you know when you asked me to talk about worship it's like asking me to talk till tomorrow because I love the topic of worship and what what that means and what that encompasses and what that stands for so thanks for coming and hanging out after lunch if you need some chocolate I'll try to find you some who here is a worship leader worship singer you're involved in the worship team at your church well I hold it up for me awesome how about you serve at the church in some way in ministry or maybe not on worship but you're you do ministry awesome and how many of you are here just because you love torsion awesome okay good and if you didn't raise your hand and I'm confused Oh maybe your computer oh I have a lot on my heart today so if I pause it's just because I I'm just like trying to figure out where I want to go I kind of might just like rabbit trail on like 50 different things so if you've got your pen and paper ready you just go for it grab ahold of something that would be something that would help you in your journey and in your place just real quick I I started leading worship when I was I'm 30 I know I look 18 that's all right I started leading worship when I was really young because there was an opportunity I went to a small church and it was a non-denominational Church and anybody that could do anything musical saying led worship you know and so I started leading and being a part of the team and actually seeming like solos and stuff when I was like 13 and scared out of my mind I have a tape from when I was 15 and it sounds terrible you know I think people were just deaf I don't know but I was a massive training and so I'm just thankful for my upbringing we would have these nights of worship when I was a kid that we would go for like on a Saturday night leaving all upset Sookie and incall whatever you want it was a night of worship it was ministry it was just a bunch of radical teenagers who love Jesus and loves presents we would get together in this room actually you guys you helped me put this on the floor I feel funny saying onstage so cool thank you so uh yes much better so we would get together like on a Saturday night and just bring guitars just hang out kinda like hippies and dispersion until our rights came or until they were like we have to lock the doors and you know what it did for me was it cultivated something in my life that I'm really thankful for now was just this learning to just be and every every one of us has a different story and a different journey of how we're doing ministry now or how we've gotten to the place that we're in in our lives now but I love how we can all look back and see where we were pursued and where the Lord was setting us up to win and setting us up to fall in love with him and I kind of mentioned it last night I'm really big about especially when we talk about worship about that moment when you fell in love who was here last night and if you weren't here raise your hand okay so I just mentioned for one quick second last night that we we have these places in our lives where you got saved which is the most important thing that happens in our life and then I'm told marriage is the other one but I haven't experienced that one yet so hope so right now though but I'm not interested in anyone so don't bring me your cousins or your uncles or anything um oh just not going there anyway um I what was I saying uh oh yeah fall in love um we all have these these moments that thank you it's like a light show it's pretty cool that we fell in love with that we fell in love with the presence of God and that worship had something with that worship meaning music an emotional moment between us and the Lord in his presence and those are the moments that we don't forget about we can have a moment where there's an anointed speaker and anointed singer we might not remember what song was set saying or who sang it or who spoke but we can always remember the presence of God in a place you know or will be impacted by this week because the presence of God has just been hovering and we'll remember that we won't remember exactly what was said or what we sang but years and years from now we'll remember this as a divine moment in our lives and those are the moments that shape us and help us in ministry and it's dangerous when we step away or when we don't allow ourselves to remember those moments and so I grew up having these simple moments of that and that's just kind of my testimony I know that sounds crazy but it just was simple like that I just I fell in love and then just had such a desire to be a part of worship teams or or whatever door was open at the time which at the time was my youth worship team then I went off to college I got involved in college then I went off to Bible School got involved in Bible School and all along the way my heart was that the Lord just Lord used me I know I love worship and I know I love being in your presence and I would love to do this in some way for the rest of my life and you know it's just those simple prayers that were prayed and but more than that there were moments where it was like it didn't look like what I thought it would look like you know when you're a kid you dream about what it will look like to grow up and to get married or to have ministry or to be a pastor to be a teacher it just doesn't look it doesn't smell and it doesn't taste like what we thought it would when we get there you know and so all along this journey I feel like the Lord has just protected and safeguarded me in a way of like just making me stay in love and the moments that I feel like I'm falling away from that and the simplicity of what that means I feel like it um he just draws us back he's so good at just drawing us back right before I came out here I just have so much on my heart and I was like Lord you gotta you gotta help me know where to start any I felt Lord said I want you to sit down i sat down I was like I have to go in a second he said just sit down and I I felt like he said you need to remind everyone that they need to sit down in their heart again because with what our culture is like today and how things are we're just so busy doing and doing the things of the kingdom and planing worship music planning the weekend lists the whole gamut that comes along with life at this point of ministry and those are that's how we fall out of love is when we aren't allowed ourselves to have those moments to sit and to make our spirit man just be in the presence of God a lot of worship leaders I feel like out there and and I don't even know this is just me talking from absolute personal experience of of merely coming to that place of burnout or saying god I believe worship again tonight and I don't feel like it or I'd rather stay home or you know just I'm human just like you and and I have these moments where I have to just be honest before the Lord and I he honors that in our lives those moments where you say Lord I have no idea what you want me to do tonight or this weekend and worship there's so many times that I'll ask the Lord Lord what did what does the congregation what is this specific congregation that I'm about to go minister to what did they need to say to you right now and I hear him I'll hear him say you need to sing a lot about grace this weekend it is seeing a lot about the love that I have for them that I'm for them and not against them and so you see I told you I'm just gonna be like it's like popcorn teaching I mean let me tell you this a basic scripture for for you that would be so important for you to be reminded of today it's John 10:27 says my sheep hear my voice and they know me and they follow me and then the very next part of Isis and they will not follow the voice of another and I just wonder how many of us are quick to follow the voice of the other because in order to know a voice you have to hear it more than once and you know say you have a loved one and they call you you know when your mom calls you always know as your mom I mean she can just breathe and you know it's your mom on the phone or someone that you really care about they can just say one word and you're like oh hey and well if it's somebody that you don't talk to very often you you know that then phone calls you again they're like guess ooh and you're like and they're like you're like keep talking I can't believe you don't recognize my voice you know you've had those phone calls well it's because maybe you haven't talked to that person in a while so you don't know who it is man I think we do this with God I think we do this with God way too easily honestly I think it debate comes very easily for us to get just too busy but it says John 10:27 my sheep they hear my voice they know me and they follow me I think that our generation needs to have a shift in worship and it needs to be a shift inquiry leaders who are just finding good songs and who aren't just having taking good classes or having a degree or a Bible School degree or anything like that but it's it's just us and worship knowing the Shepherd's voice that's why sometimes I'll just I just stop I am at first when I this started happening like like a year ago God started shifting something in my worship bleeding and I felt like it was really hard because I didn't know where to go and I felt like I had a feel of every wave of space with something come on slip their hands and let's magnify lets you know that that worship leader thing that's real busy and crazy sometimes I mean it is needed don't get me wrong it is very needed we have to lead as a worship leader we have to lead people but we also need to just get them there and then once they're there let them just eat in the pasture the Shepherd gets the Sheep to the pasture with the rod and tells them where to go and keeps them in the fences and but then once they're there they can eat they can partake of what what the shepherd has gotten them there to do with just to eat taste and see that the Lord is good and so I just I try to be really careful and it just happened I feel like the Lord just he's the best teacher you know he he knows what we need he knows what we're called to do he knows what he's put inside of us he knows the giftings and the callings that are on our life we're all wired differently some of you in this room would if you put a worship list together it would be all fast songs because you loved just dance and rejoice and praise and and that's awesome and that's a gift and that's a calling but then you need the the me in there that if I don't have to do one fast song I'd be okay with it because I like to just go to the like get on our face let's weep if they're not tears then I don't think it was good I'm just that kind of worship like worship or I just I want it to be the the ugly where everyone leaves just like war stains on their faces just crazy but we need both right we need a balance and so you've got to know that the gifting and the calling that's on your life we need it we need your songs what if we didn't have the the Chris Tomlin's writing worship music what if he would have decided you know what my gifting and I don't have the the gifting - I don't know I'm making this up as I go but what if we didn't have that Chris Tomlin's or the the Darlene checks or the different ones that we that we're able to really take from what God is doing in their life and changing our churches what if they would have started comparing themselves well I'm not so and so so I don't know if I should in our generation let me tell you this those of you that are younger in this room comparison would be the number one thing that will keep you from doing what God's calling you to do he's put a gift and a call and a desire in your heart that is different than anyone elses and you're wired that way for a reason and there's a scripture that says alumnus well I didn't write it down I do a lot of paraphrasing sorry it's just this the despite your age that the Lord isn't a respecter of age I mean he used Christopher this morning who was 15 years old to play guitar and to just bless us and to help us enter into worship he used his gift today he used Joshua in our lives last night Joshua was talking to us Josh was 12 and he was talking to us we got to have dinner with them last night over there and he was just talking to us about his heart for for sports and how he just loves his family and that he's walking through something that he's happened to learn to trust God in a whole new way and how much these two boys love their brother Blake and it's amazing and we were just so impact I couldn't go to bed till 1:00 in the morning because I was so impacted by a family who's just living life and you guys are trusting God with everything you have and that is worship it's worship and it's going to impact Nations because you impacted us we're impacting other people well heal impact someone I mean it's just it's that movie pay it forward ready you're doing what you're called to do in this season in this moment raising these godly men and you're impacting people's lives we have to do what's in our in our hands right now we always kind of in that area of ministry or calling where we're so focused on the two years from now or what's your five-year plan or where do you see yourself in 10 years and right now you got to live right now God's called you to something right now if that's getting involved in your worship team at your church at your school however it is that you can get your hands dirty in leading worship if that's what you're called to do a lot of students will ask me you know how did you get started and and I want to do what you do have such a desire to be a worship leader you got to do it you got to do it you got to get involved now where you are be planted in a church is one of the most important things of being a worship leader being planted in a local church and serving where God has you serve and if he wants you to go outside those four walls he'll do it he'll do it you just got to be where he wants you at the time you want you there it'll be good okay regardless of your age it's awesome you want to know what my first worship list was when I was 10 years old bingo and John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt I had to lead worship for our kids Church when I was 10 and my mom and dad were like hey what what they want to know what two songs you want to do and I I was just trying to think of songs that everyone would want to sing that they would all get involved in sing and I knew that everyone would know bingo and John Jacob Jacob Jingleheimer did his name and I knew we could go on for hours like we did in the big church because we did songs in there for like hours and so I was like we could do this and my parents were like um wow I remember this like small chuckle and they said though something about Jesus actually that one songs about beer it's like people that go to like a bar they they sing that song I was like really and they're like an being goes really about a dog and so you're probably should sing something let us help you so I did I Love You Lord and Jesus loves me and no matter our age we're always gonna have to be helped you know let me let me say this another Roberto worship list and senior pastors those two things do not go together I find more senior pastors who are very opinionated about what the worship list is and let me just tell you as a worship leader you need to submit and just say okay because God will use whatever song it doesn't matter the song it just matters how you're shepherding and how you're leading because you could use Jesus loves me and the presence of God will fall because this is the key it's it's that your worshiper in the in the private place in the quiet place that you cultivate that in your own time and in your own place and if this was like my only place to lead worship it would be very disappointing for me and this is what I mean by that because there are times that I just want to stand there and like lay on the floor and not say anything but then the person in the back who's just really really hungry but doesn't quite know exactly how to press in and enter in I got to make sure and draw them in just say come on in this moment I just want you to lift your voice come on in this moment I just want you to realize that the Lord is here he's present you know I've got I've got a job to do as a worship leader so if I'm only getting my intimate moment of worship in that second it's going to be I'm gonna just run dry but that's really a lot of worship leaders that's the story right now because it's so busy and it's important too that we have seasons where we go to a place we just rehearse and then there there are times where I just say let's just square and we'll just take however long it takes and we and I end up crying on my face and but what it does for us as a team is it it cultivates a just a togetherness practice worshiping together don't just practice songs and your worship teams practice the presence of God practice getting in his presence and and when that happens hey you know you're having this moment you're like hey Hank will you just play that I like what you're playing so then when I'm in this setting and I'm feeling that and I look at him and I go like that he remembers in our practice time that I wanted him to keep going on what that was and he can just go and it just do you see what I mean otherwise I'd be like tapping him on the shoulder and hey you play what you're playing cuz I like that or you know it's just going to be harder to get to those moments in those places in your congregation if you're not practicing that in in a different place so practicing that in your own life and practicing that as a team I want to talk about this there's a plague happening I feel like in the area of just ministry not just worship but and it's this topic of second-hand information your guys familiar with what that would be second-hand information you know if you go to a secondhand store I mean it's gonna be already been used like ABC gum already been chewed um I have this funny picture what if you showed up to the conference and you're real you're real real tired you've been traveling a lot and you've been looking forward to this conference for weeks you need to get refueled you're excited like a little sabbatical for you to just get refueled so what if you show up and there's trash everywhere in here because there was already a conference before you and they say sorry you know you guys are just gonna have to use what we already had the plates are dirty we just didn't have time to do it but whatever you can find you can eat it I mean if there's leftover chicken go for it you know and they're serious so you're like what I need something fresh I came because I'm tired and I need something fresh I feel like though I'm sorry if I step on your toes but it's okay um I feel like we are living in a little place like that right now in our lives because we're we're okay with our only place of worship being on a Sunday morning we're okay with our only time of being refueled is at church sitting right here from somebody else's mouth where we serve a God who he dwells inside of our heart in our lives and I want to be a John 10:27 girl that knows the Shepherd's voice and I hear him and I can know and taste and see that he is good in my life and not just have to get it from somebody else and somebody's leftovers and somebody's already been chewed gum it just we're it's a dangerous place to live if that's our only place of Revelation and in getting refueled from Lord um I feel like I have a real hard time getting that time traveling like this it never looks the same never smells the same I love being home I love being up this one chair to papasan chair and that's my spot and if I'm gonna go get in that spot it's like I'm about to go sit in Papa's lap it's I am it I will not get up from this chair until I meet with you that kind of a thing I love that I love the smell I love my blanket I love my journal and well I travel a lot so I can't do that once a month and so I find that it is super hard to press in sometimes and I find myself even saying you know what I probably just should take a nap it's a long day but I promise you this the very moment very moment that I just sit down in my spirit and in my heart and I just say God I need to meet with you and I need to hear you it's like flood waters rushing in and I just reminded why I'm I'm in love I'm reminded why I do what I do I'm reminded why his presence is so good I just want to challenge us today myself included to to guard those times to guard that in our lives too to be a generation that is not just going to be fed by secondhand stuff but that we're going to go after the Lord first get the first you know he's it he's interested and very very big about the first our first fruits love that Jesus went and met with the Lord first thing in the morning it's important we got it we got to learn from that that he wants to give us first as well you reap and sow you sow and you reap you so that first you give him the first of who you are he's gonna give you the first of who he is and it doesn't have to just be from somebody else you guys are right sorry it's like popcorn but just I love all these things you know I love the story of the woman in the Bible that she had that disease there is a woman who had a disease for 12 years and in that time the culture cultures a big word for our generation I don't know why maybe in my life I feel like it is I'm learning more and more about different cultures as I traveled to so like in Australia the worship culture is real different in the South it's real real different so it's more free in the South in the North their worship culture is a little harder because it's just the culture the people they're just not as if you're from the north I'm sorry you're probably the nicest northern they're just more kept to themselves they're nice people I'm not saying they're not nice there but they're just more kept to themselves and Michigan is at the north it's just a different culture just it's a little more traditional I think is in my room you think no you're from Kansas City just I'm just learning I'm just learning different cultures in different ways that people do an R & B and and as a worship leader I have to know these things because if I'm standing there leading worship there are times that I will be leading worship and I could promise you I could get off stage and be like man I don't even think they like me like I don't think they could get past the poof on my head or something I don't know is I don't feel like I got through to anybody I don't feel like worship I just went it was terrible and the hardest of persons in that room like maybe the person that was just crossed their arms and just kind of scowling the whole time uh will come up to us and say never in the presence of God like that I bet well could you at least smile I mean give me something to work with I just thought you hated me or something um but you just don't know what cultures you're going into but here's where I was going with them there's this woman in the Bible the culture of her time the disease that she had for 12 years required her to live outside the city gates so imagine if we were all a community okay and we all live in this little cute neighborhood and it's like everyone puts their same little trash can out every morning and waves and picks up the paper and you know just like this perfect little thing and you got sick and so for you you had to go live outside of the entrance to the neighborhood so every time anybody came into the neighborhood they saw you and they knew a person has a disease I can't be around them I can't they can't touch me they're unclean okay this woman lives in this situation in her life for 12 years and she hears that Jesus is coming to her town and she knows enough about Jesus because of that time they would read the the prophecies and they would read from the scribes they would read to them what was going to take place and it was like to look forward to the things to come they would watch and wait for the promises of God in this way and so she knew that that Jesus was finally here and he's doing miracles he's going city to city doing miracles and it's amazing and and people are being delivered from demons they're being touched they're being filled with the Holy Spirit's just amazing and so she wants this healing after 12 years I would want healing too I just can't imagine what she had to go through that day to press past the culture that she lived in because that meant she had to go to insight she had to go inside the city gates where Jesus was doing the meeting and then the Bible says she had to press through crowds of people she wasn't allowed to she wasn't supposed to she wasn't supposed to be touching anybody so she had to go against her culture and what was told to her to get healing from the Lord in the very moment just there's the moment that she touched the very tip she didn't have to touch him she just touched His garment said it says she touched just the very edge the tip of his garment in the healing virtue filled her body and healed her body so much so that Jesus felt power leave him and he said someone touched me and the disciples said what are you talking about tons of people are touching you it's very crowded you're silly he said no somebody touched me with faith they just needed something from me and power the power of God left my body to heal a woman to heal somebody so they find out it's this woman I don't want to be defined by my culture I don't want to stay stuck in tradition to where I can't have the power of God if that means I have to go against what other people are saying against my life if that means I have to overcome something that I'm walking through something that might be embarrassing something that might be trying to define me that means I have to push that aside say Lord I'm gonna look to you and I'm going to know your voice I'm gonna hear your voice and know you as my shepherd and you've got to get yourself filled up with who the Lord says you are that's why I love Cody's songs so much really wish you would call that song identity but he doesn't listen to me it's called all he says I am and we did that last night in it we could do that in a few minutes maybe they'd be a good song to do um we just got to be filled with who we are in the Lord getting this knowledge from the Lord because we're spending time in his presence that's gonna be true worship that's true worship because we're just we're children of God we're walking through the fire through the desert through the valleys and through the mountains and in the meantime everything we're saying is God I trust you teach me Who I am show me who I am I'm not gonna hide under this rock I'm gonna walk over this rock I'm gonna let you help me you're gonna help me do warfare in the spirit you're gonna help me overcome what the enemy's doing in my life he wants to do this for us this is what worship is this is what being in ministry is this is what our lives to taste and smell like him should be a fragrance that fills the nostrils of people that we that they know you've been with the Lord that they know it and Satan doesn't want you to he hates he hates us and so he's going to try with everything he has to keep us bound in our in our circumstances and to keep us from feeling like we can pursue but if you will press in through the crowds of people you'll touch you every time isn't he good you're right his presence is real sweet do you not so k2 just acknowledged that in front of people it gives them we got to be real as Ministry ministers we gotta just be like you know even in those moments where you don't know what to say you just say I don't know what to do right now I love that I love that when a pastor goes man I don't know what to do let's just let's just sit here and let's just wait I might be a hippie but that's okay I I just love his presence and this is what we live for we won his presence to come so when it comes we just need to be just just receive from the Lord God would you teach us to be a people litter that aren't too busy with the work of the ministry but that we are just lovers or that we're in love with you and that we're we're ministering from an overflow father asked you to come and fill every heart in this room every person Lord that's been dry and filling just maybe to the point of burnout I hate that word burnout Lord it's just meaning that we need to get a new wineskin and we need to let you feel it was new and fresh wine and that means we have to spend time with you Father some of us need to do that so badly it's going to take some radical decisions of playing some things down and re looking at our schedules and creating space for you God give us creative ways or creative moments give us wisdom God those of us that do have time god I pray that we would just take advantage of that time or that we would be getting filled up by your Holy Spirit by your word or that that our worship to you would be the most important thing we do in the quiet place in the private place Lord so that people that are coming to to receive from our worship leading or pastoral impartation or our preaching or teaching or prophetic ministry or your missions or whatever it is in this room or that we do in our calling God I pray that our first priority would always be your presence where we need you we need you God we need you so bad we just thank you for who you are lord you're so good to us you know we have a good 20 25 minutes I would love if you need to slip out I don't they didn't really tell me timeframes I just thought maybe it an idea I'm just gonna we're going to go into some worship and I want to give you a time to just get on the on your faces get on the altar because sometimes we can have a moment like this but then we go out the door and our phone rings and you must come in and I want us to respond to the Lord right now and it'd be super important today at some point for you to journal and to captivate and capture what what the Lord is doing in your heart we got to have those milestones we can go back and and read and remember what the Lord said and to be reminded because I feel like the Lord really really going to visit you in the next few minutes and then if you don't have a journal or piece of paper with you today why don't you do that when you get back to your hotel or just at some point capture what God's saying to you today all right sorry I'm like a teacher kind of fun boom all right we're gonna give you some time to be with the Lord Cody why don't you do that song love you guys you