God? So we
can like dance around our skinny genie, Oh, I love
(22:31):
you Lord, crying everything. That's great. That's what Saul did,
But he didn't obey the Lord. Jesus said from cover
to cover the New Testament, if you love me, you
obey me. What is the greatest worship? Doing that or
living a life of purity doing that? Praise the name
(22:54):
of Jesus here or telling your friends who are away
from God about the good news of Christ. Does the
Lord delight and burn offerings and sacrifices as much as
in obeying the voice of the Lord. To obey is
better than sacrifice, and the heat is better than the
fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft,
(23:16):
and arrogance, like the evil of idolatry. Because you've rejected
the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.
What's this text saying. It's saying that we're wired for worship.
We're made to fully give ourselves to God or to
worship Him because of His identity and activity expressed by
(23:39):
what we say and what we When we do that,
we'll discover what it means to live the kind of
life that God has for all of us. To live
that life vitality of excitement, of purpose, of devotion like
(24:04):
we've never seen before, and God will take us places
we've never dreamed of.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
We're so glad you've joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with ed Young. We'd love to help
you continue connecting your faith to everyday life by sending
you a copy of a Path Through Pain. It's Ed
and Lisa Young's powerful book about God's loving presence in
your toughest trials. You'll be encouraged as they recount their
(24:31):
own painful journey of loss to show you that even
in the darkest of places, God's light still shines to
show you away through a Path through Pain is our
Thanks for your gift to help reach more people with
biblical truth through the Creative Connection. Jess visit edyong dot
com slash gift to request your copy. Thank you for
(24:53):
your support. We'll see you next time on the Creative Connection.
We're excited that you joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with Ed Young. We'll get to Ed's
message in just a moment. First, we want to invite
you to head online and sign up for Ed's daily
email Devotionals to get a daily dose of encouragement sent
to your inbox, covering relevant topics like victorious living, trusting God,
(00:21):
and living for Christ in our darkening world. Each daily
email starts with scripture followed by fresh encouragement from Ed
to help you think about and apply Biblical truth to
your life. You'll also find a guided prayer at the end.
Sign up today by visiting Edyong dot com slash devotionals,
and while you're there, take a moment to browse previous
(00:43):
devotionals as well as watch and listen to messages from Ed.
Head online now to sign up and start receiving your
devotionals today. That website again is Edyong dot com slash Devotionals.
We look forward to connecting with you there. Now, let's
hear what Pastor Ed Young us for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
The Bible says, and this is kind of a sobering savement.
The Bible says that we're all made to give ourselves
fully to things. A lot of people have given themselves
fully to fashion. We've seen that, right, they think about
it into fashion, Yeah, other people give themselves fully into shopping, fully,
into decorating, fully, into snowboarding, fully into surfing. You give
(01:28):
yourselves fully to things, and we're made that way. We
have passion in life. But I've got to ask you
a question. Is your main passion God? Now, now to
stay with you for a second, is your main passion God?
Because we're made to have God as our primary passion.
(01:51):
I'll say it again, We're made to have God as
our primary passion. So if we're not careful, we can
waste our passion. We can pervert our passion, chasing after this,
chasing after that, chasing after that, chasing after this, and
we can miss the primary passion. God wants us to
(02:14):
be passionate about stuff. He wants us to have a
good time in life. He wants us to have adventure
and excitement in life. What am I saying. I'm talking
about a one word subject called worship. What worship is passion,
Passion is worship. I'm talking about worship. Worship is that
(02:36):
thing we do, that thing we as I've been saying
for a long long time. You go to a concert,
what are people doing. They're worshiping whoever the band is, man,
they're worshiping. You go to a game, people are worshiping.
We don't call it that, but that's what we're doing.
(02:59):
People enter the scene of cars or motorcycles worshiping, racing, worshiping.
We worship all sorts of things. We're into worship. To
worship something means to be passionate about a person, place,
or thing. That's what it means. The Bible comes along
and the Bible talks about that thing we do. Worship
(03:22):
is our response to God's identity. That's the first blank.
Worship is your response in my response to God's identity.
Some here have responded to God's identity, others have it.
So worship is your response, my response to God's identity.
(03:43):
And the next blank his activity. So I respond to
God's identity. Now you'll see some verses there on the
message map. Everybody sees them in all the different environments. P.
One hundred. Say with me, some we got one hundred
hours to worship God. You're saying, wait a minute, I
(04:03):
thought worship happened when we're here in this church house.
I thought worship happened when when I take communion at
this church or that church. I thought worship happened when
I lifted my hands and maybe jumped around in those
those skinny genes. Yeah, that is worship technically speaking. But
(04:25):
worship is what we do. It's that thing we do.
Worship transcends everything in our lives. Some one hundred we
got about one hundred hours a week to worship. How
can you say that there's one hundred and sixty eight
hours a week. Most of us hopefully sleep eight hours
a night. Then you talk about getting ready, hygiene blah
(04:45):
blah blah, stuff that doesn't matter. That leaves us about
one hundred hours to do? What to do?
Speaker 1 (04:51):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And worship is that thing we If I worship, I'm
respond to God. I'm responding to God's identity. Who is God?
Who is God? I'm responding to what God has done,
what he's doing, what he's going to do. The Bible
(05:13):
says to God is omnipotent. The Bible says, God is omniscient,
knows everything. Isn't that amazing? God knows you're junkin funk.
My skeleton's in my closet, and he's still crazy about us.
God wants all of us to worship him. Love has
(05:34):
to have an object. When I first saw Lisa, my
wife of thirty years, I saw her at church and
They're like, Wow, this girl is hot. And as I
got to know her one day, she became the object
of my love. Love must have an object. Am I
(05:57):
going too fast for anybody here? Love must have an object.
Lisa was and is the object of my love. We
are the objects of God's love. Love has to have
an object. God loves you and me unconditionally, selflessly, sacrificially.
(06:20):
When we think about his identity, what he did for
us two thousand years ago, something we don't deserve, sending
Jesus down the cross for our sins and rise again.
When we think about the ultimate act of love. God
didn't just trash talk. He didn't just say one thing,
Oh yeah, I love you with a neverlasting love. You're
my girl, You're my boy. He didn't just say it
(06:42):
and do nothing. He boldly backed it up and is
backing it up and will back it up. God says
that he's jealous. Isn't that kind of weird for God
to be jealous? Why is God jealous? Has God of
jealous God? He doesn't want me, nor does he want
(07:03):
you to waste our worship. And he says, if you
pursue me as the primary thing in your life, you're
gonna hit on all cylinders. If you don't, it's gonna
be tough. So think about it. My response as a
person a worshiper, because everybody worships to God's identity is
(07:27):
what it's all about. Verse three. Know that the Lord
himself is God. Every time I come to church, every
time I assemble together with others, I am rebooting my
life and realizing whoa I'm not God? Because see if
(07:49):
I'm not doing that regularly with a bunch of people,
I think I'm God. And the biggest competition that God
has you and me, it's ourselves. We want to worship ourselves.
I love me some me. It's just a natural thing.
God says. They'll about the need to me, and you'll
(08:11):
discover who you're supposed to be. So know the Lord
himself is God. It is he who's made us. People say, oh, yeah,
I made it. I'm the man, I'm the girl, I'm
a self made woman. I'm a self made man. You
have got to be kidding me. Who made you? God?
God is the designer. He's a shepherd. Where the sheep?
(08:35):
Do you know his voice? God's calling you, He's calling me.
We're the sheep. And the Bible says in John ten
that Jesus has an abundant life for everybody. Here we
sang about that. We worship God as we expressed our
love to him. An abundant life means a life that
is on a whole not that level, said with me,
(08:55):
A how not that level? An abundant life, a life
full of excitement and adventure, a life not just better
than most, but a life like we're supposed to live, relationally, emotionally, psychologically, educationally,
(09:16):
whatever you want to say, on a help not that level.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We'll return to today's message from Ed Young in just
a moment. First, though, Ed and Lisa Young know the
kind of pain most of us never hope to experience,
the death of a child, and in their book A
Path through Pain, they share their family's journey through sorrow
and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and
sudden loss of their daughter. A Path through Pain is
(09:44):
our Thanks for your gift to help connect faith to
everyday life for more people through the creative connection. This
resource will help you see that God really does care
for you and in the darkest of places, his light
still shines to show you way through. So head over
to ed young dot com slash give to request your
(10:05):
copy of this encouraging resource. Again, that's at young dot
com slash give. Now let's get back to today's message.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Worship our response to God's what identity? Do you know him?
He knows you? Do you know him? How do you
know him? You bow the need to him? He's got
to be the He's got to be the one you
bow to. You are the object of God's love. Wow,
have you responded to it? I mean, it was Lisa's
choice to respond to my love. I sought her out,
(10:43):
I romanced her. She either received a love or not.
And that's the great thing about God. You have the choice,
so do I. So what's worship? Worship is our response
to God's identity, also to his activity. God's working. I said,
God's work. He is moving, Amazing things are happening Verse five.
(11:06):
For the Lord is good, his loving kindness is everlasting,
and his faithfulness to all generations. God is active, He's moving.
He's not passive, and it's to all generations. So we
as we reboot our lives regularly in individual worship and
(11:28):
also corporate worship. That's why make sure once every week
you're up here at the church. It's commanded by God
showing corporate worship to him. Make sure also make sure
that regularly you're meeting that appointment with the Lord. Because
(11:49):
the Bible is basically a bunch of love letters to
you and me, and you want to read the love letters.
Like you know Lisa when she's written me love letters.
I read them over and over, wow, and over again.
That's the Bible. How will you know how to live?
How can I know how to live if I'm not
reading the owner's manual. We're designed by the ultimate designer.
(12:11):
We need to talk to him and know him about
how to do life, how to do relationships in our career,
in school and so on and so forth. Worship is
our response to God's activity. He's moving, Have you responded
to it? He's courting you. Have you responded? He loves you?
Have you responded? Have you bowed the need of him?
The first aspect of establishing a relationship with God is
(12:35):
an act of is an act of and worship is
that thing we all right, so we're tracking now Worship,
our response, our response to God's identity and activity now
is gonna get great. I mean it's great already, but
this is going to really get great because Psalm one hundred,
(12:55):
Man is really gonna do some crazy stuff. Worship is
expressed by what we say. So it's my response to
God's identity and activity, and it's expressed by what we
what say. I mean, I talk a good game. A
lot of people I know in my travels talk a
(13:17):
good Christian game. And you've you've you've seen that. Well,
the Bible says it's all one hundred again because we
have one hundred hours of worship. Right as a believer,
we don't come to church to worship, become worshiping. Everything
we do say, touch and fuel should be an act
of what because worship is that thing we So what
I see in front of me on my computer screen
(13:39):
should be an act of. What I say about others,
should be an act of How I handle my finances
should be an act of what I think about should
be an act of man. This has got to be
blowing the hinges off some people's doors a worship because
I know some of you thought, wow, I thought worship
(14:01):
was just what we do maybe once a week or
once every other week when I come here or go there.
No no, no, no, no no no. Everything we do, say,
touch and fuel is an act of worship. It's our
response to God's what identity activity by what we say.
It's on one hundred, verse one, shall joyfully to the
(14:24):
Lord all the earth. You know what that means in
all the earth. It means a place of assembly. It
means the Church. The only thing that Jesus ever built
was the what Church, the Church. So shall joyfully to
the Lord all the earth. Look a verse four. Enter
(14:45):
his gates again. We're talking about church. We're talking about
the presence of God. We're going to enter his gates
with thanksgiving when I understand the importance of thanksgiving to God,
thanking God for who he is, for what He's done.
(15:05):
When I'm praising his name, and the word praise simply
means to brag on God. When I enter his gates
his presence with a thankful heart, everything is sweet. Everything
is sweet. I'm talking sweet like Grandmama's kool aid. Say
it with me, sweet, like Grandmama's kool aid. That's the
(15:26):
tweet of the day. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and
his courts with praise, the word praise, bragging on God
the word praise. After soldiers would win a battle, they
would shout with victory. Yeah, someone makes a tackle. Yeah
you know so much, cords touchdown. Yeah, that's praise, man, praise.
(15:50):
We just know how to praise. Are you praising the Lord?
I don't know. Are you bragging on him? Inter his
gates with thanksgiving? It's courts with praise, give thanks to
him and bless his name. Now, a lot of you,
I know, were great with technology. And if you're into technology,
you got to understand and know your passwords. Am I
(16:12):
going to rapidly for anybody. You ever heard of a
password before? Yeah? Thanksgiving is the password into the presence
of God, into that whole another level where God wants
us to go Thanksgiving. How thankful are you? Are you
spending time regularly talking to God? I would challenge you students,
(16:33):
I would challenge you adults. I would challenge everybody, single, married, grandma's,
grandpa's to journal your prayers, to write what you're thankful for?
We say it hold our hands in the air, dance
around with our skinny genes. Yeah, whoa lights best worship? Yeah,
(16:56):
just a little bit of it, though a little bit
past word is Thanksgiving. So worship is expressed by what
we say. Also is expressed by what we do. The
last thing, by what we do, by what we do.
Those people I talked about earlier. You can talk smack,
(17:18):
but so often people talk smack. Can't do jack. They
talk like I can play basketball, they can't play. They
talk like they can fish, they can't fish. They talk
like they can drive, they can't drive. They talk like
they can dress, they can't dress. You would say what
I'm saying to you. People talk a good game. We
(17:39):
talk smack, especially social media. Man, social media, Oh, we
talk so much smack, but social media, it's ridiculous. Worship
is expressed by what we do. Verse two, by what
we do. Verse two serve the Lord was glad, and
this come before him with joy singing. Now now, and
(18:00):
I hope you're tracking with me, because here's what I'm
talking about. I'm saying from Psalm one hundred, we got
one hundred hours of worship. I'm saying that if we worship,
worship will segue into work. Let me say that again.
If we worship, real worship segues into what into what,
(18:23):
because worship is that thing we wow. Serve the Lord
with gladness, come before him with joyful singing. Now, if
we're not careful, we can worship worship, serve the Lord
with gladness, right, come before him with joyful singing. So
(18:43):
if I'm really a worshiper, it's gonna translate into what
into what work work. So if I talk a good game,
I got I gotta live a good game. So we
can have our hands up. We can get into the
rhythm of the music. We can perspire, we can cry,
we can have a quiver in our lever, a spring
(19:04):
in our step, and we're like, whoa, I worship God.
I got into the presence of God. Man, I worship worship.
And then we leave this place and live like hell.
Worship can be that thing that just eases our guilt. Oh,
I worship God, and that's good. That is worshiped. Don't
(19:32):
get me wrong. Lifting your hands the sign of God,
I surrender my altar, you bowing our heads. That's a
physical act of worship, shouting. We should do all that
but I'm saying, for some in our culture today, it's
about this emotional trip. Emotion must segue into devotion and
(20:01):
this whole worship vibe that's out there today, it's of God.
But if we're not careful, we can get involved in
plastic praise and again it eases our guilt and we
get into this frenzy at church. Then we leave church
and live life like we want to live it. There's
(20:22):
a guy in the Bible, first Samuel chapter fifteen. Now
stay with me. His name is Saul. Saul was the man, handsome, articulate, ripped,
had the whole thing going on. But here's what Saul did.
Saul the King did not fully obey God. God said, hey, Saul,
(20:44):
take the Amalekites and wipe them out. Okay, Lord Saul went,
and he didn't quite wipe them out. He kept a
few more souls, a few things for himself. I'm wanna
(21:04):
read this to you. This is incredible stuff for Samuel
chapter fifteen. So Saul had partially obeyed the Lord. He
took smack. Yeah, I'm the man, I'm the king, I'm
a man of worship. I did what you told me
to do. God. I wiped him out. Oh really, God's
(21:25):
man comes on the scene. I'm talking about Samuel. Here's
what Samuel said to Saul. Samuel said, verse fourteen, first Samuels,
Chapter fifteen. What then, is this bleeding of sheep in
my ears and these cows.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
You?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Assaul said, Oh, Samuel, I'm just keeping those things to
dedicate them to the Lord. I'm gonna give those things
to the Lord. Man, they're they're gods. Samuel's like, wait
a minute. All you know God said to wipe them out.
You did not fully obey the Lord. You talk smack.
(22:10):
You didn't do jack. Now, let's pick up verse twenty
two one Samuel fifteen. Here's Samuel up in his grill.
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as
much as in obeying the voice of God? So we
can like dance around our skinny genie, Oh, I love
(22:31):
you Lord, crying everything. That's great. That's what Saul did,
But he didn't obey the Lord. Jesus said from cover
to cover the New Testament, if you love me, you
obey me. What is the greatest worship? Doing that or
living a life of purity doing that? Praise the name
(22:54):
of Jesus here or telling your friends who are away
from God about the good news of Christ. Does the
Lord delight and burn offerings and sacrifices as much as
in obeying the voice of the Lord. To obey is
better than sacrifice, and the heat is better than the
fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft,
(23:16):
and arrogance, like the evil of idolatry. Because you've rejected
the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.
What's this text saying. It's saying that we're wired for worship.
We're made to fully give ourselves to God or to
worship Him because of His identity and activity expressed by
(23:39):
what we say and what we When we do that,
we'll discover what it means to live the kind of
life that God has for all of us. To live
that life vitality of excitement, of purpose, of devotion like
(24:04):
we've never seen before, and God will take us places
we've never dreamed of.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
We're so glad you've joined us for today's episode of
the Creative Connection with ed Young. We'd love to help
you continue connecting your faith to everyday life by sending
you a copy of a Path Through Pain. It's Ed
and Lisa Young's powerful book about God's loving presence in
your toughest trials. You'll be encouraged as they recount their
(24:31):
own painful journey of loss to show you that even
in the darkest of places, God's light still shines to
show you away through a Path through Pain is our
Thanks for your gift to help reach more people with
biblical truth through the Creative Connection. Jess visit edyong dot
com slash gift to request your copy. Thank you for
(24:53):
your support. We'll see you next time on the Creative Connection.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.