Rooted in Worship

Welcome to Crossings. My name's Tyler and I serve as campus pastor right here at Crossings Church El Mirage. And I want to welcome you to service today. Before we get started, I want to make you aware of a couple of ways that you can connect with us today. The first, if you have a phone with you, you can send a text message with the word "Crossings Church" no space to the number 94000. Or if you'd like to use the cards that are in the seat back in front of you, we've got three cards that'll direct you on ways that you can get connected this week. The first is the new card. If you're new to Crossings Church over the last few weeks, we would love to connect with you. Take some time to fill out that card during our service today and drop it in one of the black boxes and then we'll follow up with you this week with some more information. The next card is the next card. Take some time to use that card if you're interested in taking some next steps in your faith journey. Things like baptism, joining a group, or even serving. And then lastly, and I believe most importantly, is the prayer card. And I want to guarantee you that if you take time today to fill out that prayer card, all of those come to me and I get to pray over each of them individually. So if you've got things big or small going on in your life, please feel free to share those with us. We'd be happy to pray over them. As we get prepared for some God-honoring worship, I want to encourage you to go into service today with an expectant spirit. We know that God will do big things in our midst. So I want to encourage you to enter this time with an expectant spirit. Now let's get prepared for some God-honoring >> Hey, good morning Crossings Church. Let's stand to our feet. Let's praise our God who is so faithful to us. >> Praise in the valley. Praise on the mountain. I'll praise when [music] I'm sure. Praise when I'm down. Praise when I'm numbered. [singing] Praise when surrounded. Praise cuz there's water. My enemies drown. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh oh my soul. I'll praise when I'm feeling it. I'll praise when [singing] I'm going. Praise cuz [singing and music] I know you're still in control. Praise is a weapon. It's more than sound. My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down. As long [music] as I'm breathing, I've got a reason [singing] to praise. Praise the Lord, oh my I'm going to praise. Praise the Lord, oh my Oh, I won't be silent. My God is [music] alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. >> Praise the Lord. Praise cuz you're sovereign. Praise cuz you reign. Praise cuz you rose and defeated the grave. Praise cuz you're faithful. Praise cuz you're true. Praise cuz there's nobody [music and singing] greater than you. Praise cuz you're sovereign. Praise cuz you reign. Praise cuz you [music and singing] rose and defeated the grave. Praise cuz you're faithful. Praise cuz you're true. Praise cuz there's nobody [music] greater than you. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Oh, I'm going to praise the Lord, oh my soul. [music] Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I'm going to praise the Lord, oh my soul. I won't be quiet. My God is alive. How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet. My God is alive. >> [music] >> How could I keep it inside? Oh, I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet. My God is alive. >> [music] >> How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. >> [music] >> Praise the Lord. I won't be quiet. >> All right. Yeah, let's praise the Lord. We know that Jesus alone, [singing] he is our great king of glory. There's no one else [music] like him. There's no one that can compare to him. So, let's sing this, Who is the great king of glory? >> Who [singing] is the great king of glory? Seated on high in the heavens. [singing] Oh. Jesus, [music] you alone. You are [singing] the Lord God almighty. Strong [music] in compassion [singing] and mercy. Oh. Jesus, you [singing] alone. I've searched [music] the world for a love that could fill my heart. But nothing compares to the wonder [music and singing] of who you are. Holy. All the earth singing [singing] holy. All the angels cry [singing] holy. Jesus, you alone. Jesus, [singing] you >> [music] >> alone. Who do you are? You set the stars in the heavens. You set the world into >> [music] >> motion. >> [singing] >> Jesus, you alone. You breathed life in creation. You walked among your created. >> [singing] >> Jesus, you alone. Awesome. I've searched the world for a love that could fill my heart. Oh, but nothing compares [music] to the wonder of you. >> [music] >> Holy. All the earth cries, "Holy." All the angels [music] cry, "Holy." Jesus, you are worthy. Worthy. All creation sings, "Worthy." All the heavens exalt Jesus, you are worthy. Jesus, you are worthy. You shed your blood [music and singing] for salvation. You broke the curse for our freedom. [singing] Jesus, [music] you alone. We thank you, Jesus. You rose worthy. up with the morning light. You'll come again >> [singing and music] >> in your glory. Jesus, you are Lord. >> [music] [music] >> Jesus, you are Lord. >> [music] >> All the >> [music] >> earth cries All the angels cry >> [music] >> Jesus, you are Lord. Oh, you're worthy. All creation sings worthy. All the >> [music] >> heavens sing Jesus, you are worthy. >> [music] >> All the earth cries All the angels cry Jesus, you are Yes, you are worthy. All creation >> [music] >> sings All the >> [music] >> heavens sing Jesus, you are [music] worthy. >> [music] >> I can't help but sing worthy. >> [singing] >> How my heart cries out worthy. Jesus, you are Lord. And worthy, >> [singing] >> I lift my voice and sing, worthy, I bow my [singing] life to exalt thee. Jesus, you alone. Jesus, you alone. >> Amen. You can go ahead and grab a seat. Um, as you do so, we're going to enter into a time of prayer. And so, I'm going to read for you, uh, out of Psalm 119, a few different verses, and we'll focus on three specific prayer prompts today. And here's really the, um, the context for our time together in prayer today. >> [music] >> So, we're going to pray through a few different sections, and I want to read this first section, verses 1 and 2. Uh, simple verses, but really helpful. Psalm 119, beginning at verse 1, says this, "How happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk according to the Lord's instruction. Happy are those who keep his decrees and seek him with all their heart." As we walk through this concept of prayer, uh, we're going to spend some time praying in a few different ways. This first prayer prompt, as we think about this concept that those who walk according to the Lord's instruction are happy and are fulfilled, [snorts] I just want to ask you to start by praying for someone else. Maybe it's someone that you're near, maybe it's a friend, a family member, a spouse, a coworker. I just want to encourage you to first, in this first little section, let's pray and ask God to move powerfully in someone else's life in our circle, and that they would walk according to God's instruction. So, let's start by praying for someone else in this first prayer prompt. >> Second thing I want to draw your attention to as we continue in the spirit of prayer verse 105 of the same Psalm says this, "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path." One of the beauties of scripture is the simplicity and the clarity that we get from a verse like this. That God's word, the Bible, which we have here in front of us, is a light for our path. It helps us to know which direction to go, what steps to take, and clarifies what we should be doing. And so, in this second prayer prompt, what I'm going to encourage you to pray for is to pray for yourself. That you would be a person whose path is lit by God's word. That the Bible itself begins to direct you. As a matter of fact, what we find in verse 130 is this, that the revelation of your word, that is God, his word, brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced. So, let's begin to pray for ourselves in this second section, that we would be a people who trust God's word to lead our lives. >> Last thing I want to draw your attention to in this time of prayer is found in verse 89. It says this, "Lord, your word is forever. It is firmly fixed in heaven." Which echoes a similar concept we see in James chapter 1, uh that there is no shadow or variation due to change in God's character and nature. God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. And in that we can take confidence and trust in the fact that the God of the heavens is who he says he is. And so, what we're going to do here is I'm going to pray over us a prayer of thanksgiving that God is exactly who the Bible says he is and isn't changing. So, let me pray for us as we prepare to continue in worship. God, we come before you. And God, we are so thankful for the truth of the words that we just read. That while seemingly everything in our lives is changing, one thing remains true and that is you and your word. And God, we pray that that truth would infiltrate the other areas of our lives, that it would give us a hope and a foundation, a solid confidence to live from. God, we pray all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue in worship. >> Maybe we've made this complicated. More than it was [singing and music] ever meant to be. Hasn't it always been about the same thing? Lord, [singing] bring us back to simple things. You be the center of it all. My heart [singing] belongs to you. My savior, all in You're the one [singing] I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul leaps to sing. Jesus, I love Teach us to discern the moment when to sing and when to sit here at your feet. Keep us awake to what's important. Just like Mary, chose [singing] the better thing. You You, are the center [singing] of it all. My heart belongs to you, >> [music] >> my savior all >> [singing] >> in all. You're the one I [music] hold on to, for the beauty [singing] of your name, my soul lives to sing. Jesus, I love you. >> [singing] [music] >> Oh, for you. Our center of [music] it all. My [singing] heart belongs to you, my savior all in all. You're the one [singing and music] I hold on to, for the beauty of your name, my soul >> [singing] >> will live to sing. >> [music] >> Jesus, I love you. >> [singing] >> Oh, how I love >> [music] >> Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love Oh, how I love you. Jesus, [music] I love you. And my whole life for your glory, my whole world >> [singing] >> for you only, everything for the honor >> [singing] >> of your And if my [singing] days tell the story, let it be of you >> [singing] >> only, everything for the honor of your name. Sing it again. And my whole life for your glory, >> [singing] >> my whole world, for you only, everything, for the >> [singing] >> honor of your name. >> [music] >> And if my days tell a story, let it be of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And my whole >> [singing] >> life, for your glory, my whole world, >> [music] >> for you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And if my days >> [music] >> tell a story, let it be of you only, >> [singing] >> everything, for the honor of your name. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. >> [music] >> Oh, how I love you. And I have >> [music] >> my whole life, and my >> [singing] >> whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for you only, everything, >> [music] >> for the honor of your name. And if my days tell a story, >> [music] >> let it be of you only, everything, for the honor of your name. And my >> [music] >> whole life, your glory, >> [music] [music] [singing and music] [singing] [singing and music] [singing] [singing] [singing] [music and singing] >> Amen. You go to grab a seat. As you do so, I'm going to let you know about a few events coming up that you'll want to know about. But, before we get to that, I want to give you a heads-up about the cards that are in either the seat back in front of you or the seat back behind you. Um these cards are really important. There's three of them. They're pretty self-explanatory. I'll explain them anyways. Um the first card is the new card. So, if you're relatively new to CrossChurch looking to connect, that new card is super helpful. It's how you and I can get connected. We can share more information about the church, but also hear more of your story. So, that's the new card. The second card is the next card. One of the things that's consistent in who we are as CrossChurch is we believe that as we gather and spend time in prayer and studying God's word that oftentimes he will call us into a next [music] step, whether it's something like baptism, maybe it's saying yes to Jesus for the very first time, or serving in a ministry or something of that nature. This card is how you can communicate those things to us. And then last but not least is the prayer card. That prayer card's important because we pray here often as a church understanding that that is the way that we communicate with the God of the heavens. And so, if you've got something going on, big or small, and want to share that with us, we would be honored to pray over that. Any of those cards you can take and drop in one of the boxes as you exit our services a little bit later. Well, hey, we've got a couple of options for you in terms of events coming up that I want you to know about. The first is our last call for Faith and Family Night at the Diamondbacks. Um pretty stoked on this one. We got a group of about 50 signed up so far. So, this is going to be a blast. We're going. The Diamondbacks are winning right now, which is always a good thing. That makes that more fun. The concert's going to be a blast, and I will promise you, um as I did for my son, that Dippin' Dots will be available. So, if that's your thing, just know Dippin' Dots will be at the stadium. If that's a deal-breaker or not for you, uh that is available there at the stadium. So, make sure if you're interested in Faith and Family Night to get registered tonight by midnight just to make sure that we get our final ticket numbers locked [music] in. Again, you can do that at crosschurchcares.com/events. And if you are registered, we'll see you on Friday night at the game. Second event coming up is called pizza with the pastor, and it's super super important. If you're maybe new to Cross Church, looking for ways to take a next step or get connected, pizza with the pastor is the answer. >> [music] >> And here's why. In that, we'll have an opportunity to share with you the mission and vision of who we are as Cross Church, ways that >> [music] >> we might be able to get connected, but also ways that you can begin to grow in your relationship with Christ, ministries you might be able to be involved in or benefit from. And so, that's a great event. That one also you can register for at crosschurchcares.com/events. That's next Sunday at 11:45 a.m. directly following this service. But do us a favor, please register so we know how much pizza to have. That's very important there as well. So, make sure to register for pizza with the pastor there. And then lastly, we'll create an opportunity here for about 30 seconds. You'll see it here on the screen. >> [music] >> Uh to give you a chance to give. Here's one of the things that's true. We know that God has given to us, and as God has blessed us, we get an opportunity to give back to him out of what he has blessed us with. And so, you'll see some options on the screen here, a QR code, give you a chance to do that for about 30 seconds as we prepare to step into studying God's word. So, let's consider giving. >> Well, here's the deal. Welcome to Cross Church, whether you're here in the room or if you're watching online. We're so glad that you made the choice to join us today. We're going to be today in the book of Colossians chapter 3. So, if you got a Bible, go ahead and open that up. Flip there, click there, and make your way there to Colossians chapter 3. We are in week two of the series that we're calling rooted and ready. That's why we're talking about trees that seem random, but actually have a deeper purpose for us today. Uh and here's the concept for today. Um we are doing something for the very first time. At least I am doing something for the very first time. >> [snorts] >> Never in my entire life have I turned my sermon outline into a T-shirt. So, if you missed the fill-in-the-blanks today, they're on my T-shirt. We're literally going through the four P's. So, there's a spoiler. Some of you are like, "Perfect. I'm going to fill in all my notes and close them up now." All right, don't do that because God's watching. All right, seriously. So, keep your notes open. You never know. But, we are today talking about the four P's. And here's kind of the idea for this. These have been something that have been kind of a part of our DNA as a church for some time now, but we're really going to lock these in and leverage these four P's weekly. One of the questions I often get, which you may have wondered, is, "Hey Pastor, what do you do for the rest of the week? Your job is to be a pastor and that's on Sundays, but what do you do the rest of the week? Well, the answer is things happen on Monday through Saturday that make Sundays happen and also people run into things during the week, so I get to do those things during the week as well. One of the things I do during the week is something called service planning. So, that's writing a sermon and actually working together to make sure that I don't know if you guys know this, but all of the songs and the prayer times and all match. That doesn't happen by circumstance, okay? We actually have to strategically plan to make sure all of that stuff works together. And so, this is kind of how we get to that point. And so, here's kind of the key question. I don't know if you've ever wondered this, but the key question that we're going to answer today is who are we as Crossway Church? Maybe you're joining us for the first time or the thousandth time and you know who we are. If you're joining us for the first time, you're going to hear us say things like making Jesus known and that's really important to us. You're going to hear us talk about our values, which are being biblical, relevant, missional. And those are going to be things that really guide us. And you're going to hear us talk about things like church planting and how we want to be a church that keeps the light on for other churches. Well, I'm going to add to that list today that today's sermon, the four P's, are going to be the sort of other thing that we are known for as Crossway Church. Before we jump into our text in Colossians chapter 3, though, I do have a question. All right? Just raise your hand if you've ever made a decision and live to regret it for like ever. Like a long, long time. You never live it down. All right, good. We're in good company, so I can be honest with you, all right? Not that I was going to lie to you, but now I can definitely be honest, all right? Here's the thing. Two years ago, I made a decision that I'm reaping the negative consequences of right now. Two years ago, at our home, I had this issue where weeds magically appeared in my yard. And the HOA was kind enough to write me a letter about it. It was super nice of them. They wrote me a letter. And so I had to do something about the weeds. But something you need to know about me is I'm a little bit little vindictive, little passive-aggressive. All right, I don't like to let things slide, all right? So I had to do something about it. I was like, I'm going to let the HOA know I did something, all right? Not only I clean up the weeds, yes, but I'm going to spray for the weeds. And I'm going to take it up one extra notch. So I ordered for just a couple of dollars a nice little product that you can buy on Amazon. Comes in a bottle about this big. It's called landscaping dye. Someone said, "Oh, no." And oh, no is right. Here's what happened when I ordered this landscaping dye. Came in this little bottle. And the instructions say to be very, very careful. That a little bit goes a long ways. Well, that has been very true for the last 2 years of my life. Because here's what happened. I did my little project and I made a little spill. So on the side of my house in the rocks right there, you can see blue dye. I had blue rocks. What I thought was only going to last for a couple of days has lasted for a very significant period of time. However, somewhat miraculously, over the last 2 years randomly blue spots would show up in my garage and around my tools. And it got to a point as we moved a couple of weeks ago where it took over my entire home. As I was going in and out of the garage and grabbing tools, blue dye appeared everywhere. I kid you not, to this day I grabbed a tool out of the garage on my way here, I have blue dye on my hands. It's never leaving me. It's infiltrated everywhere. I've had to mop and I've had to clean and I and it's still there. As a matter of fact, I was so kind to my friends that helped me move that they helped me move, and they came home with blue dye on their hands, as well. It was a great gift. Uh but here's the deal. Um my wife, who's very logical, says, "Oh, well, where did you spill it? You can just go and clean it up, and it's over." No, no, no. It's everywhere. All right? It's everywhere, and it haunts me forever. Well, here's the reason I tell you this story. As we talk about these four P's, here's my heart today. Is I want to see you and I have lives that have been completely infiltrated with these four P's. That this rhythm or process impacts you and I in a way that we will never forget, and that sticks with us consistently. And so, let's read out of Colossians chapter 3, beginning in verse 16. It says this: "Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you. In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or indeed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Let's pray as we jump in. God, we come before you asking two things, as we do every week. Firstly, you give us the wisdom to understand these words, that these words would come alive to us today. And that secondly, God, you would give us the conviction to live out what we've learned today, beginning tomorrow. We pray all this in your name. Amen. Well, as we do this, I'm going to walk you through these four P's, because we are a church built around the four P's. And the first P is Pray. Good. Somebody paid attention. Awesome. That's so good. Um the first P is pray. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about who we are, and why we do prayer the way that we do. Scripture here says, in Colossians chapter 3, that we should be admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing to God with gratitude. And that whatever we do in word or deed, that we should do everything for the glory of God. And prayer is the foundational piece of that for us. And our prayer here is a little bit unique as to other places you may pray and other churches that may pray. For us, there's a two-headed monster, if you will, of prayer. The first piece that's valuable is having spirit-led prayer. That is to say this, we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives as we pray. Means we give space for God to speak to us, but also we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in prayer. The other side of that conversation is having both spirit-led and scripture-fed prayer. What I love about this is that we admonish one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, that we actually use the word of God to teach us and to help us relate to others, that the Bible infiltrates even the way that we pray. If I was going to give you a helpful model for it, it would be what we just did in Psalm 119. Three specific ways that you can begin to pray today and tomorrow to begin to live out prayer. One way that you can do this is to use arrows, okay? So, maybe in the side margins of your notes you can write an arrow first going up. So, if you draw an arrow going up, the first piece of prayer is about praying up. That is that when we pray, we start by thanking God for who he is. We did it last when we looked at Psalm 119, but what we do is we praise God through prayer. We start with that. And if you wonder what to thank God for, you can begin to thank him for what he's done and how he's moved in your life. If you look for more evidence, all throughout scripture you can find ways to praise God. The names, characters, and characteristics, and attributes of God listed all throughout scripture, we can actually pray those back to him. Uh and so use scripture to feed your prayer. So first we pray up and praise God. Second, we can pray a down arrow and that is to begin to pray for ourselves. We can actually pray for ourselves. We can pray that God would convict us of areas where we're falling short according to his standard, allow him to speak to us and to call us to a higher standard. We can pray down. As a matter of fact, when we read Psalm 119, we understood that God's word is a lamp to our feet. And so for us, we can pray that God would allow his words be a lamp to our feet specifically. So up, down, and then the third arrow that we can begin to pray is out. So we can begin to pray for others. This is called supplication. So we pray for others. You might pray for friends or family members, people going through sickness or difficulty or struggle. We begin to pray for others. You can pray for other churches around the nation. You can begin to pray that the kingdom of God would advance. You can pray for leaders in our city, state, country, and world that God would use them for his glory. So understand very clearly that prayer is important. Prayer matters for us. And what I believe is important is that prayer should become routine for us. Not mundane or boring, but that prayer should become routine. We should have a framework for that conversation. It reminds me of a couple of stories. The one being uh the lady who her mother was cooking the Thanksgiving turkey and she cut the end of the turkey off and put it in the oven. Well, at the time, the girl asked her mom, "Why do we cut the end off the turkey?" Well, she says, "You must ask your grandma cuz that's how she taught me to do it." And she asked her grandma who says, "Well, you'd have to ask your great grandma because I don't I don't know why we do that. She she taught me how to do it that way." She asked the great great grandmother and the great great says, "Well, I chopped the end off of the turkey because I didn't have a pan big enough to fit in the oven with the whole turkey." And then it just became a random family thing that they did. They all just cut the end off of the turkey in order because it was what they did. Well, as a matter of fact, we see a bigger example of a similar concept here. NASA, if you believe in NASA, different story. No conspiracy theories here. Uh NASA, when they have their rocket boosters, they have a very specific width on them. The specific width of, historically speaking, all of NASA's rocket boosters is 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. Now, you'd say, "Tyler, why on earth do I need to know that fact?" Well, let me tell you how we arrived at 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. Well, in order to get from where the rocket boosters are built to where they are boosted from, it's a very technical term, boosted from, what you have to do is you have to go through a series of tunnels. And so, on these trains in these tunnels, they have to go through a width that is 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. And so, that began to be the framework. Now, if you're like me, you begin to go down this path that causes you to ask, "Why?" Well, why is the railroad 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in wide? Like, why is that the opening we decided? Well, as you continue, that that rail width was used because English tramways were built at 4 ft and 8 and 1/2 in wide. And then I'm thinking, "Okay, well, why did English tramways get that? Did they just randomly pick that number?" No, they didn't. Those tramways were built using the exact same wheel spacing as old Roman war chariots. So, Roman war chariots, some 2,000 years ago, were built at 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in, which shaped all of modern society. And then if you just go one last layer further, why were Roman chariots that wide? Well, here's your scientific answer. Roman chariots were that size so they could accommodate the rear width, the butt, of two horses. So, if you step back and think about this with me, the rocket boosters that NASA uses are 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in because two horses' butts put together are 4 ft 8 and 1/2 in. why does that matter to us? The standards that we start with, shaped by odd things, stick with us. For generations upon generations. Here's my prayer for you and I today. That when it comes to prayer, no pun intended, that we would create healthy rhythms that we can look back to so that generations that come after us know that we pray this way that is spirit-led and scripture-fed and helps us to grow in our faith. The second P I want you to see as we continue in this process is praise. It is valuable. After praying, we get to praise. And I want to be clear about a couple of things that praise, what we do here together through spiritual songs as Colossians chapter 3 would call it, is not just praise through worship songs. However, that is the mode that we do it most often in on a Sunday morning. So, I'll speak to that today. It is the simplest and clearest way where we see worship on a Sunday. But it is about more than just songs that we sing. It's truths that we declare. And so, it's with that in mind I want you to walk you through why we structure our services the way that we do with praise, the songs that we sing. I believe there's a few benefits to it. Number one, scripture commands it as we see here, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. One of the key elements of what we do on a Sunday morning is to thank God through songs. Now, one of the benefits for someone like me is that it doesn't say it has to be on key singing to God with gratitude, all right? I I don't know if you guys are like me, sometimes I sing too loud and I begin to hear my own voice and realize, "Oh, I should turn that down a little bit." right? But, singing to God with gratitude is valuable. Now, one of the things I think you need to understand as we talk about this is that it is valuable for us because scripture commands it, but it is also valuable for us because worship sticks with us. Songs stick with us. And we can laugh about the way that silly songs like jingles for commercials stick with us. And different ways that things on the radio stick with us. But, what we find is as we sing songs in church that stick with us they help tune our hearts to sing God's praise. One of the things that I promise you is true, it's happening on a Sunday morning every single week. Some of us identify with this more than others is the reality that as we sing words sometimes it is us trying to teach our heart to do things. Sometimes we sing, "I love you, Lord, and I trust you." And sometimes it is us singing that song trying to tune our heart to believe that. We're trying to teach our heart to believe that. And so, worship is yes about declaring these truths, but it's also about tuning our heart to what God is commanding us to do. Now, one of the things that naturally I begin to process and think through is what separates the singing we do here from concerts at venues that happen all around the valley. Now, one of the most important differences is that our talent on stage doesn't arrive in cleaning parts. If you know, you know. Any Swifties in the room? Like one of you. Okay, good. That missed. That's okay. Um, here's the focus though. The focus of our worship isn't on the people on stage. As a matter of fact, I'll speak for Emily she doesn't mind if you don't remember her name when you leave here on a Sunday. But, you know what name she wants you to know? It's the name of Jesus. That's it. That's the focus. So, as we sing the songs, what makes it different than a concert? It's the focus and the aim. The goal is to bring glory to God. As a matter of fact, Colossians 3:16, singing to God with gratitude. So, as we gather together, we pray, but we also are a people that prays. The third thing you'll see about us is that we also believe it's important to preach. To preach. And now, I'll tell you a little bit about this. The way that we preach is different than some. Um there are some churches who will pick different sections of the Bible to preach every Sunday. It'll be a verse here, a verse there, a verse there, and that's what they'll pick. There's some churches that have a 3-year rhythm where they'll preach a certain set of prescribed verses every single week, and that's it. There's no thinking to it. As a church, here's what's unique about the way that we preach. Our location pastors gather together, as we'll do next week for 3 days, and we will nail down our preaching calendar for the next year. And what we'll do is we will combine where we've been, what we need as a church as we speak to some of the needs of our congregations, and what we believe God is leading us towards to lay out the foundation of what we will preach through. So, for example, we've already laid out that this fall we're going to preach through Job. So, if you're here and you're experiencing suffering, get ready. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. I'm really excited for this book of the Bible. But, what's unique is then we pick these books of the Bible and we preach through them in their entirety. Which means I don't get to skip the parts that are uncomfortable. I don't get to fast-forward to the verses that have a little bit of tension in them. I have to listen to what God is trying to teach us through each and every verse and walk us through it as a church. We preach through books of the Bible. We don't just pick what feels good in the moment. We don't skip the weird parts, the tough parts, or even the boring parts. We preach them all. I went back this past week and did a little bit of research starting in 2016 when we started keeping track of this stuff really well. Um all the way up through this year, the list of books of the Bible that we've preached through in their entirety compared to those we haven't is crazy. The list of books we haven't preached through is pretty small and in the next year it's going to get even smaller by the grace of God. We are attacking this with the goal of growing our faith in terms of depth. The hope is that as we continue to study God's word and preach through every part of it and then pair Bible groups with it that study the content and flesh it out that we grow as disciples in our understanding of the word. Understand that preaching is vital to what we do as a church. The fourth P that you'll see in this four P's is practice. It's one that I believe is very, very important. As a matter of fact, I'll read for you the words of James chapter 1 here which says this beginning in verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only and so deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like someone who looks at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works. This person will be blessed in what he does. You see the difference here? You can pray and praise and sit under preaching, but until you practice all of that other stuff, you won't have accomplished what God's intended purpose is. Practice. It is about action. We hear God's word and we do God's word. By the grace of God, my hope is that what we learn on Sunday shapes who you and I are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That we are a people who worships on Sunday, but also worships throughout the week. One of the ways that this has fleshed itself out has been fun to see. As a matter of fact, as a church we talk often about evangelism. I had a couple of stop me after the first service and the wife said, "Hey, I feel like evangelism is my gifting." You know what's cool about that? I got to give her the green light to go do some evangelism and help her with some resources and tools. And as a matter of fact, as a church we went over the summer series and taught people evangelism. Uh I'll be honest with you, evangelism could be pretty scary. So, we taught people a few different methods and I had somebody mention this past week to me that they learned tools during the evangelism class that served them well in daily life. We talked about this recently that honestly, the way that the gospel gets fleshed out is leveraging where we live, work, and play for the glory of God. And so, one of the guys mentioned, "Hey, I am really into woodworking. I spend a lot of money at this one store. I happen to be there this week and I was showing the guy who worked at the store what I was working on and it was this little box with a specific inscription about wearing the full armor of God." And he said, "What happened is, it brought up a conversation about faith." Where the guy who worked at the store shared, "Hey, that I'm actually a Muslim and I'm trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. And where do these things line up?" Now, the guy wasn't converted in that initial conversation, but what I can tell you is this. When we talk about evangelism and we practice evangelism, that is doing the practice portion. That's where what we believe shapes what we do. One of the cool things that happens is we talk here as a church about helping others. About caring for other people. And here's what happened. I got a text yesterday from a young mom who said, "I have a bunch of extra resources that I'd like to bless another young mom with that doesn't have them." And so she loaded up supplies to give to other young moms in our church because she cared about helping others. We talked about it and she did it. We talk about here planting churches and then we have people that gathered in our midst that left to go launch two new churches this year by the grace of God. We talk about let's go, about making sure that the light stays on our churches all around our city and state. By the glory of God, you and I partnering together, that is happening. You see, at the end of the day, the reality is this. We must practice what we believe in. Practice is where it goes from theory to action. And scripture confirms this for us. And so I want to begin to do this with my remaining time. I just want to spend time answering a key practice. How do the four P's make their way into our daily lives? It's simple. How do the four P's make their way into our daily lives? I'm going to give you four easy things that you can do starting this week to turn those four P's into repeatable actions in your life. Number one, find time to pray daily. It doesn't have to be magical and it doesn't have to be an hour long every single time. It might, but leverage where you're at. Maybe your only moments of silence are after you drop the kids or most of the kids off at school and you're driving to work. And that's your window for prayer. And for the glory of God, I would say leverage what you have. For some of us, it means we wake up 5 to 10 minutes earlier to spend time in prayer. Some of us stay up just a smidge later to spend time in prayer. But find a way to pray daily. It's not magical, but those daily repeatable actions begin to shape who we are as people. The second thing I want you to see is that you should create a rhythm where you praise God daily. One of the things that happens in our house, and our kids will confirm this to you, is that at dinner every single night when we sit down to dinner, everyone at the table answers two questions: the best thing and the worst thing that happened that day. I love this idea. It's not even original to me. I stole it from someone else. But here's what happens. Every single day, as a family, we're talking about things that we have, that happened, that went well, that we can praise God for. And so for us, it's a good thing and it's a bad thing. And it begins to be an opportunity for us to care for each other, to support each other. So, think through a daily consistent rhythm where you can praise God daily. Third, I just want to encourage you to insert the Bible into your life. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Here's the thing. We live in a day and an age where the Bible is more accessible to us than it's ever been. If you like to read, awesome. You can read the Bible. If you don't like to read, you can listen to the Bible. If you don't even like to listen, you're actually able to find places where you can watch the Bible unfold in front of you. But I want to encourage you to find simple, repeatable ways to study the Bible often. Here's what we find. It's not magic, but when we get into God's word, God's word gets into us. And when we need scripture, it's there for us because we've studied it, because it's right there, and we remember it. Fourth thing I want to encourage you with, make it happen. If I could just lovingly tell you from somebody who cares about you, if you will pray daily, praise God consistently, and study your Bible, God will show up and show out in your life. Get rid of the excuses. Make it happen. Create space for it, and then watch God move powerfully in your life. Let me pray for you as we begin to step into a time of worship. God, we come before you. God, people gathered in this room and those that are watching online, and God, as we gather together specifically today, my prayer is that you would help us as Crossroads El Mirage, a church right here on the corner of Peoria and El Mirage, to be a people that have prayer at the center of who they are. God, I pray that for those of us in the room and those watching online, that we would create consistent rhythms to pray. That we would get rid of excuses and hurdles that hold us back, and we would find times to pray. Also God, that we would find times to praise, to thank you for how you are moving in our lives. That we would sing songs to you with gratitude, understanding that at the bare minimum, you have saved us from eternity in hell. And God, that is enough to earn our gratitude. God, we also specifically today pray that you would help us to be a people that spend time constantly in the word. That scripture memory would be true for us. That we would be familiar with stories in the Bible, and that those things would be there for us when we need them. That they would become a part of our daily lives. God, again, that we would be a people who get rid of excuses, that find ways to allow the Bible to be inserted into our daily lives. God, we pray all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue in worship. >> Here I'm an instrument of exaltation. [music and singing] And I was born to lift your name above all names. You hear the melody of all creation. [music] But there's a song of praise that [music] only [singing] I can bring. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. >> [singing] >> Only you, Jesus. [music] Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. >> [singing] >> You are the infinite >> [music] >> God of the ages. Yet you chose to make my heart >> [singing and music] >> your dwelling place. You healed my brokenness, [singing] showed me your glory. So I have songs of [singing and music] thanks not even angels sing. Who else is [music and singing] worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no >> [music] >> only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is [music and singing] no one, only Jesus. >> [singing] >> Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, >> [singing] >> only Jesus. Who [music] else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only Jesus. >> [music] [singing] >> Lamb of God, >> [music] >> anointed one, who [singing] was and is and is to come, seated on the throne [music] above. Holy, >> [singing] >> holy, the righteous one who shed [music] his blood. You proved to us the Father's [singing] love. Jesus [music] Christ, be lifted up. Holy, >> [singing] [music] >> holy, the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is >> [music] [singing] >> to come, seated on the throne above. Holy, >> [singing] >> holy, the righteous one who shed [music] his blood. You proved to us the Father's love. >> [music] >> Jesus Christ, be lifted up. Holy, holy, the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne above. Holy, Holy, >> [singing] >> holy, righteous one who shed His blood. >> [music] >> You proved to us the Father's love. Jesus Christ, >> [music] >> we lift You up. Who else is worthy? [singing] Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only You, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only >> [music] >> You, Jesus. There is There is no Only You, Jesus. >> [music] >> There is no Only You, Jesus. >> Thank you guys so much for joining us today. Hope you guys have a great week. See you guys next