The Believer’s Blueprint - Worship - August 30, 2026

Hey, friends. Welcome to the City Hope podcast. My name is Bobby Thompson, and I have the privilege of serving as a lead pastor. I pray that today's message would inspire you, it would encourage you, and it would also challenge you in your walk with Christ. Enjoy today's sermon.

Thank you. We appreciate each and every one of you being here this morning. And I want to just say if today is one of your first times, my name's Bobby and would love the opportunity to meet you after the service. And so we have this little area over here called the Landing, and some of us are going to be there. I doubt anybody's going to be standing outside to tell you goodbye today, so you have to do that inside.

But we're thankful you're here. You guys look good this morning. I mean, not that good, but good, right? But we would love to connect with you and just let you know a little bit more about us and you learn, we can learn a little bit more about you. God is man.

These last, I don't know, six to eight weeks have just been amazing. God's been doing some really, really, really cool things. And as Travis mentioned, the Hope Center, I started thinking, you know, some of you, when you hear the Hope center, you may not even know what we're talking about because maybe you haven't been here for a while. And what that simply is, is we wanted to have a space where we could offer a couple things. The primary thing that happens out of the Hope center is counseling, Biblical Christian counseling.

And so that's for anybody in our community, not just for people in City Hope Church. We want to partner with other churches and be a resource for other places. And so, and I also want to say this. I had a really good conversation with a young couple yesterday. And a lot of times there's a thought that counseling is for those who are going through really hard things.

And if we've went through something really hard, and that is a piece of it, right? We want that. We need that. But counseling is also biblical Christian. Counseling can also be preventative, right?

Go and get things talked about. And, you know, you don't wait for your car to break down before you go change the oil, right? And if you have a blowout, you fix the tire. But you kind of do things in your life to help and make sure things stay healthy. And so it's a place where you can go and get good, godly counseling for you and your spouse or you by yourself, your children, all those things.

We have some wonderful counselors there. And so. And I want to make sure that everybody knows this is that if you are a partner of City Hope Church, you get a reduced rate in your counseling. And so I just feel like the Lord put this on our heart and to be able to walk through it and see so many of you there yesterday, it was such a blessing. And I cannot wait to see all the Lord's gonna do in that.

So today we're gonna kick off week four of a series called the Believers Blueprint, the believer's blueprint. Whether we want to believe it or not, we don't just ask Jesus to become our Lord and Savior, then go live however we want, right? God is not silent on how we should live our lives as Christians. He doesn't just say, okay, go do whatever you feel like doing. He gives us a really clear design.

If you want to be healthy, if you want to be a fruitful Christian. He gives us a pathway, a blueprint, if you will. Now, let's be honest, okay? We're in church. The way of Jesus is never linear, right?

It's not just you have to do this. We all serve, and there's different pathways. But the Bible gives us over thousands of years, it gives us pictures and stories and understanding of people who have been striving to have a deeper relationship. And what does that look like? And so that's where we learn, right?

And so today, I just feel like if you're here this morning and maybe spiritually, you're feeling a little weak, you're feeling a little isolated, you're feeling a little bit disconnected or ineffective, maybe there's something lacking in your life. I would say that most likely one of these blueprints, one of these pathways that God's given us, there's probably something missing out of your life that's causing that. Because a passive approach to God's blueprint will. Will always leave you lacking. It's just the way this thing works.

If I'm not living my life according to the way God calls me to live, there's going to be something missing. There's going to be something I need more of. And so that's what this is all about. This series is not about making you do anything. This series is about helping us get an understanding of what God's expectations are.

And if I want to live a. A peaceful, fruitful, joyful life, what has God called me to do now? Notice I didn't say. I didn't say a perfect life, right? I didn't say that life's going to be great and they're never going to have any problems.

Okay? It's never going to rain in your life if you live according to Jesus. That's not reality. Right? But how do I live in a way that I become useful to God?

So week one, we talked about prayer and fasting and how important it is and how it's expected. Week two, we talked about the importance of belonging to a local church, having a spiritual family that I can lean on and that can lean on me, and that we can help each other and how vital that is. And then last week we talked about evangelism. And God expects you to share your story. He doesn't expect you to get all the blessings and all the grace and all the mercy and all the forgiveness and then be like, haha, I got it.

You don't. You leave me alone. Right? That's not what God wants. He wants you and I to share our story.

And you have an incredible story that God's given you that nobody else has. And so today we're going to go to the fourth thing, and I'm going to talk to you about something that maybe you don't know that is expected of Christians. But today we're going to talk about worship. We're going to talk about worship. Now, let me start with a question.

I like a little feedback. Okay? And so it's raining outside. Y' all look a little grumpy this morning. So we need to get loose.

Okay, how many of you guys, when you. When you hear the word worship, what's the first thing you think of? Is the first thing you think of singing? Raise your hand if that's the first thing you think of. For most of us, that's it, right?

For some of you, maybe. I thought about this. You may be watching an old movie and you see a king or some kind of royalty, and people are bowing down into worship, whether it's a live person or maybe like a statue. We've seen things like that before. Worshiping is singing or it's some kind of posture of bowing down.

But what I want to do is I wanted to ask this question and answer this question today. Well, what is worship? What does it really mean? And let's look at the Bible, obviously. What is the biblical definition?

And we'll get there in a second. But any kind of definition that you ever hear about worship, it should include, and it should center on a person's response to a worthy God. Okay? A person's response to a worthy God. Anything that I do, anything that you do in response to God is worth worship.

So let's think about that for a minute. Okay? So if I sing in response to how worthy God is, I'm worshiping. If I pray, if I clap my hands, if I jump up and down, if I wave my hands right? If I.

If I read my Bible, if I give away some of my time and sacrifice, if I give away some of my money, if I give someone food, all of these things. If I'm doing it in response to man, God is so good and he's blessed me so much and I want to do this for him. All of those things are a response of God's worth. Now that list can go on and on, right? There's a lot of things that we can do in response to what God has done for us.

Now these things in and of themselves, stay with me. Do not constitute worship, right? Just because I sing does not mean I'm always worshiping. If you guys. Tomorrow morning, if you drive by McDonald's down here on Buckwalter and I'm standing out front of McDonald's and I'm clapping my hands and I'm just jumping up and down and I'm singing, your first thought is probably not, well, Bobby's outside worshiping today, right?

Your first thought is, Bobby's lost his ever loving mind. What is he doing? Right? So the actions in of themselves doesn't mean that I'm worshiping, right? It is.

It's a response to what's going on in my heart, to God. So, so what does that mean? Listen, that means you can sing songs about God and not worship.

That means you can come to church. It happens every Sunday in churches all over the world. That means you can come to church and hear preaching, mediocre preaching. You can come to church and not even, not even worship God at all.

So it's not about the action itself. Now let me give you. I searched high and low, studied, asked the Lord, and this is probably the best definition that I've been able to come up with for what is worship? And it's going to be here on the screen. True worship.

True worship happens when we set our mind's attention and our heart's affection to the Lord, praising Him for who he is and for what he's done. True worship. When my mind is on the Lord, when my heart is given towards him and I'm praising him for who he is, what he said and what he's done. So what does that mean? Worship is a believer's first full response to who God is, what he said and what he's Done.

It's my full response. One worship leader. I heard it said this week, heard it said this way this week. One worship leader said, worship is embracing everything God has done and letting thank yous and praise pour out in response. Isn't that beautiful?

Just thanking God. Thank you so much, God. I thank you for waking me up this morning, God. And so I'm going to go start my day with some quiet time with you. I'm going to spend some time in your word.

I'm going to spend some time in prayer because, God, you gave me another day. God, thank you for my family. Thank you so much for this, this beautiful family you give me. And so today, God, I'm going to. I'm going to serve the mess out of my family to prove to them how grateful I am to say thank you to you for giving me this family.

God, thank you for this job that you give me. I know sometimes I don't like it, but, man, you've provided this for me, and this is the way that we are able to provide for our family. And so, God, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna work and I'm gonna do my best and I'm gonna give it my all, and I'm gonna give away. God, you've given me stuff I'm gonna give away.

That's a. It's a response to what God's given to us.

So through our reverence, through our submission, through our service, through our obedience is how we worship. And worship is a really big deal to God. If you. I would encourage you take some time this week and go find. I mean, there's.

There's many, many, many verses in God's word that talk about how he wants our worship and how he loves it when we worship and how he adores us and how. There's so many writers in the Bible that tell us how to do these things. But, but I want to give you. We're going to go to a story in John chapter 12 here in just a minute. So if you have your Bible, go to John chapter 12.

But before we get there, I want to give you just a little bit of simple understanding of what's going on here. Why is worship such a big deal to God? Well, he commands it. Okay? It's just like prayer and fasting.

It's just like being a part of a church. It's just like evangelizing. Giving God worship is expected. He commands it. Psalm 95, verse 6.

Oh, come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our God Maker. It doesn't say if you feel like it. It doesn't say if you're having a good day. It doesn't. It says, let us worship.

And bow down. He commands it. Not only does he command it, he seeks it. God wants your worship. Look at John, chapter four.

Jesus said the Father is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. So he tells us it's not just about singing a song. I want you to do it with your whole life, in spirit and in truth. So today we're going to talk about a lady, a lady named Mary, Mary of Bethany, who got to experience Jesus. And I think she gives us one of the clearest pictures in all of Scripture of what real worship looks like, Right?

Because for so many of us, the reality is when we think about worship, it's about a maybe a 20 to 30 minute time on Sundays. And I think Mary's going to give us a real clear picture of what biblical worship really, really looks like. So if you find John, chapter 12. Let's stand together. In honor of the reading of God's Word.

We're going to read the entire story. We'll just go through the first eight verses here. Maybe a story you're familiar with, but I think there's a real good. There's some good truth in here that we can pull out. John, chapter 12.

Begin reading in verse one. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was the one Jesus has raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. Verse three.

Here comes Mary. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard anointed Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Verse 4. Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was about to betray him, said, why wasn't this perfume sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He didn't say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money bag and would steal part of what was put in there. What a great guy. Verse 7. Jesus answered, Leave her alone.

She has kept it for the day of my burial. For you always will have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. Would you pray with me, Father? Bless the reading of your word. Use it like only you can.

God, speak directly into our hearts. Help us to get an understanding of where our worship is. What are the things in our lives that we're worshiping? God. We're all worshiping something or someone.

God. I pray that we walk out of here challenged and changed in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated.

I'm going to give you three things real quick that I think Mary gives us a picture of, of what true worship really is. Number one. True worship begins by seeing the worth of Jesus. True worship begins when you and I see how worthy God really is. When you begin to understand worship is really.

You begin to understand worth ship. How worthy is God? What is God worth to you in your life today? What is God worth when, when we're having true worship? We're, we're ascribing supreme worthiness to God.

And the more that, that we focus on God, the more we understand, the more we appreciate of a God he is and how much he loves us and how much he cares. And we understand that the more we understand that, the more we come to appreciate and worship him. Look at the first three verses here. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was the one Jesus had raised. So they gave a dinner for him.

And they're all there. Lazarus is there. All the disciples are there. The apostles are there. Mary takes out her perfume.

This pure, expensive nard anoints Jesus feet, feet. Washes his feet with her hair. Now the house is filled with all these perfume smells. Now, I want you to think about this. Now here's Mary.

And Mary had already experienced Jesus, okay? Because Mary is Lazarus sister. And so just over one chapter, in chapter 11, Mary got to watch Jesus raise her brother up from the dead, right? So Mary, Mary had already experienced some Jesus. Also over in chapter 10, chapter 10, she sat at Jesus's feet.

Remember the story? Mary and Martha. And Martha was busy doing all of her stuff and cooking and cleaning. And then she started being mad at Mary. But what was Mary doing?

Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening and worshiping. You see, Mary sees Jesus a lot clearer than everybody else in this room. Here In John chapter 12, she's already experienced Jesus love. She already knew. Man, this guy is something.

There's something different about this man. I watched him raise my brother. I watched him. I got to sit at his feet and he didn't. I mean, I was the only woman there.

And all these men were telling me to get up and get out and even my own sister. But I got to see something was different.

It's not just some ancient story to marry. It's not just some fairy tale to marry. Real worship starts when we begin to understand how worthy Jesus really is.

If you go throughout the Bible as I was talking about a minute ago, there's so many, so many writers in the Bible that talk about his worthiness. There's so much going on in the Bible. But here's what I believe and this is why our mission statement is what it is that we want to lead people to experience Jesus, right? Because I could stand up here and tell you how worthy Jesus is, but you gotta experience it for yourself. And I want you to experience it so bad.

Because when you do, that's when you begin to put the correct worth on. Who God is is when I experience his goodness and I experience his love and when I hit rock bottom and my life is falling apart, but I know God's still there with his hand out saying, come on home. Those are the moments that Mary was able to experience herself and person after person in the word. Psalm 29, verse 2. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

Worship the Lord in splendor and holiness.

Psalm 96 Worship the Lord in splendor and holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Psalm 99 Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his footstool. Holy is he.

On and on and on. We see people throughout the Bible and probably, you know, people in your life that, that put the right worth ship on God. And there's something different that happens when we put the right worth on God. Our worship follows.

Worship is our response to the revealed word of God. So I can't worship anything that I don't value. If I don't value it, then I'm probably not going to worship it. And so if you've been coming here for very long, I like to push on you. I like to challenge you a little bit.

I'm not always just going to preach, you know, happy sunshine, rainbows and skittles, right? Like I want to, I want to push on you this week. Okay?

But look at your life right now, Church. Look at your life and this is between you and the Lord. Is there a lack of worship? Is your worship only, only about a 20 to 40 minute time on Sunday mornings every once in a while?

If you're, if you look at your life and you're lacking worship, then most likely that you have not got to this place where you have put worth on God yet you like it and it sounds cool and you got your get out of hell, you know, card and you hope that everything's Going to be good. But if you truly. If you look at your life and you don't see a life full of worship, then you're not putting the worth of God up here where it should be. The value of God in your life is not there. Because where there's high value on God, guess what?

There's high worship. There's high worship. And so we see Mary value Jesus. She valued Jesus over everybody else in the room, over everything else that was going on. Number two.

True worship is costly. True worship is costly. Verse three. Mary took a pound of perfume, pure, inexpensive nard, anointed Jesus feet, wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

So Mary has this very expensive perfume. She's been saving this for a special day. She's been saving this. We don't know how long. But now here's Jesus sitting down right in front of her.

And she realizes, this is the moment. This is the moment that I've been waiting for. So Mary didn't look around. Watch this. Mary didn't look around and go, what's everybody else going to do?

Are they going to worship Jesus or is everybody else going to. Are they going to do what I'm doing? Mary didn't look. She didn't ask anybody's permission. Mary had this worth on Jesus.

And so she said, all right, here we go. This is my moment. And I think what Mary probably would have realized, because of the response of the men in the room, Mary probably would have realized that everybody in here has gotten used to Jesus.

They were used to Jesus. I mean, it's just another dinner with Jesus and he's sitting here. And Mary was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is a lot bigger than just another. She thought, you know what?

He's worthy of everything that I've got. The most expensive thing that I own, he is worthy. The perfume here, it was about a year's wages. That's how expensive this was. And the Bible says she didn't just give a little mark.

Mark tells the story. And she broke the jar and poured it all out.

Now, here's something that if you dig into and read about customs, it's pretty cool. It was customary for when people came into your house for someone to put a little bit of perfume or oil on your head because you've been sweating and you've been walking and aiming to do that. But notice what the Bible said. She didn't just pour it on his head. She also poured it on his feet.

Feet. So she anoints his head, she anoints his feet. And then she takes her hair, which, by the way, is a woman's glory, right? She takes her hair and she begins to wash his feet with her hair in this expensive perfume. Now, in order to do that for somebody, the worth that she's placing on him is a big, big deal.

But look at the cost that it's costing her to do this, right? In a room full of men who are saying, what are you doing? Are you crazy? In this most expensive thing, the most precious thing that she had in all of her life, she breaks it and gives her hair the beauty of a woman. Look at how much this cost her to worship Jesus.

But, man, Service starts at 10 on Sundays, and it's hard to get there. It's hard.

We see this act of humility.

We see this cost. That's you. But not everybody saw it this way, right? Watch what happens in verse four. Then one of the disciples, Judas.

Now, we know Judas, and we know he's a knucklehead and he's an idiot and things are gonna go really bad for him. But still, in this moment, he's one of the leaders. He's one of the spiritual leaders, one of the disciples that have been walking around with Jesus. Why wasn't this perfume sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? Judas just sat here and called Mary's worship a waste.

What are you doing? Why would you waste this? Now, I only imagine Judas probably wasn't a very smart guy. Well, we know he wasn't very smart, but I mean, just think about the. What he was saying to Jesus, right?

Why would you break that on this guy? Like, if you go sell that to the poor. You mean now he's telling Jesus he's not worthy, right? And so here's Judas, one of these spiritual leaders, and he's calling it a waste because he did not understand what Mary already experienced. Mary already experienced Jesus love and Jesus miracles and Jesus goodness.

In her life, she knew firsthand who Jesus was. She experienced all of these things. There were dead things in her life that Jesus brought back to life. She knew about his grace. She experienced all of this firsthand.

And she was not about to let some man who didn't know what he was talking about keep her from worshiping her Lord. She was not going to allow it. Now, understand this. Everybody's looking at Mary, and she's probably getting some weird looks, right? And everybody's going, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

What is going on? Now? Think about our World today. Our World Today looks at a lot of Christians and going, y' all are weird. What are y' all doing that's weird?

She wasn't worshiping because she wanted everybody else in the room to like her. She wasn't being at the feet of Jesus because everybody's perception of her mattered more than Jesus. She was at the feet of Jesus because she understood he is worthy. Everything I got.

And so, church, let me just say this. You invest in what you value. You invest in what you value. You look at your life right now, and you can see the things in your life that you value above everybody else and everything else, because that's what you invest in. That's what you're pouring into the things that you value.

This was. This was expensive.

But Mary valued Jesus more. And so what did she do? She gave her most expensive gift for the most worthy God.

So this week, this question. I have not been able to stop thinking about it just in my own life, and I want to challenge you with it.

Does worshiping Jesus cost you anything?

I mean, think about that. Does worshiping God, does being a Christ follower, has it cost you anything in your life?

And kind of the follow up is like, and this is the part that I'm battling with myself, and I'm just being real with you guys this morning. If there's no sacrifice, is it really worship?

If I'm not. If it doesn't cost me anything, is it really worship? If there's no sacrifice on my part, am I really honoring? Am I really valuing God? If my life just goes on and there's no.

Or maybe a better way to ask the question is, what am I sacrificing to show that I worship God? What are the things in my life that I'm gonna say no to so that the people around me, the people who love me, that I can lead them and show them that the value that I put on God, what am I gonna sacrifice to worship God? What am I gonna sacrifice? What am I gonna say no to? What things?

What friends, whatever it is, what places do I need to say no to? To sacrifice to. To show that I worship God.

And here's what I see, okay? As a pastor for 20 some years now, there's so many years of experience and just seeing different people and everybody's walks different. But you can always tell the people. There's really two different categories of people when it comes to Christians. All right?

There are some Christians who God is in the middle of their lives, right? And they begin to Build their lives, everything that they've got going on. Kids, family, job, sports, life, bank account, all that. God's in the middle. And they build their life with God in the middle of everything.

And so every decision is based upon, okay, God's in the middle. What does that look like for work? What does that look like for parenting? What does that look like for fun? What does that.

And God's in the middle of all of it. There's those people, but then there's the people that have everything going on. Here's my family, here's my work, here's my job, here's my fun, here's sports, here's this, here's that. And God, if you would just. I'm gonna sprinkle a little bit of God on each one of these things, and I'm good.

See the difference.

And the people listen, the people who have God in the middle and everything flows out of that relationship. And they make decisions based upon, how can I worship God today? How do I worship God in raising my kids? How do I worship God and going to work? How do I worship God in spending in every single other aspect of my life?

Guess what happens? The reason why. The reason why it's easier to do all this stuff and just ask God to sprinkle a little bit of blessing on each thing is because I don't have to sacrifice anything. That way, I don't have to change anything. I just live my life how I want it and ask God to bless it.

And you see the difference when there's people that are saying, no, no, no, no, no, man, we love you guys, but we can't go there. We don't do that. Or maybe you don't even have to say anything, and everybody else in your friends group's doing it, and you just say, you know what? You guys have fun. We love y'.

All. There's sacrifice, right? So what are you sacrificing today?

Does worship Jesus cost you anything at all?

Judas called Mary's gift a waste. What are you doing? But Jesus. Jesus called it beautiful. And true worship is costly.

Number three. True worship always leaves a lasting impact. True worship always leaves a lasting impact. So this moment, this story, if you're familiar with the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those are the gospels. And a lot of times there's stories that each one of these men tell just in their point of view and in the way they saw it.

And so this was such a big story that Matthew, Mark, and John, they all recorded this story, and they're telling it in their own words. And I want you to see how Mark puts it, because Mark puts the end of this story just so beautiful. Look what he says in Mark, chapter 14. Jesus replied, this is after Judas just said, hey, what are you doing? You should have sold that.

Give it to poor people. Jesus says, leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She's done a noble thing for me. You will always have the poor with you and you can always do what is good for them whenever you want.

But you will not always have me. Now, if you're a highlighter or Underliner, underline this first part of verse 8. She has done what she could. She anointed my body in advance for burial. Truly, I tell you, watch this.

Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her. Wow, what a strong statement from Jesus. I just, I love verse 8. When I read that, it just stood out so much. She has done what she could.

Again, big, big question, guy. I love these tough questions. Mary didn't hold anything back. She did what she could. Church, are you doing what you can to worship Jesus?

Would that be said about you? Man, that guy, he did what he could. That young man, he did what he could. Everybody's else worship might look different than yours, but are you going to stand before God and he's going to say, man, you did what you could.

Mary didn't hold anything back.

Our most expensive perfume. At the expense of being ridiculed and made fun of. At the expense of, of just all these godly people looking at her in a weird way. She said, I'm not holding back. I'm going to give him everything that I got.

Where are you holding back your worship? Where in your life?

And maybe, maybe make this your prayer this week. God, show me the places in my life that I'm holding back my worship. Show me the places in my life that I'm not. I don't have you in the center that I'm just asking you to sprinkle a little bit of what I got going on. God, show me the places that I'm holding back.

Jesus. Then he tells him to leave her alone. And she did what she could. But then Jesus takes it to this new level and Jesus says her act will be told wherever the gospel is preached. 2000 some years later, we're still sitting here talking about it.

I mean, wow.

It's not about the size of her perfume bottle, right?

It's not about the gift. It's not about the skill level of musicians it's not about anything else. It's about the size of love, the depth of surrender that I am willing to give to Jesus. Mary gave Jesus her absolute best. Why?

Because she knew he was worthy of her best.

That's true worship.

That's true worship.

I think back, didn't really grow up in church, was a CEO, Christmas and Easter only growing up and I didn't know much. And when I went to college, I got invited to this church on a Wednesday night and I was just this young college kid and I showed up at this church and I knew the pastor and he was my friend and said, we have this prayer meeting on Wednesday nights and we want you to come. And I was like, okay, sure, I'll come. You know, free food afterwards. And so I went and I'll never forget this moment.

This was the moment that I look back on and this is the first time that I ever saw somebody true, truly worship. So there was an older gentleman, probably in his 80s, and I don't know what he had going on, but he was shaking, you know, constantly just shaking. And I just ended up standing next to him in this prayer meeting and we all kind of gathered around. It was a small little Baptist church and we gathered around and this old man, he grabs my hand and he begins to pray and just prayed the sweetest words. I felt the Holy Spirit just come upon me through this man.

And just listening to this 80 some year old man pour out his heart to Jesus did something in my soul, did something in me. And I'll never forget just holding his hand and our hands are just sitting here shaking and I'm like, man, what am I feeling right now? I've never felt anything like this. And I look back and now that I can see that that was his worship, that was him just pouring out to the Lord. That was him.

And he started praying for me. I thought, man, this is powerful, this is powerful. And we've given some prayer requests and again, young college student and I had just found out that my, my meal plan wasn't paid for, like at school, you know, like your tuition and your room and board and all that, all that was good with, with basketball stuff, but, but my food wasn't paid for and I'm like, what? This is stupid. What am I gonna do?

And, and, and so I tell these guys and, and I think I might be a little off. I think it was $791 for the semester. Right now it's like 7,000, thank you.

$791 that I was Short on my bill and it was Wednesday and I had to have it paid by Friday. And I tell these guys in this thing and this man grabs my hand and he starts praying, God, give this man $791. And I'm just like, this is a little weird. Like I don't know what's going on, right? I never experienced anything like this yet.

And long story short, as I'm walking out, he thanks me and says, we'll see you later. And I get a call the next day and sure enough, some guy in their church wrote me a check for $791 and I got to pay for my food. And it lasted. It put such a lasting impact on my life. Not, I mean, I'm grateful that God provided that, but the thing that meant the most to me was this 80 some year old man standing here, shaking, just lifting his voice and giving God his worship and pouring out everything, his response to God's goodness.

That's what made a difference in my life.

Mary.

Is going to be talked about wherever the gospel is preached. That's what Jesus says. That's a lasting impact.

I prayed with that man at Suncoast. It's lasting impact. The first time that I went to a church where people started raising their hands, I was like, do they have a question? Like, are they trying to get somebody's attention?

And then I was like, oh, they're surrendered. They're like, it made an impact the first time I saw my kids do it. Wow. A couple weeks ago when we went to beach camp, I had a picture, but I should have brought it. Sorry.

We have a hundred some students on their knees, hands lifted high, worshiping God. That's worship. That's lasting impact.

Worship matters to God. He commands it, he seeks it. And he wants all of us, not just. He doesn't want to just sprinkle a little bit. He wants to be the center of your life.

And Mary shows us what that looks like as we close today. There was a couple of songs that came to my heart this week. One of them, I'll just challenge you to go home and listen to it. It's called Clear the Stage. Clear the Stage by Jimmy Needham.

Okay. It's the only song of his I know. So if there's other ones that are bad, sorry, but this one's awesome. It's called Clear the Stage. I want to challenge you just to get alone, maybe in your car, whatever, and just listen to the words of this song.

It's a phenomenal, phenomenal song. And then the Song we sang this morning.

When the music fades and all is stripped away, I simply come and I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing that I've made it.

What have you made? Your worship. What does your worship look like?

Is there any sacrifice on your part to worship God? Are you holding back?

True worship leaves a lasting impact. Where is your impact as you worship God, as you serve the Lord, as you respond to what God's done in your life?

God's blueprint includes us worshiping him.

Let me ask you just to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning.

Can we just. For this next few moments, I want to just challenge you. Can you just get real for a second? Don't think about your to do list or getting wet here in a minute. Don't think about what's going right now.

Let me just ask you a couple questions for you to think about. Are you pouring out your best or have you gotten used to Jesus? Are you pouring out your best or have you gotten used to Jesus?

Are you more concerned with what other people are going to think or what Jesus is worth?

Are you more concerned about what other people are going to think or with what Jesus is worth?

Maybe for some of you here today, Mary's jar of perfume, the Bible refers to it as an alabaster box or an alabaster jar.

What's the alabaster jar in your life that Jesus is asking you to break and pour out the thing that has so much worth in your life and Jesus says, I want that.

This isn't today. This isn't me trying to pressure you into anything. This is. This is just what the Lord has put on my heart for this week. That we would be a church that truly worships Jesus and not just for a few minutes on Sunday day.

That our lives would be full of responding to the goodness of God, my heart's affection and my mind's attention to who God is, what he said and what he's done. Father, today I just ask you to help each and every one of us. To see you, to know you, to honor you, the right manner. God, I pray that for those of us in here who have experienced your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your love, your forgiveness, God, that we would live a life that shows how much worth and value we put on you. God, not for anybody else to see.

Just out of a response to you. There's so many people in this room have hit rock bottom, that have hit brokenness, that marriages have been on a thread. And God, you've revived, you've healed you've brought back to life and God may we never lose sight of that. May we never lose sight of your goodness and where you've brought us from and may our lives just reflect our thankfulness. May our lives reflect just the goodness of you Father.

And like Mary Lord I pray that we would look and see what it's costing us. Lord I know that the American church we've made it kind of easy, we've made it kind of comfortable and Lord would you challenge us and would you change us that our worship of you would cost us something.

Lord thank you for your word. Thank you for each and every person here today. I pray your mighty blessings over each and every one of them In Jesus name amen. Thanks again for tuning in with us today. We would love to connect with you and the best way to do that is through social media or go straight to our website.

God bless you and have a wonderful day.