Embracing Worship: A Heartfelt Approach to God

I'm so excited to be starting our new series called Psalms for the Summer Volume Five. This is the fifth time we have done this series over the last 10 years, and every time I find myself getting blessed. It's hard to not be blessed from the Psalms. You can find yourself searching in the Word of God and eating something.

Psalm 100:1 says, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the Earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations."

I want to speak to you from the subject, "Make Some Noise." Make some noise! I need you to greet four or five people around you and make some noise as you do it. Let them know how much you love them and make your love verbal. Amen!

I have to be honest with you, the lead-up to the conference was pretty hectic. I don't know how it was for you, but around here it was pretty busy. It's kind of funny how much work goes into a conference for it to be three days. It's almost like we have months and months and months of preparation, and then three days it's done. It's out of balance. I'm the master of my own calendar, and I'm in charge, so if I'm out of control, it's my fault. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to launch a book series in the lead-up to the conference. That was stupid because that takes so much work. Not only that, we had a lot of friends' conferences that we had to be at. It got chaotic.

I like to set my way to sermon trap. I got my office, my home office; there ain't no distractions. It is quiet. The only distractions are my dogs, and outside of that, literally, we live out in the country now, so it's like quiet, it's peaceful, it's my own little sanctuary where God speaks to me. There ain't no distractions, there's nothing happening, and I just get to write and write and write, and I need that silence. I like silence, but lately, I've been having to use plane flights as sermon tables. You know that little jammed-up, like little tiny space? Yeah, I'm always fascinated by people who do that, you know, jump. I'm the kind of guy that gets on a flight; I like to watch a movie, yeah, maybe catch up on some music, even a podcast, I'm down for that. I'm not the worker type, all right? But some of your Silicon Valley types, you just get on there and you're like emailing the whole time, so diligent. I do it reluctantly because I have to.

One time, in the midst of the turbulence, I had Kira record me. I'm like, "Babe, you got to record this," because I was literally trying to type as the plane was going like this and that. That was my conference message; it was like this. I had to use the Holy Spirit to interpret my own notes. But it's the noise, that's the noise I need—the silence. It's the noise.

Luckily, my birthday was also in June. We had an amazing couple in this church who gave me this gift; it was the Air Maxes. I keep saying AirPod Pro Max, Air Maxes. These things are brilliant. It was great because I can't go long hours with the things in my ears, you know what I'm talking about? You know, it just feels like you've got like this earache. So these things just sit over, and I love putting it on noise cancellation. How many people have the blessing of the Lord, the noise cancellation? When you go from transparency to noise canceling, it makes that little boom, you know? It makes that little sound, and then it's like you mute the world, and you're in a little cocoon of silence.

Wouldn't that be great if you could do that in life? You know, with all the noise, with the news and the drama and the issues and the agendas and the comments and the critics and the ideologies and the distractions and the demands and the chaos—all the things that are vying for your attention in life? Imagine if you could noise cancel it. Imagine if you could just cancel it, go into a cocoon of silence, and block it all out.

Now, as nice as that sounds, we know it's not possible because you're actually not in control of what happens in life. You have very little control over what happens around you. No matter how hard you try, you cannot control the outcome of every situation in every season. You can't control the way people respond to you, and you certainly can't cancel out the noise, so to speak, of life. Even if it were possible to cancel the noise, it certainly wouldn't be practical because the same feeds that you use to inform you are actually the same feeds that end up irritating you.

We need to be practical when it comes to being inspired by people and figures. We can be informed by what's happening in the world, but too much information can make us worry. The same place we get inspired is the same place we get intimidated. This is what we call noise. What consumes our mind will control our life. We allow the fear and noise to come in, and it can control our life, making us wake up in fear, worry, and anxiety. We may try to get pills to meet depression, but we are still keeping the feed that's coming in, and it's controlling our life. Unless we plan to live in complete isolation, there has to be another solution to living with the chaos.

Romans 12:2 instructs the church to take control of their mind. Paul says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. He doesn't just say to think positively, but to ponder on all that Christ has done, think about who Christ is, who you were, and who you are now. Use the background and foundation of that to take control of your mind and use that as the leverage and power to take control. Take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. In other words, in every situation, even when the situations are out of control, you, your thoughts, and your mind can still be in control.

Wow! While I might not be able to cancel the noise, it does not mean that I'm not in control of it. Let me explain what I mean, and I do want to give you some practical help today. I want to help us overcome the noise that so often overcomes us. If we're going to live healthy and we're going to be the kind of believers that live the healthy life that God's called us to live, where we're not anxious and toxic and bitter, and we're letting the fear narrative control our life, I want to give us some tools that we find from the Psalms, especially Psalm 100.

It's pretty helpful to know that it happens to be a climactic Psalm in the collection of what's called the Royal Psalms. The Royal Psalms being a set of Psalms that detail our responsibility as a part of creation to give God what is due to Him.

Now together, these Psalms have an emphasis on God's sovereign rule. They talk about His goodness to His people, they talk about the responsibility of all the nations to acknowledge Him, and the utmost importance of God's people worshiping Him. This is what the psalmist wants to know. It talks to all the Earth, talking about all creation. You have a responsibility to worship God. There are some praises that are due to God just because of who He is, just because of His goodness, what He's already done, just because He's saved your skin. Like all the things that we could come up with. Because of all those things, praises are due to Him, praises are due to God. And because of that, we're meant to give God praise.

However, what you've got to understand is that what the psalmist doesn't want you to do, however, is just because God is due praise, he doesn't want you to make it a duty. God's due it, but it shouldn't be a duty. It should be instead done with joy. This is going to be helpful. It's going to be really helpful because God deserves praise. So when we come with worship, we're giving to God what is due to Him. It's something that He deserves because He is a good God.

However, there is another layer and level to the worship that we bring to God because of what He's due. If we direct the way we do it with joy, then it actually helps us. It doesn't just bless the Lord when we do it with joy; it becomes a key that unlocks something in our life. This is how good God is. There is a layer to worship. Worship is first meant to be, "God, You're so good. God, let me lavish worship upon You. God, I've seen the goodness, and I'm a part of creation. Without You, I wouldn't be here, but just because I'm here, You are worthy of praise."

You do worship, but if I do it with joy, it becomes a very key to unlock something in my life. Stay, hold that thought for a moment because this is going to help you in your approach. The truth of the matter is, when we were to directly execute each verse, we will actually find some insights on how to bring the kind of praise that God is into. God is not obligated to accept your praise just because you give it. Just because you give it doesn't mean God has to receive it.

It's like if someone comes with a birthday gift, but instead of going and getting something brand new, they give you something leftover. You open it so excited because they've come with a gift, but it's like a half box of old nails in a tin of paint that no one used. God is not into that half-hearted, tired, post-conference Starbucks praise. So if you're coming to go with just some half-casual kind of fatigue praise, you better shake yourself out of it and remember who you're praising. It's not a duty that we're like, "All right, here I am, hope you're happy." No, He's not happy. He wants the heart, and that's why the psalmist says, "Do it with joy, make a joyful noise to the Lord."

This is about to set all the non-singers in the room free. The psalm doesn't actually say anything about singing in key; it gives no qualification for singing in the right pitch. In fact, it doesn't even say it has to be perfect. It doesn't even say make a joyful song; it says make a joyful noise. So maybe even a shout could be some praise. We can all bring praise to God, even if we are not musically trained. Joy is the qualifier for what God accepts.

It's like a parent at a piano recital—everyone else may think the kid sucks, but the parent is proud. God is looking for the joy, not perfection. This gives us incredible freedom to worship God in whatever way we can. We can shout, sing, or even just work with joy and excellence. Service can be worship too—like a janitor whistling while they work. Parenting can be worshiped too if we do it with gladness and joy.

However, God does not accept lip service—singing without any substance. True service is an aspect of worship. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, and serve Him with gladness. Come into His presence with singing. About singing songs about all the great things God does and all the great things that I'm ready to do and how I'm going to worship Him, I don't live that out in my life. I'm doing lip service, and God doesn't have to accept that. So, my shouting has to move from shouting to service. I need some substance to myself. You want a hollow shout? You want a substantial shout? It's coming out of a real place.

In addition, we find the psalmist illuminate in verse 3 that when it comes to worship, God wants to be experienced. This is talking about His presence. It says, "Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture." You see the word "know" that is the word He used, that means both to acknowledge God for who He is and to be known by God. Talking about His presence, it's difficult to worship God from a distance. God is not some distant deity that wants to be worshiped from afar. In fact, New Testament, New Covenant worship is worship in proximity. That God is an up-close and personal God, that God wants you to come up close and personal so that when you're in His presence, that's where you know God and are known by God.

I'm not just known by God as a Creator, but I know God because I'm in His presence and I'm known to Him. The psalmist says, you've got to know God, draw near to God. That's the invitation to draw near to God. From His presence is where you begin to get the perspective of this in verse 3. It actually sets up the tone for this invitation into God's presence while we worship.

Because from there, we find in verse 4 the posture we take when entering His presence. Check it out, it says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and bless His name."

One surefire way to find yourself in the presence of God is to count your blessings. Because as you begin to recount your blessings, it won't be very long before you realize just how blessed you actually are. Like when you begin to recount your blessings, when you begin to take stock. Now I've got no problem with you coming to God and asking for things. I've got no problem with you coming to God and making your request known for God. The Bible makes it clear, you have not because you've asked not. So, there is a very potent asking ability of the Saints because we know what our God has. Why would you not ask for it if there is something you need? Why would you not ask for it if my child is hungry and they don't ask for the food that I've got? They stay hungry. It's the same with the people of God. If you have not because you've asked not.

Now, while I'm not opposed to the bold ask by faith, I do believe there's power in not coming to us but just to give thanks, just to count your blessings before I go ahead and ask for what I need next. What if I just assess the ways God's blessed me? This is what the psalmist does. The psalmist does this in verse 5, "For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations."

I've been working on a series of philosophical leadership teachings that I've been laying on my staff recently, and I'm hoping they get to lead on YouTube Church in some series that we have some time. The most important one I think is starting with counting your blessings. As you begin to count your blessings, the tide of God's provision in your life rises, the awareness of His power and what He's doing in your life begins to rise, and the boldness in your life begins to elevate as a result of not simply God providing something new, but you assessing what He's already done.

It's powerful when you begin to assess the way that God has been working in your life and what you find when you do that. When you assess His provision, it always overflows in praise. As a result of acknowledging, "My God, You've been good." After a while, you stop counting and you start praising. You start acknowledging, "God, You're good to me. I can't even count all the ways that You bless me. If I was going to count them all, I'd be here all day, but let me just cut to the chase and start praising You and believing that." Thank you, God, for Your provision in my life.

This is what the psalmist says: when you begin to count your blessings, that overflows in praise. Then you find yourself in the presence of God. The Bible makes it clear that He inhabits the praises of His people. As I assess, are you with me? It's like counting my blessings; I overflow with praise, and before I know it, I'm in the presence of the Lord, surrounded by His mighty works. I find that the Spirit of God is within me and surrounding me.

This is what begins to help my perspective when I'm looking at things from God's presence. My perspective shifts. Well, when I'm looking at my world from the perspective of His presence, things begin to change even in the midst of the chaos of life. That's even while life is swirling and the demands are coming. If I'm looking from the perspective of His presence, there's a lot that I can't control, but through praise, I remember that God has been in control all along. That if He's been in control before, He'll be in control again.

Now, while I cannot cancel the noise, there is something I can control. You see, praise doesn't just remind me that God's in control; praise gives me control. It puts control back in my hands because while I can't control the noise, there is something I can control, which is the volume. Where's my choir at? Can I get a little bit of volume from the choir? Help me out. It's a little bit of volume.

The chaos of life is still there; the pressures are still there, but I'm just turning the volume up a little bit. There might be some shouting, might be some noise in, but if I just speak the volume just a little bit, you're going to find that maybe I'm starting to drown out some of the noise. Maybe I'm starting to drown out some of the chaos and the pressures of life. I'm starting to maybe drown out the disbelief, but maybe I'm trying to turn down the noise. But I can't turn down the noise, so what if instead of turning down the noise, I turn up the praise? I turn up the joy? Maybe the front line could help me. Come on, let's turn it up!

I learned something about noise-canceling headphones. I thought this technology is so good it just blocks out noise, but I learned it doesn't block out noise. It monitors the sound around you, preventing the unwanted noise from entering or reaching your ears because of miniature microphones. It hears the noise and confronts it with praise. It puts the power of praise back in the hands of the Saints and says, "My God is mighty. The world might be crazy, but my God is mighty. The world might be scary, but I'm confident." Come on, let's turn it up!