This is Home: We worship Jesus
Pastor Matt Messner
March 2, 2025
Introduction
If there is one area of ministry that I feel the least comfortable leading, it is what most people would call worship.
I can make a “joyful noise” but I don’t think anyone wants me to do so into a microphone.
And it isn’t like I didn’t try to become a great worship leader. I really tried. People told me that I just needed training so I joined the choir to get vocal training in college. I thought it would help, but the only thing that helped was that by being in a choir I could hide my voice from everyone else’s. I became great at lip-syncing.
I knew that as a youth pastor I needed to be able to play guitar. Every youth pastor should be able to lead worship and play guitar, so I bought a guitar and I took lessons. I needed an instrument to go with my singing. For three years I took lessons. I learned to play chords but I have no rhythm. I could never figure out how chords were formed or how to play improvisationally. I tried HARD.
Some have “it” and some don’t. You gotta know where your gifts are.
There were times when I led worship as a youth pastor, relying heavily on Heidi to do the singing.
This being said, I worship Jesus almost constantly, and this includes singing. My lack of musical talent does not keep me from loving worship, and from having an ongoing song in my heart.
God created us for the purpose of worship.
Everyone worships something.
We get to decide who or what we will worship.
(David Foster Wallace/Tim Keller)
“If you worship money and things— then you will never feel you have enough. If you worship your own body and beauty, you will always feel insecure about your looks, and when you pass your prime, you will die a million different deaths internally…If you worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and a need to be in control and you will need power over others to keep the fear at bay. If you worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”
Although we may not be tempted to worship a statue, we fall into the worship of the idols of money, power, and beauty.
We worship our addictions, our hobbies, and our heroes. If we don’t worship God we will worship something else, it is often the worship of self.
All of the idols are cheap substitutes for our created design:
We were created to worship God.
Philippians 2:10-11
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is something that God calls us to do RIGHT NOW. Not in the next life. Not next week. Not after we’re done having fun.
When we worship Jesus, we become the people He created us to be. You become the best version of you.
You are designed to worship God.
1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The Bible says that you are chosen by God to be a priest of the king and a praiser of God.
To discover one’s call to be a worshipper is life changing, and when you live out that calling, it will help you become more like Jesus. We become like the things that we worship.
As a church, one of our values is worship. “We worship Jesus.” If we don’t do anything else as a group of people, we will worship Jesus. It will be a priority for us.
Worship is a key to breakthrough in my life and yours, in countless ways. God knows what worship can do, to bring a person freedom. Worship is the avenue for your healing. It is the pathway to the joy that you are seeking. It is a tool for the renewal of your mind. It is something we can do anytime, anywhere.
Today, I am asking God, to help each one of us take another step forward, in our calling to be people of worship. To embrace that calling, and to fulfill it with intentionality.
Imagine being a soldier in an army and you are about to enter into hand to hand combat against three other armies. But your king, is a godly man. His name is Jehoshaphat and he “sought God”, “followed the ways of God”, his heart was devoted to the Lord and he was a reformer for the nation of Judah. (see 2 Chronicles 17).
I am reading from 2 Chronicles 20…
3 nations came to wage war against Jehoshaphat…
2Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. they are getting close…” (that is, En Gedi). 3Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
NOTE his response: When threatened, fearful, he responds with prayer, and fasting. Before reacting, he seeks God.
4The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
5Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard
6and said:
“Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you…
12… For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
13All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.
14Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.
15He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ ”
18Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. 19Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
20Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” 21After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his love endures forever.” (a crazy military strategy).
22As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 23The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. (They started fighting each other)
24When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped. 25So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. 26On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, where they praised the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Berakah to this day.
27Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. 28They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the Lord with harps and lyres and trumpets.
Worship is the key to victory in the battles you are facing.
No matter what battles you face, enter the battle with worship and prayer.
(A big deal at work? A conflict you’re trying to resolve? A difficult conversation to have? A surgery? A heartbreak? A big exam? Under spiritual attack? Suffering from depression?)
Begin with singing, and follow through with action.
When we worship, the power of God is activated, on our behalf. The greatness of God, begins to move in our lives and situations.
His power is much greater than the power of our ideas and actions.
His power dwarfs the best that we have to offer.
(Illustrate): My favorite place to worship Jesus, is in the ocean. (Describe). This past December, the largest waves ever surfed came through Hawaii (Jaws), and hit the West Coast (at Half Moon Bay (Mavericks)).
Alo Slebir, 24 years old, had recently arrived in Maui…started getting texts… saw what was happening…flew to the Bay Area…Got up at 4 a.m….But because the swells were still relatively small, he and Luca Padua, whose job as jet ski driver and tow partner is to bring him into oncoming waves, decided to wait a few hours in order to save their energy for the long day ahead.
By 11 a.m., Slebir had caught five or six rides on a series of 15- to 20-foot waves. “They weren’t big yet,” he says, “probably just an eighth of the size of came later in the afternoon.”
But then it happened.
In the blink of an eye, the monsters predicted days earlier by the ocean buoys had finally arrived.
“It was suddenly a different world,” Slebir says. “The water color had this ugly, murky look to it due to the fact that the [energy from the waves] was stirring up stuff from the bottom that probably hadn’t been turned over in years. It was something that I had never seen before out there.”
For the next few hours, one wave after another reached heights of between 60 and 70 feet.
Slebir, exhausted but still pumped full of energy after catching nearly 30 massive waves, remembers the “giant wall of water” gathering shape as he held onto to the tow rope while Padua hit the throttle of his jet ski.
“He just yelled, ‘Up!’ and then we went. There was no time for questioning anything. I remember thinking, ‘OK, we’re gonna do this,’ ” he says.
A split second later, a wave growing to the size of a 10-story office building — and traveling faster than any swell he’d ever ridden — rose up behind him, and Slebir found himself rocketing down its nearly vertical face, traveling faster than he ever had in his life.
“Luca was on the side of the wave with his jet ski at full throttle, probably going 50 mph and couldn’t catch up with the wave,” he says. “There was so much water being drawn off the reef, being pulled up the wave, that it almost felt like I was moving backwards. It was a crazy sensation.”
Even crazier were the deafening explosions erupting behind him as the 10- to 15-foot-thick lip of the wave broke off, sending thousands of tons of water crashing down behind him.
“It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before, like thunder times 10,” Slebir says. “It made this slapping, growling sound that almost made it seem like the wave wanted to eat you.”
Alo Slebir at Mavericks World Record Contender – Big Wave Challenge 2025 Entry
https://www.instagram.com/jsandycam/reel/DEEMFdgphzA/
When God says, “Go”, when He says “worship”, when we say “yes”, it’s like grabbing that tow rope on that jet ski. God calls us to face the challenges of life with praise and worship.
He then backs us up with the power of His presence which dwarfs us. We ride the power of heaven when we worship God. We tap into the greatness of God. We can watch Him work, and give Him thanks.
Some people like to argue about worship styles, volume, lights, the fashion of the worship team, the instrumentation, theology of the songs, etc. Some debate how much worship is enough. Some argue about what is emotionalism, versus what is lifeless. What is “orderly” and what is “distracting”?
But God is not looking for people to win arguments. He is looking for people who will engage in worship.
In John 4 Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman, at a well. She understood religious arguments, but her heart was far from God. She tried to argue with Jesus about where people should worship. Here is what Jesus said:
John 4
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus told this woman “the hour is coming.” He referring to the coming Holy Spirit. So guess, the hour has come. It is now.
True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth.
The Father is seeking a certain type of person. Will we be the kind of people who God seeks? He will find you when He sees these things:
Worship: To bow before God, and to attribute worth to Him.
Spirit: Not about a location, as the Jews and Samaritans thought. The temple had been the spiritual center for worship.
But now, through the Holy Spirit, who purifies us, we have access to the Holy Place. Without the Spirit, we are separated from God, and are attempting through human effort, to reach Him. To worship in Spirit is to interact with God in the core of our being.
Truth: God knows our hearts. He is looking for sincere worship. Not for show. Not for pride. But true worship, where God, not self, is the focus.
Jesus is more concerned about a heart of worship than the mechanics of worship (place, technique, theology)
AS we talk about worship today, I wanted to bring Pastor Bethany into the conversation, as she is our primary worship leader and serves our worship teams (TQ).
Include an interview with Pastor Bethany, about worship, from her perspective.
Questions for Bethany: (Six minutes?)
- What do you hope to accomplish during the singing portion of the service?
- Why?
- When did you feel called to be a worship leader? What was that like?
- What would you say to the person who prefers to skip the music, and come in for the last song?
- What makes for the “perfect” worship experience, for you?
(True worship glorifies God and it doesn’t bring focus on the worshipper. It should not be distracting. Worship is more about what we are giving to God than it is about what we are receiving from God.)
Challenge for you today:
Expand your expressions of worship.
The Psalms describe numerous ways of expressing praise and worship. Do something that stretches you. There is no limit to the way our activities can be surrendered to God as expressions of worship, and we are individually comfortable expressing worship in different ways.
Paint. Edit a photograph. Write poems of praise. Dance. Sing. Run for the Lord. Let the way you teach, be an offering to the Lord. Could your job be his or her offering of worship? Could a truck driver worship Jesus through praise and through their driving? Worship in a new and creative way.
Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in 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.
Therefore worship is not a religious expression, but it is a way of living. Cultivate a life of worship. There are some people here who have not been free to worship God because of a fear of what other people think. For some, it is a fear of sounding bad, or a fear of appearing to be overly spiritual or uncool. God wants us to push through those fears and focus on Him.
When we worship God, the world becomes holy ground. It’s not about how well we sing or how expressive we are. It is about what takes place between you and God. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and we have unhindered access to God, because of what Jesus has done. We are temples of worship.
Yesterday I did a trail run in the morning and I snapped a photo from the top of a hill that I ran up:
While I was there, a song of worship came into my heart. We are going to sing it in just a moment. I wasn’t worshipping nature, but I was worshipping the creator. I didn’t do it for anyone. It flowed from my heart in the moment.
Worship is not something we do to be seen. It is not a show. Not entertainment. Not for us. It is for God.
Response/Closing
Cultivate a life of worship.
It is part of what we were made to do, and it is part of who we are called to be.
First, receive communion. This is where we surrender, and place Jesus on the throne of our lives. We recognize Him as the center of our worship.
(PRAY)
Dismiss after the song.
Life Group Discussion Guide
This is Home: We Worship Jesus
Pastor Matt Messner
March 2, 2025
Introduction to Worship
Many people define worship as a Sunday service experience. We often think of worship as something that happens at the beginning of a church service, primarily through music and singing. Worship styles vary—contemporary, contemplative, traditional, and more.
However, the Bible defines worship much more broadly. Worship is not just about music; it is about our entire lives. The way Christians express worship also varies greatly, influenced by culture, personal preferences, and traditions.
God created humans to be worshippers. The capacity to worship is a unique attribute of humanity. The Psalms emphasize the importance of expressing worship, and Jesus taught that we “must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Romans 12:1 tells us to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and as believers, we embrace the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9-10).
One of our core values as a church is this: “We worship Jesus.” Worship is not confined to a church building or a single act; it is a way of life. Every person is created to be a worshipper of the Most High God. As we deepen our relationship with Him, we cultivate a lifestyle of worship.
Discussion Questions
- It has been said that all people worship something or someone. What are some ways that our culture worships “idols” today? Are there things in your own life that you are tempted to worship instead of God?
- Worship can be expressed in many different ways. What forms of worship do you personally enjoy? Which ones are more challenging for you? Why? (Examples: singing in public, raising hands, giving, kneeling, dancing, speaking words of praise, playing an instrument, etc.)
- Read 2 Chronicles 20. Have you ever chosen to focus on worship in the midst of a difficult trial or spiritual battle? What was that experience like? How can worship serve as a powerful tool in spiritual warfare?
- Read 1 Peter 2:9-10. What does it mean to be part of the “priesthood of all believers”? How does this passage highlight the importance of praise?
- Read Romans 12:1. What does it mean to worship God as a living sacrifice? How does this impact the way you live in your home, workplace, and daily interactions with others?
Application
- This week, take time to reflect on how you can integrate worship into your daily life beyond Sunday services.
- Consider trying a new form of worship that may be outside your comfort zone.
- Journal about what worship means to you and how it influences your relationship with God.
Let’s pursue a deeper, more intentional lifestyle of worship together!
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