Amen. Amen. Thank you, Caitlin. Good morning. Good morning. How's everyone doing this morning? Good. Everybody have a turkey hangover this this morning or dressing hangover or whatever? Yeah, this is this is this Sunday and this Sunday we do something a little bit different. Everyone stays in here. We give our rotation of our volunteers and our children's ministry a little bit of a break as well.

too. And we just have nursery for the for the younger ones. And so there's nursery available back there as well, too. But this Sunday is that I try. I've been asked to try to have a shorter condensed message on this Sunday since we have everyone here in the crowd together as well, too. And so I try to be respectful of that. We're doing things a little bit different this morning, changing up our order. Usually we have a little bit more worship on the front end of things. But today I wanted

to have a little bit more worship on the back end of today's message. And the reason is because we're going to put a pause in our series on the study of the book of John, because I'm getting ready to do a three week series, a Christmas series that's kicking off next week. And I didn't want to get into chapter four. We just finished chapter three this past week.

And so I didn't want to get into chapter four and start that and have to kickstart it again. So I've been praying about just a standalone message to get bring you as a word of encouragement today, a word of encouragement and yet a challenge as well, too.

Um, my wife couldn't be here this morning because she's home with a sick one who's has a lot of congestion and not feeling well. And we didn't want to bring to the nursery this morning. So but she's encouraging me. She's like, sweetheart, make sure that your message is encouraging to people today. Don't don't just don't just give them a hard time about stuff. I'm like, if I do that, if I give you guys a hard time, I apologize.

I just get passionate sometimes and I get a little carried, carried away a little bit at times. But you're we're going to we're you're going to understand and see where we're going this morning, because I really want to do really just address how many of you are really excited at the fact that we are we are just around the corner to coming to the end of year 2020.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, good grief. I mean, just when you just when you think you could things couldn't get any more crazy. We try to meet our family, keep everybody safe.

We we met they haven't seen our Atlanta family in a year. We go meet them in Dublin. We found an outside park to to to to get to everybody together.

So we were seeing everybody and we were playing just about ready to go. But we were playing pickleball and my poor mother in law, who's seventy five, six.

She and I were on the same team, but she was going for a shot and the momentum took her.

She couldn't stop, went into the net and fractured her shoulder and dislocated her shoulder.

We had to get the it was crazy. I'm like, can this year get any more crazy?

And she just taken a fall a few weeks ago after working on a on a shed and fell and just had to get stitches in a few weeks, a few months prior to that.

A basketball goal. She's that her grandkids fell over on her.

And I mean, she's 2020 is just a weird year. It's just a weird year.

I mean, we have a lot of crazy stuff going on and some of it's not going away for a while.

Let's be really honest. It's just not.

But it's not. And so the message, my message today is I was getting into it.

Well, I was going to entitle it my two cents because I'm just going to give you my two cents on a whole bunch of stuff.

And I'm like, well, no, that's snarky. I don't want to tell you my two cents.

I'm going to try to lay out some biblical things here, some biblical things for us to look at.

And I just figured since my beautiful wife has given me the encouragement to be encouraging, the title of today's message is still on the throne.

He's still on the throne.

Now, the White House is not nearly as important as God's house.

OK, now we just had an election or it seems like we had an election.

OK, both sides need to get their act together and come together.

And for the sake and the mind of everyone else, come on.

OK, let's let's let's move on from this thing.

OK. OK. But, you know, remember back.

Remember back of the prophet Isaiah, King Uzziah was king and he had just died.

And King Uzziah was king and he had just died.

on the throne and God is in control. It was God who is in control in that vision that he gets. God is still in control. No matter how this chocolate mess pans out, Jesus Christ is still the head of the church. He's still the head of the church. Now, I have I have strong feelings about political platforms. I have strong feelings about political agendas. I have strong feelings about voting.

And I'm entitled to those feelings. Just like you are entitled to those feelings. Each one of us. And I believe that we should all vote. But at the same time that I have those strong feelings, listen to me, no matter who is in the Oval Office, I know who holds the Royal Office of the Universe. I know who holds the Royal Office. God is and will always be in control. And what happens in the church, in God's house,

in my view, is far more important than what happens in the White House. How is the church going to respond to all that's going on? How are believers going to respond to all that is going on? That's the call. That's the question.

And by judging by the way some people are reacting these days, you would think that their only hope lies in the Oval Office.

That's sad.

What happens in the church, what happens in God's house, particularly what happens in your life,

your decisions, your life, the way you live your life,

is far, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And we are collectively, as believers, far more important.

Paul, he writes to Timothy and says that the church is the pillar and the ground of all truth.

You get that?

The church, the church is the foundational basis of all, of all truth.

So what goes on in God's house is far more important.

Back to Acts chapter 2, when we said that, that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and to the fellowship and to the doctrine and the breaking of bread and prayers.

You know, in the reign of Diocletian, I believe it was at the end of the 3rd or the 4th century AD,

Diocletian was a persecutor of the church.

And he forbid the churches to get together.

He forbid Christians of getting together.

And he cited a whole bunch of reasons, different reasons why they couldn't get together.

And he gave them legal reasons why they couldn't gather.

And when they were caught, these people were imprisoned.

They were tortured.

They were killed.

And one of the Christians was trying to explain to the Romans why they would dare to defy Diocletian

and his authority and all that the emperor was saying to do and to not do.

And his response was this.

He said that without the Lord's day, we will not live.

Now, whether that has to be online or whether we have to continue to be wise

and we have to block off roads and we have to wear masks and be mindful of other people,

I get that.

And we'll do whatever we have to do.

And whatever Caesar says to do, we will adhere to what Caesar says in these things.

But the church needs to still be the church.

A lot of us have allowed the pandemic and other issues to come upon us in such a way

that we have become, it's been a great excuse to not connect with one another.

To not be faithful to the Lord.

To not continue to seek out each other in relationship.

And so, as time goes on, guess what happens?

It gets easier.

It just gets easier.

I'm just not going this week.

I'm just not going again.

I will watch it later.

I'll look at, I'll catch up those seven messages I missed.

I'm just not going this week.

I need it for an encouragement. I need it for the accountability. I need it. I hope you do as well. If you're watching online, I hope you do as well. You know, so, so bad news doesn't change the good news. And listen, and yet, and the White House is not as nearly as important as God House. But the other thing I would, I think the Lord would, it was encouraging me with that I want to encourage you with is that whatever

whatever I aim at, that's what I'm going to hit. You know, whatever I'm aiming at, you know, and Chris Payne, he can probably tell you, he's driven several nails in his lifetime. And when you're driving nails, you don't look at your, and you say, oh, look at my thumb. I hope I don't hit my thumb. No, if you look at your thumb, guess what you're going to hit? You're going to hit your thumb. Okay. You look at the head of the nail. That's what you look at. And you drive it. You drive it. You drive it. You drive it. You look at what you're going to hit.

Okay. So this is key. And so the key is placing your eye on what you want to hit. And that brings us to our time of worship today. Why we gather, why we do these things online. And in our time of worship, our eyes change focus and what we're looking at changes focus. And we come to a place where we are hopeful. We are hopeful that we are coming to the end of this pandemic. We are hopeful that we will not be controlled by fear in our lives.

We are hopeful and we are fixing our eyes upon Jesus. That is our aim. That's what we're looking at. The writer of Hebrews says, fixing your eyes upon Jesus, placing our eyes on Jesus, looking to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter or the author and the finisher of our faith.

What are you aiming at these days? What are you looking to hit? One of the reasons why we worship and we come here to worship is because it helps us to realign our aim.

I mean, does anybody else get sideways in the week besides me? I need to realign my aim sometimes.

I don't walk in here with a sense of perfection and I've got it all, I got it all into control. I got it all figured out.

I need to realign my aim and I need my brothers and sisters to come along with me in that.

So I wanted to spend a few, I wanted to spend the back end of this, our time in worship.

Worship. And I say that, and as I say that, I want to give you a very quick working definition of what worship is.

Because we can say that a lot. We just, we need to worship.

In the midst of all that's going on, what do we do? We worship.

And in the midst of how this is going on, Curtis, what do I do? You worship.

Worship. Well, let me give you a really brief, I believe it's a biblical definition, a working definition of what worship is.

Okay, four parts, real quick.

Number one, worship is a response to God.

Worship is a response to God.

Now, 1 John 4, verse 9 says that we love Him because He first loved us.

He first loved us.

So, because He loved us first, we love Him.

We worship Him and we are aligned and we give our allegiance to Him because that is our response to His love.

Has the love of God arrested you to the point where you're like, I just can't help but worship you, God?

The second part of the definition is that worship is the proper response to God.

It's not just a response to God.

It's the right response.

It is the right response.

I urge you, brothers, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

Romans 12, 1.

I urge you, brothers, present yourself.

Why?

Because it's the right thing to do.

I don't care how crazy 2020 is.

God is still on the throne.

I don't care how squirrely the Oval Office is.

God is still on the throne.

God still leads His church.

And the Holy Spirit still dwells.

I therefore, I therefore, and it makes sense. It's the logical response that I worship you. And so worship is the proper response to God. But the third part of the definition is that worship is the proper response to God from the heart. From the heart. You see, God, with God, it always has to be real.

Well, I can't sing as well as Rob does. Who cares? We're not asking you to sing like Rob. Well, I don't play the guitar as well as you. Who cares? Who cares? Has God touched your life in any way? Any way at all? In all of your years of existence? In your long or short years of existence?

If God has touched your life in any way at all? If God has touched your life in any way at all? He deserves your worship. He deserves your authentic worship. You know why? Because you and I don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. And yet, because He first loved you.

You know, listen. God is always looking for authenticity. You know?

I was talking to Rob and Chuck this morning. I said, man, let's just be authentic this morning. Chuck says, that's all I know to bring. I said, I know that, man. I'm just talking. I'm not scolding you. I'm with you on this. Let's just be authentic.

Let's just be authentic, you know? And when you worship, is it really from your heart? Is it really from your heart?

I mean, Jesus puts it this way. The worshipers that the Father is seeking are those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Authenticity.

Jesus lays it out. You want to know what God's seeking? Those who worship Him in spirit and truth.

It's important to God. God puts a high premium on authenticity.

I mean, so here's worship. It's a response to God. It's the proper response to God.

And it has to be from the heart. And I'll finish it out with the fourth part of the definition.

Worship is the proper response to God from the heart.

Whereby, listen, we place God above everything and everyone else.

He has to be above everything and everyone else.

You remember the answer that Jesus gives when He was asked about the greatest command?

He said the greatest command is that, number one, that you love the Lord God with all your heart,

with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

So there it is. There's worship. Everything on the table.

And whereby, worship is the proper response from God to God, from the heart,

whereby I place God above everyone, and I place God above everything else in my life.

So when we worship God, we worship Him supremely.

We worship Him above our hobbies. Yeah.

We worship God, you know, above our friends.

We worship God above our families.

We worship God above our occupation.

We worship God above Netflix.

We worship God above social media.

I'm serious, you know, what if, what if we had a timeline that could be laid out for us

that shows us how much time we spent this week in prayer

and how much time we spent updating our social media

and griefing people

and just checking to make sure everybody's on the up and up,

being the social media police.

What, is your time, is your time, where's the scale in your life?

Well, I'm not in social media.

All right, well, what about Netflix?

Well, you know, the movies are long, though.

Come on.

Who can pray for an hour?

Come on.

It's a documentary.

It's giving me information.

I need that.

I hear you.

I hear you.

We worship God above our fears.

We worship Him supremely.

And we worship God not only supremely, but let me just narrow it down.

I will have no other gods before me. Even God says, I am a jealous God, and He makes no excuse about saying that. He doesn't say, well, don't get offended by this. No, I am a jealous God, and I'm not going to make excuses about this. He wants no competition. God is to be worshiped supremely, exclusively, but also, listen, listen, listen. God is also supposed to be worshiped joyfully.

I mean, when Joe was greeting you at the door, and some of you, I think, Joe, did Joe and Fred hand out lemons to some of y'all today, you know, when you walk in? Good morning. Morning. I don't really know that song. I'm not going to sing it.

Just sing your own blasted song. Well, they didn't get the lyrics up there quick enough, so I don't really know what the lyrics are. Who cares?

Who cares?

Oh.

Man, don't you just love the story? Don't you love the story of Paul and Silas when they're in the jail in Philippi? Okay?

And remember what they did at midnight, it says?

At midnight, they sang hymns. At midnight, they sang praises to God.

During the darkest time of the night, they sang praises to God.

And everyone who was in the prison cell could hear and was listening.

I mean, can you imagine that private concert given in a cappella by Paul and Silas?

They were singing hymns.

They were singing.

They weren't singing the blues.

Oh, Lord, why do we in this mess we ain't?

No, they were singing praises to the Lord.

They were joyfully singing to God in the darkest time, in their darkest moment.

We are standing on holy ground, and I know that there are angels.

Angels!

Angels!