Understanding What It Really And Truly Means To Worship God

Everybody is discipled in life. Yes, everybody. That might sound weird, but when we understand that disciple just means follower or student, it makes sense. We're all learning how to live from someone. So the question isn't, "Are you a disciple?" But instead, "Who is discipling you?" Maybe it's social media or cable news, maybe it's a political ideology or a cultural movement; but make no mistake, whether you're pursuing it passively or passionately, you are being discipled every single day of your life. Choosing to follow Jesus means becoming his disciple. It means making practical, everyday decisions to model your life after his. It's simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy. But choosing to become a disciple of Jesus is worth it, because it's the only path to a rich and satisfying life.

Paul Basden:
Glad to see each of you today. And I want to introduce you to two very average people. This is Jake, and this is Emma. Actually I have no idea of their real names, but Jake and Emma are two of the most popular names in America to give to babies; so let's just assume that their parents were really progressive and got those names 25 or 30 years ago.

Now, if you were a fly on the wall in their lives, if you could follow them around and watch everything they did, you would notice that there are certain things that they do so repetitiously that it just becomes a regular pattern, almost without thinking. And, in fact, you couldn't talk them out of this if you tried. For example, you'll notice that they eat; they eat food. They eat at least three times a day. They brush their teeth several times a day. For Jake and me, the goal is one time a day. They shower, they use deodorant, they shave, they fix their hair. If their hair looks terrible, they put a ball cap on, then they go out. They put on contact lenses or glasses to see better. And they won't change any of those things.

They talk to their family and friends. They play games with their family and friends. They shop with their family and friends. They eat meals with their family and friends. Then there's this thing called work. One or both of them, and if they have older kids, maybe those as well, go to this thing called work, and they get paid. And with that money, they have this little ritual call paying bills. And beyond that, they put some of the money in savings, some of the money in investments, they give some of the money. And you have to ask the question, "What do we call these activities that are so clear and obvious that you just can't talk them out of?"

Well, you could call them disciplines, you could call them habits, you could call them rhythms or practices. But the one thing you can tell, is that they're very intentional about doing these things. They started to do something, until it became almost second nature. And why? Why in the world would Jake and Emma do all the things, and more, that I just named? One reason: they prefer order to chaos.

Can you imagine their lives if they didn't do those things? Imagine them not going to work, or just saying, "This year, I'm not going to pay bills." Or, "This year, I'm not going to brush my teeth, use deodorant, shower." It would be a complete mess, complete chaos. And the truth is, if you and I did not practice certain disciplines, certain habits, certain patterns, certain rhythms in our lives; if we didn't pay attention to our bodies and our family and friends and our finances through those habits, then we would be exactly like a garden that we planted, and then walked away from and never looked at again.

The results would be very predictable: weeds, overgrowth, rot, and stench. Why? Simple lack of rhythm. Now, if you practice these habits, it's because you value order over chaos yourself. And while this is true for your bodies, for your family and friends, social relationships, for money, and more, I guarantee you, it's true about your relationship with God.

And so today, I want to talk to you about what I think is the single most important habit or practice you can ever develop, in terms of knowing and growing in your relationship with God through Christ. And that is to worship daily, worship daily. Now, we're going to take a look at those two words. First, worship, what it means, and daily, what that means; and then get very practical about how we can actually do that in our lives.

So let's start with worship. Worship itself comes from the Old English word worth-ship, referring to someone who had great power, and therefore was worthy of honor. So if somebody had a lot of worth, like a king or queen, you would bow down before them. If somebody religiously had a lot of worth, like the Pope, you would bow down and kiss their ring. If somebody had a lot of legal power, we still do this today; when a judge enters a courtroom, we all rise, because those people don't deserve a little handshake or a quick kiss on the cheek, or a wink. They deserve some kind of honor, because they have greater power than most of us.

Now, as followers of Jesus Christ, we know that God has all power, and therefore, he deserves all worship. We know that God is worthy of absolute honor, and so we give him our very best; we give him our worship. I want us to go deeper into this by asking some questions.

The first question about worship is, "Who is this God we worship?" Because if we don't get the who right, we will spend our lives chasing false gods and idols, and never know the difference. I think when you talk about who God is, you simply can't beat the Child's Prayer. “God is great, God is good” because those two phrases, “God is great, God is good” summarize, in my opinion, every characteristic, every trait, every personality feature you can find in God recorded in what we call the Holy Bible.
Let's talk about each of those words. Great. When we say God is great, here's what we mean. We mean he's righteous, meaning he does nothing that's wrong. He's holy, meaning he's above all people and all things, different, better than any of us. Powerful, all-knowing, wise, just, fair, everlasting, never-ending, present everywhere. That's great; and great is even more than that. Who is God? He's the greatest being in the universe. He is the the reason you exist.

But God is also good. Aren't you glad that God's not just great, but also good? And here's what it means for God to be good. It means that God is merciful. Now, merciful means that God doesn't hold a grudge against us or is always trying to think about a way to get back at us, or to get even with us. When someone hurts me, I confess, I think about what I would like to do to them. Now as a Christian, forget even being a pastor, as a Christian, I want to be able to release that, and not have to get even or get back at them. But I promise you, it's in my prayers, it's in my thoughts, and I'm irritated, right? But God isn't like that. He is merciful; He's tender-hearted. I love that phrase.

I want you to think of the best mom or the best dad that you can ever imagine. Maybe it was your mom and dad, one of them, maybe it was a grandparent. Maybe it was a friend's parent. Maybe you can just picture it in your mind what it would be like. Maybe you're trying to be that with your own kids, tenderhearted, so tenderhearted. Now multiply that by a billion, billion, and you're moving to the direction of God's tenderheartedness. It means gracious, a word that means stooping down to our level. It means patient and kind. And in 1 Corinthians 13, it says, "Love is patient and kind." 1 John 4 says "God is love." You get the idea.
God is great. God is good. And all those traits are seen, above all, in Jesus Christ. In John, chapter one, we read these words. "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son," that's Jesus, "who is himself God, and is in closest relationship with the Father has made him known." It's as though God said to the people of the world and especially Israel when Jesus came to the world, "Hey everybody. I've tried to talk to you and explain who I am through the prophets. I've tried through the kings. I've tried through my wisdom. I've tried through the law. And you keep missing who I am. So this time, since you feel like there's this big barrier between you and me, a big curtain separating us, I'm just going to pull back the curtain." And Jesus says, "Here I am. Here's God, in the flesh."

Once you know who God is, seen perfectly in Jesus Christ, you're ready to worship him. And that brings us to our second question. "What does it mean, really, to worship God?" Well, here's how I define it. Worship is expressing our wonder, love, and praise to the only true God. Wonder, because we're astonished; astonished than anyone could think of us, and know us, and care about us. Love, because love calls out love; his love for us calls us to love him. And praise, because what else would you do with someone who's that great, and who's that good? Worship is our natural response to the goodness and the greatness of God.

One of my favorite writers on worship is A.W. Tozer, and here's what he says: "True worship is being so personally and hopelessly in love with God, that the idea of a transfer of affection never even remotely exists." Clarify. "In love with" does not mean romance. He's not talking about romance or bromance or anything else with God. He's talking about how, when we recognize the depth of God's love for us, it simply evokes from us a love in return. Love calls forth love. And when we are so aware of his love that we could say we're actually in love with the God who loves us, then transferring our affection from him doesn't even come into play. When you're really worshiping God for who he is, you're not thinking to yourself, "Man, I just wish I could go home and worship my car. It just needs one more buff job. Man, I wish I could go worship that little perfect baby, who never keeps me up, and never has colic. It's the most perfect baby that's ever lived. Wish I could go worship my smoking hot wife or my big muscular husband."

That's aspirational for me. Denise has never said to me, "I'd like to worship my big, muscular husband." It's aspirational, though I still have hope after 44 years. You know what I'm saying. When we're really worshiping God, we don't want to transfer that affection for him, which he deserves, to any other very unworthy object, no matter how good that person or that thing might be.

And once we know what worship is, that now takes us down to the very bedrock with his final question on worship. "Why do we worship God?" Well, we worship God really for two reasons; and these two are two sides of the same coin. Okay? The first is, we worship God because God deserves it. He deserves it because of who he is, and because of what he's done. In Revelation, chapter 5, there's a great picture of God on the throne. It's a vision that John has on an island in the Greek Sea. While he's there, the vision that comes to him, recorded in chapter 5, is of the Ancient of Days, the Most High God, sitting on a throne.

Now, God doesn't really sit on a throne, you guys; you know that. God made the heavens and the earth. He's bigger than any throne there is. There's not a throne big enough to hold God; but that's the image we have, to help us understand it. He is sitting on the throne holding onto a scroll. That scroll has six seals around it, wax seals that are keeping the news inside the scroll secret.

John is now looking at the Father, and he says, "Then I saw a lamb." (You should be thinking Jesus.) "Looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne. And the lamb went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb." And this is what happens. "And they sang a new song. And in the song they were saying, 'You are worthy.'" Remember? We get the word worship from worthy. "Jesus, you are worthy to take the scroll. You're worthy to open its seals." Why? Two reasons; because you were slain, you died for us. You took a criminal's execution, so that we might go free. And because with that blood, through that death, you bought back for God, persons from every tribe and language and people and nation."

Friends, God has always had his eye, he has always had his affection set on every person who has ever lived, in every nation, in every generation. Period. No exceptions. God has had his eye set, he has had his heart set, he has had his affection set. And Jesus proved it, because at his death, he bought back for God, all of us who were sold into sin. And one day in heaven, all who have said "yes" to Christ, will all gather together, with all of our differences; and we will be one in Jesus Christ. God deserves our worship.

The flip side of that is that we were made for it. Why do we worship? Because we were made for it. God made us to worship him. Hundreds of years ago, a group of Presbyterian and Baptist clergymen put together a Confession of Faith for children to memorize. It was called the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It had over a hundred questions and answers that kids had to memorize—a hundred!
That sounds worse than going to geography class and having to fill in the map that shows the 50 states and their capitals. So here we've got 107 questions and answers, and the most important one is the first one: "What is the chief end of man?" Let's be clear, in 17th-century writing man means humans. End means purpose or reason for existence. Why were you even born? So it really means, "What is the reason we were born? All of us?" And here's the answer that these kids memorized: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." Humanity's ultimate purpose for being, the reason you exist, the reason God made you and brought you into this world, is so that you could glorify God, and enjoy him forever. Isn't that great?

Now what's curious to me, is how did “glorify,” which means praise or worship God, and enjoy him, go together? Because glorifying God, praising him, worshiping him, sounds like something he tells us to do; and it sounds like it could get boring. And yet, enjoyment is always fun. So how do those go together? Well, C.S. Lewis has clarified it for me, and here's what he says: "All enjoyment spontaneously overflows with praise. The praise completes the enjoyment. In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him."

For example, someone invites you to their home. You enjoy the meal. It's fabulously cooked, presentation was great, and when it's all done, you either walk out and say nothing—if so, all you got was good food—but if you pause several times and say, "Man, this is so good. Thank you. I love being here. I so appreciate your inviting me, letting me be a part of this meal." You have just added joy to yourself by giving them praise.

Or let's say, there's several families that go on vacation together, because you love each other, you love your kids, and you love somebody else watching your kids one night a week while you go out on a date; and everybody does that little transfer. We used to do that. That's how the Basdens and the Johnsons became friends. Going to the beach for nine years with four or five couples, and just watching all our kids grow up together. It's a great opportunity. I hope you'll do it sometime.

In the meantime, if you do that, and it was a great week, and at the end of that, you just walk off and say, "See you next year," All you had was your week. But if, along the way, and at the end, you say, "Gosh, this was such a great week. Can't wait to do it again. I'm so glad that I'm your friend. I'm so glad you're my friend." You don't have to hug them, you don't have to shake their hand. Just say those things. In doing that, you are thanking them. You're showing gratitude in a way that enriches your life, and it enriches their life.

That's what Lewis means, that "This completes the enjoyment." And so, when God commands us to glorify him, he's really inviting us to enjoy him. And when we glorify God, and when we enjoy him, we enter into an experience frequently, that is so deep, that it’s beyond understanding. Here's what Catholic priest Carlo Carretto describes it: "To have found God, to have experienced him in the intimacy of our being, to have lived even for one hour in the fire of his Trinity, clearly makes us say, "You alone are enough for me."

Do you see this language? Experience him in the intimacy of our being. That's beyond intellect; that's experience. That's beyond mind; and I'm all for mind, and loving the Lord with our mind. But this is loving the Lord with our hearts, which we often forget to do, because we're so rational. And “to live an hour in the fire of his Trinity," that's the way of saying that Father, Son, and Spirit so love one another, and so serve one another, and so laugh and enjoy being together, that we can hardly stand the heat of it, but it's incredible. In fact, it was out of that interaction between Father, Son, and Spirit, that the world was actually created, and you were born.

And when we experience that, all we know to say is, "You alone are enough for me." We worship God because he deserves it, and because we were made for it. And to grow spiritually, you and I must grow in worship; but we also need to worship daily. Why? I'll tell you why. Because life comes to you and me by the day; and each new day, we get to love God. Life doesn't come to you by the decade. Life doesn't come to you by the year. It doesn't even come to you by the month or the week. Every day, life comes to you.

The Psalmists remind us of that in Psalm 118, "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." That's good for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; any day that ends in day, that's a verse for you. Here's another Psalm that offers a similar idea. Psalm 90, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." God doesn't say, "Go out and number your years, or your months, or your weeks." Every day, sunrise, sunset; every day, number it. Look at it carefully and ask God, "Show me how to serve you and to worship you this day."

Now, let's get super practical. Okay? How can I worship God daily? I want to give you something to hold onto, how you can worship God daily. Well, first, worship in community with other people. In Acts, chapter 2, we read the story of what the earliest Christians did together. And I think you'll be interested in this. "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to sharing in meals, (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer. And then it says, "They worshiped together at the temple each day." They were so in love with Jesus and the surprise that he was the Messiah of the world, that they had to be together every day in the temple in Jerusalem.

But that didn't last long; not because they loved Jesus less, but I think because they had jobs and families, and they just had to get back to it. It's kind of like a honeymoon experience. You have to get back to real life at some point. And they had to; and there was a new pattern. And by the time we get to the end of the book of Acts, we see it. "On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord's Supper. And Paul the apostle was preaching." That's the new pattern.
The new pattern is weekly worship on the first day of the week, Sunday, the day Christ was raised. And that is something that goes back to the first weeks of the life of the early church after Jesus was raised up, after his crucifixion. And it has been going on throughout history. It's really a surprise, and yet one of the most now commonly accepted things in the world, for 2,000 straight years.

I have to tell you that I love “in-person” worship at Preston Trail on the Lord's day. What do I love about it? Well, I love the music. I love hearing the music. I love seeing the words, and reflecting on them over and over. I love, in my case, standing beside my wife or my daughter, sometimes holding a hand while we're singing. I love hearing people around me sing, even if it's soft. I love the fact that when that happens, and I'm praising God, somehow the Holy Spirit begins to work in ways I don't understand it. He begins getting under the radar. And as he's under that radar, he's coming right at me. And he generally says, as he did this morning in that Alpha and Omega song, "Paul, am I deserving of your worship?" I usually close my eyes, and I say, "Lord, you deserve my whole life." And then I remember the words of Charles Wesley in his great hymn, where he said, "We are lost in wonder, love, and praise."

That's where I get that phrase: "lost in wonder, love, and praise." I love live worship on the first day of the week. So let me ask you a question. What's your first day of the week? Is your first day of the week Monday? Because if your first day of the week is Monday, then Sunday will be a catch-up day. Sunday will be trying to get everything done you didn't get done last week. Sunday will be a play day, because you reward yourself after having such a hard week. And you'll probably struggle with worshiping the Lord with other believers on the Lord's day. But, if Sunday is your first day of the week, I have an idea that you'll start orienting your whole week towards those first few hours of that day, to give to the Lord what he deserves. And in a sense, it's setting the pace for your whole week. So first, worship God in community.

But what about the other six days? Well, the good news is, we get to worship in private. On the other six days, we come before the Lord on our own, away from one another, but we're practicing the very same things. Now, another name for this is called time alone with God. And the best example you'll ever find of time alone with God is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When he was on earth, notice this, Mark 1; he's already had a full day of healing and teaching. Now it says, "That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed." As if he hadn't already had a full enough day. "And the whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons."

And after that full day and that full evening, and not much sleep, here's the next morning; "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." He was too busy not to pray. Luke records a similar story; "Yet the news about Jesus spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Isn't that an interesting word? Lonely place. You know what a lonely place is? Is that where you go to be lonely? Nobody likes being lonely. It's where you go to be alone. It's where you go look for silence and solitude. And the truth is, if you and I don't set time aside for silence and solitude, for a daily practice of being with the Lord, then we're going to struggle in our faith.

Now, first off, let me say, for all of you moms and dads with little ones—especially whoever has the responsibility during the day—I know that for you to find a lonely time is virtually a miracle. I know that for you to find a quiet time, a time alone with God, when you're not being demanded... For crying out loud, you're just trying to go to the bathroom by yourself. You have no idea what it would even mean to have time alone with God. You're just trying to drink a glass of ice tea and go to the bathroom by yourself, because nobody in your family will let you go.

So, I'm saying that I know it's going to be a challenge; but I believe if you will ask God to help you find a time and a place; and it might look different with little ones, I think he will help you. Because in that setting, you can begin to do what Jesus is talking about.

So, worshiping together on the Lord's Day, worshiping alone every day; and finally, worshiping in your daily life. Because when your time alone with God ends that day, it's not like we just run out and say, "Well, forget worship." No, no, no. Worship in your daily life; because worship is not just an activity that you do on a Sunday morning, or every day in your home with the Lord alone. It's also an attitude that you bring to all that you do, in the presence of Christ.

There's no better explanation of it than in Romans 12:1. The apostle writes, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship." In the Old Testament, they put up on the altar, dead animals; that was their sacrifice. Paul says, "Don't go kill yourself. Worship Jesus by being a living sacrifice every day to honor him." That's the attitude. Eugene Peterson, in The Message, gives us a great addition. He rephrases that to say, "Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around-life, and place it before God as an offering." That's the image. It's not so much an action as it is an attitude.

And how often do you do this? Well, all day long. This is exactly what Paul was writing in first Thessalonians. He says, "Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances." Friends, that is daily worship, as an attitude in your daily life.

Now, I'm convinced that if you decide today that you're going to make a priority of having a life of daily worship, you are going to face some challenges. And here are some challenges I think you might face. One: you may be too busy for Sunday morning. You may look at your calendar, and you have scheduled out your life so much, that when it comes to Sunday, it's like, "I ain't got time to be there." Love Jesus, but I just don't have time to worship him there. Or you may discover that you're too busy for private worship. You take a look at your schedule, and you say, "For crying out loud, I just can't ever work that in. There are so many other important things." You may be too distracted by screens or by activities, or you may discover that your self-discipline muscle is not quite as strong as you thought. Or you might actually discover that you love people and things, and like worshiping them, more than you love God and like worshiping him.

So what do you do? If that's your situation, if any of those apply, or all of those apply, I believe that there's something specific you can choose to do today that will get you over many of those humps. And here it is. I want to offer to you today, a Daily Worship Plan for 21 days. A Daily Worship Plan: a practice, a habit, a rhythm. You may say, "21 days; really is that magic?" No. About 50 years ago, a psychologist wrote a book in which he said that if you will do something for 21 days, or stop a habit for 21 days, you're good to go.

Well, I think most of us have tried to build or break a habit in 21 days and afterwards said, "Thank God that's over." Or we've said, "No, we're not going to do something for 21 days." And afterwards, we went right back to it. But here's my point. If you do something that's really important to you for 21 consecutive days, what's going to happen on the 22nd day? Most likely, you're going to pick it up, and keep doing it. That's why I say 21 days. 21 days; it's not magic, but it is intentionality. And the plan that I have in mind for you does not spoon feed you spiritually. It actually invites you to spiritually feed yourself. It is not paint-by-number prayer time, where you have to make sure that you get the right colors and the right numbers in the right spaces. No, this is something that is relational, not mechanical.

So here's the plan. The plan I'm calling My Daily Time with God. Daily, daily time with God. And it's how to spend 20 minutes with God each day for 21 days, starting tomorrow. Now there's nothing magic about 20 minutes, either. But I think after I show you the simple steps, you're going to say, "20 minutes sounds about right." Here they are: Step 1: Read a Psalm. I've got 21 Psalms listed for you. And so it's easy. It says Day One, the next Psalm. I promise that's the only spoon feeding I'm giving you. You're going to love it. That's easy. You choose a Psalm for the day. Now, it’s in your court. You read it slowly and quietly in the Spirit's presence. I'm not going to tell you questions to ask, or what to do; but when you read that Psalm, if you'll read it quietly, slowly, several times, God will speak to you. In fact, sometimes the reason we can't pray well, is because haven't heard God talk to us first. We start talking to him before he has talked to us. So we read the Psalm first. That will prepare us to talk to him.

Step 2: Pray. So it's read scripture, then pray. And we're going to pray using the acronym that's familiar to any of you who have been through our Rooted spiritual experience. P-R-A-Y: praise, repent, ask, and yield. I explain all of those more clearly. And by the way, the word praise is going to point you to some Christian music, some of our favorite songs we sing here, that you can listen to. And of course, if somebody's asleep, use your earbuds or EarPods or whatever; but that will help you.

Now. Let me show you where you can find this. This is all on our Preston Trail app. So when you go to our app, go first to Sundays. Once you touch on Sundays on your smartphone, or wherever, it will bring up this; and it's these two green things you want. My Time Daily with God goes into more depth about what the scriptures are, and it gives the full 21-day count, every single scripture for each day. Okay? And Spotify Worship List has more than 21 songs, but those will help you choose a song a day that will really get you focused on God. Now I know that isn't magic; but that's intentional.

The guys in my men's group and I are watching together a multiyear TV series on the life of Jesus, called The Chosen. It is knocking us out every week. This past week, there was a scene where one of the disciples, who feels unworthy to be chosen by Jesus as one of the 12 says, "Jesus, why did you choose me?" And Jesus has this curious look on his face; he kind of smiles and winks, and says, "Well, I don't need you, because I'm the Son of God, but I want you. I want to be with you. And I want you to be with me." And friends, I do not know of a better motivation to worship, than to know that God wants to be with you, and he wants you to be with him.

About five years ago, I went to lunch with a guy in our church I didn't know, Daniel Dixon. I enjoyed meeting him and respected him, and we've built a friendship over these last five years. But Daniel did not know at that time the truth that we've been talking about in this message today; but he does now. And I think you're going to love his story.
Daniel:

So my first "Yes" to Jesus, I was eight, saved in my grandfather and grandmother's church. And my second, "yes" to Jesus was about 20 years later. And what that meant to me was, the second "yes" had more of an impact than I at eight, right? Before my surrendering moment, in knowing really who Jesus was, it was all about worldly things: how I looked, what cars I owned, how big my house was, how many different toys that I can accumulate, and all these things of the world, that just really led to a dead end. It was about checking a box, and just trying to earn my way with him, too; just more of the earn and reward system, which obviously leads nowhere. He was running after me constantly, and just wanting to be in relationship with me. And there's many, many times where I just ran the other way.

The second "yes" had more of an impact than I did at eight. Right? As an adult, it was a time of surrender. And I got tired of running. 2015-ish, I was able to attend a Real Men's Bootcamp session, which was hosted by Preston Trail. My experience with that really led me to a different relationship with Jesus, and really taught me how to worship, and how to pray. So one of the worship practices that I found early on with Bootcamp was the Soap Method, which is scripture, observation, application, and of course, prayer.

And there should be a "why" on the end of that, with the yielding; that yielding piece is huge. Schedules are a huge obstacle for all of us. And what I've found is a good way of breaking through all that, is putting God on my schedule first. He's my first appointment of the day. My wife makes fun of me all the time because I already have my clothes laid out and everything I'm going to wear the next day. I'll get my iced coffee. And then, it's whatever study that I'm in. I get that going. And it's nice and quiet. It's typically pretty early. One scripture; that's all it takes. And I promise you, there's enough meat in one scripture to observe what it means right now, because it's the living Word.

Worshiping allows me to have a conversation with Jesus at any time of the day. It's taught me how to live a life of integrity. What I find myself is really not having to achieve and to earn my salvation. And he's already paid it all for me; and all he's wanted the whole time was just me. Jesus is a friend, somebody you can call on at any time, as he's wanting you to come to him, right, with little and big, and everything in between. Sometimes I think I hear him chuckle at me from time to time, honestly. I know it's mind-boggling to think about that, but the creator wants a relationship with you.

Paul Basden:
So I'm going to lead you in a guided prayer time, in which if you feel led by God to commit to this 21-Day Plan of being with him every day, you can say yes to him. All right? Let's pray.

If this is something you feel like the Holy Spirit's telling you to do, that your next best step, your next right step to growing in your faith in Christ, is to say "yes" to a daily time with the Lord; setting it aside, following this plan of reading a Psalm, going into prayer, and making that a priority, a habit. And you'd like to tell the Lord that you're serious about it, just lift your hand right now. FYI, my eyes are closed; this is not for me, this is for you. Just tell the Lord, if you're serious about this, and you're saying, "Lord, I really want to get after it." Raise your hand. And, "Oh Lord, give us the courage, the joy, and the stick-to-it-iveness to start it tomorrow, and to keep it going for 21 days. And then take it even further Lord, till it becomes second nature, something so important that we wouldn't think of having a day without time alone with you. Please hear our prayer, in Jesus name. Amen.



Recorded in Frisco, Texas.