The Pure Worship Podcast

Big Freakin God

Are you unimpressed with God? Or maybe just a little blah toward Him? Have you grown numb to His grandeur or lost the wonder of all He is? Maybe we've fallen prey to the latest epidemic of wrong-sizing God. It's so easy to let this happen. To come to the place where we perceive God as just a tiny bit bigger than ourselves. To come to the place where we are no longer amazed by all He's done and all He is. Maybe even to a place where in our minds we begin to exalt ourselves more than we exalt God. If so, are you interested in reawakening your soul to the brilliance of our Creator? Honestly, the question is not whether He has lost any of His glory, but whether we have lost our ability to see it! Join us for today's podcast as we discover how we can begin right-sizing God again.

Faith It Till You Make It

Ever fall prey to your feelings? Ever let them dominate your decisions? Of course, it’s the most obvious way to live in this me-first generation. We’ve all struggled—who hasn’t? But what do we do when we don't feel like worshiping God? Or feel like reading his Word? Or feel like praying? Do we just fake it and hope no one notices? Do we shrug our shoulders and move on to something else? Or could it be that God has made us in such a way that the worshipers he is seeking understand that feelings always follow actions. That cravings can be shaped much like clay on a potter's wheel, by faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit. In today's podcast, God is bringing supernatural revelation to our hearts to help us grasp—once and for all—that we can walk in obedience to God and that we can become true and passionate followers of Christ. All you've got to do is faith it to make it!

The Greatest in the Kingdom

It's interesting to think about. The greatest in the Kingdom. What or who does Jesus say qualifies? Not surprisingly, it's different than we might expect. God is always flipping things on us concerning his Kingdom. Just when we think it's about being religious and holy or following all of the rules, Jesus throws us a huge curve ball. Become like a child, he says. Whatever that means! Still, he doesn't stop there. He ventures even further out onto the limb. It's true. Not only does he give us the ultimate paradox of equating living for God with becoming like a child, he also ties entrance into the Kingdom to this strange, supernatural phenomenon. How can it be? We spend our whole lives trying to grow up, putting our childish ways behind us; then Jesus comes along and messes everything up. But wait. Maybe there's a difference between being childish and being childlike. Maybe there's a few secrets here that can transform our lives and help to save our souls. A few secrets hidden in this message that reveal who the true greats in the Kingdom really are.

Extravagant Love

Once again Josh and Jeff extract some incredible personal and practical nuggets from a major story that Jesus highlights—yet one, honestly, that many of us would prefer to gloss over. It makes us a bit uncomfortable, and we tend to dismiss it as one in the worship extremist category, all the while, Jesus is trying to highlight it as just the type of worship he’s looking for. Sooner or later we’ve got ask ourselves, why we are so uncomfortable with those who go all out for worship? Is it simply a matter of cultural differences? Or personality difference? Or could it be it’s just easier to dismiss them as “quacks” than it is to admit our own need for growth and Kingdom maturity? Jesus certainly doesn’t call it a matter of culture—he calls it a matter of “love.” This is the moment you've been waiting for. It's finally your time to get out of your comfort zone and get into extravagant love for your Father in heaven.

Rejoicing and Trembling

Guys, we don’t like being told how to worship. We might even get a little ill-tempered about the whole thing. But what if the Bible is calling us to be willing to go where our natural personalities don't really want to go? Don’t we trust the Lord? Don’t we believe he has our best interest at heart? If he’s asking us to break outside the box to sing and dance or bow and be still, don’t we trust it’s because he is doing it for our benefit? He certainly doesn’t ask the quiet person to shout out to hurt them, and he doesn’t ask the loud person to be still to punish them. He does it all for our good! Truth is, any time we find ourselves aiming toward comfort in the Kingdom, we know we’re likely getting off point. Most times, we should avoid approaching God in worship simply in the way that is “comfortable”—God’s ways may seem uncomfortable at first, yet we can know that they bring true comfort in the long run as we trust his directions. NOTE: We are taking 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Years, so we'll see you again for our next episode on January 8, 2019!

Friend and King

We may not realize it, but our perception of God—based on how we were raised as well as our own natural disposition—has a profound bearing on the way we worship him—for better or for worse. Is God friend or King? Most of us gravitate toward one extreme or the other. Even so, some folks feel largely uncomfortable when God is referred to as lover or close friend—as if somehow He's being disrespected. Others mourn deeply as those around them seem to view God as a distant, relationally detached, “big man upstairs.” In this engaging episode, Jeff and Josh beg us to reset our God-perception in an attempt to reconstruct a full-picture, Biblical understanding of exactly who He is. Why? So we can avoid falling into the obvious trap of excluding great portions of His goodness that can circumvent our ability to respond to Him properly in relationship. Now is the time.

The Secret Place Under Fire

Wow, I’m so grateful to my cohost, Josh Edwards, for being willing to invite us into his not-so-perfect journey with God as he shares an incredible personal testimony of how reading my book on an airplane helped give him a total reset in the time he spends alone with God. You're gonna want to listen to this one over and over! His story really challenges us to be brutally honest about our own messes and in turn, invite God to revitalize our secret place time with Him once and for all! Many of us are unaware that our secret place time with God is under heavy fire—that the enemy is highly interested in guiding us coyly away from this burst of oxygen for our soul. It's time to stop making excuses. It's time to carve out time for God in our lives. And it's time to stop wishing we were close with God and start becoming close with him as we make the choice to encounter him daily in walking and talking relationship. Let's go!

American Idolatry

As soon as someone starts talking about idolatry we tune out. I mean, what could idolatry have to do with us? We don't worship idols. Or do we? Don't be fooled. Idolatry may seem like a thing from the Old Testament or for those in third world countries, but everyone wrestles powerfully with the temptation to put things above our Creator. It's clear that we each have a deep, deep longing—put there by God himself—to be amazed, to be wow’ed, to stand in awe of something. It's like we're always looking for that next big thing, hoping to satisfy our souls. Yet it always seems just out of reach. And if we’re not careful, we’ll spend our entire lives scouring the earth endlessly searching for that one thing that could blow our minds—chasing earthly idol after earthly idol, always coming up short—when the very thing we’re searching for is the true fulfillment and wonder that comes from intimate fellowship with the God who made us. Tune in as Jeff and Josh break it all down!

The Supreme God

Ever run across this verse in 1 Corinthians 15:28? Most people we've met haven't. And it's a doozy! "Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere." Somehow, many of us have allowed the enemy of our souls to distort our view of Jesus and in turn erode our understanding of the role of God the Father as the universe's ultimate power source. In the same manner, we've been tricked out of pursuing intimate fellowship with God the Father in order to fellowship primarily with the Son. In this week's podcast, Jeff and Josh hit on the second of two halves in a podcast that seeks to remind us that Jesus and the Holy Spirit exist for one purpose; to invite us into sweet fellowship with God the Father. Together with them. So go ahead. Join the conversation now!

The Visible Invisible God

It can be frustrating to find that we’ve held to beliefs for most of our lives that turn out to be faulty or a little sideways—especially when they involve Jesus. But when it comes to relationship with God, we simply cannot afford to be off in our understanding in the slightest. And we cannot stress enough how important it is to truly know the WHO of worship, because if we find that we know the what, why, and how of worship, but miss the WHO, it's all for not. This is even more important since our world is often in harsh disagreement with what the Bible reveals about God. In this episode, Jeff and Josh uncover some startling revelations concerning Jesus that help us drastically refocus our efforts toward establishing a true and vibrant relationship with our Creator.