True Worship in Action (Hebrews 13:15-17)

In this message from Hebrews 13:15-17, Pastor Chris explores what true worship really looks like in everyday life. Worship is not limited to singing during church services. It is a lifestyle that includes praising God, proclaiming Christ, caring for others, and living faithfully in community with other believers. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18850635

Key Points

1. Praise God continually with your life – Hebrews 13:15
 Worship is more than a moment in a service. It is a daily pattern of honoring God through gratitude, obedience, and praise in every situation of life. Even in hardship, believers can offer a sacrifice of praise that reflects trust in Christ. 

2. Proclaim the name of Jesus boldly – Hebrews 13:15
 The “fruit of lips” means openly confessing allegiance to Jesus. Sharing faith does not require perfect answers. It is simply telling others what Christ has done in your life and pointing them to the gospel.

3. Practice generosity and compassion – Hebrews 13:16
 Acts of kindness, generosity, and service are forms of worship that please God. When believers share their time, resources, and abilities with others, they demonstrate the transforming love of Christ.

4. Support and participate in the life of the church – Hebrews 13:17
 God designed the church so believers grow through spiritual leadership, accountability, and encouragement. Faithful participation strengthens both the individual believer and the entire body of Christ.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris
 Examples included encouraging others through simple acts such as writing notes, helping people in need, sharing testimonies, and supporting church benevolence efforts like the care ministry and outreach to hospitals.

Notable Quotes

Worship is not just something we sing. It is something we live.

The things that constantly come out of your mouth reveal the depth of your worship.

You do not have to have every answer. Just tell people what Jesus has done in your life.

Actionable Takeaways

Reflect on whether praise is part of your daily life or only part of a church service.
 Look for opportunities to speak about Jesus naturally in everyday conversations.
 Serve others with generosity and compassion as an expression of worship.
 Commit to actively participating in the life and mission of your church.

Scripture References

Hebrews 13:15-17 – Worship expressed through praise, witness, generosity, and obedience
 John 4:23-24 – Worship in spirit and truth
 Psalm 34:1 – Continual praise to God
 Psalm 50:14 – Offering thanksgiving to God
 Hosea 14:2 – Returning to the Lord with words of repentance and praise
 Romans 10:9-15 – Confessing Christ and proclaiming the gospel
 Acts 1:8 – Empowerment of the Holy Spirit for witness
 1 John 3:17-18 – Loving others through action
 James 2:17 – Faith demonstrated through works

Keywords
 Christian worship
 Hebrews 13
 lifestyle worship
 Christian witness
 faith in action
 generosity and compassion
 sharing your faith
 Christian discipleship

Challenge
 This week, intentionally practice worship beyond Sunday by praising God daily, speaking about Christ openly, and serving someone in need as an act of worship.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

True worship in action. Everything we do in our life can show value, can show that we value God, can show that we think His worth is amazing. So many times when people think about worship, they think about the worship time at church, the singing time at church, how we just sang, and that's the worship team and the worship part of the service, but worship is so much more. Worship is involved for the Christian in everything that you do, in the way that you choose to live your life, in the way that you choose to do your work. It can all be an act of worship. Learning a skill, learning how to play music, learning how to glorify God in the way that you play music, or the way that you do woodworking, or the way that you treat your customers at work, or you treat your neighbors, you treat your family. That is all an act of worship. Worship can encompass every part of your life. Worship can encompass all of who you are and everything that you do when you see it all as an act of worship. When you think about how am I going to treat this person if I treat them better than they deserve, if I bless them, then that can be an act of worship. Because I'm doing it because I love God so much, because I value God so much that I want him to be pleased with what I do. I want to be an extension of his love. I want people to see the Lord in me I can truly worship in all of my life. And so I was gonna open, we're gonna open to Hebrews chapter 13, look at verses 15 to 17. I was praying about it, and I was like, what do you want me to talk about, Lord? And so I felt that this passage and the way that I'm gonna treat it is what I'm supposed to talk about. And so true worship in action. You just being here today is an act of worship. You decided, maybe you decided to turn off the TV early last night so you could get some sleep, or maybe you stayed up late and you still came. But nonetheless, you got here today to spend some time with the Lord in church, and that is an act of worship. When you open your Bible in the morning or the evening or sometime during the day, and you pray, that is an act of worship. When you give time, when you give back to God, when you give praise, all of that is an act of worship, a lifestyle of worship, worship in action, and that can be such a good thing. But number one, praise God continually with your life. Praise God continually with your life. If you are truly in Christ, if you are truly living for Christ, you will find that God can use you to do amazing things when you make it a pattern, when you make it a habit to be available to be, available to be interrupted, to be used of God, to maybe say something at the right time, to maybe encourage someone, to maybe write somebody a note, to maybe give them a gift of some kind to encourage them to find Jesus, to encourage them, if they know Jesus, to encourage them in their faith, to encourage them to become Christian leaders, to encourage them in so many ways. You'll remember that Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, a time is coming. I've got it on the screen actually, a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit, and in the spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. So to think about worship as a spiritual thing, to think about worship as something that God is watching for. God is watching for your worship, which leads to good works. God is looking for your worship, which leads to patience, endurance when you're waiting for your prayers to get answered, or when your prayers haven't been answered the way that you like them to be right away, that you keep pursuing the Lord, you keep living for the Lord, you keep worshiping. God's looking for true worshipers. There are fake worshipers. There's people who will come to a church service and they'll go through all the emotions, but their heart is far from God. There's people that will come up on the stage and they'll play wonderful music, and not any of our worship leaders, I'm sure, but they will lead and worship because they like singing, because they like to perform, but their hearts are far from God. And God is looking for true worshipers who are all in, who truly love Him, who truly know Jesus, who are truly saved, who truly have God's Spirit. And we all receive the Holy Spirit when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but we can be filled with the Spirit as we yield ourselves to him and confess any sin. Hebrews 13, 15 says, Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. That's one of the verses we're going to look at today, but just think about that. The things that constantly stream out of your mouth can be a sign of your worship depth, of your worship experience, of the things that you value and the things that you trust. And we should keep pursuing God. We should keep loving God and worshiping. Through Jesus, let us continually offer to God. Sometimes it's tough to keep coming back and doing it over and over again when life is hard, when life is difficult, when you're grieving, when you've lost your job, when you've been falsely accused, when things are just falling apart. And sometimes it is hard to do that. But I've read stories and learned a little bit that sometimes that is totally the way out is to put the Lord first and to just keep praising him. Sometimes you can go through the Bible and look in the Psalms and you can pray some of those back, and sometimes you can praise some of those back. Sometimes you can be like looking at a psalm about creation, and you know, when it talks about how God has created things, it'd be just praising the Lord. Thank you, the Lord, thank you, Lord, for your wonderful creation, and thank you for how you hold everything together all around me and how the weather patterns and the seasons change and how the moisture comes. And you just go through and you start praising the Lord for those things, and it lifts your spirit, it brings you closer to God, it helps to give you peace in the difficult times, gives you peace in the depressing times, and helps you to get through, helps you to move forward. But Hebrews 13, 15, therefore. So if you were to look in the beginning of Hebrews, you would see that the author of Hebrews is seeking to show who Jesus is, and how Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, and how his exact representation of his being. And the author of Hebrews goes to teach us to show us, no one knows who the author is, actually, how how wonderful the sacrifice of Jesus is, and how his sacrifice for our sin sets us free to live for him and calls us to a sacrifice of praise. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were offerings brought to God as acts of devotion and worship. Now praise itself becomes one of the sacrifices believers bring to God. So they used to bring sacrificial offerings. They had a grain offering and they'd sacrifice animals for their sin and stuff like that. And here we can bring a sacrifice of praise. We can praise the Lord, and it is a good thing. And it says to continually offer means to constantly and repeatedly give that to the Lord. Worship is not limited to a church service. Praise becomes a regular rhythm of the Christian life. So we move forward in praise. We offer it up willingly. When it comes to giving in the church, when it comes to supporting the church financially, the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver and he also promises to bless those who give. But it's not a forced offering. He doesn't force you to give. Offering is free will. And that's when it truly honors God. When in the midst of your blessing or the midst of your difficulty, or the midst of your boredom, or just the midst of the difficulties in life, you keep coming back to the Lord and praising him. He's not this needy God who is just so in need of your compliments or so in need of your praise that he wants you to do this. He wants you to do it because he knows that's what you created for. You were created to be a praiseful worshiper. You are created to know God and make him known. You are created to follow the things that you learned in Scripture, and as you apply them and find that the wisdom that you've put into practice is true, as you experience those blessings to praise the Lord, to thank the Lord, and to tell everybody. If I knew that there was some secret to life that would give me a better life, give me eternal life, give me an opportunity to ask for prayers to be answered, ask for things through prayer and things like that. If I knew all of this stuff and knew that it worked, and I didn't tell anybody and I kept it to myself, I wouldn't be a very good friend or family person. But if I know this and I know it to be true, if I've experienced it and I tell others, then that is a good thing. It's good for everybody around that hears the message and applies it. It's good for everybody around that has questions and curiosity and wonders if it really works and is watching us to see how we live. And it's good for those of us who encourage each other and build each other up through these praises, through these thanksgivings, the spoken worship directed toward God, the verbal honor and gratitude toward God for who he is and what he has done. And as we do that, it doesn't just encourage us, it encourages other people. That's why it'd be so great if every now and then we could get one of you up here to share what God has done in your life or to share what God has done to bless you and how the Christian life has worked for you. Maybe how you found Christ, what your life has been like since, things like that. That'd be good. But not everybody has a full answer to prayer yet. Some people are still on the journey, some people are still in the mess, and they don't know how it's gonna turn out. And that is a good time to just admit that life is difficult. We're in a sinful, fallen world, that you're praying for these things, but you still have conflict, you still have difficulty, you're not perfect, God's still working on you. As you continue on, you see God at work in your life, and you'd realize that you're becoming a different person, but then you share that with other people, and that can help you, and that can help other people. Sometimes as you share, sometimes as you teach things, sometimes as you answer questions, it helps to confirm and affirm and reaffirm your faith so that you are more confident. You are more confident in sharing Christ. And actually, I'm getting ahead of my another my next point, but just to think about that. A sacrifice of praise. Psalm 34.1 says, I will praise, I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. This is a good thing. It's a good thing to just continually recount how God is blessed, how God has been good to you, how God has gotten you through the difficulty. Those are good things. Psalm 50, 14 says, make thankfulness your sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Do you live that way? Is that a way that you live your life? Would you like to live your life that way? Jesus has taken care of the sacrifice for sin. So we don't need to make a sacrifice for sin, but we do need to make a sacrifice that honors God, the sacrifice of praise. And Psalm 107 says, Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and sing joyfully about his glorious acts. There's some people out there, especially some guys, that say, Well, I'm not really into music. I just listen to sports radio or I listen to talk radio or whatever. And if you miss out on music, you might miss out on what God has for you. Sometimes the message that's in the music can inspire you, encourage you, motivate you, and even help you from sin if you were to focus on music. And Hosea 14, 2 says, bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to him, forgive all our sins and graciously receive us so that we may offer you our praises. Some people feel so far from God, all they need to do is just pray and ask the Lord to forgive them. First of all, I'm assuming that you all have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that you've all come to a point in your life where you've repented of your sin. Acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin, that he rose again, that he ascended in heaven, that he is there now to hear you, and that by placing your faith and trust in him, that you can become a child of God. And that's new to you. I want to talk to you about that sometime. There's how to find God in New Testaments out there. I would love to have that discussion with you. So I'm assuming that we all are in Christ. But when our sin, when the sin that we do, when the attitudes that we have, the actions that we did, the things that we coveted, whatever it is, the distrust we have, the sin that we have seems to separate us from God. There's a time that we just need to confess that and say, Lord, I've been struggling with this. Please help me. Help me to forgive, for one, forgive me, and then help me to forgive that person or help them to forgive me or whatever. But to confess that, get that out of the way, return to the Lord, and then offer praises. Here's what Piper wrote in Future Grace. Every sinner who comes to God in Christ with all his needs finds God coming to him in Christ with all his promises. When a sinful person meets the holy God in Christ, what he hears is yes. God, do you love me? Yes. Will you forgive me? Yes. Will you accept me? Yes. Will you help me change? Yes. Will you give me power to serve you? Yes. Will you keep me? Yes. Will you show me your glory? Yes. All the promises of God, all the blessings of God in the heavenly places are yes in Christ. See Ephesians 1.3. Jesus is God's decisive yes to all who believe. So the only way that we can come to God in the first place is through faith in Christ. The only way that we can be sustained in the Christian life is through faith in Christ. Everything in the Christian life comes through Christ. Everything we do in the Christian life must be done through Christ. And that should motivate us then to praise the Lord. If we are doing good, we should praise the Lord. If we are serving the Lord in an amazing way and we're seeing a response, we should praise the Lord. We should always realize that it's not us, it is Christ in us. So do your words through the week reflect gratitude toward God. Do you praise God only during church services, or is praise part of your daily life? And how do I intentionally speak about God's goodness in my everyday conversations? So praising God is an act of worship. Another part of that is proclaiming the name of Jesus boldly so that people will come to him, so that people will be saved, so that lost people will know him. One person said that effective evangelism is like one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. So sometimes you think that you need to have the answer for every question they're going to ask you, and you don't. So what you need to do is to be able to share your experience and your faith story, your testimony of how Christ, how you found Christ, what Christ has done, come, came into your life and saved you, and what your life has been like since. And then maybe use some of the Bible tracts on the table or the How to Find God New Testament in the very front makes it easy for you to read through with someone how to find Christ, how to get saved, those good things. So we just read this verse, but this is in the New Living Translation that says, proclaiming allegiance to his name. So instead of just the fruit of lips, the proclaiming allegiance to his name. So as we do that, as we proclaim that, we acknowledge, we confess, we openly declare, it means to say the same thing as what the New Testament says, as what God says, to take what you've learned, to take what you've heard about Christ that you know to be true, and then to proclaim that to others. Many people won't read the book, many people won't pick up the pages, many people won't understand it, but when it comes from you, when it comes from you, and then sometimes when it comes from you, they start to take interest, and then you show them something else. I like to show people like IamSecond.com videos where you have like movie stars and athletes and normal people sit in a white chair and talk about their struggles and how they came to Christ and why Christ is first and they are second. That's a good one. There's other websites too that are helpful, but to proclaim allegiance to his name, to proclaim that I am a Christ follower, that I am trying to live for Jesus, that Christ is important to me. And many people will misunderstand. People might call you a religious fanatic, some people might mock you and laugh at you, but to just keep moving forward, because it is eternally significant that lost people find Jesus. Satan wants to do everything he can to distract them, to try to keep them from hearing the message. It is so important. Proclaiming allegiance, to confess his name, to openly identify with him, to belong to him, to acknowledge his lordship. It carries the idea of loyalty and public identification with Christ. Do you know that the term Christian wasn't a nice term in the very beginning? It was considered an insult. It was considered a derogatory term for those people who are Christians. But eventually the Christians owned the name, owned the term, said, Yeah, that's us. We're Christ followers. And maybe it'd be better to call ourselves Christ followers than Christians, because just about everybody in America, at least in the past, thinks they're a Christian, but to be a sold-out Christ follower, now that's something. We mention this passage a lot. It's very important for receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Romans 10, 9. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. And I hope that you all have done that. Another way to step this up and to do this in a way that Jesus wants us to, because he told us to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is to get baptized. And we have a baptism pool right there. So we don't even have to break the ice on the river or the lake. We can just do have baptisms here. But to proclaim your faith in Jesus and to get baptized as a believer, that is a good thing. If you do these things, the Bible says that you will be saved. But then the next part of the passage is the worship part for the saved people to do. So if you've been saved, you want to do this. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. It's a great thing to have missionaries. Missionaries go to other parts of the world. Often they are people that are already there, that are supported, that speak the language and know the culture. Sometimes people from a culture like this learn the language, get trained up, and go to be missionaries. Matter of fact, we had Tony and Rainey Roos here, and he grew up in Cherry, Minnesota, and he went out to be a great pastor, a missionary in France for a while. Now he's back, I think, in the Twin Cities as a pastor of a church, but he's from this area, and he did that. And they're having a missions conference today, and that's the thought is sending people out to different parts of the world to train up people for ministry and to lead people to Christ. But you know who can be even more effective than missionaries going out to different people groups is you and the people group that God put you in, the people group that you are in, the network of friends you have, the people that you work with, the people in your neighborhood, if they will listen to you, if you will take opportunity to tell them about Christ that you can be the one to help them believe in Christ, that you can be the one to tell them the message so that they can hear. So preaching doesn't mean you have to scream at them or hit them over the head with a Bible, but proclaiming the word of God is a good thing. And how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. How beautiful are you to them when you bring the good news in your life, but I can't, I can't, and it's true, you can't do it on your own. And as we always say, the Holy Spirit empowers you to bring the message. Acts 1.8, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. You will be my witnesses in Midway, you will be my witnesses in Virginia and Evelith into the range, into Minnesota, and maybe across the United States, and maybe to different people in the world. Craziest thing now is through all the different types of media we have, we can literally reach people. In other parts of the world. You could literally sit there and take your phone, record yourself, post it, and have somebody watching it on the other end of the world and respond. What a great thing that would be. What a great way to live your life. What a great way to make a difference. What a great way. Number three, another way that you can worship the Lord is by practicing generosity and compassion. By practicing generosity and compassion, by showing people that you truly care with the resources that God gives you. As we do that, God can use us to do amazing things. Sometimes we have skills, sometimes we can repair things, sometimes we can fix things, sometimes we can fund things. So many things that we can do that glorify God and make a difference. And that can all be an act of worship. Hebrews 13, 16 says, Don't forget to do good and to share with others, for such with such sacrifices, God is pleased. Why is it a sacrifice? Because you gave up something that you had. Because you gave something to somebody and now you have less. Because you gave it because your motive was because you care, because you're a Christ follower, because Christ has given so much for you, you want to give back. The Christian church is responsible for schools and hospitals and so many different social things that have helped people in need. And we even have a care team that helps people in need as we have resources. As the resources come in when you give and fund the benevolent fund, they're able to use that money to help people in need, and it's a good thing. And I've heard the Jesus loves you teddy bears, the with the says Rockwell Church, they're wearing little t-shirts that says Jesus Loves You Rockwell Church are a real hit, especially when they're in the hospital, because everybody and the nurses and all they see them and they ask about them, and it's an encouragement to everybody, the little teddy bears. So good job, everybody. But to share with others sacrifices, the things that you are giving up, the money, the resources, the tools, the time, all of that. 1 John 3 17, if someone has enough money to live well, if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need, but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other, let us show the truth by our actions. Showing benevolence, doing good, caring for people. That all makes a difference. James 2.17. So you see, faith itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it's dead and useless. So this isn't that you need to do works to be right with God. This is because you are right with God, you should be doing some kind of work, showing some kind of care, making a difference. Doing good is a general term for all kinds of practical ministry to others. Sharing means sharing the essentials of life with those who lack them and are unable to work to obtain them. The Bible is clear that religion that is only God word and does not extend in practical ways to others is phony. Do you show that kind of care? Do you, as you have the resources to share, doesn't mean that you have to give them everything in your bank account? When people ask the care team, can you I'm behind, I'm three months behind on my house payment. Can the church help me? No, the church doesn't have that kind of money to do that. Can we help you with groceries? Can we help you with a gas cart? Things like that. So, yeah. Number four, participate faithfully in God's church. Participate faithfully in God's church. If I were planting a church, if you were new Christians, I want you to know what the purpose of a pastor is and why churches need them. That's what the Bible says. Hebrews 13, 17. Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. So to be persuaded, to trust in the leader of your church, to trust your pastor. So there are lots of stories of pastors who cause trouble, of pastors who are doing things and no one seems to be able to confront them. But that's not the way a pastor is supposed to be. That's not the way that good pastors are supposed to be. So assume that the pastor leader of the church has every intention of doing right before God to please God because he is God's employee in the church to help you to grow in your relationship with Christ, to help protect the church, to help lead the church, to help move the church forward. Assume that is the way. So when a pastor of any church, anywhere, is trying to move forward and trying to lead, be helpful. Some people like to cause trouble and push back and cause trouble for the pastor. First Peter 5, 2 tells pastors to be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them, not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonor skein, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. So most people that I know that are in ministry have often given up some other career or something else to serve God in this capacity. And it is much more difficult, and that is actually why there's currently a pastor shortage. Right now, at another church on the other side of the range, a pastor has his last Sunday, and I've heard that to replace him, it could take up to a year and a half to find another pastor because the Bible college and seminaries aren't filling up with young people that want to be pastors, that it is difficult. There are lots of needs, lots of voids. So we need to pray for our pastors. But Ephesians 4 11, when it talks about the pastor lists, Christ himself gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. And that's what I try to do as a pastor is I try to equip you guys for ministry. I try to lead the church forward with the time and resources that I have. And if we had more people involved in leadership, if we had more elders, if I had a team, instead of being by myself, we could do so much more. But we move forward with what we have, and faithfully we're trying to make a difference in people's lives. And I think that there are enough stories around of people's lives who have been transformed that it is making a difference. And many of you get, many of you are serving in ways. Sometimes it can't be seen the way that you serve and the things that you do, and we're so appreciative of you. Ephesians, first Peter 4 10 says each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. So we're serving together. God has given us all at least one spiritual gift to serve in the local church. It's not good to just be participating in church on video only or just listening and not actually being part of a local body of Christ where people know you, where people know your name, where people care about you, where you can serve together. It is a good thing when we do that. But we need to trust. We need to move forward as a church. And 1 Thessalonians 5:12, dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord's work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work and live peacefully with each other. Leadership Ministries Worldwide says, honoring leaders that watch over the church and have the best in mind for their followers is good. They do not lead for their own sake, but because God has called them to a position of helping people mature in Christ. Those leaders are concerned for the deepest needs of those in their fellowship. These leaders also take on great responsibility. They must give an account to God, yet the pressures our leaders feel to please their congregation sometimes makes them want to get their approval more than God's. Too many believers create problems and tension for their leaders through endless complaints and interpersonal conflicts. I could give you a whole list of why it's hard to get people to go into ministry nowadays. And I could give you a whole list on how there can be conflict in church and things like that. But I think we really need to focus on what we're about as a church. The purpose of Rockwell Church is to connect people of all ages to Christ the rock so that together we live well lives through worshiping, encouraging, learning, and loving. To glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ. And so after we get past Easter, that's our next series on is how to disciple people. But our purpose is to glorify God by making disciples of all ages of Jesus Christ, fully devoted followers of Christ. The vision of what do we expect to see? Is to see generations rooted in Christ, the rock, and growing together in worship, encouragement, learning, and love. That idea of being rooted, that idea of being tight in Christ comes from Colossians 2, 6. So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness. So to live your life for Christ, to live a life of worship and think everything that I do, everything that I want to do for Christ. Snowblowing the other day, Tim and I, my son-in-law, Tim and I, we snowblow it out here. When I think about cleaning up the parking lot and getting it ready for church and everything, that is not just, it's not even in my job description, by the way. But it is something I do as an act of worship. Caring for God's house, caring for God's property is an act of worship. Taking my own time sometimes to continue to spread stuff on social media and to always be available. The pastor sometimes, the worship team can come up here, but the pastor sometimes should be seen kind of like a lighthouse keeper sometimes, because yeah, we have church and we have this stuff, but when things go bad, when there's a storm in someone's life, the pastor is available to come and help, and for a church to have a full-time pastor, for a church to have someone available to be that lighthouse keeper, to be there to shine the light of Christ is huge. Let me pray. Jesus, I thank you so much that you have called us to be worshipers, that you have equipped us to be worshipers, that you have given us a book to teach us how you are and how we should live and how we can be worshipers, that you've empowered us with your spirit so that we can be effective worshipers. Lord, let us show us your true worth, how much we value you by the things we do, by the things we say, by what we do with our money, by what we do with our time, how we live our relationships, how we care about others, and how we think about ourselves. God, we just thank you for it all. And we just recommit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.