We're in a message series. We got one week after this one called foundations and just to remind you if you if you forgot or if it's your first time here, the goal of this message series is to help you build a strong foundation in your faith and in your relationship so that when the storms of life come, the bad days happen, which they will, you'll be able to stand firm on the foundation you have in in Christ. And so we've been looking at all of these different different kind of things and all of these messages kind of are stand-alone. This is very different for Destination.

I say different like we've been at church for forever, but it's very different for Destination cuz we usually will walk through a book in the Bible where this one is a little bit more topical and the reason for that is because I want you guys to really develop some of these core principles when it comes to relationships and your faith. And so if you if this is your first time, this is a great week to come because all of these messages has kind of been building up to these last two. So I just kind of want to show you where we've been with this series. We started out just after Easter kicking the series off talking about the different relational foundations.

My personal favorite message in the series was the first week, which was how we build our lives on Christ. And it kind of gave a whole picture of what that means to build your life on Christ. And then we talked about your relationship with your spouse or if you're dating or want to date or want to start some form of relationship in that way.

And then we talked about your relationship to the next generation, whether you are a parent or not, you are leaving something behind. And then as we transitioned into May, we talked about faith foundations. Really, where is your focus.

Where is your time, your attention, your prayers, your money. Where are all of those things going. What are all those things focused on. Where are you spending the most of those things.

And in summary, for all of these things that are up here, all of these things start to reveal something in each and every one of us, myself included, which is all of those things start to reveal who or what you worship. Now, worship is one of those like hard terms to kind of understand because worship is Well, let me tell you what worship is not first. Worship is not the first 15 minutes that we just spent together in the service, okay.

Even though that is a portion of it, worship is not a mu- just a musical genre, okay. It is so much more than that. It is everything that you build your life around, everything that your time, your attention, your money, your resources, everything points towards and reveals who or what you worship.

So, I want to give you a an a picture of this. I don't know if you can see these up here. These are not my normal shoes, okay. They're Converse shoes. I I I typically do not wear these shoes.

And I'm going to tell you why. Because they're from when I was 15 years old, okay. This is since 15, this is the only the fifth time I have worn these shoes, okay. I'm going to tell you why in a second.

But if that just tells you I just want I just want to say this first. It should tell you that this is a very special morning, okay. When I pulled these out, let me tell you why I don't pull these out.

Because on these shoes are autographed, okay. And they're autographed by one of my used to be all-time favorite bands named Paramore, if you know who they are. I was, and I will stand on this truth, the first biggest fan of Paramore in Minnesota, okay. I haven't met somebody that knew about Paramore before I did, and I have not met somebody who listened to Paramore before I did.

And so I went to the first time Paramore came through here, I got to see their show, and they were such a small band at the time. Now they're like big, they're very internationally known. If you don't know Paramore, you should go listen. But I they they were nobody at this time. And at this show, they were like opening the show, and so you just got to walk up to their merch table and just meet and hang out with them.

It was so cool, and I was so like, you know, starstruck even at that age of this very small band at the time that I had them sign this shoe, and then the other band that they were on tour with, which was a band called the Plain White T's, if you know "Hey There Delilah", is on the other shoe, okay. So that's my break, those are the most famous people I've ever met in my life, by the way. And I I need to tell you, these shoes became like part of my identity, okay.

Because at the time I was learning how to play guitar, I got really obsessed with the idea of being in a band, and being in a band that that looked like, sounded like, acted like Paramore, okay. I could show you pictures, but I couldn't find them because MySpace profiles don't exist anymore, apparently. >> >> everybody's like half the room's like, "What's a MySpace.

" We're not going to talk about it. Anyways, I we did everything like to match the same sound and look and aesthetic of this band. And everything that I did was these shoes were kind of up on a shelf in my room, and I'd look up at them as a reminder that someday I'm going to be a famous touring musician just like Paramore, okay. And everything everything was built up around that, okay. And that's a clear picture of what worship looks like.

My worship was not in the right place. Now, at the time, I was not a Christian, in all fairness. But I want you to see how this can so easily be us in our lives.

That we can so easily focus on something so much and want it so badly, or a comfort, or a peace so badly, that we shift it towards something that is that becomes somewhat of an idol and not of worship. Think about this, even churches can do this. Churches can start out with the intention of hey, we're here to worship God. God is the one that we are here to worship, Jesus, and all of the things that he's done and doing and has yet to do. But then, as time progresses, it becomes more about protecting programs, or budgets, or whatever it is.

So easily, things can transition from it's just something I do, or something I like, to something that I worship. And so today, I want to talk about how to tell what or who you are worshipping. And I'm going to give you a really easy Memorial Day weekend verse, okay. We have one verse this morning as our like anchor verse. I never do this.

Usually, it's like half a page and you guys are like, "What's he even saying anymore. " One verse that you can follow along with. It's in Romans chapter 12 on page 975. And just by the way, if you don't own a Bible, please take this one home with you.

It is our gift to you. We want you to open the word of God throughout the week and see how it can transform your life. And today we're reading out of the book of Romans and everything that we do when we open up the book of the when we open up the Bible needs some context.

So, the context of Romans is that there is early church planter named Paul and Paul is writing letters to all of these churches while he's in prison and he writes one to the Romans, to the church in Rome. And he he kind of just goes into a lot of teaching and core ideas. And and in chapter 12, there's this big turning moment that we're going to look at and kind of dissect throughout the message today. So, Romans chapter 12 verse one says this, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.

" So, just in one verse, I want to unpack just in one verse how impactful Paul's words are in revealing who or what we worship. The first thing is that Paul uses this word therefore. And when we see this word therefore, we have to ask, "What's it there for.

" In us, we need to ask ourselves, "How do we see God. " because worship is our response. And that's what Paul is saying as he says therefore, okay.

So, let's talk about it. What's it there for. Well, as you were to read the entire book of Romans, go ahead and do that. I'll take a break really quick.

No, I'm just kidding. That would take a long time to dissect some of what Romans is saying, but I'll make it really easy for you. In the book of Romans, Paul starts out with a problem.

He points out our sinful nature. He points out some of the things that we struggle with in that sinful nature, the hopelessness situations that we maybe find ourselves in. And then Paul spends the majority of the first half of the letter talking about the dichotomy, that is opposites of our sinful nature and the things that we want to do, and God's love for us and how he leads us away from that sinful nature.

So, that's what's happening in the first almost 12 chapters of the book of Romans. But then this turning point happens in chapter 12, where Paul talks about, "Therefore, here is our response. " And if you don't know this, all throughout Romans, there's these beautiful verses about how God makes everything work together for the good of those who love him, and that God died for each and every one of us and for all the sins past, present, and future that we would walk into. And it talks about God's amazing love. And then Paul says, "Therefore.

" And so, what Paul is really saying when he says therefore is he's saying, "This is your response to God's love. " Worship is your response to God's love for you. And listen, because if you miss this, you miss the whole rest of the message. What we do when we worship is a response to God's goodness and to God's love for you.

It's adoration. It's glorification. It's appreciation for everything that God has done, for everything that God is doing, for everything that God has yet to do. It is an outpouring of how good and amazing and faithful and loving God is. And so that's what Paul is trying to communicate here is therefore as a response to God's love.

This is how we should be expressing worship. But how are we expressing it. He goes on to say, "Offer your bodies.

" Just going to stop at those three words because we should be able to ask ourselves what do we talk about the difference between something like shoes and God. When we evaluate those things, practically what it looks like is where is our head, our hands, and our mouth. Where are all of the actions, the things that we think, all of that because worship should be our everyday expression of offering ourselves, of offering our bodies.

Now, this doesn't mean offer your physical body even though I would say that physical fitness and dieting and correct care of your body is a form of worship. I would say that for sure, but in this particular passage when Paul says offer your bodies, what he's really doing is he's he's it's another way of saying offer your whole self. Holistically offer everything as an expression towards God's goodness. When you think about it, this weekend it's Memorial Day weekend, right. And so we honor and we we recognize as well as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, all of the the days that we have that recognize people that offered their whole selves as a living sacrifice so that you and I could have freedom, amen.

And so this is a good thing. And so we see this even modeled in our society. And responses for us should be almost an automatic kind of thing, right.

If somebody says hi, most of the time your response is Hi, hello, yeah, how's it going. Whatever it is, right. There's a response. And so if somebody pays for your meal, typically you say Thank you. See, it's a typical response.

If somebody has had too much caffeine, they're going to be running around. It's a response, okay. We have these all throughout our days and our weeks. There is a response that happens within our head and our heart and our hands. And so what that really looks like, I made a a little visual for you guys today to be able to kind of like evaluate maybe where your being is, maybe where your head, your heart.

And what I what I mean when I say that is your head is what do you think about. Cuz what you think about typically reveals what you're worshipping, whatever you're obsessed over, whatever dominates that mental space. It's that every third or fourth thought that kind of comes into your mind, right. Heart, what do you feel.

What do you love the most. What do you fear losing the most. What do you need the most.

What do you run to the most for comfort. Maybe it's with your hands where you have to ask yourself these questions of what do you actually do. Where do your habits lead. Where does your time go. Where does your money go.

All of those questions about your actions. Or maybe even it's your mouth. What you say about God or what you're saying about God or what you say to others that you believe about God. You see all of these things, when we start to live in a way that is true and proper worship, what Paul is going to be talking about here in a second, all of these things should point towards Jesus, okay.

And is that difficult. And it's okay to admit that some days it is difficult to get your mind off of things. It is difficult to get your feelings off of things. It is different to shift your actions and what you're saying.

But that's the second part of what Paul is saying here. He's saying, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. " So Destination, here's the hard question this morning.

What's difficult for you to give up. What is difficult for you to give up. Because worship is what we bring to God. And sometimes we may hold something as a as as ours and not a living sacrifice.

Think about this. In the Old Testament, when they used to come to the altar before God, they would come and they would bring their first and their best. That was the first of their crop or the best livestock that they owned.

And they would offer it as a sacrifice to God. Do you know what that meant. Let's just make it really clear.

It meant that that animal died and that those things, those crops were burnt up. Can you imagine like looking at that. Like witnessing that as like I offered this and now it's you know, maybe in our 21st century mind being destroyed, right. And that might be where our mind goes to here. And so when when we talk about old sacri- or Old Testament sacrifice, that's what the the norm was.

But then Jesus came. Worship is expression, guys. Then Jesus came. So Jesus shows up and he says, "I'm going to be the living sacrifice. I'm going to be the one that stands in the place of that.

And I'm going to be the one that sacrifices myself for you, so you don't have to pay the weight of any sin, past, present, or future. I'm going to be there making myself a sacrifice on the cross because of my love for you. " That's what Jesus is saying. And so for us, when we think about what's difficult for us to give up, for what's difficult for us to sacrifice, we think about sacrifice as almost as almost as if it's like not getting our way, right.

It's like this compromise thing. But listen, I I wrote this down, so I want this to really get communicated to you. God doesn't call us to sacrifice in worship because he wants to take life from us, but because he wants to lead us to life that we were actually created for. You see, so often the scary thing about the world that we live in is we can easily start to worship things that are created instead of what we were made to worship, which is made to worship the creator.

We're made to worship Jesus. We are are to worship God, But, so often we drift away from this truth. And even in the beginning of Romans, let's go back a couple of chapters in Romans to Romans chapter 1. I'm going to put it on the screen. Paul starts to talk about this nature that we are so suscept- susceptible to.

And he talks about how what happens when we worship the created things. He says, "Therefore Therefore Therefore You with me. God gave them over in their sinful desires of their heart to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And listen and worship and serve created things. Like comfort.

Created things rather than the creator who is forever to be praised. See, the reality that we need to really face this morning is that the world wants your worship. The world wants your time. The world wants your attention. The world wants your money.

And everybody's going to start competing for it. What you say what you think, what you feel, what you do. All of the marketing, all of the social media, all of that stuff out there is trying to make you into a worshiper of something else. And what's really hard, a really hard truth about this verse is that God is a is a jealous God. And that God wants to be in direct relationship with you.

He wants that with you this morning. And for us, if we're running to something that isn't God then we are worshipping the create the created instead of the creator, and God hands us over to that creation. And that creation will sometimes crush us. It will leave us more worried, more depressed, more anxious.

All of these things that we won't want to do. And then they become an idol in our lives. You may have heard this word, and I don't mean it in the context of like American Idol.

Idol, just biblically speaking, means something that you put in front of God, okay. And maybe if you're not there's the familiar with it. There's this thing called the 10 Commandments. You guys know them.

Maybe you're somebody had them hanging in their house at one point, right. The 10 Commandments are these 10 things that God gives to Moses on the way to the promised land. And do you know what the first of those 10 Commandments are. Okay, I've got a couple of you do. Let's just put it on the screen.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image a shoe, an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth or beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them and worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. God wants your worship. And so often we turn from that worship, but your true and proper worship is letting God sit at the throne of your heart.

Now, does that does that mean you can't like and think about and feel and do other things. No, of course not. Of course not. God created those things for you to enjoy life, but ultimately only one thing can sit on the throne of your heart. And you know what happens in this story that's actually kind of sad and I find just slightly funny and in a dark way, okay.

Moses is up on this mountain. God gives him 10 Commandments and then he spends the majority of the next several chapters saying how you should teach the people to live these Commandments out. He's telling him how to build the early tabernacle, the early church.

He's giving him all this direct download straight from God to Moses. Can you imagine the God high that Moses must have been feeling in this. Like he's getting all of the answers right directly from God. Do you want to know how his time is precious solace in silence and solitude with God ends. It ends like this.

We went from Exodus 20 to Exodus 32. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I have commanded them and they have and they have bowed down to and sacrificed to and and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.

'" And so this is what's happening here. Is that Moses is getting this command to not put any other gods before him. And what are the people doing.

Putting a god before them. And and what it is in this is it's a it's a they made an idol shaped like like a golden calf is what this verse says. I know I missed a couple lines, my bad there.

Can I be honest. You and I are like this. You and I are like this that on Sundays we may worship God, but on Mondays we might put the golden calf back in front.

And I know that I've done this many times in my life where I want to my desire is to have God sitting at the throne of my heart, but if I'm being honest, something like this like these so easily take the place of where God should be in my heart. And so the question that we need to be able to leave here answering is who or what has your worship. Who or what has your worship. Because when you change those things, when you really take an honest look at those things, it starts to shift everything in your life. So the way that these were then taken off the shelf and put in my memories box barely ever to be taken out is because I realized that they had become the thing that I wanted the most.

And the thing that I wanted the most should not have been fame and being like Paramount. It should have been Jesus. And for each and every one of us, the thing that should be sitting on that plate is Jesus. And so for Destination Church, this is one of our core values. This is the third time that we've spoke about worship.

I love worship. I love talking about worship. I could do this for a long time, okay.

And And the way that we say it at Destination is worship is not the first 15 minutes of the service. It's not a warm-up to the message. It is the message. So if you're coming in late, sorry. Don't mean to convict you.

I know it happens. If you're coming in late, you're missing the message, okay. You're missing it.

In fact, God has something for you even in the lyrics of the song, even in the praise that surrounds you, okay. And we I don't want to be the only one that talks about this, okay. So, can I do a another first time ever here at Destination this morning. Are you good with that. I would like to bring up our worship director, Esther Davis, to the stage.

Would you welcome Esther up here. This is exciting. This is a second interview. I got to interview Julia on prayer and Esther has been with Destination since we started, but I'm going to let you talk more, okay.

I just tell us about yourself first cuz some people might not have met yet. I have notes that There we go. You got all all of your kids' names wrote down, so >> >> Two pages, not just >> Yeah.

Okay, so yeah, I grew up in Minnesota and I kind of lived here my whole life. I graduated from Cambridge-Isanti High School not far from here. I'm married to Joshua Davis.

We just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We love serving at church together, eating out, drinking coffee, hanging out at Barnes & Noble. We live in New Brighton, Minnesota. We have four kids, three boys and a girl. 10 So, their ages 10, 8, 5, and 2.

I homeschool them full-time and I have a part-time counseling practice. But, as far as worship goes, worship music has been a big part of my life. It's been a way for me to like experience comfort and joy and peace and love and just a way to It's been a powerful way to connect with God. So, little bit about me.

What does like Let's talk about so what So, Esther is the worship director. She's actually on staff here at Destination. So, like tell us what like a typical week looks like for you.

Or just like What does worship at Destination look like for you. Yeah, so like outside of Sundays, kind of middle week, I'm busy with different tasks, preparing music for each service. We do we try and do monthly rehearsals. There's a quite a bit of just administrative stuff, right. That kind of goes on behind the scenes, like scheduling team members and recruiting new team members, which if you want to join us, you know, we're looking for singers and musicians, yes.

And learning and using a computer program for tracks and just making different changes and adjustments from week to week. But also just in my quiet time, I really try to spend time praying for team members and just hearing from the Lord, like what are there some small teaching points that he wants me to share or words of encouragement, things like that. So, what is then significant about us worshipping together on Sunday. Like if if worship is this thing that is supposed to be all the time, why do we why do we do it here on Sunday.

What's the importance of Yeah. So, what as I was kind of thinking about this, the verse from Matthew came to mind that says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them. " And that's Jesus speaking in Matthew. And I just think that's so incredibly powerful.

Like there's something about meeting with other people that like that this myth this verse is kind of like an if then statement. It's like if you gather with two or three in the name of Jesus, I will, right. It's a promise. And it's such an amazing I mean this can happen on Sunday mornings, this can happen in your growth group, this is going to happen at the breakfast table or at bedtime prayers. You know, when you gather with other other believers and proclaim the name of Jesus, the presence of God is there in a unique way.

When we are aligning our hearts or aligning our minds, our bodies with Christ, right. The Holy Spirit then he can be present with us. And the Holy Spirit shows up, he loves to like unify his people, right.

We experience unity, we can experience healing, we can experience encouragement, comfort, wisdom and knowledge. As scripture says the Holy Spirit brings wisdom and knowledge and revelation. And so it's really more than just a service, it's more than lyrics.

There's power in when we gather together. Yeah, and that's the whole thing of like worship is the message, right. Well, like okay, so what does that look like.

That's what it looks like on Sundays. What does it look like in the everyday life. Yeah, so again, like there's so much to say about worship. Well, then this is just like scratching the surface today, but Esther and I were like at an hour-long conversation like trying to work out the interview.

Like man, we could talk about this for a long time. We'll let you get to your recap. But a couple of verses that came to mind with this one is also from Matthew.

Matthew where it talks about you are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify the Father. But then like in the next chapter, he says kind of something that's like seems to be the opposite. In Matthew and 6 and and then he says, "But when you pray, don't be like a hypocrite for they love to pray in the synagogues and on the street corners and on the stages at church.

" That's not really in there, but you know, to be seen, right. Don't be like that. Go when you pray, go into your room, close the door, pray to the Father in heaven, and when God when the Father sees you praying, he rewards you. And so there's this contrast of like both worship is both private and it's also public and it's both.

So living an authentic lifestyle of worship and prayer and no one sees you, it's just as important as worshiping in public, right. And you everyone sees you. Recently I saw I watched a documentary called The Case for Heaven by Lee Strobel and he interviewed a Christian music artist Hawk Nelson and who he grew up so Hawk Nelson grew up in this church.

His dad was a a pastor and he he led a worshiped he grew up leading worship in his dad's church and then he joined a band and he went and toured around. He wrote Christian music and toured around and and then years later after that, he publicly declared that he didn't believe in God. And when someone asked him, "Well, what were you think why did you write these lyrics about God's love.

And he responded, he said, "Well, I think I wanted to believe. " And when I heard that story, like it just sat with me, my heart broke because it's just it's an example of how someone can have a public worship life of worship, but not actually really believe in God, not have a relationship with God. So, again, authentic life style is both private and public.

So, what would you say to somebody who's here today, and I know I've I've personally, even as Christian have been in that place, would say that it's difficult or hard, or maybe they don't understand how to What would you say to Yeah, well, I would want to ask what's hard about it, but cuz there's so many things that can make it hard, right. So many distractions or reasons why worship can just be difficult or uncomfortable. So, some examples could be, you know, worrying about what other people think about you, right. Or maybe you don't really like the style of the music in the service, or you don't Not that anyone here would ever feel that. >> >> I'm just kidding.

I know it happens. Maybe you don't know the song. Maybe you feel like you can't really relate to the lyrics, or maybe maybe you feel like God is judging you.

Maybe you had a sense of like God is kind of judgmental, or he's critical. It's hard to worship someone where you're feeling judged, right. Or critical criticism.

Maybe you feel like God doesn't really like you, he just kind of puts up with you. He loves you, but he doesn't like you. It's kind of hard to connect, right.

If we feel like God doesn't really like us, or doesn't want to be with us. Or maybe you feel unworthy, or maybe you got in a fight with your family on the drive to church. I'm sure that never happens.

Some people have to drive separately cuz of that. I don't Anyway. >> >> I've heard that. Or, you know, there's just a million and one distractions.

Problems at work, financial problems, things, right. That just get in the way. And so I was just thinking about like how do you overcome these distractions, right.

And like one of the things Luke , you shall right, the greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and your mind. And part of worship is like a strength part. It requires effort on our part, right.

That's our sacrifice part. That's our This so it it's a spiritual discipline, like going to the gym or brushing your teeth in a way, right. We have to do our part.

And how do we do that. We We gently we redirect our attention and our mind onto who God is, right. What he's done for you. What are you grateful for. What are the blessings you put in your life.

You know, maybe keep track of these things in a prayer journal. And then you redirect your mind to those things. And then secondly, You might need healing from lies or wounds that are getting in the way of connecting with God, too. And the Lord wants to do that.

He wants to heal and he wants to transform your mind and renew your mind. As a new parent, I struggled with yelling at my kids way more than I wanted to. And so to help me with this, I posted a verse Which one you yelling at, by the way.

>> >> It's the quiet ones that are up to >> >> Psalm , it says the Lord is compassionate. He's gracious. He's slow to anger, and he's abounding in love.

You think about compassion. Compassionate means that he understands exactly what you're going through. He feels what you feel. He isn't judging you.

He isn't criticizing you. Gracious means that he sees your mistakes and he offers forgiveness, and he offers blessing, and he offers favor. Slow to anger means he is extremely painfully patient with us.

And if he does get angry, it doesn't last long. Abounding in love means he has more love than we could ever ever need. It never runs out.

And so every day I would read this verse, and over time my mind would align with my heart, and my heart would align with my behaviors. I yelled less and less and less. And this is a benefit of putting practicing putting our attention on who God is, his goodness, his grace, his love.

It changes us. He changes us. Yeah, I love that.

I think it it reminds me of a quote that I shared at the last time we spoke about worship, which is worship is a shift our focus from our problems to our problem solver. It shifts our focus onto the thing that we should be focused on to find that and discover that freedom. So, thank you for sharing that.

Everybody give it up for Esther really quick. We're going to move into a time of responding in worship. So, if you would just stand with me as I kind of conclude today cuz we stand as as we are able to respond in worship.

And maybe you're here today and and being expressive about worship is is kind of something that you don't normally do. I want to invite you to just go into that space. As Esther said, like sometimes it can feel like there's maybe judgment there or people are looking at you. I promise they're not, okay.

It's It's just I want you to feel freedom to worship this morning as you feel led. And I just want to invite you in this moment to just bow your heads and close your eyes as we just kind of respond in reflection to God. And maybe for some of you this is all new to you, like this idea of putting God first. And so, if you're here today and God just needs to come first and foremost in your life, like make that the priority.

Make that the priority first and as you do your worship will start to shift and you will start to focus and be transformed from the inside out. And so, let me pray for you. God, I thank you for everybody in this room. I pray that we would come to you authentically where we are, no matter how messy, no matter how distracted, how much is on our mind. God, that you would just break down those barriers just for the next 3 minutes that we would just spend the next 3 minutes together just worshiping you in song.

And so, God, we thank you for your presence that is at work here. It's in Jesus' name we pray.