If you got a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to John chapter four. John Chapter four. In this new series that we about worship, that we creatively entitled Worship, I think we did add a tagline learning our purpose here. But in this series, we're going to be doing something a little different than what we typically do. We typically, our normal kind of preaching diet here at Veritas is to march through books of the Bible. And we're not going to be marching through a specific book, but we're going to kind of be looking at scripture as a whole. We still won't be bringing our own opinions to the table because that those don't really matter. So we're going to be asking, lord, what are you saying in your word? Drawing truths out of scripture. It's just going to be in a lot of different places. All right, so we will spend some time in John 4, but if you're taking notes, be ready to write because there's a lot of references, okay? Because we're going to be looking at a broader perspective of what worship is. So the word worship gets thrown around a lot, but perhaps there is a need for a greater understanding of what it's all about. And our desire in this series, guys, is to help our church to help you have a better understanding of what worship actually is, okay? And so worship is central to the church, is central to the Christian life. And so we want to make sure that we have a really good understanding of what it actually is. But our greater hope in this is for more than just like a better, like, knowledgeable understanding of worship. Our hope is that after five weeks in this series, that our church will Would be better worshipers, that we would worship, that we would truly worship who God is and what he's done. And so let's not just have a better knowledge about worship at the end of this, but our hope and our prayer has been that we would be a church that truly worships in a better way. Okay? So we're going to be kind of guided in this series by five different questions. I'll give you the first four. Why does God deserve to be worshiped? How does God desire to be worshiped? What should our personal worship look like and what should our corporate worship look like? If you were writing notes, we're going to cover those in the next five weeks. All right? So you don't have to write all those down. First question for you guys this morning is, how's our worship at Veritas? How's our worship here? Now there's A lot of ways that you could answer that. Some of you may go, oh, our worship at Veritas is awesome. Like, it's. It's like emotional. There's talented musicians. If you grew up in a traditional church, you would say, well, it's a contemporary worship. You would say, it's diverse in style. Some weeks you have, like, last week, I think we had, like, full band and a choir. This week is just a handful of people sitting on stools. Maybe diverse in, like, what it sounds like. Like, some weeks it's loud, some weeks it's quiet. Like, probably not many weeks it is quiet. But you kind of get this diversity in our worship. Some people may describe our worship at Veritas, like, oh, everybody sings at Veritas. If you don't sing, you're in the minority. I leave wanting more. It makes me feel so good. And if those are some of your answers, when you think of the question is, how is our worship at Veritas as a pastor, number one? Some of those answers, I would say, like, think bigger. All right? Because there's a more foundational question that we've got to wrestle with. If all that we think about when we think of worship is what happens in this room on a Sunday morning, okay, Worship is bigger than that. So the question for us to wrestle with this morning is, what is worship? What is it? Because corporate worship, what we're doing right now, is good. It's important. We will continue to do it as long as Veritas is around, we will continue to worship together. It's a big part of what we do when we gather every week. But what if there's more to worship than that? And before we go on assessing the worship of Veritas as a whole, my question for you this morning is, how's your worship? How's worship in your life? And the hope would be, as we get this better biblical understanding this morning of what worship is, you can accurately assess how the worship is in your life. So to get this better biblical understanding of worship, we've got to go all the way back to the beginning. First book of the Bible says this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And one person said those first four words are the most important words in all the Bible. Because if you miss those four words, you mess up what life and worship is all about. Because the first four words in the beginning, God, all right, then he created. But you need to be clear. We need to be clear that God wasn't created. He's self sufficient. He's Self existent. He's not like us. And so from the beginning of His Word to us, we find out this life is about God and not about us. Yet so often we turn our worship into all about us. What we like, what our preferences are, how we're going to live our lives. And instead we need to say, God, what do you desire? Because this is about you. He has no defects. He has no deficiencies. And this is where our understanding of worship has to start. A right view of God fuels our worship. But some of us think of God as like standing on a corner with a tin cup just begging for our worship. Oh, I just need more worship today. I just need more worship. Give me more worship, please. Glorify me more. Let's just be clear from the beginning. God does not need our worship. God, the one that existed before creation, does not need our worship, which is the very reason we worship him alone, because he is utterly different. He is so distinct from the rest of creation. He's holy. And I could spend the next 30 minutes or so talking about how incredible God is, but Jake's going to take care of that next week. Why does God deserve to be worshiped? Okay, but if we miss that part from the beginning, we're not going to have a proper understanding of what worship actually is. So when we worship, we are not adding to God's glory. Hear me. When we worship, we're not adding to God's glory. He doesn't need us to add anything to Him. When Mary found out that she was pregnant with Jesus, she sings a song. And as she sings this one part of the song says, my soul magnifies the Lord. I've used this illustration before, but that idea of magnifying the Lord is actually not like magnification from a microscope, but rather magnification from a telescope. Because if you're magnifying something with a microscope, you're taking something that's really tiny and, and you're trying to go, oh, I can't really see it. I can't really experience it. So I got to make it bigger so I can see it. That's not what we're talking about when we talk about glorifying God, magnifying God, worshiping God because he's not small. We don't have to, like, dive like really deeply in to see how great he is. Rather think about worship like a telescope, where there's something that's absolutely amazing and glorious and we're going to zoom in so that we can see how amazing it actually is. So we're not taking something small and making it bigger. We're taking something glorious and just seeing it for what it is in worship. Does that make sense? So let's start in the right place when it comes to worship. So a right view of God is critical to us understanding what worship is all about. So if God doesn't need us, why were we created then? Why were we created? In Isaiah, chapter 43, before we read this, this is talking about the Israelites and that God was going to rescue them, that he was going to save them. And this is what he says. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my what glory? Whom I formed and made, so he has created people for his glory. Those people that he formed and made were created for God's glory. And then later on in that chapter, he says this, I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed. Why did he form us for myself or Himself that they might declare my praise? So why were people formed that or so that they might declare his praise? Guys, we were created to worship. God doesn't need our worship, but we were created to worship. In fact, Paul would say it this way in Colossians chapter one, when talking about Jesus. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for Him. So all things were created by him and through him and for Him. So why were we created? We were created to worship. He doesn't need it. But he said, I'm going to create you to worship. We exist to recognize God for who he is, to savor him and show his worth through our praise. Worship isn't just something Christians do on Sundays. It's what everyone was created to do with their lives. Worship isn't just something Christians do on Sundays. It's what everyone was created to do in their lives. Now, some of you may ask the question then, well, do we exist for any purpose beyond God's glory? No. Because if you're looking for a reason to live in your life that is greater than God's glory beyond God's glory, you are trying to live for a lesser purpose in life. Because there is nothing greater than the glory of God. If you want to have the most satisfying, fulfilling life that you could live, make your life about God and His glory. There is zero guarantee that that's going to be an easy life, though. There's going to be suffering and pain. And in the midst of the suffering and pain, will you still worship God for who he is? So when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning and you're like, oh, so many things on the task list, how are we going to get all these things done? What if it was, oh, God, thank you for another day that I get to do what I was created to do, even in those seemingly meaningless tasks, I get to worship you. I get you to put you on display. Students, some of you have been done with school for a while. Some of you elementary, middle school, high schoolers finish up this week. When you wake up this summer and you're like, ugh, another boring day. Don't have anything to do with my life. What if you thought, man, what a day, What a day that I can do what I was created to do and worship you, God? You're like, how do I do that? Just wait, we'll get there, okay, but let's just start there instead of going, what am I going to do with my life? What's my life about? You were created to worship. It will be the most satisfying thing that you can experience. And God will be most glorified when you live that way. When you pull into the parking lot at your job tomorrow and you're like, oh, I wish I didn't have to get out of my car. What if it was, oh, another opportunity to interact with that person and do what I was created to do, I can go into work and I can send those emails to the glory of God. I can do the tasks that I don't want to do for the glory of God. I can love the people at my office for the glory of God. So if that's what we're created to do, what does it mean to actually truly worship? You're already in your Bibles. John, chapter four. Let me kind of catch you up on what's going on in this story between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Some of you know this story. We're not going to read the whole story. So this is what's going on. So Jesus has been on a journey. He sits down at this well. His disciples go into town as they go into town to get food. He's sitting there and there's this Samaritan woman that comes up to the well at the same time in the middle of the afternoon, which is an odd time for somebody to come to the well. Most likely when we find out later, she's probably. She might be hiding because of sin in her life. So she's at the well, and Jesus said, hey, can you give me a drink? And. And she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like Samaritans and Jews, like men and women, we don't. We don't. We don't interact like this. Like, what are you doing? I'm paraphrasing this, right? So you can't do this. And Jesus goes, like, if you knew who was asking you, like, you would have asked me for water, because I can offer you water, a living water that's far better than anything this well can provide. And she goes, oh, well, I want that. Please give me that. He goes, okay, well, go get your husband. And when you go get your husband, then we can talk more about that. She goes, I don't have a husband. He goes, you're right. You've had five husbands, and the man you're with now is actually not your husband. And so she's like, fully exposed, like, oh, my goodness. He knows all the depths of what's going on in my heart. And this is what Jesus says, or this is what happens in verses 19 and 20. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. So he exposes, like, something going on in her life that she's had all these husbands, and the one he's with now is not her husband. And she goes, whoa, you're a prophet. You know things about me that, like, I didn't know anybody knew. But then she starts talking about worshiping on a mountain. It seems like maybe she's trying to change the subject just a little bit. Like, hey, can we not talk about that? I'd rather not talk about that. Can we just talk about, you know, Samaritans and Jews were different. Like, Samaritans, they say we worship on this mountain. And Jews say we worship in Jerusalem at the temple. Because for the Samaritans, like, oh, we worship on this mountain called Mount Gerizim. And this is where we think our spiritual forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, they worshiped on this mountain. And then even that story that some of you know about, Abraham and Isaac, we think that probably took place on this mountain where the Jews would go, no, we think it took place on a different mountain. But she's going, where are we actually supposed to worship? You seem to be a prophet. Where should we actually worship? So that's what's going on here. And this mountain that she says we're going to worship on, like I said, is the Mountain that she believed. The Samaritans believed that Abraham went to worship and was told, hey, I want you to sacrifice your son. Now if you're new to Christianity, you're like, what did I just get myself into right now? Like, talking about God's telling somebody to sacrifice their son. Why would he do that? Because he was testing Abraham. He was testing him to see if his faith was actually authentic or not. But that's actually the first time the word worship shows up in the Bible. And In Genesis chapter 22 it says this. Then Abraham said to his young men, so there's these kind of servants around with Abraham and Isaac. He says, stay here with the donkey and I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. We're going to go over there and worship, going to do what God's called us to do. But I'm trusting I have the faith that I'm going to come back to you. And this is the first time worship shows up. And what the word worship means here is to bend the knee or bow the knee in reverence. Like we're going to go over here and bow before God in reverence to who he is. So this is what's going on in this interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan lady. She's brought up worship maybe as a change of subject, but Jesus actually goes, alright, we're going to go there, we'll go there. Because that's what this whole thing's about anyway. It's more than just water. This thing's about worship. So Jesus responds this way. In verse 21, Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. He's saying, hey, there's gonna come a day really soon when it's not gonna matter what mountain you worship on. It's not gonna matter if you go to Jerusalem and worship at the temple. Like, there's coming a time when you're gonna worship the Father and a specific location isn't going to matter. And that's what you need to know that worship isn't limited to a specific location, whether it be a mountain or a tabernacle or a temple building. Worship isn't bound to a place. So our perspective of worship has to be broadened out beyond the walls of a church building. But for many of you, when you think of worship, it's like narrowed into what happens in a building on a Sunday with Christians with music. Worship is more than that, guys. It's more than that now, by no means am I discounting our corporate gatherings. So important, so good. But Jesus is trying to give this lady and us a bigger perspective of what worship actually is. So let's keep going. In verse 22, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. He's saying there are two kinds of worship. There's an ignorant worship and there's a knowledgeable worship. But both are worshiping. You can worship what you don't know, or you can worship what you do know. He's going, you know, you should worship. You just don't know who you should be worshiping, but you are still worshiping. You see this, guys? God deserves our worship. We were created to worship, and everybody worships. Every single person in this room, every single person in our world worships. But who are they worshiping? We all worship something. It's not an option. When we were created to worship, it's not an option to not worship. Romans Chapter one, though. We're not going to look at it on the screen, but I encourage you to read it. Romans chapter one talks about the unrighteousness that we were born into. So we were born in this unrighteous state in our sin. And because of our unrighteousness, it says that we suppress or push down the truth about God that's been revealed to us. So God has revealed himself generally in creation. Like, we can see a sunset and go, wow, we didn't create that. Somebody else had to create this, right? So, but what happens because of our unrighteousness? We see this, like, generally this general revelation about God and we shove it down and we push it down and we suppress that truth. And then there's this spiral that takes place. We suppress the truth, then we exchange the truth of God for a lie. Then we worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And that's what our unrighteousness leads to. Us worshiping created things rather than the Creator that we were created to worship. And, guys, there's no third option. It's not like, oh, I can worship God and I can serve all these other things, or I love all these other things and I'll come on a Sunday and worship. There's no. That's not an option. It's either you worship God or you don't worship God. Those are your two options. And everybody's doing one of those two. Every single person is doing one of those two. In fact, in 1979, Bob Dylan wrote a song called Gotta Serve Somebody that says but you're gonna have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed, you're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. Now we don't get our theology from Bob Dylan, right? But here's a man who recognized like, oh, everybody's going to serve or worship one thing or the other. And I think Bob Dylan probably got that from Jesus himself. When Jesus, he's talking about, hey, I don't want you to live in this world and store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. I want you to store up treasures in heaven where moth and rust, they can't destroy. Thieves won't break in and steal. And then this is what Jesus says. No one can serve two masters. Nobody. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. And then he gives this example, you cannot serve God and money. So Jesus, way before Bob Dylan is saying, you gotta serve somebody and you can't serve two masters. That's not how it works. We will always be worshiping something. We will either be worshiping God or a substitute for God. Your heart will be captured by whatever you find most worthy and most satisfying. There was an American like novelist and professor who was an agnostic. So he didn't know what he believed about God. His name was David Foster Wallace. And this is what he said. Remember, this is coming from somebody who doesn't know about God. In the day to day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. Like Jesus said, you can't serve two masters. Bob Dylan saying, you got to serve somebody. Here's a guy that doesn't even know if he believes in God or not. Saying everybody worships because it's what we were created to do. It's just, who are you going to worship? And the worship of anything but God. Idolatry. Now, I don't think any of you in this room this morning would go, oh man, I got a golden calf at home. Like I bow down to that every night. Maybe you do, I don't know. I hope not. I sure hope not. Because this what Jesus, or this is what God said to the Israelites about idolatry. I'm the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to serve them or to them, or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. This is our God. And while many of us in this room have no golden calves at home, there's a lot of things that we rely on in this earth for blessing, for help, for guidance. And we give our whole heart to this, not God Almighty. And that's idolatry, guys. The object of worship must be founded on the worth of God above all things, above all that this life offers to you. We have to have our whole heart devoted to God, above relationships and above possessions and above experiences and above status. But I want you to think beyond people and things and experiences. What might you be worshiping in your life? Are you worshiping comfort in your life? Are you worshiping control in your life? Power in your life, Approval in your life? Significance in your life? That's when it starts to get much deeper, right? Like, because there's some people go, oh, I'm going to take this vacation because it's going to make me feel better this summer. It's going to, like, take me out and I'm going to be satisfied with this vacation. But it's the deeper, the deeper idol. Like, I really just want comfort in my life. And the way that I'm going to worship my idol of comfort is just take a vacation to just get out of the hard. Is a vacation wrong? No, I'm going on vacation this week. It's fine. Okay, but if you're worshiping the idol of comfort, you're not doing what you were created to do in this life, and that's worship God Almighty. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and try to control your life at the same time. You can't serve God and fight for man's approval at all times. So if we were created to worship, guys, and everybody does worship something, what then is true worship? Look back at verse 23 and 24. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. So Jesus brings some real clarity to what true worship is here. True worshipers are going to be those that genuinely bow their knee to the worthiness of God. The Father. But they must do it in a very certain way. He says they must worship how? They must worship in spirit and in truth. In spirit and in truth. This idea of worshiping in spirit is a worship that takes place in the human heart that is not confined to a particular holy place. Like Jesus is telling this lady at the well, True worship isn't about a mountain. It's not about a temple. It's about your heart. And this is like an internal worship that is led by the Spirit of God in all times, in all places. Because how are we now referred to as the people of God who have the spirit of God? We are his temple. So Paul would refer to us as the temple of God because we have the Spirit of God. So worship isn't just something you come here and do on a Sunday. Worship is how your heart has been transformed and you live it out every single day of your life. Because the start of worship, true worship, is an internal delight in the worthiness of God. An internal delight in the worthiness of God. What does it mean to delight in God? In Psalm 103, it says this. Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name. So how do we bless or worship or glorify the Lord? All that's within our soul, all that's within us. Worship starts internally, guys, with you treasuring and prizing and being most satisfied in God above all things. So as worship us coming into a building on a Sunday, singing. Yes, but it's more than that. Is worship a response, an outward response to who God is and what he's done? Yes, but it's more than just an outward response, because worship isn't just this, like, forced expression or like, routine response. Because we can come in here every single Sunday. We. We might even sing songs. And you may not be worshiping. And that's like a hard reality to face, right? Because we could take some kind of artificial intelligence software, right, and we could say, hey, I want you to create a worship set that is really solid, biblically, really solid theologically. And we could tell it exactly what we mean by that, and we could come in here on a Sunday and we could put our phones up that has this artificial intelligence, tell us this is biblically accurate and theologically accurate worship, and we could play it on the speaker, and you know what wouldn't be worship? Exactly what was played. Why? Because there's no delight. We're doing the routine thing, but there's no delight in the Lord, guys. And God says, I want you to truly worship in spirit, I want you to delight in me above all else. Because we could come into this room every single week, sing biblically and theologically accurate songs, and not worship. That's a danger for religious people. In fact, Jesus, at one time, he's talking to the Pharisees, really religious people. And these religious people said the right theological things. They said the right things. And this is what Jesus says to them. This people honors me with their lips. So they say the right thing, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Do you see this, guys? Some of you think worship is just about singing songs on a Sunday. Worship is about your heart delighting in the Lord. Because if your lips say true things about God, but your heart is far from him, he says, your worship is in vain. Your worship is meaningless. Your worship is futile. Lip service apart from heart surrender is what Jesus would call fake worship. Lip service apart apart from heart surrender is what Jesus would call fake worship. You can worship God with more than your heart, but it's impossible to truly worship him with less than your heart. Guys, God is worshiped in the most glorious way when we are truly delighted in Him. John Piper would say it, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied or delighting or treasuring Him. Will you delight in how amazing God is in the moments that no one sees? Because that's what's going to reveal your heart? In the moments when you're doing the seemingly meaningless task over and over and over? I'm changing another diaper and another diaper and another diaper again and again. And I'm doing laundry again and again and again. Is your heart still delighting in the Lord? Because you can worship in those seemingly meaningless moments, Delight in the worthiness of God, in those moments when you're most tempted and those moments when you're most anxious. Instead of saying, I'm going to be fueled by what my mind tells me I should focus on, like, be fueled by what your heart says about your God. But it's still critical to know that when we delight in God, it produces a result. An inward delight produces some kind of result. And Psalm 35 talks about this. Let those who delight in my righteousness. So you're delighting in the righteousness of God and who God is as a result. Shout for joy and be glad and say evermore. Great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servants. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long. So what happens when we delight in God? It results in shouting for joy. It results in gladness. It results in your tongue talking about the righteousness of God. It results in praise all the day long. Delighting in God's righteousness leads to displaying God's righteousness. And this is what worship is. It's delighting in him first and then putting that on display with our lives. Worship is an internal delight that overflows into an outward display. Paul In Romans chapter 12 would say it this way after he spent 11 chapters talking about the mercy of God. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies and as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Which is your spiritual what Worship? What is your spiritual worship? To present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Does he say your spiritual worship is just singing on a Sunday? Nope. Your spiritual worship is just praising God in like with your lips. No, he's saying spiritual worship is to offer your body as a living sacrifice. This is your spiritual worship. Some of your Bibles may say this is your reasonable act of service. The reasonable thing in view of God's mercy is to offer your body. That's just reasonable to say, God, you gave it all up through your son on the cross. I will give, gladly give it all up for you, because I delight in you more than anything else, and I'm going to put you on display. And then Paul sums it up in First Corinthians 10 by saying this. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. To the glory of God. Whatever it is. Whatever it is, display that you delight in the worthiness of God with your service. Display that you delight in the worthiness of God as a spouse and as a parent. Display that you delight in the worthiness of God when you're competing in a sport, display that you delight in the worthiness of God when you're watching your kid compete in a sport. Because if your God is human approval and you want all those other parents at that sporting event to think you did a good job as a parent because you idolized their approval. When your kid strikes out, you get really angry. Not because they did anything wrong, but because you were worshiping the wrong thing, this is where like this grand theological biblical idea of worship gets really practical, right? When you delight in the worthiness of God, you're going to put it on display in Your relationships. You're going to put it on display when life doesn't go as planned. You're going to put it on display when you're choosing a show to watch at night. When you delight in the worthiness of God above all else. You're going to put it on display when you decide what to wear. Am I going to put on clothes that make a big deal about me or make a big deal about Jesus? When you delight in the worthiness of God, you're going to put it on display and you're going to worship him with your words and with your schedule and with your time and your talents and abilities. Because true worship involves a heart transformation that delights in him and puts it on display to the world around you. And then he connects it to the truth. You got to worship in spirit and in truth and God connects it, the heart, to what's true. This is how the Samaritan woman was going to experience living water. She wasn't going to experience fully satisfying eternal life on a certain mountain. She wasn't going to experience it through relationships with men. Fully satisfying life was going to come true. Worship was going to happen when her heart was transformed by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Himself proclaimed later In John chapter 14, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The exclusive way. And I will say that the exclusive way to truly worship and experience your ultimate purpose in life is through Jesus Christ. Because we were created to worship. And everybody worships either God or a substitute for God. And a way to truly do that is in spirit and in truth. Delight in Him. Put him on display because your heart has been transformed by Jesus. So what is worship? We've talked a lot about what it isn't. What is worship? This is how I define it. Worship is delighting in and displaying the worth of God above all things. Worship is delighting in and displaying the worth or value or worthiness of God above all things. Worship is more than a song. It's more than just an outward life response. Worship comes from a heart that is completely satisfied with God above all else, and that results in you putting him on display as the greatest treasure in all the earth. So let's start, go back to what we started with. How's your worship? In light of that definition, how's your worship? Consider your life this morning. Number one, what are you delighting in? Where are you finding satisfaction? What are you putting on display? So consider your life, number one. And number two, if you can answer any of those questions, apart from God. Number two, I would say confess your idolatry this morning. Consider your life, and if you have idols, confess them to the Lord. And the way that we're going to do that is in just a second, the band's going to come back up here. Before they play any song, it's just going to be quiet. And I want you to assess your worship, consider your life, and confess any idolatry. No sound whatsoever. We're going to just be quiet and consider this. And then I want you to praise God in this congregation because you delight in him above all else. So, Veritas people, how's our worship? My hope would be that when someone looks at Veritas, they would go, man, those Veritas people, they love God above everything else in this life. They treasure him above anything this world offers. Those Veritas people, they seem like they're more satisfied with God than circumstances, than money, than relationships, than those Veritas people, they think they like. It seems like they, like, treasure God above possessions and a promotion and a vacation and a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a spouse. They treasure God even above their own children. And it seems like everywhere they show up, they just keep talking about how awesome their God is. And then when they get together, it's like a big celebration. They all can't stop singing about how amazing and wonderful and glorious their God is. Guys, that's the kind of church we want to be. A church that delights in God and puts him on display for the world to see. Amen. God, thank you. Thank you for who you are and what you've done. Lord, we confess that we try to find satisfaction in so many other places in life apart from you. And we are so thankful that the blood of Jesus covers that idolatry. And Lord, as a result of that and the mercy that you show us through Christ. Lord, may we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to you because you're worthy. You alone are worthy. In Jesus name, Amen.