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Let It Go - John 12:1-8

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We were created to worship. Some people worship money, power, or themselves. But there is nothing in this world worthy of our worship except Christ. In this message, Nate Heitzig challenges us to let go of our doubt, fear, and faithlessness and give it to God.

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5/24/2017
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Let It Go
John 12:1-8
Nate Heitzig
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We were created to worship. Some people worship money, power, or themselves. But there is nothing in this world worthy of our worship except Christ. In this message, Nate Heitzig challenges us to let go of our doubt, fear, and faithlessness and give it to God.
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Topical - Nate Heitzig

Topical - Nate Heitzig

This collection of topical teachings from Nate Heitzig includes celebrations, messages about the vision of the church, special teachings, and more.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque.

We pursue the God who is passionately pursuing a lost world. We do this with one another through worship, by the Word, to the world.

Lord, we come before You right now with expectant hearts. Lord, expectant for what You're going to do here in this place tonight, with anticipation, Lord, believing that what You promise, it is already done. It is already finished.

And so Lord, we cling to Your promises. We cling to Your truth. We cling to the blessings that are proclaimed throughout scripture, Lord, not with hearts of fear, or faithlessness, but with hearts of faith, hearts of longing, hearts of expectation, because we've seen You move over and over again. We've seen You prove Yourself faithful year after year, week after week.

And so Lord, we come, Lord, looking at what has already been done, looking at what You're doing and knowing that that means that You're still going to do something great. In Jesus' name we pray, and everyone who agreed said--

Amen.

Amen, amen. Again, we're going to keep the lights down, because we want to keep the atmosphere intimate here tonight. Again, in a little bit, we're going to bring the worship team back up and we're going to continue worshipping the Lord. But before we do that, I want to talk a little bit about worship. I want to talk about what it is we're doing here tonight.

Tonight we have come to worship God. Now we come every single week to worship God. We have this incredible time of worship. We have an incredible band. We're blessed every Wednesday, every weekend. You guys enjoy the worship experience that we have here at Calvary. I always love on Wednesday nights, especially, it seems like that worship time, that extended worship time, is so spirit-filled. And it's always incredible to feel the Spirit move, to see God do something week in and week out.

But we come to worship God. And church, we were created to worship. You were created for the purpose of worshipping God. It's what you're created to do and it's what you're going to do eventually. When we're in heaven with the Lord, our entire time, our entire existence will be centered around the worship of Jesus Christ, the worship of God in what He has done. And that is what we were made for.

And when you get down to it, every single person is a worshiper. Now we don't all worship God in heaven, but we all worship someone or something. Some people worship other people. They worship sports heroes, or actors, or musicians. Some worship possessions. Others worship themselves. But everybody worships, because worship is the fundamental drive of life. Atheists worship. Sports fans worship. Skeptics worship. Republicans and Democrats worship. Everybody worships.

People worship because worship is the difference between us and animals. Animals don't worship. They don't have any sense of eternity. My dog doesn't sit in the backyard thinking about existence and love and the holiness of God and how great God is. No, he just eats food and looks at us like we're his servants. That's what dogs do. That's what animals do.

But in contrast, God has placed eternity in your heart. I want you to think about that truth, that God has placed eternity within your heart. Eternity in and of itself is a hard truth to grasp. Matt and I were talking the other week about eternity, about this idea that when we die, we're going into this eternal state. And the concept of timelessness and the concept of the eternal God, and when you try to think about it, it just makes you want to go in the fetal position and cry. Because it's just too crazy. It's just too big. It's too big of a thought to comprehend.

But God has placed this incredible, huge, enormous thought, this concept, eternity. He has placed eternity within your heart. Man, think about that. Your heart doesn't just pump blood. Your heart is pumping eternity.

And when we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts, that eternity is loosed. That eternity is set free. It's filled with the power of Jesus Christ. And the power that is there is unimaginable. The book of Ecclesiastes is where we receive that truth, and it's this urge that causes men everywhere to worship. If they're not worshipping the true God, they're worshipping a god of their own composition.

But what does it mean to come and worship? You've heard many times-- you guys are great students of the scripture-- the word worship comes from an English word that means worth ship. It means to acquire worth to something, to put worth onto an object, to place worth onto someone or something.

Now there's a difference between ascribing worth to something that's worthless and ascribing worth to something that is worthy. In our day and age, a lot of people ascribe worth to things that are worthless, to things that are fleeting, to things that are passing, to things that don't really matter. There is not a lot here in this life that is worthy of worship. But Christ is worthy of our worship. He is not worthless. He is worthy.

Revelation 5:12 says, "In a loud voice they sang, 'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise." Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy. If there's anything in your life that you're going to ascribe the power, the wealth that you have, the influence that you have, the honor and the glory and the praise that God placed in your heart to be given to something, if there's anywhere that that's going to go, place it upon the lamb who was slain, because He is worthy of all those things. There's nothing else in your life that's worthy of your power, of your effort, of your wealth, of your influence, of your glory and your honor and your praise except Jesus Christ.

There's a number of words translated worship in the Bible. The Hebrew word is the one used most often. It's the word shachah, which means to bow down or to pay homage to. Another word for worship is proskuneo, which literally means to kiss towards. And I think about my wife, and I think about the years in marriage. And I think about when I look at her and I still see that bride that I said, I do to on our wedding day. And I ascribe worth to that relationship. I ascribe worth to who she is, to the value that she is. And when I look at her, when I look at who she is, when I look at what she means in my life, I have an innate desire to kiss towards her, to show affection, to pay affection to her.

And church, we're called the bride of Christ. When we came forward and said a prayer to accept Jesus Christ, it was our wedding day. We were saying, I do. We were saying, yes, Lord, I receive you. Yes, I want to commit myself to you. Yes, I want to be married to you. I want to be faithful to you forever, for eternity.

And when we said that, it should cause in our hearts a sense of affection, a sense of intimacy, a sense of longing, that when we look at Jesus Christ like a bride and a groom, we desire that intimacy with our Father. We desire that intimacy with Jesus. We kiss towards Him. We give Him something that we won't give to anyone else.

It conveys the idea of showing reverence. We worship God because He is worthy, and doing so, we bow down and pay homage to Him. It speaks of reverence and respect for God. But we also kiss towards Him, which speaks of tenderness and intimacy.

A lot of people think that worshipping is all about just coming and pretending to be happy. And they think that when they come into the church, they have to all of a sudden pretend like they have it all together. They have to all of a sudden pretend like all the things that have gone on that week didn't really happen. They've got to pretend like their relationship is going perfectly. They've got to pretend like they have this white picket fence picture, so that all the other Christians won't judge them, so that the other Christians will look at them and say, oh man, you've really got it under control. Oh, you've really got a good life.

And we play this Christian envy game, that we want other Christians to almost be envious of the great little Christian life that we have. And it's such an unhealthy mentality to get into, to come into church and feel like we've got to put a mask on. Because, church, I got to let you know, if there's one place that you should feel like you can take your mask off, it's here at the church. If there's one place that you should feel like you can be real, authentic, and honest, if there's one place that you should feel like it's OK to hurt, it's here at the church.

It's OK to hurt. It's OK to not have it all together. As a matter of fact, that's a prerequisite for coming to Christ. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Well, I'm not weary. I'm not heavy laden. Well, then what do you have?

It's a prerequisite to admit that you don't have it all together, to admit you're messed up, to admit that you're a sinner. If you can't admit that, if you can't take the mask off, if you can't show the pain and the hurt, then you're not giving God an opportunity to fill you with His joy, to replace the hurt that you have with His healing. You've got to give God that opportunity. You've got to be honest. You've got to be real.

We think that somehow if we pretend that our problems aren't there, they'll just go away. That if we put on some false form of a smile, if we raise our hands and sing some songs that everyone's going to be fooled. But the reality is that's completely wrong. God doesn't want you to come with false humility, pretending like you have it all together. He wants you to come with all your burdens, all your problems, and He wants you to let them go at the foot of the cross.

See, that's where we have the disconnect. We think we should let it go, and we're right. But the place we're supposed to let it go is at the foot of the cross, not at the doors of the sanctuary. We're not supposed to let it go and pretend like we have it all together as we come into the doors. We're supposed to come in here with all that baggage, and then let it go at the foot of the cross. That's the place to let it go. That's the place to remove that baggage and that burden within our lives.

He wants you to come with all your burdens, all your problems, and give them to Him. Now granted, worship is primarily for God. I don't want to turn this introspective and think man, worship is all about us. Worship's all about God. It's primarily for God. We do it because He is worthy.

But church, worship is also for you. It's a time for you to bring our issues to God. It's a time for you to give those issues to Him, to refocus on Him. And you need to know, you'll never be able to truly worship God if you're pretending your problems aren't there. It's only when you bring your burdens, let Christ in others bear your burdens, that you can finally worship God for all that He has done.

The theme of scripture, the theme of worship in scripture is simple, and it's resounding. And that theme is to let it go. Matthew 11:28 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Psalm 68 verse 19 says, "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."

Church, can we be thankful that daily, God bears our burdens? He doesn't just bear our burdens once. When we come to Him, He bears our burdens daily. Do you know why He has to bear our burdens daily? Because daily we have burdens. Who's got some burdens tonight? Who thought that all your burdens were fixed, and then you found you had some more burdens?

He's got to daily bear our burdens, because daily, we have burdens. There is never a day when you wake up and say, man, I'm burdenless. There's always something to worry about. There's always something going wrong. There's always a new part on your car that breaks and you don't know if you're going to have money to fix it. There's always a new bill that comes in the mail that you didn't know about. There's always somebody new who you love who gets sick. There's always a new fight that you have in your relationship with your spouse. There's always a new burden. But God daily carries our burdens. He daily picks them up. He daily carries them.

Psalm 55:22 says, "Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you." So daily you've got burdens. God wants to daily take your burdens. And guess what? If you let Him take your burdens, He'll take care of you. So He won't just take your burdens. He's going to take you as well. He'll take care of you, and He'll take your burdens.

So we see this continued thought throughout scripture. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, because He cares about you." He cares about you. Hebrews 4:15 through 16 says, "The high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings that we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly." Say it with me, boldly. "To the throne of our gracious God. And there we will receive His mercy. And we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

Church, what does the word boldly mean? Does that mean we come hiding? Does that mean we come pretending? Does that mean we come with this half-truth, half-revealing our burdens to God? Or does that mean when we come boldly, we come with all we are, saying, this is who I am. This is what you get. No false pretense, nothing to hide. This is who I am.

What does it mean to come boldly? Because God wants you to come boldly, not timidly, not with fear, not with worry about what people are going to think, or what people are going to do when they find out who the real you is, but to come boldly. We come boldly, because we realize that the king that we come to, the throne that we come to, is a king full of grace, a king full of mercy. That at that throne, there isn't judgment. There isn't pain.

There isn't a mentality that He comes and He says, how bad of a sinner have you been, and He shames us. It's a throne where He welcomes us with loving arms. He welcomes us with joy. He forgives us of our sin. He doesn't hold it over us. And He welcomes us into the family. And so because of that truth that we can come boldly to the throne of Christ.

There is this false idea today that says that, again, we have to hide our issues from each other. We think that we can't be weak. We think that if people find out that we have burdens, they're going to judge us. And it's so backwards thinking, because we're so worried of what's going to happen if they find out that we have burdens, and they're thinking the same thing about their burdens.

And if we were just honest and relied upon the body of Christ and leaned upon one another, we'd realize we have a lot more in common than what we have that's not in common. We'd realize that we all have sin. We all have pain. We all have struggles. And there's no freedom from those struggles until we begin to rely on each other.

And so tonight I'm going to encourage you, church, not just to rely on the pastors to pray for you. I'm going to encourage you to rely on each other pray for you. We're going to have a lot of pastors up here, but every time there's a long line, and inevitably, there's people waiting in the aisles. And I'm realizing there's this backwards thinking that we as a church begin to rely on people in leadership to pray for us, people in leadership to hold us accountable, people in leadership to strengthen us.

But that's what the body of Christ is for. That's what you're for. You're there to bear one another's burdens. You're there to hold one another up. You're there to keep one another accountable. If we only ever rely on leadership to do that, we're in for a wild ride. Because there's only so much leadership to go around. There's only so many pastors to go around.

So tonight I'm going to encourage you that when we go into this time of prayer, maybe find someone next to you. Maybe find someone sitting right next to you. Maybe it's your husband or your wife. Maybe it's your friend who you brought. And you need to confess some sin to them. You need to ask them to pray for you for some struggles or some pain that you're experiencing in life, and maybe that will draw you closer to one another. And you'll come out of here tonight not just with the weight of the burdens lifted off of you, but with the phone number of somebody you can call a week after this who can keep you accountable, who can strengthen you, who can walk the road of life with you, who can be there when the times are good and be there when the times are bad.

So I'm going to encourage you to rely on each other this evening. The truth of the matter is that you can have no peace until you let it go. See, Elsa had it right all along when she sang that song, let it go, let it go, let it go. She had it right. There can be no peace until we just let it go, until we're just real and honest with who we are.

I've discovered that the ones who stand there with their arms crossed are the ones who have the most pain inside. They're hiding the most. They're guarded. They don't want to let anybody in. And so they try to put on this front like, I'm too good for this, like, I don't need to be here. But they're the ones who have the most pain inside because they're not willing to let it go.

But the ones who worship without any care for the people around them are the ones with true peace, because they're worshipping God. They're letting it go. They're dropping their pretenses and releasing their burdens and in turn, God is filling them with the peace that they've been craving. They're coming before God and others with one thing on their heart. Let it go.

Philippians 4:6 through 7 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Give me some more of that. I love it. A peace that surpasses all understanding.

It means that when your coworkers look at your life and they know what you're going through, they're going to wonder why you're so happy and why you have such a peace, because it doesn't make sense. Your demeanor doesn't match your circumstances. And so they're going to wonder what's going on in your life. We come to God with prayer and supplication and in turn, we get a peace that surpasses all understanding. So church, if you have burdens, if you have problems, if you have issues, let it go.

But how do you let it go? The literal Greek understanding for this verse could be better translated, "Stop worrying about even one thing." Church, is there anyone worried about one thing tonight? Be honest. My hand's up because I'm worried about something. I think we're all worried about at least one thing. And he says, stop worrying about even one thing. But in everything, by prayer, whose essence is that of worship and devotion, and by supplication, which is the cry of your personal needs, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all power of comprehension shall guard your heart through Christ Jesus.

So church, if you're worried about even one thing tonight, bring it to God. Pray. Tonight, pray. Let it go. Let God have it. Come to Him with thanksgiving. That's a huge caveat to this. Come to Him with thanksgiving, thanking God for what He has done, who He has been, and how He has been faithful. And it's incredible what happens when we thank God for what He has done and how He has been faithful. We realize, oh man, He's always been faithful. I bet He'll do it again.

That's why it says come with thanksgiving, because when you come to God with a need but start with thanksgiving, it makes you realize that all the other needs you've had, God has been faithful to meet those needs. And He's going to do it again. It's why we started out this saying that God wants to bring a miracle in your life, but we've got to believe it's already done. It has already been completed. The blessings, the miracles that God wants to do in your life have been sown through the seeds of sorrow in the circumstances in your life. And now God wants to call forth the harvest.

But we need to believe. We come to Him with thanksgiving, through prayer and supplication. See, it's when we come in worship and devotion with the cry of our heart that peace overflows. And once that peace has entered, the only logical thing left to do is worship God.

I want to read to you a really beautiful story of worship that we find in the book of John. John chapter 12 verse 1 through 8. You can follow along here on the screens with me. It says, "Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. And then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said, 'Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?' This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box. And he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, 'Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.'"

Here we see a beautiful story of what true worship really looks like. As our story begins, Martha, predictably, is working, and Mary is worshipping. Martha was always busy working. She was always busy doing. She thought that it was all about what she was doing for God, what she was working, what she was accomplishing. Mary realized that the Christian life was all about what God had done for her. And she just wanted to be the feet of Jesus.

Martha was working. Mary is worshipping. She wants to give to Jesus something that's valuable and precious and special to her. So with complete abandon she breaks a bottle of extremely expensive spikenard is what it says. That's a perfume that was worth an entire year's salary. So think about however much money you make in a year, and imagine coming to God and taking that and throwing it at His feet and saying, I don't need it. I just need you. She takes this incredibly expensive perfume, and she wipes the feet of Jesus.

Now we look at that and say, man, that's a big sacrifice. I don't think I could do that. But I want you to notice that it's not just the value of the gift that's significant. She could have made a bold announcement. She could have come into the room with pomp and circumstance and said, this perfume is worth a year's worth of salary, and what am I going to do with it? [BLOWS] And she could have done a little spikenard dance. I don't know what that would have been. But she could have really milked it and made it a really great circumstance.

She could have even said, this Jesus who healed my brother Lazarus, and let's do some claps. And she could have really gone above and beyond to draw attention to this circumstance. She could have even said it was worth more money than it was to try to impress others. I wonder if you've ever been guilty of that. Instead, with complete abandon, she breaks it as though it's nothing, because compared to Jesus, it was.

And church, that's the realization. It's not about the monetary amount. It's about the fact that whatever you have, it's worthless compared to Jesus. Doesn't matter how much of whatever it is you have. It doesn't matter how long you've had whatever it is you've had. It matters that whatever it is you have is worthless compared to Jesus. It's meaningless compared to your relationship with Him.

"When King David bought the field from Ornan, he said, 'No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.'" Church, don't give God your leftovers. Give Him your best. Don't give God the bare minimum. Give Him your best work, your best gifts, your best effort. Don't give Him something which costs you nothing. Give Him the best. Give Him the best of what you have.

And you might say, well, the best of what I have isn't that great. It doesn't matter. It's not about what you have. It's about what you have in relationship to Jesus Christ and what He's given you. It's not about the monetary amount that's attached to what you have. It's about the comparison that we realize, again, whatever I have compared to Jesus and what He has given me is worthless.

Romans 12:1 says, "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind which He will find acceptable." So what kind of gift will God find acceptable? Well, nothing less than your whole body as a living and holy sacrifice. "This is truly the way to worship Him."

So we give Him whatever we've got, whatever we have. He doesn't want your leftovers. He wants your best. Now you might be here tonight. You might feel like you don't have anything else to give. You might be here tonight. You might feel alone. You might feel angry. You might feel tired. Church, I want you to know if that's the case, then you give Him exactly what you have.

Here's the beautiful part about worship. We come to God with our best and we give that to Him. And sometimes the best that we have is the worst of who we are. And we give that to Him. And God in turn gives us that same peace that surpasses understanding. Give God all the stuff that you don't want and He'll exchange it for peace and joy.

If you come here tonight and you say, I'm just tired, then you bring that to Him, and He'll wake you up. If you're sad, you bring that to Him, and He'll bring you joy. If you're here tonight and you're angry, you bring that to Him and He will bring you peace. If you're here tonight and you're alone, you bring that to Him and He will hold you and He will comfort as the great Abba Father. You bring to Him exactly what you've got. And you let Him do the rest.

Roy Lauren said, let us recognize this unspeakable opportunity, which is ours. Let us make glad the heart of God and offer Him that which is without blemish and that which is well-pleasing. Let us not wait to give God our age, but our youth, Not our poverty, but our wealth. Not our sickness, but our health. Not our days, but our years. Not our blindness, but our sight. And in doing this, we'll find our way to unspeakable happiness.

And I understand and I agree with that. And I say, man, if we've got those things, yeah, let's give those things to Him. But if we find ourself in a position where we don't have our age anymore. We don't have our youth. All we've got is our age. We don't have our wealth. All we've got is our poverty. We don't have our health. All we've got is our sickness. We don't have our years. We've just got days. We don't have our sight. We just have our blindness.

If we find ourselves in that place, then I would say, we need to bring that to Him. If you bring God your age, He will make your soul young. If you bring God your poverty, He will make your soul rich. If you bring God your sickness, He will make your soul healthy. If you bring God your days, He can turn them into years. If you bring God your blindness, He will give your soul sight. And by doing this, when you let it go, you'll find your way to unspeakable happiness. So church, tonight let's give God exactly what we have. If that's good, then let's give that good to Him. If that's bad, then let's leave that here at this place tonight.

As we close, I want to look at an interesting little twist in this story. Judas, one of Christ's disciples, one of the guys who should really be all about worshipping Jesus, protests this gift. And he says in verse 4 through 6 that this gift should be given to the poor.

He's outraged. Man, this gift, this was so expensive. A year's salary. Imagine the good that could have come from that. Imagine the good that could have come from that gift being given to feed people. Mary, how dare you? You should be ashamed of yourself.

On the surface, it looks like Judas is the true worshipper and that Mary is the wasteful one. But man, when you look at it through the lens of the kingdom, it reminds you that things aren't always what they seem. And it just makes me remind myself that sometimes when I'm in church and I'm looking around at people worshipping, and I see someone with arms outstretched to God, tears running down their cheeks. They sing louder than anyone else. They're on their tiptoes a bit. It's easy for us to look at them and say, now that's worship. And it might be.

And we might look at someone next to them and their arms might be barely raised. Maybe they're not raised at all. Maybe there's no emotional display. And we say, that person certainly isn't into worship, are they? Remember, things aren't always what they seem. God looks at the heart. It's not our place to judge anyone else's worship except our own.

So tonight, let's examine our own worship. Let's examine our own hearts. We must all be worshippers, because we do it because He is worthy. We do it with reverence as we bow down to pay homage to Him. We do it with intimacy as we kiss towards Him. Reverence and intimacy, giving our best. Nothing is too much. We were created to do this.

Revelation 4:11 says, in the Message version, and I love this version here. It says, "You are worthy, oh Master. Yes, our God. Take the glory, the honor, the power. You created it all. It was created because you wanted it." You wanted it. I love that.

God created the honor. God created the power. God created the glory. Why did He create it? Because He wanted it. Don't deprive God of what He wants. Don't rob God of what He wants.

You know that sometimes when it's time for the kids to go to bed and they're watching TV and they've got the remote control and it's bedtime for them. And I'll reach over and I'll grab the remote control and I'll change the channel. And they'll get mad and they'll complain and Dad, why'd 'd you take the remote? Because I wanted it. That's my response, because I want it. Because it's mine. I bought the TV for my pleasure.

Now that sounds really mean, but I'm not always a good guy. Sometimes I'm a sinner. Sometimes I'm messed up. I bought the TV because I wanted the TV. And so it's your bedtime. I want the remote control because I want it, because it was made for my pleasure.

Now lucky for us, God isn't nearly as petty as I am. God created the glory, the honor, the praise, the power because He wanted it. It was never ours to take. It was never ours to steward. He created it for Him.

So church, tonight let's give God what is His. Let's not rob from God what is His. Let's not keep for us what is His. Let's not give to ourselves the honor and the glory and the power. Let's not give to our car or our house or our job or anyone the honor and the glory and the power. Let's give it to God because He is worthy, because He deserves it.

So let's give it all to Him. Let's let it go. Let's give God our pain. Let's give God our sorrows. Let's give God our doubts. He wants our faults. He wants our fear. He wants our mess. So you come to Him tonight and you give it all to Him.

Church, you know tonight that we are here for you, that God is here for you, and that all you need to do is let it go. So I'm going to ask our pastors to come up right now. I'm going to close in a word of prayer, and then we're going to go into an extended time of worship, and we're going to give you this opportunity, if you're here with pain, with sorrow, you come forward. We would love to lay hands on you and pray for you.

We're going to have oil if you want to be anointed with oil. If you've got a physical malady, the Bible says, let them come. Let the elders lay hands on them and anoint them with oil. If you would like, that we'd be happy to do that as well.

But we're just going to spend some time worshipping God. If you're here and you don't want to be prayed for, I encourage you, just worship the Lord. Do it in whatever way seems fit. If you want to go to a corner of the room and bow down and lay prostrate on your belly, go for it. If you want to get on your knees, go for it. If you want to move, go for it. But let's worship God. Let's give Him all that we have tonight. And let's believe that God is going to bring a miracle here in this place, amen?

Amen.

Lord, we thank You for the opportunity to worship God. What a joy it is. What an experience it is, Lord, this promise that if we come to You, no matter how we're feeling, good or bad, if we come to You and we let it go, that You promise in Your word that You will give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, it's a promise. But Lord, we have to receive that promise.

And so, Lord, right now we come with thankfulness. We thank You for how You have shown up in the past. We thank You for how You have proven Yourself over and over again. We thank You for all the ways that You have worked in our lives, the miracles You've done, the sicknesses that You've healed, the finances that You've provided, the strength You've given, the peace that You've filled us with. Lord, You've been faithful to do it every single day.

So Lord, we come with thankfulness for what You have done. And it causes us to look forward to what You are doing and what You're going to do tonight. Lord, we worship You because You're worthy. We ascribe worth to You. We give You all the honor, all the glory, all the power, all the praise. It's Yours. Let us be a holy and acceptable sacrifice to You tonight, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

What binds us together is devotion to worshipping our heavenly Father, dedication to studying His Word, and determination to proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ.

For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.

Additional Messages in this Series

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11/20/2016
completed
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A Lesson in Followship
Matthew 16:24
Nate Heitzig
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Jesus was a great leader because He was a great follower of His Father. In this message by Nate Heitzig, we learn to die to self so we can live for Jesus and go where He directs us.
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4/9/2017
completed
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Bring It
Matthew 9:18-26
Nate Heitzig
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We all carry heavy burdens in our life: burdens of pain, sorrow, and sin. In this message, Nate Heitzig teaches that we as Christians are not victims of chance, but rather we are God-led individuals who must bring our burdens to the Lord through prayer.
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7/2/2017
completed
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All About the Numbers
Matthew 9:35-38
Nate Heitzig
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A person's worth is determined by the image in which they were created: the image of God. In this message, Nate Heitzig gives us some principles about sharing our faith, reminding us that as Christians, we are called to tell others about Jesus.
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9/10/2017
completed
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The Church Unleashed
Acts 2:42-47
Nate Heitzig
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Our society is becoming more disjointed and divided: rather than celebrating what we have in common, we emphasize what separates us. But in the midst of this, people are looking for a place to belong, a community where they feel safe, and a family they can trust and love. In this message, Nate Heitzig teaches that this is what the church is for: to be a home where people can find love and the Beloved—Jesus Christ.
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11/12/2017
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The Upside Down
Matthew 5:17-20
Nate Heitzig
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What is right and wrong? In today’s world, things seem upside down; moral relativism is the rule of the day. In this message, Nate Heitzig reminds us that God desires for our hearts and attitudes to be right, followed by proper actions, so we can make an impact for Christ in our culture.
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3/4/2018
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Vision Weekend 2018
Nate Heitzig
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7/1/2018
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Game of Thrones
Matthew 2:1-15
Nate Heitzig
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Drama and intrigue abound in Matthew 2. In this teaching, Nate Heitzig explores the various kings in the text, some of whom bowed to worship the one true King, Jesus Christ. As Nate shows us the contrast between true and false worship, he challenges us to be true worshipers by surrendering completely to Jesus.
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2/24/2019
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Love like Jesus
Nate Heitzig
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Behind every statistic, there is a story; behind every hand, a heart; behind every number, a name. As Christians, our goal should be nothing less than every heart, every hand, and every home won for Jesus. But there’s something that must resonate within each heart and home-love. In this teaching, Pastor Nate Heitzig expounds upon 1 Corinthians 13, encouraging us to love like Jesus.
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3/13/2019
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The Literate Church
Nate Heitzig
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Biblical illiteracy is continually rising from generation to generation. In today's culture of social media and instant gratification, our short attention spans can infringe upon our daily walk with God. In this message, Nate Heitzig reminds us that true spiritual growth is not instantaneous; it takes a lifetime.
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There are 9 additional messages in this series.
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