Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub with Pastor Jeff Ministries. On today's program, Pastor Jeff concludes his message, "The Making of a Worshipper," from the series Exodus, and shows you how God empowers you to step into your calling with confidence because the Great I AM goes with you wherever he sends you.

Our mission is to challenge people to respond to the word of God. And you're in the right place to grow in your walk. We invite you to visit PastorJeff.com where you'll find a wealth of resources and can sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails delivered right to your inbox. Now, let's hear today's message from the word of God with Pastor Jeff.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: Sometimes we like to know early on, "Okay, just tell me how it's going to work." God doesn't always give us the "hows." God can point us in a direction to see if we'll take steps of faith. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." God often doesn't tell us everything we need to do. Even when he does and shows you a specific, that call gets confirmed over time and gets sharper and sharper.

Which is why I would say this to you: if you are saying to me today, "I just don't know what my call is. I don't know what God wants me to do," become a worshipper of him. I know he wants that. If you'll do that and respond to whatever he shows you by taking a step, God will use that to draw you closer and use your purpose for his glory, even if you never know what it was on this side of heaven. You'll know it when you get there.

Become a worshipper. Celebrate that God's merciful. Celebrate that he does this. There are so many times I've had knockdown, drag-outs with the Lord. I remember after I graduated from seminary and the church planting residency I was in didn't work out, and I was telling the Lord, "Okay, Lord, I've trained now for five years, went to seminary, didn't want to do that. If you've got something else for my life, I will do it. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to start pushing on doors: coaching, business, whatever. You show me. I'll do ministry still, you just have to show me what it is."

I remember I was over in Europe with a friend who's a missionary in the Czech Republic, and we traveled all over Europe. During that time, God used the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to clarify the calling for me at that time of my life. Now, I knew a little bit about those books because I went to seminary and studied them, but I'd never read them intimately and personally for myself.

For me, as a single guy, I was telling the Lord, "I'll go anywhere. I can learn languages fast. I'm pretty good with people. Send me to any Middle East country, I'll go. Send me to Russia, I'll go. Send me anywhere in the world, I'll go. You got me, Lord." As I was reading through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God began to speak to me. He said, "You ain't going anywhere. I want you to go back to your own people in the United States, and I want you to call them to repentance and send them all over the world."

I said, "I don't want to do that. Send me, I'll go." That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now, because that was God's call on my life and that's what he's still doing. I'm still open to what that looks like. John Piper says, when we talk about worship, here's why global missions exist. Global missions exist because worship does not. What's God looking for? He's looking for worshippers.

Why would you share the gospel? Sometimes we share the gospel and we'll say, "I think they came to faith, but I'm not so sure." The Lord knows those who are his, so sometimes we truly don't know. I get that. But I'll ask this question: Do they worship the Lord? Do they want to be in the presence? They're not that kind of Christian yet. Well, then they're not a Christian because there's something that goes off in our heart when we're truly saved. It is not about where to go to church and not about style of worship, but there's a desire to give our full allegiance to the one who saved us.

That's what we're doing here. God's looking for worshippers that reverence his glory and his holiness. He's looking for worshippers that celebrate his mercies that result in missions. God's going to tell you as you worship him, you're going to see things in this world that just aren't right. You're going to see them clearer than somebody else sitting next to you. You're going to say, "Something needs to be done about that, God." And he's like, "Yeah, you. Go do something about that."

You're going to feel, "Well, not me. Maybe my pastor can do that. I'm busy right now." No, it's you. That's why God gives you clear vision when you worship him. The third thing God says is he's looking for worshippers who trust the awesome power of Christ who uniquely created you. To trust the awesome power of Christ who uniquely created you. Notice verse 13. Then Moses said, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is his name?' and what shall I say to them?"

He's saying now, "Okay, God, I'll go. When I go, I'll give them the whole routine. I'm being sent by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But God, you've got to understand, they may say to me, 'Well, who sent you?' How do we know you're for real? Forty years ago you left. Forty years ago you killed a guy and left. Why should we listen to you? God, what am I supposed to tell them? I'm so unqualified. Nobody's actually going to listen to me in this venue. Sheep listen to me. I can pasture them. I can shepherd them, but how is anybody in Egypt ever going to listen to me?"

This is an incredible verse. You'll be familiar with it. God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God, what's your name? I AM WHO I AM. It's this phrase Yahweh. It's the strong, personal creator God of the universe, the one who keeps all his covenants, the one who has been here in eternity past and eternity future and dwells in the present. The one who is unlike any other. That's the one who is sending you to them.

That is what we have to get in our understanding of God. It's the awesome power of God. I use the word awesome purposefully. I think it's okay when I preach about God to use the word awesome. I think the word originated probably by the valley girls in the 80s, where, "How was last night? It was awesome! It was so awesome! How was dinner? It was awesome! Did you go with your friends last night? Yeah, I did. How was it? It was awesome! Did you eat at that restaurant? Yeah, how was it? It was awesome!"

We don't know what awesome means. We dumb it down. Awesome really means awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, there are no words for what I'm witnessing right now. The only one that can be attributed to is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's awesome. And his power is awesome. His power is mighty. His power is great, and there is no other. So he says to Moses, "When they ask you who sent you, tell them that."

He says, "How do you know it's Jesus in the bush again?" Remember in John chapter 8, when the religious leaders were pushing on Jesus, and they're like, "Who do you think you are?" He said, "I tell you what, Abraham longed to see this day and rejoiced when he saw me." They said, "Abraham? You're not even 50 years old. You think you know Abraham?" He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM."

What was he saying? "I'm the God you're reading about in the burning bush. I'm the one that you've read about in your whole Old Testament. I that am standing before you am the one that created and sustained everything. I'm the one that gave you your body. I'm the one that's giving you moisture in your eyes for you to be able to blink. I'm the one that keeps your heart beating. I'm the one that gives you oxygen for your lungs. I AM. That's who I am." They picked up stones to stone him when he said that. It wasn't his time, so he got away.

That's who you serve. That's the God who has your back. That's the God who, when he's talking to you in a church service, you're like, "How am I ever going to accomplish that?" That God is the one who's telling you, "I can do it in and through you. Stop doubting and believe." That's what he's saying. God is not just, "Okay, he's God, and he's a bigger God than some of the other gods." No, he's the only God. He's the reason that you're still being held together. He's the reason that you have purpose. He's the reason you're still breathing.

He's the one that orchestrated all your days. He's the one that orchestrated your purpose. He's the reason you're good at things and bad at things. He's the one who's done everything for you, in and through you. He is worthy of all your worship. He's worthy of all your praise. He's telling Moses, like I'm telling you, "I got your back. You don't need to worry." Even later when Moses is going to commission Joshua in Deuteronomy 31, verse 8. It says, "It is the Lord who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."

God is your personal covenant-keeping God who created all things and he is awesome. We introduce people at games and they run out and we have all sorts of fanfare and music behind it. When God introduced himself to the world, it says, "In the beginning, God." Who was there? God. Who's always been here? God. Who singlehandedly created everything out of nothing? God. Who's the reason that you're here? God. Who's the reason that you're still breathing? God.

He created the heavens and the earth. He created the universe. He did it in six literal days by just the breath of his mouth. He could have done it just by thinking the world into existence. He was just giving us a pattern for how to live a week. Our God is awesome. When you hear him in a service and he's calling you and telling you things that he wants you to do or how he wants you to do them, know that it's that God that's prompting you. It's that God who's talking to you.

In verse 15, he says this, "God furthermore said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial name to all generations.'"" The same God we gather to serve is the same God that's speaking there. The one that we're going to spend eternity with. The one that is all-powerful.

Here's the question: What are you so worried about? What are you so fearful of? What are the areas in your life you wish you could have a do-over or a reset? God either authored or allowed that for your good and for the good of others. He's doing things in and through you, and he's all-powerful. He's got it. Yet what happens? Sometimes we come to church and we sit here with a health problem and we're like, "What's he going to do about that?"

We sit here with a financial problem and we're like, "What's he going to do about that?" We have a marriage problem and we say, "What's he going to do about that?" We have problems with our kids, "What's he going to do about that?" Let me just help you out a little bit. If you're alive and you breathe long enough, you will have a health problem at some point in time. If you're alive, even if you get a job, at some point in time there'll be some financial tension in your life, no matter how much money you make.

If you're alive and you choose to get married and you keep breathing, I promise you, you will have a marriage problem at some point in your life. If you're single and you want to get married, you will have a single problem in your life at some point. Just keep breathing and challenges come. The answer is not, "What's God going to do for me?" The answer is God saying, "Worship is a weapon over all the things that are coming against you, and no matter what you're going through, if you'll worship me, I'll take care of that."

He's the burden lifter. When we meet Jesus for the first time, we don't know what it's going to be like. I don't know anything else than what the Bible reveals, but it sure seems to me that John was falling down a lot in the book of Revelation. Every single time he was even falling down at beings that weren't even Jesus, and they're like, "Get up. I'm not Jesus. I'm just a being." It is going to be so incredibly massive that if you knew that *that* was the God that was for you, you would say, "Then who can be against me?"

Your view of God is too small. The reason you worry is your view of God is too small. He's too weak. He's not capable. He's not powerful enough. My God is unstoppable. The God of the Bible can heal, deliver, set free, do whatever his word teaches that he can do. Stop worrying and start worshipping. Trust the awesome power of Christ. He uniquely created you. He wants you to worship because he wants to do something through you that he can do through nobody else.

When I see people that are elite in their field and doing different things and I think, "That looks so easy," and it looks so easy because I know I can't do it. It can be as simple as seeing somebody on a platform. It can be as simple as seeing somebody put together a basketball hoop. Good job, Bob. When somebody's good at something, it's like, "Wow, that was pretty incredible." If you'll worship God, he'll do things through you that other people will say, "That's incredible."

Some of you are incredible encouragers. Some of you have incredible mercy gifts. Some of you have incredible prayer gifts. Some of you have incredible evangelistic gifts. Some of you have incredible administrative gifts. All God's asking you to do is, "If you worship me, I'll show you the next step to take. I'll put you in place where I need you at just the right time to do what only you can do and nobody else can do quite like you can do it."

God is looking for those who obey and fulfill God's calling as though people's lives depend upon it. God wants you to worship in such a way that you'll obey and fulfill God's calling as though people's lives depend upon it. Because they do. When we're talking about responding to the God of the universe in worship, here's what we're talking about: we believe that every single person who's ever taken a breath is finite and that apart from Christ, they will be separated from God in a place called hell for all eternity.

What is God doing? God told us to go and make disciples of all nations. What does that mean? God says, "Be a worshipper of me so I can pour my life through you because I want more worshippers." If you worship the Lord individually and in a community that worships him, you will hear God more clearly and you will step in the direction he wants you to go and he will use you for his glory, even if you don't see it on this side of heaven. Why is it so important? Because people's lives depend upon it.

I know what some of you are saying. "If God ever appeared to me in a burning bush and spoke to me, I guess I'd do what he wants me to do too." You wouldn't, because Moses didn't. You'll see it next week. Some of you want this big revelation and then you'll do it. But yet all the time you come week after week, month after month, God tells you one little thing to do and you refuse to do it because you don't think it's that big of a deal.

For some of you, it's this: you need to break up with that girl or you need to break up with that guy because they're not godly enough for what I'm calling you to do. You're waiting and waiting. If you need to break up, not just because you need to break up, but because the destiny of other people is relying upon you doing the right thing. AKA, your future wife or husband. AKA, your future kids. Your neighbors that you're going to come into contact with. It's not just about your obedience in the moment. It's about what that obedience is going to lead to.

Or God tells you how to serve your boss that's tyrannical and he's not very good, and don't quit right now, that's what I'm telling you to do. Why? Because what you don't see is that because you open your mouth and told people you're a Christian, they're watching you to see how you're going to respond when somebody doesn't treat you fairly. Their life is depending upon it—not just this life, but their eternal life. How you worship and live for God has eternal ramifications even in the littlest thing.

Isn't it good to know, because all of us have blown it in the littlest thing and in the medium thing and in the big thing, his mercies are new every morning? Start fresh now, but be obedient and then fulfill all the way to the end. Notice what God says. He starts telling Moses the vision. In verse 16 he says, "Go and gather the elders of Israel together." What do you notice when you're worshipping and God's calling you to commission? What's the first word you're going to hear? "Go!"

We want to know how. God's like, "Don't worry about how, just go." Go make disciples. How? Just go. Go and gather. Why gather? Because whatever God's calling you to do, it's not about your individualism. It's about what God's going to use you in a community to accomplish for his great glory. Go and gather. That's why he formed the church. It's not about one individual preaching, it's about the body of Christ being alive and manifesting itself to an entire city.

Go and gather the elders of the Israel and say to them, "The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me saying, 'I am indeed concerned about you and what is being done to you in Egypt.' So I said, 'I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.' They will pay heed to what you say, and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, 'The Lord, the God of Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'"

Earlier in the text, you saw how God came down to see what was going on. God is spirit. He didn't come down anywhere. In Genesis 11, we see how God came down to see what was going on at the Tower of Babel to see what they were doing. It's a metaphoric way to say God is coming down, he's concerned with what's going on. Here's what he tells Moses. "Go and gather the elders, tell them I sent you. When you do, you need to know this. We're going to go to Pharaoh. He's going to let you go. You're going to come and have a three days' journey out to the mountain, and we're going to worship together."

We're just going to invite him to a worship service. So far so good. That call sounds really great. But notice verse 19. "But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go except under my compulsion." So go, it's all going to work out for you, but one thing you need to keep in mind, when you get there, the Pharaoh's not going to listen to you. He's not going to let you go until I show my mighty hand.

But I already told you who I am, and I promise I'm going to do it. "So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my miracles which I shall do in the midst of it, and after that, he will let you go. I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. But every woman shall ask her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and your daughters. Thus you will plunder the Egyptians."

What's he saying? He's saying when I deliver you, I'm not just delivering you so you can go live some mopy life somewhere else. I'm going to deliver you, and I'm going to prosper you, and I'm going to set you free, and it's going to be a whole new way of living than how you were living before. When Jesus Christ came and died on the cross and he rose from the grave and through repentance and faith you trusted in him, it's not just to get you out of hell so you can go to heaven. It's to give you an entirely different filled life with his glory both now and forevermore.

He had to prepare the people for that. It's really interesting for me as I was studying this week. The word slavery and the word worship are the same two words in the Hebrew language. In the book of Romans it says we are slaves to the ones that we obey. We're slaves to what we worship. You can either worship something other than the living God and be a slave, or you can be a slave of worship to the living God and be completely free. There's no other way around it.

Here's what he's asking us to do. He's saying, "Come worship me. And then fulfill the calling. Fulfill it." That means walk it all the way through. I've told people several times when God called me to plant this church, I remember 12 years ago when Kim and I moved out here and we didn't know anybody. It was such an exciting time. We were like, "Who are we going to meet, and where's the church going to be located? What's it going to be?"

In my mind's eye, I have a vision of what our church can be. We're not even close to being what God showed me in my own spirit, but it's taking time. Because of the vastness of the vision that I brought to Denver, I honestly thought when we launched on November 7th of 2010, within a year we'd probably be a couple thousand people. Apparently nobody got the word, because we were a couple hundred people. I was wondering what's going wrong.

Over time, God's grown our worship. He's taught me that it's not about the number of people that come, it's about the number of worshippers that are giving their life to Christ that matter. That we won't waver in the word, and we won't waver in our worship, and we won't waver in prayer, and we won't waver in evangelism. We're not going to twist and turn things to make people comfortable. We want to give them the fullness of who God is so that for those that want to worship him, they can give him their full allegiance. Amen?

Had I known some of the challenges we'd face, I don't think I would have come. Isn't that true of everything God calls you to? You get into a new job, or you get into a new marriage, or you have your first kid and they're great for two days, and then you realize that they take a lot of work. All the things that you wait for, there's challenges to them. A vision and a calling does not mean Easy Street. A vision and a calling means continually giving your allegiance to the one who called you when things get hard because inevitably they will.

Friends, I want to be a church that worships the Lord. That's why I love this church. That's why I love gathering with this church, because I know that we're always going to worship and put Jesus on display. What it means to you is today you've got an opportunity to worship the Lord. Not just here, but all day long. If God gives you breath tomorrow, what does he want you to wake up doing? Worshipping him. Getting to know him. He's a relational God. Not go through the motions, not put in the time.

"Lord, I want to give you my best. Lord, I want to know what it means to give you my full allegiance. I want to know that you have my whole heart, and you can take me and use me however you want." If you do that on a daily, regular basis, God will take you to places you never even dreamed of and he'll use you in ways you never even thought possible. Who's he going to use? Broken, unlikely, unqualified people just like me and you, because that's all he's got to choose.

Isn't that good news? His mercies are new every day. Do not believe the lie of the enemy he can't use you. Believe the truth of the gospel that through Christ, you have the power unto salvation for God to do anything that he wants to do through you that's exceedingly, abundantly more than all that you ever thought or imagined. Amen?

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with the conclusion of his message, "The Making of a Worshipper," from the series Exodus, showing you how God empowers you to step into your calling with confidence because the Great I AM goes with you wherever he sends you.

Thanks for joining us for today's program. Quick reminder before you go. When you give a gift to support Pastor Jeff Ministries today, we'll thank you by sending a copy of 21 Days of Power: Becoming a Person of Prayer, Faith, and Fire. This is more than a devotional. It's a 21-day journey into God's presence designed to ignite a personal revival.

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