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Rooted in Worship

August 9, 2026 35:53 Cross Church Phoenix

Transcript

· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you this morning? I was telling first service, you know, the part where the wind is blowing over the trees, that was filmed right outside.

· Um, no, I'm just kidding. But we definitely had uh some trees falling down. Uh, man. Well, I am Pastor DJ, pastor here at Crossroads Phoenix. If this is your first time with us, welcome. And good morning to the rest of you who's not uh your first time here.

· And if you would now open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3.

· Colossians chapter 3. And we'll be in verses 16 and 17. That's kind of going to be our our landing spot. We're going to be um visiting a few other passages as well and coming back to Colossians 3 throughout this morning. Didn't Brian do an excellent job closing out the Parables of Jesus series last week? I thought he did awesome. Yes. Yes. And amen. This is It won't be his last. Uh he'll be back up here. We'll get him back up here.

· So, um while you're turning in your Bibles and as we prepare our hearts this morning, I wanted to share um on the middle table in the back, those black round tables, there is a Bible group survey. and if you would scan the QR code on there. Now, I left it very broad because I didn't want to get into so like all the days of the weeks are on there and different times are on there. Um, I ask that you would, you know, you can complete that. That just gives us gives me a better idea.

· Now, I'm asking, you know, just be reasonable, right? Like, so like I want a Bible group on Sunday morning at 10:30. Like, come on, bro. Like, we got to do that. Uh, we got church. Um, but fill that out. And um, and as you well know, we're not going to be able to meet every single request more than likely, but it gives me an idea. Our Bible group leaders and I met um, a few weeks back now to kind of talk through better ways to do this. And so, we're going to put this out and this will give me a broad range.

· You I can look at the responses and see what helps our church best. Last year, we did Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Um, you know, there there's opportunity to change that. Um, but I'm going to wait and kind of see what happens um with the survey. Uh, so if you would when you have a moment, you can do that. There are also uh worship uh handouts in the back tables if you haven't grabbed one yet.

· Well, as you know, we've concluded our parables of Jesus series. We actually went through the miracles and parables and now we are shifting our attention to a new series called Rooted and Ready.

· Every year at Cross Church, we do a church life series. The goal of that is to show us to walk us through what we call our crossurch path.

· How we help people move from simply attending church, which is a great start, uh to moving from attending church to being discipled, equipped, and living on mission to make Jesus known.

· This will be a five-week series and I want to give you just a quick kind of overview as this unfolds. So this morning we're going to focus on being rooted in worship.

· Rooted in worship and we'll get to that in just a minute. The following weeks will be number two rooted in community, number three rooted in disciplehip, and then it'll transition to two sermons on ready, ready for uh mission and ready for leadership. So we start this morning with rooted in worship.

· Not all worship services are services in which worship is happening.

· I want to read to you what a female pastor said in a church and those are in quotations.

· And I want you to think about what the real priority is. Okay, you guys ready for this? Here we go. Now, I'm quoting.

· I want you to make sure you know I'm quoting. I would never say this. If I did, just fire me, right? Get me out of here. But quote, John 19:34, there was a centurion soldier that took a spear and he pierced it in Jesus' side.

· Sounds like we're off to a good start, right? And then she passionately goes into this. The side, you know, that side where you carry your pocketbook, that side where you carry your purse, that same side where your pocket is, where some of us hold our money. Your money may be wrapped in a rubber band.

· Your money may be in your home. Your money may be just in your pocket. But in that side, that same side that Jesus was pierced in, he was pierced in that side, which means that we don't have to pinch pennies.

· So, we take this moment and we drink together. This was during a communion service, okay? So, we take this moment and we drink together, remembering that he was pierced in the side, so I don't have to be pinched anymore.

· End quote.

· What do you think that church is really about?

· Money.

· Thank you.

· Last I checked, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, not to get into your pocketbook. And you say, "Well, GJ, you just put a giving slide up there." Yes, of course, giving is a part of church and actual worship and obedience, but far be it from us to twist scripture and abuse the Lord's table and to get into people's rubber band watted cash, right?

· Church is about gathering to worship and exalt Jesus Christ in unity and fellowship to hear from him through the faithful preaching of his word. Not all preaching is faithful to the word of God, the faithful preaching of his word and to build and equip each other for the work of the ministry.

· Every human being worships.

· It may be money, themselves, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but count it.

· Everyone worships.

· I think a good place to start this morning is knowing what true real biblical worship is. We often confuse worship with expressions of worship. For example, the first thing that comes to mind when I say worship is usually what?

· Singing, music.

· Those are expressions of worship. Yes and amen. But those same things can be done in ways that are not worshipful. When someone says something like, "Man, that person can really worship." We usually don't mean that we've been able to see how they live, how they treat their family in private, who they are behind closed doors, their private life of obedience to God. We don't usually mean that. We mean they really saying loud and expressively.

· And there's nothing wrong with singing loud and and expressively. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But that does not mean worship is automatically happening. Biblical worship is first about a heart posture toward the one true and living God.

· Amen.

· Other religions claim to worship.

· There's worship of Allah. It is a false worship, but it's worship. But true real biblical worship would only go to the one true living God and therefore be genuine real worship. Multiple times in scripture we read about people who what? Honor God with their lips but their heart was far from him.

· So I want to walk us through what it means to be rooted in true biblical worship. And that's our our first heading this morning. Rooted in true biblical worship. We'll have two. We'll be rooted in in true biblical worship and then practicing true biblical worship.

· Like I said before, I'm going to pull from other passages this morning, but our main focus will be camping in Colossians 3:16-1 17. This whole rooted and ready series will be kind of rooted in Colossians and spread out. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning and we thank you for your word.

· I pray God that you would reveal, grant to us this church and those who are watching online or visiting God an understanding of what true biblical worship is.

· I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you would stand, we're going to read Colossians chapter 3 16-1 17. If you are unable to stand, that's okay. Just stand with us in spirit as we simply honor God's word together. Couple verses this morning. Colossians 3:16-1 17.

· And Paul is writing this letter and he 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. In whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. This is the word of God. You can be seated.

· We've got a lot to cover, so I'm going to jump right into it. It is 11:06. All right. Number one, being rooted in true biblical worship begins with obedience to God from a heart of love for God.

· The reason that I'm adding not just obedience to God, but from a heart of love for God is simply because who else obeys God and doesn't have the option?

· Demons do. Demons obey God and they don't love God. Demons obey God and don't uh worship God. So, obedience to God from a heart of love for God. And I want to show you that in Genesis chapter 22. You can turn there if you're quick. If not, you can jot it down um and come back to it later and read it for yourself. But I will read these for you.

· Genesis 22 1-5.

· It says this, "After these things," and God had done some interact interaction with Abraham. After those things, God tested Abraham and said to him,"Abraham."

· And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, highlight, underline, whom you love, and go to the land of Mariah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

· Verse four, on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

· Then Abraham said to his young men, he had a little entourage with him, little group helping him out. He's saying, "Stop here. Me and Isaac, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and what?" worship and come again to you. And come again to you. Do you know what he's about to do?

· He's about to go sacrifice his son in obedience to God. And he says, "We are going to go, me and the boy, me and Isaac. Isaac and I, sorry if I'm wrong. We are going to worship and we will be back." Abraham believes in what? Resurrection. That's what Abraham believes in because the promise is through Isaac. Let me put it to you this way.

· Isaac has to have a kid. Okay? He has to. If Isaac does not have a kid if he never gave birth to Jacob, God is not who he says he is because he promised that it's coming through Isaac.

· So, what does Abraham know and believe?

· He knows that even if I have God is calling me to do this the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. I love my son but I have to do this. But guess what? He believes that Isaac will be raised from the dead.

· Now I've shared this before um in different settings in different churches. This is a powerful point of scripture for me when it comes to worship. This passage is the first time in scripture that the word worship shows up, which is wonderful because we get a lot to learn from it. But what I didn't know until recently, this past week, had no idea. But this is also the first time in all of scripture that the word love is used. It's not at creation. It's not at the flood.

· It's not at the Tower of Babel or anything like that or Abraham's or God's previous dealings with Abraham. This is the first time it says God called Abraham to take his son Isaac whom he loves. And some translations might say whom you love. Whom he loved. First time love is mentioned in all scripture. Go to the land of Mariah.

· Offer him as a burnt offering. So what?

· He gets up early in the morning, saddles up, takes Isaac and a few others with him. the wood for the offering, heads out, and as they get close in the morning, uh, close to the end of the journey, verse 5, Abraham tells his young men, young men, stay here. Isaac and I are going to worship. And if you know the rest of the story, Abraham is uh obeys and he is committed to sacrificing Isaac, but God steps in, stops him, and they offer the ram instead.

· The point I'm making, there's many in Genesis 22. The point I'm making is what Abraham considered worship was direct obedience to God from a heart of love for God. Abraham loved Isaac. That's why a little thing is whom you love. Abraham loves Isaac. He's the promised child.

· But what did Abraham's actions reveal?

· that he loved God more. He loved God more than his own son. He loved God so much. He eagerly obeys. Look at if you read, look at the passage. He got up early. He didn't slack off. He didn't hit the snooze but snooze button. He got up to go do what God said to do. And that is worship. There are no instruments mentioned.

· There's no guitar. There's no piano going up the mountain with them. They're not all going to go sing the Bible. Yes, that's the book for me up on top of that mountain. Nothing wrong with that. I'm just like making a joke. Just simple obedience to God because he loves and trusts God. And that's worship. Which leads me to point number two. Being rooted in true biblical worship is worshiping God according to his word.

· Number two, and you see some references there in Chronicles. Now, you might say, well, those sound very similar, and they are. We want to obey God because we love God. But where do we learn how to obey God because we love God is in his word. Let me set the stage for you in 1 Chronicles 13 and 15.

· I've been reading through 1 and 2 Chronicles in my own devotions and when I came across this I was like this has to make its way into Sunday. All right. David, bunch of stuff has happened.

· Bottom line, David want King David wants to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. Okay, I just summarized a bunch of stuff but let's jump into 1st Chronicles 13:7 says this. And they carried the ark of God on a new cart. From the house of Abinadab and Oza and Ao were driving the cart. And David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might with song and leers and harps and tambourines and symbols and trumpets.

· Doesn't that just sound great?

· It's happening.

· Worship is happening.

· Everything's going well, right?

· Everyone's worshiping God, but there's actually a serious problem going on.

· We find out what that is. 1 Chronicles 13, uh, verse 9. And when they came to the threshing floor of Kaidon, uh, Uza put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. It was falling. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uza. And he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark and he died there before God.

· And David, get this verse 11. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Oza.

· And that place is called Perez Oza to this day. And get this verse 12. David was afraid of God that day. And he should be afraid of God that day. And he said, "How can I bring the ark of God home to me?" Verse 13, don't miss it. So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Oed Edom the Gitite. You want to know what just happened? Worship was shut down. That's what happened.

· Everything stops. It's not like they're like, "Well, it stinks to be USA, but uh who wants to take a spot? We got to get this home." That's not what they do. They stop right there dead in their tracks and like um we're going to go take this thing over to Oed Edom's house and re re I've always wondered what it's like to be Oed Edom. You know, they go, "Hey, it's King David. We got something for you." And it's the ark. You're like, "What?"

· But what we do know is he treated it with reverence and respect because the scriptures say that God blessed Oed Edom's house the whole time he had that ark. And I bet you he didn't touch it. We're going to go take this thing over to Oed's house um and re regroup.

· But worship was put on pause because it wasn't according to God's word. David later learned his lesson. Now, if you go to 1st Chronicles 15, beginning at verse 2, I'm summarizing a lot here, but pulling out the the main parts. 1 Chronicles 15:2. Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God. That's it. For the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever.

· And so, what happens basically is David assembles a bunch of people and says this to the Levites. Verse 13. Because you did not carry, you Levites didn't carry it the first time. The Lord our God broke out against us because we did not seek him according to the rule.

· We didn't seek him according to his rules. So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders, which is how they supposed to do it with the poles as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. Now, if you jump down to 1st Chronicles 15 28.

· So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with what? Sound familiar? Shouting to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and symbols and made loud music on harps and lears. Sound familiar? Yes. There's nothing wrong with the instruments and the worship that they were praising. There's nothing wrong with that. They picked back up where they left off with instrumental loud singing praises to God. But this time it was done right.

· The ark had these poles and the Levites are supposed to carry them on their shoulders and walk. It ain't supposed to be on a cart in the first place. Similar celebration. loud shouting, instruments, all kinds of music going on. In the first instance, God was not pleased because it wasn't according to his word or his rule. But when they did it right, God was pleased.

· Now Jesus echoes this in John 4:23. Kind of a New Testament version, right? But the hour is coming, he says, and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the fear the the father in spirit and truth. For the father is seeking such people to worship him. The statement true worshippers implies what? That not all worshippers are true. True worshippers worship in spirit and truth. That's the kind of people the father seeks to worship him.

· So I'm to bring it back to Colossians, right? Where do we turn in order to know what true worship is and how we ought to honor God? 3:16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

· How are you going to know how to live the New Testament Christian life? How are you going to know what pleases him, what to do, what not to do? By being in the word and allowing it to dwell in you richly. Same word. It's like tabernacled. When John says that Jesus the word became flesh and dwelt, tabernacled among us, it's saying, "Let the word of God tabernacle up inside you set up shop and live in you.

· Let the word of Christ do that." And I need to continue on to our second so heading. So we've seen what it means to be rooted in biblical worship. Let's move to practicing true biblical worship. First thing I want us to see is this. Practicing true biblical worship involves our complete personal devotion to God.

· You see there Romans 12:1 and it reads this way. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. And again we hear the word true associated with worship. Jesus true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. Paul yeah that true will that true uh worship will also encompass presenting your entire body to him.

· Now what does this look like?

· Look at Colossians 3:17. I'll come back to verse 16 in a minute. Look at what Paul says. Whatever you do in word, stop right there. He says in word or deed and do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God the Father. Yes and amen. But he just whatever you do in word, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. What you say matters.

· Is your speech honoring to God?

· Or do you come and worship and sing praises to God and then go home and cuss out your spouse or your friend or your coworker Monday morning?

· Do we do what James warns against, which is blessing God with our mouth one moment and cursing people the next?

· James says, "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing, my brothers, these things ought not to be so." It is unbecoming, uncharacteristic of a Christian, someone who professes Christ to come praise God with their lips and have a heart so far from them that they go home and live completely different. and cuss out or whatever their husband or wife or both.

· Your speech betrays who you are. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. All it does is reveal what's inside of you, what you say." Or look again, Colossians 3:17. Whatever you do indeed is what you do honoring to God not just on Sunday but Monday through Saturday. Right? If you worship God on Sunday hiding the fact that you cheated on your spouse last Monday, we've got a worship problem.

· Or if you worship God on Sunday hiding the fact that you lie on your time card or stole from someone else last Tuesday, we have a worship problem. Now, I'm not saying that we won't struggle or sin. What I'm saying is that uh uh um if the Holy Spirit is in you, he will convict you. That will lead to confession and repentance. Not showing up to church acting like everything's okay.

· Paul tells us what the opposite of presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, pleasing to God looks like in Romans 6:13. He says,"Do not present your members, your body, right, your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness." I like the word instruments like you're being played for righteousness. You're going to submit your body to be played for unrighteousness.

· But present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. What is he saying? Don't present your body to sin. Don't present your body to pornography. Don't present your body to drunkenness. Don't present your body to drugs. Don't present your body to any other idol.

· When you're tempted with sexual immorality and you read your Bible and it says, "Flee sexual immorality." And you say, "Okay, I'm going to run from this as fast as I can because God's word tells me to." That's worship. That's letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

· Or the Bible says, "Let the thief no longer steal." So you say, "I'm done with that life. I'm done shoplifting or stealing from my boss. I'm done with that. I'm going to live an honest life and have integrity because God's word says so." That's worship. Present your entire body, all of who you are to Jesus Christ. And that's worship. It's not just what happens on Sunday.

· It's what happens every day in your life. Not that you won't mess up. Not saying you're going to be perfect. Saying what do you do when you mess up reveals your worship.

· A final word here I want us to see. The last thing number two second section practicing true biblical worship involves our complete corporate devotion to God. What I want us to ultimately see is our private worship includes our private devotion and our corporate devotion to God. So what we do when we come together is also worship. Look at uh verse 16, Colossians 3. In all wisdom, receiving, teaching, admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God.

· Isn't that interesting that it's an admonishment to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts?

· We want our entire worship service to be centered on Jesus Christ from beginning to end.

· As we were discussing this series among uh the pastors, uh a phrase came up that we're rallying around and it's this um it's like basically kind of four Ps. So it's alliterates, you know, pastors, we can't do anything unless it, you know, rhymes oriterates, right? But it's it's good though. We pray praise and preach so that we can go practice. We pray, praise, and preach so that we can go practice it throughout the week.

· As we gather on Sundays corporately, we pray together. But I don't just mean like when Pastor DJ prays before the sermon or when Jordan prays before or after the the song, one of the songs. I I I I mean that, but I also mean those little groups of people that I've seen just randomly circle up and start praying in the foyer.

· I've seen that's so wonderful. It just warms my heart when people just like, "Hey, let's pray. Let's pray right here in the foyer. Let's pray about that." We submit the prayer requests. We have a prayer chain. We have different avenues for this. But like sometimes I mean we at one point in time we got like a picture of it and it was great to see like wow it's people randomly pray pray praying together. That is what we come together to do. Share life together and pray for each other.

· We praise together. We come together and sing praises to God giving him all the glory. Yes and amen. And we preach. Right. my job or anyone else who fills this pulpit's job is to preach the word of God in season or out of season. Meaning when the culture likes it and when they don't like it.

· You know, there are times when societyy's more open to God's word and there are times where they're not. It doesn't matter for me. I will have to anyone else will have to preach the word regardless. Right?

· And the day that we don't is the day that we should be on the phone calling for a replacement for Pastor DJ if he ain't preaching the word. You have my permission like fire me if I start not telling you what God's word says. And we do all this so that we can put it to practice throughout the week.

· But it all begins with being rooted in true biblical worship of the one true living God. That's where it starts. And the Sunday gathering is step one. I love seeing people here um new faces, old faces. I love seeing everyone here gathered together to worship. And that is good and honoring to God. And we should gather and we do gather. Yes. And amen.

· But the next step to kind of bring it home to like well what does this mean for the cross church thing? Um, the next step, if you have not ever been to a pizza with a pastor, I want to encourage and challenge you, you to come to that, sign up for it. Like Brian said earlier, we do it like January through May. We take a little summer break and there's a lot of people who come over the summer that don't get to go. So now when we pick it back up, everyone go. Um, but sign up for that. It's free. I just need to know how much pizza to get.

· But we go over our mission, vision, and then we uh we go over our statement of faith so you can see what we're about, what I'm about. And I'm an open book um for anyone who has questions. But plugging attending church is is a great start, but it's not where it should end. Um we are active members of the body of Christ. And so if you're saying, "Well, what's my next step to to doing more being more involved in crossroads?" It would be to come to that so we can talk.

· So, I challenge you to sign up for Pizza with the Pastor if you have never been to one. At this time, I want to invite the worship team back up as we close our service in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. I pray God now that you would work on the hearts of your people.

· There may be some things going on in our lives that shouldn't be sins that we're hiding, sins that we refuse to just let God shed light upon. Um we we can't hide anything from God anyways. He already knows. But God, I pray that you would convict those who need it. Pray that they would find someone to talk to, find some accountability, find someone to help them deal with their sin.

· God, ultimately, you paid the price for sin. We are forgiven of our sin, past, present, and future, to the glory of God. But we still struggle, Lord. And the church is here to help people pursue holiness, pursue righteousness. And it can be difficult sometimes, Lord. We live in a sinful, fallen world. We live amongst many temptations.

· We have our own fallen flesh to deal with. And God, I pray that you would help us to be rooted in true biblical worship, to love you so much, we will seek you and turn over everything that is causing us to stumble, every sin, everything over to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we uh

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