Praise belongs to you. It's fit for you. It's custom made for you. It was designed for you. You and you are the only one that's worthy of all of our praise. Because you, God, let us come into your presence.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today. As we continue to look at Psalm 65 and the privilege of worship and pastor, yesterday, we began to talk about the fact that we worship God. We praise him differently than we may compliment or encourage someone else because of who
he is. And it sounds like you're saying when we understand who God truly is and when we understand who we really are, the natural outcome of that is going to be praise.
Amen. Amen. Preach it. Steve. You know, I saw a popular talk show host. Uh, he had his show at the white House when Barack Obama was president. And there was one interesting part in there where he got a little upset because it was his show. But people kept coming to President Barack Obama and saying something to him. So one little boy came to this talk show host and said, how are you doing? Mr.. So and so. And he said, wow. Finally somebody said something to me.
I wrote it down. I said, what's wrong with him? He is in the white House. Yeah. Who cares about the person whose show it is? When you're in the presence of someone in their house. Yeah. You know, and so, I mean, it just relates to what we're talking about here. Sure. I mean, we're in his house. or I'm not talking about the building that we worship. Psalm 24 one the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world, and they that dwell therein. Everywhere we are, we are
in his presence. He is omnipresent, and so we always ought to have an attitude of worship wherever we are. This is our father's world.
Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, he has created us, as we were talking about yesterday. You know, he is the one who has created us. And as sinful as we are, as you said, he allows us, you know, sinful people to enter into his holy presence. That's right. When you begin to wrap your brain around that and understand what sin truly did to Jesus, as I said earlier, yeah, you're just bound to worship him.
And let me deal very quickly with those of you who are listening right now. Those of you who said, well, I don't feel worthy to worship him. None of us are right. We don't worship him because we are worthy. We worship him because he is worthy. I hope that sets you free to worship him no matter what's going on in your life.
Well, join us in Psalm 65 as we continue a message entitled The Privilege of Worship. Here is Pastor Ford.
If we know we owe God worship, then we will understand as a privilege. That's our thing. That's our thing. Now, the six reasons why I'm only going to give you one today. That's all. Just one. Amen. Amen. I thought I could at least try to get a amen on something like that. I got six points. I'm only going to do one, but everybody know it's going to be
a long one point. Hey, do you know, because we have a God who embraces us, we know we owe oh, God, we know worship is a privilege because verse one, we can come into his presence. Oh, you making light of that? Listen to what he says. Praise waiteth for thee, oh God in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. What's he talking about here? Yeah, he's saying, listen. Praise belongs to you. It's fit for you. It's custom made
for you. It was designed for you. You. And you are the only one that's worthy of all of our praise. Because you, God, let us come into your presence. You know, sometimes what I do is, uh, I will go places and I'll say to people, I say, uh, I'm glad to be your guest speaker. And, uh, you know, like Janet Jackson told her last husband, don't worry. I ain't going to keep you long. And then I'll say, but, you know, if you really knew me who it is that's speaking to you, you wouldn't have let me come
up in here. But if I knew who I was speaking to, I wouldn't have came up in here either. Now, listen. And this is what I will share with them. We even look at it sometimes with ourselves and say, that person ain't worthy to come into my circle, or I ain't worthy to go in that person's circle. But yet we have a God where none of us are worthy, that invites us to come into his presence. Man, that is powerful stuff that the God of the universe is
inviting us into. See, y'all don't understand that you don't get the impress of that. But notice what he says. That's why it's only one point, because he says that this is an invitation to his person, to his place, and to his praise. Yeah, it's his person, his place and his praise. Now notice this. Notice what he says. He says praise waited for thee. What's he talking about? And we're going to emphasize this a little more when we leave. In other words, they're all gathered together and
they're waiting for the manifested presence of God. Because whenever God shows up to a worship service, uh, things begin to happen. He dwells in the midst of the praises of his people. Which means then if you ain't praising, he ain't coming. So they said, we owe you praise. So guess what? We ain't going to start til you show up. And so that's why you have a call to worship and an invocation. The call to worship is say you get rid of everything you're getting ready to do.
Straighten up your face. Look like you glad to be here. Quit texting. Quit. Quit doing this. Quit doing because God is about to show up now. God, we invoke your presence. Would you show up and show out? We got ready. Now here comes God. And when God comes, he begins to show out. And he says, I'll let you come into my presence. And I'm telling you, it's powerful. Now I want you to notice it's based, first of all, on his person. Get this. This thing is just getting
me today. Praise Waiteth for thee, O God. There's this person. Now, what does he do here? Get this, get this. Here's what he says. You can come into my presence based on my person, based on two things. Passion for my person and power from my person. Wait a minute. Get this, get this. Why couldn't he have said praise Waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion? Why say, oh, Imma tell you why? Because he wants God to know. We have passion for
your person. We're passionate about you. We're passionate about you. Oh God, we're passionate, we're passionate, we're passionate about you. In other words, what's O for? O is the O of excitement. O is the O of exuberance. O is the O of enthusiasm. O is the O where? I'm so glad that I get a chance to come to worship God. That I ain't going to leave without praising him. I'm not going to leave without saying thank you. Passion. Okay. You know, we have a phrase chasing Jason. Uh, I
don't know. They probably don't say it now because they didn't change. That was. That's old. But remember what it meant. It meant you were chasing your first high that you got when you shot heroin. Or when you snorted coke that first time. Uh, look, some of y'all, some of y'all know everybody looking so innocent. What's he talking about? Coke. He talking about a Coke and a smile. No. You got that? Bruises right around your nose. You know what
I'm talking about. And they call it chasing Jason. Let me tell you why. Because the first time you do it, it is so powerful that every other time you do it is less. You are never able to get that first high, but everybody's chasing that first high. And here's what the songwriter says. Oh, I'm not chasing Jason. But I do know there's no high like the Most High. Come based on this person. Now check this out. When I first came, there was a brother here. He's casket clean.
His name is Major Matthew. He's a pastor now. And man, this boy is cleaning the Board of Health. And so I said to him, I said, man, uh, man, I love those pocket squares. I've never seen them like that. And he said, oh, I get em made. My Korean tailor, he makes them along with my shirts and and my ties. I said, man, look, I said, you get your shirts tailored. He said, yeah, where do you get yours? I said, I get mine from the Salvation Army. That's it, that's it. Hey,
ain't no shame in my game. You know what I used to do? I wouldn't go to Salvation Army in the hood. I'd go to the suburbs. Yeah, I go to suburbs, baby. And do some shopping in the second hand store in the sun. And I come in and people say, oh, that's a tailor made. One time I got about six shirts and they were monogrammed. They were. They were Egyptian cotton. And the first Egyptian cotton shirts I ever had. I got all six of them because they was the only ones in my size, because I
was wearing a 22 then. And I got those shirts. I got those shirts to the Jones. But the only problem was they were monogrammed. D and I remember the first time I come in and everybody said, wait a minute, Pastor Ford, they're dead. And I said, yeah, I said, d d eternally mine.
Are you listening to, Pastor Ford? And if you've been listening to this radio program for any length of time, that probably doesn't surprise you too much, does it? You're listening to a message called The Privilege of Worship. Really a look at Psalm 65 and spending a little time in Psalm 116 today as well. We're going to get
back to this teaching in just a moment. But if you happen to miss any of the broadcasts in the series, you can come to our website, listen online, you can download MP3's, you can stream the program or order copies on CD. The website is Treasure Truth radio.org. Well, again, let's get back to the message. Here is Pastor Ford.
Yeah, yeah. But yeah, he had a monogram. And so I said, man, I'd like some of them. So he said, you know what I'll do? I'll take you to my Korean tailor. Come on, let's go. Monday. Then we get something to eat. So we went and we went to the Korean tailor. And he had he spoke English. That was sprinkled with the Korean accent. He said, ah, major. How are you? Major Matthews and Major? Everybody know how he is. If you don't know him, you. He don't mean no harm. But he said, oh, I'm fine. How
are you? And I'm looking. I'm saying he say, no, no, pastor. He said we we talk like this all the time. You know, he liked me to relate to him, you know. And so he said, this is my pastor, Pastor Ford. He said, hey, Pastor Ford, I said, I'm doing fine. How are you? And, uh, he said, uh, I want you to make him some pocket squares. He wants four. And, uh, he looked at major. Ah, major, he said, would you do it for my pastor? He said, okay. So he told me what to give him as a down payment.
Come back four days later and they'll be done. I came back, I walked in, he said, ah, Major Matthews. And I said to myself, no, pastor James Ford Junior, I ain't Major Matthews. I'm way better looking than him. So I got the pocket squares. I paid for them. They were really nice. I nice. I said, oh man, I'm going back and get some more. They said, go ahead. So I went back. I walked in, he said, Major Matthews, and I said, I'm Pastor Ford. So I ordered four more.
So when I came back to pay the bill, he said, oh, Major Matthews. I said, excuse me, sir, I don't mean any harm, but why do you keep calling me Major Matthews? I sign the receipts. Pastor James Ford, junior. So my name is Pastor James Ford. He said wait wait wait wait wait wait. No no no. See this big job? Long time, very little money. So every time you want them done. I don't do this for no one else. I don't do this for no one else. Only for
Major Matthews. And so, since I know getting very little money when you come in, I have to say to myself, Major Matthews, major Matthews, I do this for Major Matthews. Too much work, too much time, too little money. Major Matthews I came to tell somebody today. You get the privilege of coming into the presence of God, and you don't have what it takes to come. But every time he sees Jesus, you can come into his presence. Here's
what the writer of the book of Hebrews said. He said, we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But in all points was tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, because we have Major Matthews as our salvation, Jesus Christ, come boldly to the throne of grace, that you may find mercy and grace to help in time of need.
You can walk up into the Holy of Holies. You can walk up into the presence of Jesus that you don't need a pastor and you don't need an elder. All you got to do is come into his presence. Now, look, he doesn't stop there. No. He says, yeah, we get to come into his presence. But but listen, he says secondly that we not only have come into his presence, we have the privilege of his person. We have the privilege of his place. Look at what it says. Oh, Zion. Uh.
Praise waited for thee, O God, in Zion. Now everybody knows what Zion is. What's Zion? Jerusalem. The city of God. Yeah, the city of God. In other words, go through the Bible and you will see. Jerusalem is the city that God has chosen for his manifest presence. Uh, so Jerusalem is the center of the world? As a matter of fact, when we were there two years ago, I tell you, I broke out in goosebumps. And every time I talk about it, I break out in goosebumps because we walked
up to Jerusalem. Because anytime you go to Jerusalem, you gotta walk up. And when every time you leave Jerusalem, you gotta go down. Yeah. And that's why God did it that way. Because he wanted you to know, anytime you come to the city of God, you're going up. And anytime you leave it, you're going down. And so I went there and I went to places where Jesus
was in the city of Zion. When I went to the Garden of Gethsemane, uh, we sat down, just the four of us, and had communion, and there were tears, and we were crying because we're in the very garden where Jesus shed, as it were, drops of blood as he prepared to go in to suffer and die for us, but didn't want to go in his humanity, but then said, come on, let's be going. Could you not watch with me for one hour and got up and died on Calvary? And then when I went into the tomb. And guess what?
You can't walk up in the tomb. You got to bow down to get in the tomb. Yeah. And so I bowed down and went in the tomb. I couldn't take it. I had to come out of there. I just was crying so profusely. I had to come out. I couldn't stay in. Oh, he lay here. He lay. And looking at that slab. He lay here, my lord, and then went to Jordan and got baptized and, uh, pastor, pastor, uh, Hickman baptized me and I baptized him. And then, uh, Pastor Marty baptized deacon Mark Ingram, and deacon Mark Ingram
baptized him. And there were about 25 places where you could be baptized in Jordan. When I came out, I said, fellas, the Holy Ghost just gave me a revelation. They said, what's that? All those people there, they should have waited to get to this spot, because the Holy Spirit told me this is exactly where Jesus got baptized. But you get the idea. If you ever get a chance to go, oh please go. I know you want to go to Hawaii, but. Oh,
if you can go to Israel, go to Israel. I know you want to go to Jamaica and the Bahamas, but if you get a chance, you will never forget it. Standing on the Mount of Olives, looking out upon the whole city of Jerusalem, having our guide say, as we look from left to right, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that has slain the prophets, how I would have gathered thee like a chicken gathers her hens. But you would not.
And he began to cry. And as we were watching, and he made us move from left to right and right to left, we just sitting up there for big old African American guys just sobbing like babies. Oh. Yeah. What a place, what a place. You know, we don't have that now. We don't have Zion here, but we do have a place now. We know that we're saints and that we're the church. But you know what this building is? This building is the embassy of heaven. And we are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. This place is not
our home. So every time we come here, we are on home soil. When we walk out and step on that sidewalk, we're on foreign soil because we are pilgrims and strangers in this earth. And so it's a privilege to be able to come into this place. How many know that? Well, at least as many of you didn't lie as the people at the 8:00 service lied, because, no, you don't. There's a whole lot of us that don't. We've got too many schmoes. S o how many? Remember
what that means? Schmo. Go ahead. What does it mean? Sunday morning. Okay. You say, what are you talking about? I did this probably about ten years ago. I updated them. Let me give you Christ's Bible. Church stats. That's to tell you how we love this place. 25% of our congregation only come one Sunday a month. That's first Sunday when Hebrews 1025 is a command that says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is exhorting one another so much the more as you
see the day approaching. Yeah, you see the day of Christ coming. Amen. You should go to church more, not less. Yeah. 69% don't come to Bible study, even though the Bible says in acts chapter 241 and 42, they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. 72% of our people don't give at least 10% of their income to God as a whole. We average 2%. The
world averages for, well, we average 2.5%. And the world gives to their charities 4.5%, which means then unbelievers give about two times as much as believers give, and we say we're going to heaven and say they're going to hell. Yet they're more concerned about what's going to happen on this earth in an earthly existence with no hope of heaven. And it's not a cash issue. It's a commitment issue. You know what? Some of us spend more money going
to the movies than we do giving to God. Some people spend more money on getting their lottery tickets than they give to God. Listen, most of you now don't look around at your neighbor. I'm talking to your neighbor, not you. Most of you would have more to give to God if you would give God some of your beer money. If you give God some of your wine money, if you give God some of your reefer money, if you would spend on God what you spend to go to a show, 65% aren't involved in any ministry within
the church. They're not using their gifts for the body. According to First Corinthians 12, 89% don't come to corporate prayer Wednesday or Saturday. It's a sad state of affairs, but yet we all say we love Jesus.
Well, those are really sobering stats, aren't they? You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message called The Privilege of Worship. You know, here at Treasure Truth, we're not a substitute for your local church. In fact, we hope that the teaching you hear from Pastor Ford helps to equip you to become more involved in your church and then help you disciple and invest in other believers.
As a listener supported ministry, we really do rely on the generous gifts of people like you who believe in our mission, who understand the importance of Christian radio and want to see this program continue. So you can give your support when you call us at 888644 7660 or come to our website, Treasure Truth radio.org. You can also write and send a check in the mail. Our address is Treasure Truth, 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten.
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with negative messages about marriage. Whether it's the high divorce rate or the increasing number of people who are living together instead of getting married, this book gives a biblical response. So give a donation and request seven reasons why God created marriage. Call us at 888644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. And thanks in advance for partnering with us as we share the gospel here on your station.
I'm Steve Hiller, our producer is Amy Rios. Join us again next time for more Bible teaching from Pastor Ford here on Treasured Truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.