Welcome to church. All right, there's a couple people excited. I'm excited this morning.

Yes, I'm pulling double duty. I changed in between worship and being up here. I thought about wearing glasses, too, like pulling a Superman, but I'm not that great. Anyways, there's a reason why I was playing drums this morning.

Which I'll get to in a second. But I want to thank you if you're here visiting us and want to invite you again 10-minute tour right after the service. Want to want you to get to know our church. And this is the perfect Sunday for you to be at as you get to know us as a church because we are digging into the book of Colossians.

And as we learn from the church in Colasse, we're learning all of these things that Paul taught them on how to find and follow Jesus. At the same time, we are looking at our core values as a church, who we are because a lot of them are found in this book in the book of Colossians. So just a quick recap.

Week one we looked at Christc centered values and week two we looked at our first core value which is gospel and the way that we say it is Jesus is the hero of everything. It's all about Jesus. Everything that we do here it's all because of him and everything exists through him and for him. And then last week we dug into our second core value which is grow. That we want you to grow in your relationship with Christ and with other people that are trying to figure out this life and figure out how to follow Jesus.

And today we're looking at our third core value in Colossians chapter 3, which is worship. And the way that we're describing this core value or our little tagline for it is that worship is a real response from real people to a real God. Now there's a lot of misconceptions about what worship is and what worship is not.

Now I have came from doing ministry for about 20 years now and a lot of that time has been spent primarily doing the first part of service which is the worship part portion of it. , I play a lot of these instruments up here and that's kind of how I started. And so that's why one reason why I wanted to play drums today because kind of bring me back to that.

, but one of the things that I've gotten the honor to do is to disciple a lot of brand new worship leaders that are kind of up and coming and learning what it means to worship. And I oftentimes will ask them this question. And I want to ask it to you this morning. If your maybe unchurched friend or let's go another level. If your neighbor who was from a different country came and asked you what is worship, how would you answer that question.

Because there's a lot of different experiences and kind of baggage that we bring in with that word depending on what our background is. I'll give you an example of this. I didn't grow up in the church.

The only time that I went to church was a Catholic or Lutheran setting about a handful of times in my childhood. And it was about 9th grade that I got an invite to a church. And I walked into this church and it was it didn't look like a church, okay. It looked like it didn't have the stained glass and all the different things.

And so I was already kind of thrown off. And then I was watching this almost what I viewed as like a rock concert and everybody was like raising their hands and doing this and I'm like, do they have a question. Do they not realize like there's like we're not going to stop worship to answer your question. That was my naive ninth grade self, right.

But maybe for you, you've actually had some big questions about worship. And so today, we're going to answer all of the big questions about worship, about what it is, what it isn't, why we do it. And to do that, we're going to open up the word of God to Colossians chapter 2.

We're going to be finishing that out. It's on page 1. We're here at Destination. And we believe in opening up those Bibles every week because those Bibles change us from the inside out.

And so, one of the ways you can worship this week is just by reading scripture. And hey, if you love reading song lyrics like I do, start in Psalms. It's a good place to start. , so we're going to be doing things at a different pace this morning because I want to take this verse by verse.

, starting in verse 20. So if you go to chapter 2 and follow down to where it says 20, , that's where we're going to be stop starting. I'm going to read a verse and I kind of want to add just a little bit to it before we make the big point. But what we're going to start with here first is what worship is not. So if you're like, "Wow, Josh, the first part of your message is really negative.

" Don't worry, we'll get to the good stuff, okay. We got to get to the the a little bit of the the harsh reality first. So, , starting in verse 20, the big idea here is that you and I, all of us here, we are all worshiping something. But the question is, is it Jesus.

So it starts out Paul says in verse 20 since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world why as though you still bel why as though you still belong to this world do you submit to its rules. So, the first point that Paul makes here is we're playing off of last week and Paul is kind of propelling off of this idea that you need to continue growing in Christ because of what he has done and you need to make your life about Christ centered on worshiping him. And he says first of all that there is a difference between those who are following Christ and those who are not.

And so the first thing that we need to know about worship is that worship is not for everyone yet. There's a yet there. See when I was in that youth room when I was 14 years old and I was looking around, I really did not know the difference between a rock concert and a worship service. Some some churches kind of still maybe don't, right. But here's the thing is the environment.

It wasn't as much about the environment as about who they were singing about. And I wasn't there yet. I was not a Christian yet. I didn't know who Jesus was.

And so, we need to realize that, hey, if we walk into a church and we see somebody who doesn't know how to worship or what it is, that's okay. So, if you're here today and you're like, I have no idea why we sing songs at the beginning of the service. I was in your spot.

I I know how that feels. Then Paul goes on to give examples. Look at verse 21.

He says, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. " He's giving examples because he says, "These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. " So Paul is saying, look, not everything is built to last. Not everything is a cross generation worship.

Making your life centered on Jesus isn't a rule. And all of you in this room carry some kind of rule baggage when it comes to to worship. Let me explain.

There are three types of people in this room. The first type of person, you grew up in a mainline denomination, some Catholic, Lutheran, something like that, right. , I have your attention now, right.

So, pray for me here. I I know this experience, okay. Because I've sat in Catholic and Lutheran churches for kind of my childhood.

And I would sit there and I would listen to some of this beautiful what's called as liturgy. They would go through things like the Lord's Prayer and all of these readings and different things and I would try to follow along, but I really didn't know the purpose of what we were doing or why we were doing it or how I was supposed to behave when I was doing it. Now, we know that some of this liturgy is rich and it's important, the Lord's Prayer and reciting the Lord's Prayer is important. But if I don't have a relationship with the author, then it really loses its importance for me. And so I need to know why it's so important that I that I say this prayer.

And so the big idea here is that worship is not ritualistic. It's based off relationship with Jesus. Now, that's not saying that mainline denominations are doing it all wrong. But what that is saying is that we need to have a relationship with the author and we need to know why we are doing these things.

Now evangelicals, you're not off the hook either. That's for those of you who have been in this setting for a couple of years, okay. Worship is not the first 15 minutes of the service in the last five. It's not just when the band is up here. Worship is the whole thing.

When I pitched this church over the summer before planting it, I would talk about this core value and I would say, "I don't like when worship feels like a warm-up to the message. Like the opening act of like this main line. I'm not that great. Worship is the whole thing.

It is the whole message. And so the lyrics that this worship team is singing up here is stuff that I preach and that we believe as a church. So, it's not just the first 15 and the last five. Lastly, for those of you who didn't grow up in a church, , worship is not a music genre.

It's not just music. It's expressed as music, which we'll talk about in a moment, but it's so much more than that. , let's finish out this , chapter 2. In verse 22, Paul also says this.

He says, "Such regulations indeed have the appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. So the other thing we need to know about worship and what it's not is it's not for everyone yet. It's not a rule, but worship is not about you.

It's not about you. " And as somebody who has served in worship ministry, I can tell you that we oftentimes I do this too. I'm guilty of it. We make it about us because we think worship we can treat it as like maybe a mood enhancement. Maybe that I'm supposed to feel something every time the band plays, right.

Or maybe we look at it as our own personal playlist or DJ. I cannot tell you the amount of times that somebody has come up to me after a service serving as a worship leader saying, "You know what song you ought to do. Some early Chris Tomlin or you should pull out one of those hymns or you should and it's all of these ideas about what worship should be.

" And those suggestions I take really seriously because I enjoy hearing what people's musical background is. But if we got into a car together and we tried to pick a radio station together or a Spotify playlist, it probably wouldn't work. We'd all have different preferences and ideas of what a good song is.

And so it's hard to kind of be in a place where you can please every single person. So you have to stick to the vision of worship that God has uniquely given Destination Church. And the third thing that I hear that we kind of make worship about us is that I I just didn't get anything out of it. I just didn't get anything out of it. You see, worship isn't a performance of you for you.

It's meant for you to come into the presence of Jesus and experience that presence. So, let's talk about what worship is. So, look at Colossians chapter 3.

The big idea here that Paul's going to start out with is that worship is setting your hearts and your minds on Jesus. Again, we're just going to take it verse by verse here and digest it. Verse one says, "Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. " And so, the first way that we learn what worship is is to set our hearts on Jesus.

And we need to in order to do that check our hearts and see where our hearts are at. You want to check your heart this morning. Let let me rephrase.

Do you feel like getting a little convicted this morning. Is that okay. Can we do that just just for a little bit. I'm going to tell you writing this. I feel way more convicted.

Delivering it, I feel even more convicted than probably you do sitting in your chair. But let's ask this question. What are you prideful about and what are you worried about. That's how we check our heart. So, what what is it that's giving you pride.

Because that's something that we might indicate that we worship, guys. Does the lawn and the way that the lawn looks give you pride. I'll tell you, for me, I don't got my leaves picked up yet and I'm kind of freaking out about it because there were snow on the ground. Status, clothes, kids, whatever we are proud about, whatever brings us this feeling of validation. And that's what we kind of center our time and our talent and our attention towards or maybe worry on the opposite side of the scale, which is what are you worried about.

What are you anxious about. Because that can easily take the place of your worship and easily take the place in your heart. Do you know and this is coming from somebody who has had years of battles with with anxiety.

Okay, so I'll I'll speak from that perspective. When I was studying about my anxiety, one of the things that I that I learned that I found fascinating about how God has wired our brains is that the neurological pathways in our brains and in our speakers, okay. That the neurological pathways in our brains are wired in such a way that if you are worried about something and you are anxious about something, you cannot both be worried and anxious while being thankful and grateful.

And I was like, what. That can't be true. But what's crazy about it is it is true because it didn't necessarily make my anxiety go away, but it's shifted my focus.

And so as I started to journal in this gratitude journal about things that I'm thankful for, I'm feeling my brain not not go towards those worries and those different anxieties. Here's the big idea. I love this quote. Worship changes you because it shifts your focus from your problems to your problem solver which is Jesus. So you need to set your worries, set your cares, set your pride and and check your heart so that you can come into worship with God.

That's what it is. And then Paul says, look at verse two. He says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

" So he said, "Check your heart and now check your mind. " A way to ask this is, "What are you thinking about. " Like right now, are you thinking about my message. Are you thinking about what's going on after after service.

No, I'm just kidding. But but really though, what gets your attention. What captures your thoughts.

Is it the next thing you want to buy. Is it a person. What is it that has captured your attention and your thoughts.

And our our thoughts should be centered on Jesus. And this happens through worship. This happens through reading, journaling, and all of this this stuff.

But what we do so often is we think that, oh, I've tried those things. I've tried opening up my Bible. I just can't get into the habit.

I've tried a a gratitude journal and I'll journal one day and then 3 weeks later I'll be like, "Oh yeah, I started that journal. But here's the thing. You don't eat vegetables just once and then lose 50 pounds.

That's not how it works. It needs to be some kind of routine that you are setting your mind on things that are above. Philippians says it like this. I'll put it on the screen. I love this verse.

You should have this verse wrote down somewhere. Says, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if anything, if anything is excellent, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. This is the reinforcement of what I was just saying on checking your heart is it's also happening when you're thinking about all of these things. Anything that you can find that is worthy of praise.

Hey, do you have breath in your lungs. It's worthy of praise. Do you have indoor plumbing.

It's worthy of praise. Okay, you have things that are worthy of praise that I could sit up here and give examples of. Then Paul says verse three, he says for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who you who your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. So this is the big idea of what worship is. Worship is an outward expression, your outward expression of your heart's desire for Jesus and your thoughts towards him. It's an outward expression of your heart and your mind towards Jesus. But I've told you what it is, but I need to tell you why we do it.

Why do we worship. So look at verse 5. We'll read a little chunk of scripture here starting in verse 5. Paul says, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

" Anybody want to hear me talk about that for a while. Okay, I'll read on. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid yourself of such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its old practices and have put on your new self which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its creator. Here there is no gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, slave or free but Christ is all and is in all. So the big idea here is why we worship is because we worship because we are made new in Christ. We are made new in Christ.

When you said yes to Jesus, if you said yes to Jesus, and if you haven't, that's okay. But if you said yes to Jesus, you are a new creation. And in this new creation, you are putting on your new self and you are worshiping the one that made that possible. I'll give you an illustration of what this looks like.

Let's let's pull the room here for a second. When is the best time to go four-wheeling. When what did you say. When it rains.

Why when it rains. Because it's muddy. That is the best time to go four-wheeling. Maybe it's just me. So, the best time to go out on a four-wheeler, in my opinion, is when it's muddy.

And so, , my friends and I in high school headed up to the cabin on probably one of what was one of the most muddy spring days ever. And we said, "Hey, let's have a contest. The contest will be whoever can cover themselves in the most mud by the end of this trail run wins.

I don't know what we won because as I'll tell you in a moment, we we don't win anything. So, we went around and we came back and I was covered in head to toe in mud. There was mud in places that I didn't even know like I had a pocket full of mud, okay, in in my pants.

And it was it was crazy cuz I sat down and my friends were all making fun of me cuz all you could see is the whites of my eyes. Okay, there was mud on my eyelids. And I guess what the winner got was the winner got to shower last.

Okay, so for the next hour and a half, I was sitting on a stump outside fully muddy, not able to do anything. I'm just sitting there and looking ridiculous. , and then finally I take what was probably the coldest, longest shower of my life and come out and everybody had gotten so used to me being covered head to toe in mud that the first thing my best friend's dad said when he looked at me is, "Wow, Josh, you look like a new man. " And because I really did like I had different clothes on. I looked different right now.

How ridiculous would it have been if I would have been like, "Yeah, no, I'm fine. I'll just keep going like this. I don't need a shower, right. " Well, I mean, maybe for some of you, you do you'd like to do that, but for me, no thank you. And this is the idea of us being new in Christ, that there is an outward expression of our inward faith in Jesus.

Even back in Paul's time, they could tell who was following Christ because their outward expressions, their outward appearance started to match what was in their heart. And so we as Christ followers, the way that we worship is by going out and living in a way that's glorifying God. That's saying we are made new by Christ and for Christ. But let's get practical for a second. How do we worship.

Okay, I'm a real practical guy. And so when I was learning all of these things about worship, I'm like, "Okay, I get it, but how how do I do it. " So let's look at verse 12. Paul says this, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against somebody, forgive as the Lord forgave you. So what Paul is saying here is he's saying what I what I just ended with is that if if you really believe in this Jesus then use worship as a way to put on that new self to take off things like anger, rage, filthy language and move it towards compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience because God has given you a new self and so put on choose to put on that new self. And then he says in verse 14, "And over all those virtues put on put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. " Now this is the NIV translation I prefer on this one the ESV because the ESV uses this word that says and over all these things put on love which binds them together in perfect harmony.

I love the word harmony as a musician. And if you don't know what the word harmony means, it means when there's the main melody line that the singers are singing, you will see two of the other vocalists singing what is called as a harmony line. A harmony line is not the same as the melody line. So if you heard the harmony by itself, you'd be like, hm, that doesn't sound like the song.

And it's because it's made to be different but still complementaryary to the main melody line of the song. And so we get to hear this beautiful voice, this one voice singing out, but they're singing different notes. That's what this is.

That all of you come from different backgrounds, different walks of life, different voices. And as we sing out, it is uniting us towards one purpose which is Jesus. And so it's to remember that man, if I don't know how to worship, let me just look around for a second and remember I get to do this.

I get to worship with other people here singing towards one God when there are people in other countries that don't get the benefit of doing this. All right, let's look at verse 15. Paul says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body, you are called to peace. And be thankful. " It is Thanksgiving season.

And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another through wisdom, through psalms, hymns, and songs of the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. All right, this is where we get to the real application here.

You need to use worship as a way to express your love for Jesus. All right, I lost every guy in this room. Let me pull you back for a second. Okay, expression's not our thing. Okay, it's it's not something that we like to see people see us doing, right.

And so expression is is kind of difficult, but let me ask you this. , if your favorite sports team, which I would say Vikings, but I don't know how many Packers fans we have in here, if your favorite sports team scores and you're at the game, what are you going to do. You're going to lose your mind, right. You're going to be jumping up and down.

You're going to be like, "Yeah. " See the hand raise. And you're going to be you're going to be chanting along, "School, school. You're gonna be excited to be around other fans of the game and you're gonna be excited to be cheering on your team, right. Why can't we bring that same enthusiasm here.

Because Jesus is way more worthy than the Vikings and he will not fail us when the Vikings will. And so, just remember that. Just remember that that when you're here, it is okay.

It is okay to show just a little bit of expression because a lot of times we just sit back like I am a Midwest guy or girl and I would rather I don't know this song. I guess that's my out. But let me tell you when you allow yourself to really worship Jesus something beautiful happens. And this is the last thing that Paul says in verse 17.

This is where we're going to end today and pick up next week. Verse 17, he says, "And in some things you do. " Is that what it says.

Fact check me. What does it say. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, at work or at home, when you leave here or when you're in here, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Give thanks. There's give thanks again to God the Father through him. This is the big idea.

Worship happens wherever you go. It is not It is not music. It is not what we're doing in here.

It is a part of what we're doing in here. But worship is making whatever you do about Jesus. And so maybe you still don't really have a picture of how this looks.

And so I'm going to invite the worship team up. We've purposely planned two songs for the end. But I want to tell you a story about how I was in this place about a year after I gave my life to Christ.

I went to a worship conference. And I was here at this worship conference and I didn't know any of these things. I didn't really understand any of these things.

And honestly, I felt a little jealous about everybody that I looked around at because I'm seeing people just really worshiping at this place. They had their hands raised and know they didn't have a question. They knew exactly who they were singing to and who they were singing about.

There were people on their knees. There were people praying. There were people doing all of these things. And I'm just sitting there and I'm crossarmed and honestly a little jealous.

Because I've I've met Jesus, but I don't I don't I don't get it. I don't get how they're able to do this thing and just be able to express it so freely. And I'm just sitting here frozen. And so I started to do the only thing that I knew how to do at the time, which was pray.

It's like, God, can you just show me how to worship. I don't know what I'm doing. I love playing music, but if I don't know how to worship, I can't I can't be a worship musician.

And so God, can you show me how to worship. And I just sat there was frustrated for a long time. And then God just started to bring to my mind all of these things.

The first thing that he brought to my mind was just creation. Thinking about Genesis 1. Thinking about how God created all of you, all of the people in this conference center, how he created the birds, the sea, the sky, the wind, the very makeup of our design, and how he knows us. That before the world even set eyes on you, before your parents even saw you, he knew you.

He knew every hair on your head or not on your head. And he knew he knew you beautifully and wonderfully made on purpose and for a purpose. And then I started to think about how how God sent his son so that I could have this amazing life here on earth and this eternity with him in heaven.

And how he willingly left the throne in heaven to come down and die a criminal's death on a cross so that I could have those things. And I thought about how everybody in this conference is was united in one voice towards one savior hands in the air. I had no idea I was singing at the top of my lungs. But it was because I was thinking about the very Jesus that has died for each and every one of you.

The very Jesus that we worship, the very reason that we are even gathered here is because of him. And so I want to invite you during this time of worship. Whether you know the song, whether you don't, if you don't, just start to think about Jesus. Start to think about your blessings.

Start to think about how you have breath in your lungs. Cuz if we have breath in our lungs, we still have a reason to praise. Let's pray together. God, we thank you so much that we can worship you freely.

That God, we're in this this school gym, but we can just come and we can just sing as one voice united towards you. And so God, we praise you. We worship you.

We take this time and we don't make it about us or our preferences. We make it about you because of how good you are in Jesus name.