And we talked about our praise word last week, and we said the problem that we have in the English is a lot of the Hebrew and New Testament Greek doesn't translate very well in English. It's not that our words are wrong, but the original languages use different words for like love, right? [00:05:32] (21 seconds)




It means that when we yada praise. Now, it's not yada praise. It's just yada. But when we praise the Lord, God says, I want you to praise me with yada. What is that? It means this. I see you. I'm not here to worship or have a conversation with you and look through you. I see you. [00:06:23] (28 seconds)




We're here to celebrate the one who was crucified, buried, three days later, rose again from the dead, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ proves to us that Jesus is who he said he is. He can do what he said he can do. And today, as the Old Testament says, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. [00:07:44] (22 seconds)




And today, God, we're not here to just go to attend church. We're not here to check a box off. We're here to be in your presence. Because worthy is the Lamb. And we know there's none like our God. There's none like our God. It is mind-blowing, Lord, that you invited us, first of all, saved us out of religion, and invited us into this. [00:08:24] (34 seconds)




I think you can see there's a common theme, right? That God doesn't want us to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but it's on purpose for a purpose, and assembly still matters to God. Can a brother get an amen? So let's go, let's take another step here in our praise. [00:42:53] (20 seconds)




When we're praising, when we're worshiping, the one who is most worshiping, the one who is most worshiping, the word halal in these verses literally means to boast on, to rave about, to shine a light on. Here's one that'll blow your minds, an exuberant expression of celebration. [00:44:10] (23 seconds)






This is real, because if the world can lift their voices for a baseball player and praise a home run, it doesn't matter, let alone 10,000 years from now, doesn't matter a year later, if people can come to a soccer gathering and have overflowing contagious enthusiasm and joy, surely those of us who have been redeemed by the Lamb can offer up a new life. [00:50:14] (28 seconds)








Knowing everything that you know about me, knowing everything that I've done for you, how can you not boast about me? I want you to rave about me. I want you to shine a light on me. I want you to take your breath and start giving an exuberant expression of celebration. [01:00:01] (33 seconds)




The Bible not only says for all of sin, it comes short of the glory of God. The Bible goes on to say for the wages of sin is death. That word death is damnation. There is a literal heaven and a literal hell. You say, well, I don't know if I, I don't believe that. You don't have to believe it. [01:01:55] (17 seconds)

Takk for ating medietekst. Granted, you're not, and anybody that loved Jesus in here today, come on. I'm going to invite you to stand up, and I'm going to open us up in prayer here in a second.

But what I want to do is I want to go back to last week and our message. You know, the Bible, somebody say the Bible, says that God not only desires our praise, but He is most worthy. Somebody say most worthy.

And we talked about our praise word last week, and we said the problem that we have in English is that a lot of the Hebrew and New Testament Greek doesn't translate very well into English. It's not that our words are wrong, but the original languages use different words for things like love, right? The four words for love we saw last week. But in English, we just say love, praise.

I think there's nine Hebrew words for praise in the Old Testament and different New Testament Greek words for the word praise. So last week, we talked about "yada." Somebody say "yada."

I'll define that for you all if you're new to Granite here in a few minutes in the message. But "yada" means this: that we're not just here; we're present. It means that when we "yada" praise—now, it's not "yada" praise; it's just "yada"—but when we praise the Lord, God says, "I want you to praise me with 'yada.'" What is that? It means this: I see you.

I'm not here to worship or have a conversation with you and look through you. I see you. It means I acknowledge you. It means, "Lord, no matter what's going on, no matter what's happening, you have my time and you have my attention." Because Thou art worthy. Jesus is worthy. Come on, somebody. Amen.

And so last week, we used a Fenway video. And if you were here last week, you saw "yada." Everybody captured in a moment because they were dialed in.

But those of us whose lives have been radically redeemed and restored by the blood of the Lamb, by what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, and we've been born again and brought back into God's family, we're not here to celebrate a man or a home run. We're here to celebrate the one who was crucified, buried, and three days later rose again from the dead.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ proves to us that Jesus is who He said He is. He can do what He said He can do. And today, as the Old Testament says, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord." We're here. We see you. And we acknowledge you. Because there is none, not one, like our God. Amen.

Lord, we love you. And today, God, we're not here to just attend church. We're not here to check a box off. We're here to be in your presence. Because worthy is the Lamb. And we know there's none like our God. There's none like our God.

It is mind-blowing, Lord, that you invited us, first of all, saved us out of religion, and invited us into this rich relationship, where you were willing to become poor so that we might be rich in Christ. I still can't even wrap my mind around it, but we see you. We acknowledge you today.

And today, God, we want to worship you and celebrate you. And as we learned last week, God, that we're not simply here for a blessing. We've already been blessed to be here with our brothers and sisters. But God, as we learned that "yada" praise blesses you.

God, I pray that when you look down today, that you would see your Granite kids and say, "There are my kids in whom I am well pleased." God, may we bless you today. May we honor you and glorify you. We give you the breath that you breathe.

We give you the breath that you breathe. We give you the breath that you breathe. We give you the breath that you breathe. We give you the breath that you breathe. We give you the breath in our lungs and we use it as an offering.

And I pray, God, that you would see a sincerity in this room of love, of thankfulness, of a declaration that who else is worthy?

Let's pray together.

Lord, we come into your presence again. We're thankful for your presence. You said where two or three are gathered together, God, and we're invited into your presence. I am so thankful for full access because of the blood of the Lamb.

I'm thankful for the opportunity that you've given to us to have forgiveness of sins by inviting you, Lord Jesus, to be our Savior, and that we are encouraged to boldly and yet humbly.

And today, God, nobody needs to hear from me. I pray that you speak through me, Lord, that your word, that you, Holy Spirit, will prepare our hearts to receive your word. That we won't simply be stirred today, but that we would just grow deeper and wider. We'd be changed.

Not because we're in a bad place, Lord. We just want to continue growing in the grace and knowledge of you, Lord Jesus, to be who you've called us to be: light, salt, ambassadors, disciples, so that we can do what you've called us to do.

And so I pray, Lord, that you would just bless this time, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and let us hear your word. I pray your word will take root in our heart, produce fruit in our lives, fruit unto life everlasting, God.

We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. And everyone said, "Amen."

Go ahead and have a seat. Do me a favor on the count of three. I need you to point a finger at somebody next to you. And I want, with all the passion you can muster up on a Sunday morning, look at that person, and I want you to say to them, "You're awesome. I'm glad you're here," and give them a round of applause.

Ready? One, two, three. "You're awesome. I'm glad you're here." Give them a round of applause, like you mean it, like you mean it.

Now, if the person next to you did not clap, you're out of luck. There's no empty chairs, but anyway, usually I could say you can come sit on the front row here. There's not even chairs up there. God's good. Somebody say amen.

I love being in church today to everybody joining us on our iCampus. I love our iCampus, by the way. Can we put our hands together for the iCampus, by the way?

Here's the incredible thing about our online iCampus. We're not streaming media today. There is a full staff. There are hosts. There are prayer rooms. There are small groups. People from our iCampus are being baptized. It's incredible what God is doing at the iCampus.

So whether you're here physically or you're there online, I welcome you, and I'm so grateful as we enter into this series, "Worthy," because, you know, I wanted to do these two weeks going into Christmas.

As followers of Jesus Christ, I'm going to ask you a question: If Jesus Christ has radically redeemed and restored your life by His amazing grace and mercy—grace meaning God saved us. That was a premature clap. Grace meaning that God has saved us for heaven, but through His mercy rescued us from hell.

If Jesus Christ has radically redeemed and restored your life by His amazing grace and mercy, and you want to give God glory for it, Psalms says, "Clap your hands, all you people, shout unto God with a voice of triumph." Will you just clap your hands now and give God glory?

You say, "Why do we do this stuff?" Because the Bible—somebody say the Bible—because at Granite United Church, we believe the word of God is just that, God's word. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

We believe that God's word is truth, and the truth shall set you free. And so we want to know what does the Bible say? Where does the Bible say it in proper biblical context? And what are you going to do about it, right? That is a tension that we wrestle with, okay?

And so we open up the word of God, and we want to know what the God of the word says, especially as we go into Christmas. Because again, Corinthians chapter 10 says, "Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever"—somebody say whatever—"whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

And so what we want to do is we want to draw attention to ourselves, not because we're awesome, but because He's worthy. We want to draw attention to ourselves to bring glory to God.

And so, man, this series called "Worthy" is that we're trying to learn what does the Bible say about praise? Because obviously, I'm preaching to the church. If you didn't love God, I know we all love God. We want to grow in Christ. Maybe some of you here today are like, "I'm just trying to figure this out." I'm glad you're here, man.

And we're going to share with you the word of God. And if you open up your heart, I promise God will speak. But God says, "I'm worthy of your praise." As a matter of fact, what we learned last week was this word "yada." Somebody say "yada."

Right? "Yada." And here's the thing: we have a communication problem. We have a language barrier. Now I told you I am fluent in El Español, right? I mean, I'm your go-to guy. If you don't speak much English and you need an interpreter, I can put an "O" on anything, okay? I got you.

And so, but the Hebrew—the majority of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and the majority of the New Testament is written in ancient Greek—doesn't always translate well into English. Like last week, we saw that we use the word love for everything.

I love my puppy. I love my chocolate chip cookies. I love my family. I love my kids. I love my friends, and I love my wife. And we said all of these different loves, we just use love for everything, but there are different varying degrees and definitions of love, as we learned last week in the Bible. Can the brother get an "uh-huh"?

And then we learned last week, like, as well, that this word praise is also difficult for us. There are around nine different Hebrew words for praise. They all would translate into English as "praise," but yet the Hebrew doesn't use this one word; it uses multiple words to describe the praise that worthy is the Lamb, the praise that God wants us to offer Him.

Because, man, God is worthy of our praise. And so, last week, we looked at that word "yada," and what we learned, "yada" praise—and it's not "yada" praise; "yada" is praise—but "yada" means praise. It means that we draw our attention to, we fix our gaze on, as John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God."

He meant, "Hey, man, lock in. Pay attention to." So, "yada" praise was pointing to someone of high value, saying, "I not only value you; I see you. I'm not just here, but I'm present. I'm not just here to have a conversation looking at you. I'm not just here to have a conversation looking through you. I'm looking at you. I am locked in."

And I shared with you, like my grandson, you know, like Chase, when he has a good play in flag football, he celebrates with his little nine-year-olds. And then the very next thing he does is he looks to the sideline, and he wants to know if the people who are there supposedly cheering for him, paying attention to him, are actually doing that.

And so when he looks to the sidelines, I mean, I'm like—and he's like, "I see you. I see you." And I'm like, "I see you." It's like he—it's like, man, it's affirming that I am not only there, but I am present, that you have my time, that you are valued and important to me.

And despite what else is going on around the world, no matter what's going on on this sideline, I want you to know I got you, that you are mine and I love you.

And we're in the house of God, and we gather together as God's kids. That's exactly what we do. We lock in. We give God our "yada." We give Him our praise. We're not distracted. We're not thinking about something else. We're fighting everything and saying, "I see you. You're worthy of my praise. I am locked in. I'm not just here, but I'm present. God, I acknowledge you for your greatness and your goodness."

Come on, Granite United! Amen.

And then the other thing that we know—we studied this for a long time—is that God calls His kids to gather together as a forever family to offer to the Lord praise and worship. Church is not optional. A gathering is not optional.

From Genesis to Revelation, 66 books of the Bible, 39 Old, 27 New. Even in the first part of the Bible, the book of Genesis, right? God met with Adam and Eve daily in a garden. God has always had a place of assembly with Him.

It matters to God that His kids—if you're saved, you know it, say amen—gather together. I mean, it just honors the Father. You know, it's what He wants from us.

And I want to read some passages for you today. We're kind of digging into Psalms a little bit. Psalm 69, verse 30, the Bible—somebody say the Bible. If the words are underlined in the verses, you read them with me. It says this: "Then I will what, church? I will praise God's name with singing, and I will honor Him with thanksgiving."

Psalm 22, verse 22. The Bible goes on to say, "I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. Here's what I will do. I will do what, church? Among your..." There it is again.

Psalm 109, verse 30. I love this one. "I will..." Remember last week, we looked at those words as well. "I will." It's a conscious decision to be present. It's an on-purpose, give God praise. "I will sing what? Lord, when you're what?" And that's what we're doing today. We're assembling together.

Now, here's the deal. I think you can see there's a common theme, right? That God doesn't want us to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but it's on purpose for a purpose, and assembly still matters to God. Can a brother get an amen?

So let's go, let's take another step here in our praise. The words used for praise in the word of God. So the verses we just read, we saw praise, praise, praise, praise, praise.

But the Hebrew word is not "yada." It's not the "yada" praise. The Hebrew word, I know, is the word "halal." I know, I know, it's awesome. Somebody's like, "Mind blown." "Halal," not "hello," but it's "halal."

Now, listen, I'm not a Hebrew scholar, and I'm probably botching it up, but it's the word "halal," where our word "hallelujah" is rooted in. Now, this is big because what we're learning is, what does the Bible say? Where does the Bible say it in proper context? And we got to wrestle with, what are you going to do?

So here's what "halal" means. Listen, this is big. When we're praising, when we're worshiping, the word "halal" in these verses literally means to boast on, to rave about, to shine a light on.

Here's one that'll blow your minds: an exuberant expression of celebration. The third definition that was there was this: to act as if foolish. Ooh. Yeah.

Some of you are like, "Wow, I'm glad I came to church today. This is awesome." Listen, going deeper and wider and working the word is important.

And I want to show you something. So last week, I showed you a Fenway photo/video, right? And Big Papi, Tori Hunter, and you remember the police officer? You know, and all of Fenway, "yada."

Well, because I know it's hard to wrap our minds around certain things, I have another video for you, and it's going to be awesome. Watch what happens.

Give yourselves a hand, first of all. Yeah. You know what that was? It's "halal." You know what it was? It was a celebration, a declaration, where all of a sudden, people were boasting, raving, shining a light on, showing exuberant expression of celebration, and acting a little bit foolish, kind of like, "I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows."

That's Northern Ireland, by the way. They tried to steal our Red Sox Fenway song. That's Northern Ireland. I was going to show a Fenway video.

Listen to me. There's a reason why I'm not showing you elevation worship videos. There's a reason. I'm not showing you church services. Remember, people think there's three truths in this world. There's really two truths and a lie.

The first two truths are this: everybody is created in the image of God. Amen? And that God so loved the world. Somebody say amen. That's the second truth.

The third one, people think the truth is really a lie, and they said everybody's a child of God. That's not true. Everybody has the opportunity to become a child of God, but not everybody is a child of God.

But everybody is created in the image of God. And I am a firm believer in Psalm 139, that in my mother's womb, every man and woman, male and female, that God has woven together in their mother's womb.

And one of the things that I've taught you for the last month, over and over again, is that He has placed and wired each and every one of us, and we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God has put certain DNA in each and every one of us. If you'd agree with that, give me an amen.

"Yada" at Fenway and "halal" in Northern Ireland, and just no matter if it's here, train stop—I mean, "Sweet Caroline" breaks out, the people of Boston. We just...we're just in it, man. We're just going. And we're responding.

Listen to me. This is very important. This is really important to understand that we are all wired as humans, created in the image of God with "yada" and "halal."

However, until we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, until we confess our sin and embrace the Savior, the gift of worship, the gift of "yada" and "halal" cannot actually be used for what it was intended to be used for, and that is to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen?

But here's the thing: it is evident to see in this world that people are wired—all of us are wired a certain way. And the one thing that we got to constantly fight against is this spiritual enemy who's come to steal, kill, and destroy.

He wants to steal our praise. He wants to rob us of our worship. Because here's what he knows: that when we "yada," "I see you," and then we respond with "halal," "I respond to what you've done for me," that all of a sudden, a broken and hopeless world—people who feel broken and hopeless look in and say, "Is there really hope?"

And we say, "There's hope. Hope has a name, and His name is?" Come on, somebody. Amen. That's what we do. That's what we do.

This is really important. This is real because if the world can lift their voices for a baseball player and praise a home run, it doesn't matter—let alone 10,000 years from now—it doesn't matter a year later.

If people can come to a soccer gathering and have overflowing contagious enthusiasm and joy, surely those of us who have been redeemed by the Lamb can offer up a new life.

And that's what we do. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's what we do.

And we offer to God our "yada" and our "halal" and say, "I see you, I acknowledge you, and I worship you."

So, how is this described in the word of God? Well, let me give you a verse. Psalm 149, verse 3. Psalm 149, verse 3 says this: "Let them what, church? With what? What? Dancing and make music to Him with timbrel and harp."

Oh, this could be hard for some of us because some of you aren't dancers. I myself, I am a dancing machine. I've been at some of your weddings, you know. I just did a Kinsey era. I have to roll my tongue somewhere in there. A Kinsey era. Just a couple weeks ago.

Oh, yeah, I still got blisters on my feet because I burned that floor up. You know what I'm saying, Jess? You were there.

And here's the deal, man. Just like weddings or these celebrations where people invite us to a time of celebration and acknowledgment of a wonderful event, we don't show up for ourselves in these events.

We show up for the people or the person who's being honored. If you're with me, give me an "uh-huh." And so what do we do? We set aside our inhibitions, if you will, and our self-consciousness, and we realize that this party isn't about me.

This environment isn't about me. It's about the person I've come to honor and show respect to. And so all of a sudden, the music plays, and some of us just like, all of a sudden, we start like this.

And then all of a sudden, it goes like this. And then some of us are like this. And some of us are like, "Yeah, let's go." We add on the floor. And some of you, you're cool. You do like the "Night at the Roxbury" thing.

And then there's a few of you—this is your "halal." That's okay. Remember what I said last week. We're talking more about the posture of the heart when it comes to worship. Amen?

I don't believe the person who worships like this loves the Lord any more or less than a person who worships like this. We're talking posture of the heart.

But then we also have to wrestle with, is it denominational or whatever, you know, denominational, or things that are wired inside of me. Because if the world at Fenway can "yada," and if the Northern Ireland people who stole our song can "halal," then I'm not going to let the devil steal, rob, steal, and destroy my worship.

He doesn't get my worship. By the way, you all know who Lucifer was, right? Was. And what his main responsibility was prior to his fall. He was the praise leader in heaven.

So we show up to church to celebrate the one we love and care about. The Bible says that "halal" worship is about dancing and making music to Him, and that we would celebrate God.

And we celebrate Him because of the new life we have, because we're celebrating new beginnings, because of the hope and the joy. Jesus said, "I'm going to give you my joy, so that your joy might be full." Amen?

Sometimes, you know, you've said this to your kid: "Hey, are you happy?" "Of course I'm happy." You're like, "Show your face, you know, show it out with your face." You're like, "You know," and he says, "Smile a little bit," and you're just so frustrated.

Or those parties you go to. You know, all of a sudden, you're invited to a friend's house, and all the little kids are there, and your kid's there, and he's miserable. You're like, "Oh, go play."

Your kid goes there. An hour later, you're like, "Hey, hey, get your stuff. We're going." "I don't want to go." You didn't want to be here. What happened? They went from being there to being present.

Something changes when you're present, when you're participating. This thing about worship and praise is a big deal to God, amen, because He is worthy.

I want to show you something in the Psalms. So the Psalms—there are 150 of them. Longest book of the Bible. You know, it is absolutely incredible, the Psalms. Psalm chapter 1, verse 1, which would be like the first bookend.

You know, "Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked nor stand in their place around with sinners or join in with mockers." It's like, "Oh, okay, we want joy."

So the first verse of Psalm 1 talks about like we want joy. Nobody gets to steal my joy. And now you read all the Psalms, and it's all this incredible teaching about who God is, what He's done, who He is to me.

As a matter of fact, throw that slide up there. Here's some of the things that you'll learn about the Lord in the Psalms: the Lord is my strength—can a brother get an amen? He's majestic. There's nobody like our God.

He's my light. Hey, God is my hope. God is my sustainer. He's my deliverer. You get all this in the Psalms and so much more. The Lord is my shepherd. Can I get an amen?

He's my teacher. God is my righteousness. I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

God is trustworthy. God is my refuge. He is great. He is my redeemer. God is my shield. You keep reading and studying. He's my rock, man, that when everything seems unsettled, I can have a firm standing, firm footing on the rock.

He's my help in the times of trouble. He's good. God is good. He's my confidence. Like, He's my confidence. God is my source. God is my provider.

And I think the majority of us in here, because of our relationship with God, and as we're studying the word of God, getting to know the God of the word, all of these things are like, "Man, that's my God. That's who God is. That's what He's done. That's who He is. That's what I'm trying to wrap my mind around. That's what I'm trying to grow deeper in. That's my God."

If that describes your God, put your hands together. Come on, amen.

So I say all the time that God's work for us always requires a response from us. And so you study these 150 Psalms. It's like to begin, "Don't let anybody steal your joy."

And then God describes all of this, what He's done, who He is, how it should impact our lives—all through the Psalms. That's the first bookend. Don't let anybody steal your joy.

And then there's the last bookend, which is found in the very last verse of the book of Psalms. And it was like, for me—let me read it to you.

And by the way, we're going to read it together. And your first thing is, "Do I read the word in parentheses?" Yeah. Yes. It's not there, but this is the word for praise.

The entire Psalms: "Don't let anybody steal your joy. Because here's who God is. Here's what God has done. Here's who you are in the Lord. Here's what you can hold tight to. He's not just a promise maker; He's a promise keeper."

And it just keeps going and going and going and going. And God says, "Now knowing what you know—woo-hoo!—let me close the entire book out with how I want you to respond to me."

And the Bible—somebody say the Bible—God's word says in Psalm 150, verse 6, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."

Here's what God says: "Knowing everything that you know about me, knowing everything that I've done for you, how can you not boast about me? I want you to rave about me. I want you to shine a light on me. I want you to take your breath and start giving an exuberant expression of celebration.

I want you who know who I am and what I've done, if you risk looking foolish, it's okay because worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Come on, somebody. Amen.

Now here's the deal. In order to get to that place in your life, you got to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I need to tell you something. All of those things that the Psalmist says only come true—all true—but they only become ours in Christ.

So I say in Christ. See, the Bible says there's two families, two spiritual families in this world. In John chapter eight, Jesus said, "You're either of your father, the family of the father, or you're in the family of the devil." That's it.

Listen to me. This is big. The Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That's the problem.

See, Jesus didn't come to planet earth because of the glory of God. He didn't come to planet earth because He didn't have anything better to do. It's because we needed a Savior.

The Bible not only says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The Bible goes on to say, "For the wages of sin is death." That word "death" is damnation. There is a literal heaven and a literal hell.

You say, "Well, I don't know if I believe that." You don't have to believe it. I'm sharing with you what the Bible says. See, Granite, we believe the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice.

I don't care what a preacher says. I don't care what a priest says. I don't care what he denies. I don't care what the church says. I don't care what the nation says. We want to know what thus saith the Lord.

Like in Luke chapter 16, there was this guy who said to him, "Eternity." And he says, "Father, send Abraham or Father Abraham, send Lazarus. But before he comes, tell him to dip the tip of his finger in water so he can come cool my tongue because I'm tormented in these flames."

See, we're all sinners. We're all deserving of hell, but that breaks the heart of God. And so God made a way, and that way was God would become a man, not because we were seeking God, because Romans says no man seeks after God.

But in Luke 19, Jesus said, "I've come to seek and to save you." See, the reason why Jesus Christ died on the cross is because we need a Savior.

But again, Jesus did all that He did to provide for this gift called forgiveness of sins. And you're invited to the family, but here's the deal: like any party, whether it's a wedding, whether it's a celebration of a young lady stepping into womanhood, whatever, you usually, most of the time, and especially in God's sense, you always receive this thing that says you need to RSVP.

I need you to respond. And the Bible says, "For whosoever shall call—respond—whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, those are the ones that will be saved."

Jesus is the Father's invitation to bring you back into the family, but you have a responsibility to respond.

So I ask you, has there ever been a time in your life when you've, in sincerity of heart, realized that you were a sinner? You acknowledged that sin before God, asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior, crossed the line of faith, and began your Christian journey with Jesus?

If not, how about today? This power hits in a word of prayer. If you're here today and you say, "Preacher, that's me. I'm not mad at God; I just wouldn't say that I'm in a relationship with Him. I cannot remember the day where I've invited Christ to be my Savior."

How about right here, right now? Because the Bible says, "But unto them who say yes to Him," you know, that God gives us the privilege to become the children of God to those who believe in His name.

If you're ready to cross the line of faith, I want you to pray this prayer. Now listen to me: prayer's just talking to God. It's not a magical thing; it's just talking to God.

And say this in your heart quietly: "Jesus, today I acknowledge and I admit that I'm a sinner, and I know my sin is offensive to you. Today, Lord, I am asking you to the best of my human ability to please forgive me of my sins.

Today, Lord, I open up my heart. I invite you in. Today, God, I am crossing the line of faith, and I say yes. Today, I surrender. Today, God, I repent and change the direction of my life, and I take this first step.

And I thank you for the forgiveness of sins. I thank you for this clean heart, this brand new start. Thank you, God, for bringing me back into your family.

And from this moment going forward, I will do all that I can to follow you. In Jesus' name."

With heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to make you stand, speak up, or come up. But if you just prayed that prayer, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to acknowledge it this way: that when I count to three, I'm going to ask you, with heads bowed and eyes closed, to shoot your hand up saying, "Preacher, I don't have it all figured out, but I'm saying yes to Jesus today."

And when you raise your hand, you're going to get a little card that says, "Today I'm saying yes to Jesus." There's a place for you to write the date on it. And I never want you to forget this day because Jesus said you must be born again.

So if that's you, ready? With heads bowed and eyes closed. One, two, three. Nice and high. Just there you go. And when you get a card, you can put your hands down. That's cool.

And then there's a date on there. Sometime today, write today's date on there and remember the day you crossed the line of faith and turned the direction of your life towards God.

Anyone else? I don't want to miss you. God bless each and every one of you.

Father God, thank you for these I suggest to you today. Thank you for your word, God. Thank you for describing to us for these bookends.

How can we not respond to you in the appropriate way when we know who you are, what you've done, and how blessed we are? Thank you, God.

I pray, God, you continue to bless all the gospel-preaching churches in New England, Lord. We want to see the spiritual needle move in this region for your glory. So use us.

We rejoice with all of heaven because I remember that story, Lord, of the prodigal son and where it said, "And the party began."

And we know there is more rejoicing in heaven when one person says yes, Lord. So thank you. We love you. May your word, as we already pray, take root in our heart, produce fruit in our lives.

And all God's kids said, "Let all of these people know how you feel about them saying yes to Jesus."

Subject: Embracing True Worship: Yada and Halal Praise

Dear Granite United Church,

Reflecting on our exploration of "yada" and "halal" praise, I am reminded of the depth and richness these forms of worship bring to our lives.

In our recent gathering, we uncovered the profound meanings behind these Hebrew words, which invite us to engage in worship with our whole being. "Yada" calls us to be fully present, acknowledging God's worthiness with undivided attention, while "halal" encourages us to celebrate God with exuberant joy, even if it means appearing foolish. These expressions of praise are not just acts of worship but are vital to our relationship with God, as they reflect the joy and hope we have in Christ.

As we continue our journey of faith, let us strive to embody these forms of praise in our daily lives. May we gather as a community, encouraging one another to focus on God's greatness and goodness, and may our worship be a true reflection of the love and grace we have received through Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
Granite United Church Team