Defiant Worship in the Midnight Hour - Louie Giglio

the message today is about the midnight hour do you know the midnight hour we've been talking about worship we've been talking about the core values of our house and we talked last week about how worship is a lifestyle it's everything we do it's not an hour but it's in every hour and as we were talking about that last week and then the core class that we've been doing the last few weeks together on the theology of worship we've been talking about worship as a weapon and i want to talk more about that today because all of us are coming to the midnight hour in fact some of you are in the midnight hour right now i'm not talking about time one o'clock when it's 12 a.m i'm talking about that season of life where it's just dark all around you i was thinking about a few friends of ours who are in the midnight hour in fact in the core class that i just led on the theology of worship the very first wednesday a few weeks ago coming into the class sat a couple in our church the last wednesday night that they had been in our church building they came to a core class 33 weeks ago or so they were waiting for the class to start got a message on their phone a phone call came they left the gathering room went out into the oval at 5 15 sat waited for more information the news that they had received was that there had been an accident and their daughter who's 29 years old and living in the midwest was unaccounted for and a few calls later they got the news on a wednesday night sitting in the oval of our building that their 29 year old daughter had gone to heaven so wednesdays are hard for them wednesday evenings are hard for them but on this particular wednesday they said you know what it's time for us to go back to core it's time for us to be back in the house we're choosing the core class that's on worship and we are going and we are showing up and i remember walking in the first night and looking down and seeing them sitting right there in that core class in the midnight hour of their life showing up believing that there's something about worship that works in the midnight hour to change our lives was thinking of my friend who i spent time this with this week who a little less than two years ago his 18 year old son was killed in a violent act and he's in the midnight hour thinking about families in our church that are struggling people sitting in this gathering right now that feel like the pressure is so great it's just going to annihilate them people whose dreams are going up in smoke relationships that are blowing apart people who had something they were counting on and either the person they were counting on or the outcome they were counting on just completely diverted course people are facing internal pressure that even the closest people around you don't know how close you are to cracking all together and it just feels like the midnight hour people who have been in a diagnosis and you've been up and you've been down and you've been up and you've been down and it's looked positive then it looked bleak and then it looked more positive then it looked bleak and you just don't know if you can go one more step in the midnight hour and i want you to know today that there is a way to navigate the midnight hour and it has interestingly enough a lot to do with the song of praise it seems counter to the way that a human mind would think but worship isn't just what we do at high noon worship is powerful when it is the operational function of our lives in the darkest hours of our lives and i'll tell you that the most encouraging thing if you're in the midnight hour today and if you are i know you're thinking okay i'm so glad i'm hearing this message but i already know everyone in this gathering right now is thinking about somebody you know that's in the midnight hour and you're going to text them if they're not already in this gathering and say you've got to listen to this message but in the midnight hour the thing that you need to know the most today is that god is in the midnight hour in fact our story today the reason we're at church today is because the whole earth was in a midnight hour god didn't come into a happy celebration to say wow i know life's perfect and everything's going just right and jesus he'll be the cherry on top no god came into a world that was falling apart and in a world that was broken down and falling apart that was on a dead-end street with no hope god spoke this is the reason we're at church today is because god comes into the midnight hour the prophet isaiah even prophesied about jesus the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me isaiah 61 these words are the words jesus chose to make his entry speech into his ministry on planet earth the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me because the lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise there it is already in the text a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair they will be called oaks of righteousness a planning of the lord for the display of his splendor who will the poor will the brokenhearted will the captive will the prisoner will the mourner will the grieving will the pile of ashes will those in despair will those are the ones that are going to be a planting of the lord for the display of his splendor and then he says in the next line they will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated so when jesus took on these words and spoke them out to announce what he had come to do what he was saying was i've come into the midnight hour to bring hope in the darkest place of all he didn't say hey looks like everything's going great for you and all your plans are coming to fruition so i've just come to amen that and add a special blessing on top he didn't come to say hey i know that you just got raised up in the best way possible and you're experiencing all the greatest things in life and i just thought i'd come alongside put my arm around you and just be an extra special you know treat for you while you're on earth no he said i came into a broken mess i came into a dead end street i came into a no way out and i arrived in that place saying i'm going to change everything i've got the power to change this story even starting in the darkest hour and you and i need that you need to know today that god is in your midnight hour and if you don't know that then the midnight hour has the power in the possibility to extinguish your faith altogether you know when we're in that dark place a couple of things happen i've showed this at our church many many times but i can't see it enough when we're in that challenge oftentimes all we can see is the problem all we see is the death the brokenness the pain the hurt the injustice the thing that went wrong the crash the burn the ashes all we see is the problem and if we're not careful the problem will become so prevalent in our thinking and our vision that it will block out our view of father son and holy spirit the almighty holy god and you've seen this happen and it's probably at some point happened to you where the problem was so prevalent that it blocked out your ability to see the goodness of god and you you you didn't worship of course you didn't worship what do you mean worship i don't even know if god's here i don't even know if god knows about me i don't even know if god sees me i don't even know honestly if god exists and you can track back a lot of people's story you can go back seven years eight years 14 years and they will tell you i haven't been in church in x amount of time and then they'll let you know why the moment they walked out the door and didn't come back was the moment where something tragic and painful happened in their life and it's so extinguished in them their concept of who god was they said i don't want anything to do with this god and i am out that's why it's so essential that we are in the house of god today because the the midnight hours coming it already has come for those of us in this room amen some of us are in the middle of it right now and the midnight hours coming again for all of us in this room and in that moment that darkness has the power to extinguish our concept of god if our concept of god was simply i go to church occasionally i i believe in god i have a couple of different versions of the bible at home my grandmother was a believer and and i'm real confident in knowing that you know there's a god and i came and we sang the songs and we did the deal and i went to the men's thing and i went to the women's thing but it never really was a foundational growing active relationship with god and when the darkness came i didn't have enough strength and enough maturity in my heart to stand up in the darkest hour of all and that darkness just absolutely obliterated my view of god but see we have a choice and that's what we're talking about today it's not denying this and this is not the message today it's not belittling it it's not winking at it it's understanding that it's real and it's painful and it's dark and it's hard but it's choosing to change our perspective and that's what worship does and it's saying i'm not going to say there isn't a problem i'm just going to put god in view and i'm going to view the problem through what i know of the character of god versus viewing god through what i know of the nature of the problem i'm going to choose to view the problem through the frame of the faithfulness of my god a god who came to this earth and died in the midnight hour so that i could be alive and set free from a broken world of bondage and poverty and mourning and grieving and have hope and a relationship with god that i could be re-centered in a sovereign story of a mighty god so i'm choosing now a new perspective and i'm choosing to see god first and then to see everything else through the lens of who i know god to be and when that happens things begin to change in our lives worship becomes a weapon in the midnight hour i'm going to just pause and see if anybody wants to about plot for that i know somebody is wanting to say amen because this is real and i've told my story dozens of times i won't tell it again today but i'm not preaching from the choir i'm standing here today literally standing here today because a song of praise led me out of the midnight hour and it is not simplification it's just choosing to step into a new perspective it's going to require a few things number one that we see that to change the midnight hour we need a posture of surrender this is what we learned about in the theology of worship class and brett touched on this story and a couple others that i want to mention but in second chronicles 20 back to this story that we talk about a lot in our story of faith it's the story of jehoshaphat and the people of god they were facing three armies they were facing the the ammonites and the moabites and the menu nights so you know when you say the phrase if it's not one thing it's another well in their case it was one thing and another and another and the word came to jehoshaphat there are three armies they've decided to tag team on us and they're all approaching right now so if you're jehoshaphat what are you going to do if that's your situation right now and you get the phone call from the doctor and someone bails out on the relationship and the economy blows up and it all happens on the same day or your kid makes a really bad decision or all of a sudden there's financial pressure that you didn't see coming and there is a phone call that you weren't expecting and it's all happening right at the same time in the same way you're in the position that jehoshaphat was in and it says in second chronicles 20 verse 3 he was alarmed and that's a good thing to be so if you get alarmed in the midnight hour don't feel like you're failing god but then he inquired of the lord and declared a fast over judah and then eventually he stood up to speak to the people we're jumping in toward the end of this down in verse 12. he says we do not know what to do he's praying now but our eyes are upon you all the men of judah with their wives and children and little ones stood there before the lord then the spirit of the lord came upon jehaziah and he said verse 15 listen king jehoshaphat and all who live in judah and jerusalem this is what the lord says to you do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army for the battle is not yours but god's tomorrow march down against them they'll be climbing up by the paths at ziz and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the desert of jeru you will not have to fight this battle take up your positions stand firm and see the deliverance the lord will give you oh judah and jerusalem do not be afraid do not be discouraged go out to face them tomorrow and the lord will be with you man that you want to be the prophet who gets that word in that moment that's a drop the mic word right there that is it does say it the lord i'm coming in to a moment where there is just darkness closing in on every side and i'm going to bring this word of hope but look at the response because the response is where you and i come in in verse 18 jehoshaphat hearing this word of god's deliverance and power bowed with his face to the ground and all the people of judah and jerusalem fell down in worship before the lord so the posture in the midnight hour the first posture upon hearing about god's delivering power is to bow down and in jehoshaphat's case to put your faith on the ground now for me that begs the question when is the last time any of our faces were on the ground because that posture says i don't have any options here but instead of fixing my eyes on the adversary the the situation the difficulty the pain the brokenness the death the loss i'm gonna put my face down where i can't see anything in the natural i can only see god in my heart and i can believe again that there is a god in heaven that is bigger than everything that i'm in the middle of and that's what god is calling for you it's normally the the last thing we do and it needs to be the first thing we do we want to get in a posture where we flex but god's not not asking you to flex today if you're in the midnight hour he's just saying surrender right where you are just surrender and say what jehoshaphat said i don't know what to do god but my eyes are on you i don't have a solution but my eyes are on you i'm not gonna abc go to the the quick fix or the retaliation or what i can do or how i can bow up i'm gonna start with putting my face on the ground before the throne of almighty god and i'm gonna say god my hope is in you but then i want you to see what happened next then some levites and the koathites and the core heights they stood up and they praised the lord the god of israel with a loud voice so hope came surrender came and then worship happened can i remind us that there are three armies coming we don't have time to surrender we don't have time to get down on our face and we definitely don't have time to stand up and praise the lord the god of israel with a loud voice there are three armies on the way but jehoshaphat somehow knew worship is a weapon and worship saves your life in the midnight hour and so look what happened early in the morning they left out for the desert of toccoa as they set out jehoshaphat stood and said listen to me judah and people of jerusalem he now had heard the word he's repeating the word have faith in the lord your god and you will be upheld have faith in its prophets and you will be successful after consulting the people jehoshaphat anointed men to sing to the lord now this is how you know this is a supernatural story men are singing to the lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness and they went out at the head of the army saying give thanks to the lord for his love endures forever we'll come back to this at the very end but they went out to battle they did not sit back and go oh we're just going to praise god over here no they they suited up and they went out but at the front of them these men were singing not the most complex song of all time they weren't singing we're coming in the power of god we're going to gouge your eyes out no they were just singing this very simple song give thanks to the lord his love endures forever hear that hear our roar give thanks to the lord his love endures forever and you know this story they come over the hill and these enemies have gotten confused they've all killed each other the battle is over worship went out and was a weapon for the people it started in a posture of surrender it ended in the power of a song the third thing you need to know about the midnight hour is that worship invites god in to the midnight hour the psalmist said in psalm 22 verse 3 it's almost literally translated the lord is enthroned on the praises of israel but it can be interpreted god inhabits the praises of his people in other words worship is like a magnet god is omnipresent he's everywhere at all times but when he hears worship especially when it's the heart of faith in the middle of the dark hour he he comes into that atmosphere if you want god to really come in and and dwell you in the midnight hour then build him a throne of praise and he will come and sit on that throne of praise he is enthroned on the praises of israel and he's enthroned on your praises and if you really want god moving in to your situation then build him a throne and he will come and sit on that throne he moves towards the sacrifice of praise he invades the confession of worship when he hears complaining it causes god to move away and when he hears confident worship even when you can't see why but you know he is good because of what he's already done for you that is a magnet that draws god in to the situation and we see this all through scripture but no more so than in the text that we've shared a lot at passion city but i'm telling you i can preach this text every single week because somebody every single week is in the midnight hour paul and silas acts 16 and verse 25 are in jail beat up smashed up in the bottom of the prison in stocks hands and feet and it says about them in literally in darkness pitch black darkness about midnight paul and silas were praying and singing hymns to god they chose in the prison to not let the prison define god they chose to let god define the prison all they had done was exercise their gift and authority they set a girl free unfortunately it put her slave owner out of business he went and complained to the city leaders they came and arrested them and smashed them up and put him in jail so they had every right to do probably what everybody who'd been in those stocks had done to murmur to grumble to speak evil to retaliate but these guys at midnight all beat up are singing to him of praise to god this is a moment where i just like to know what they were singing because i don't think it was super loud and defiant but i don't know could have been a mighty fortress is our god i don't know they they got swollen lips they got eyes that are shut and lacerations on their face and whelps on their back cuts on their side hands in stocks could have just been hallelujah in the presence of my enemies we raise a hallelujah and heaven comes to fight for me [Music] cause i'm gonna sing in the middle of a storm louder and louder you're gonna hear my praises roar up from the ashes hope we'll rise it could have just been that but when they sang they built a throne and god came and sat on that throne he came he's like how do you know how how do you know he he came and sat on that throne because we we see in the text that their worship activated kingdom plans sutton motion dominoes in the heavens because suddenly the text says there was a violent earthquake and it shook the prison and all the prison doors swung open that weapon of praise was power and it was defiant you know habakkuk 2 is defiant worship lord we we've heard of your fame we've heard of your deeds we need you to doom again in our day habakkuk was in a in a moment in time where the whole of israel was in a bind but his defiance came at the end i believe god that you can move i believe god that you're great i believe god that you can come into the dark hour but here's the thing even if you don't we're going to worship you even if there's no grapes on the vine no crops in the field if there's no herd no sheep no oil yet will i praise you and i will put my trust in the lord it's a defiance that says you know what i've seen enough of god on the cross and i believe enough in the goodness of god that even in this dark hour where nothing makes sense i want to go on record if there's a record put me on the record even though it is dark god is still good and even though the powers of hell have come against me i will praise my god write it down somewhere in the spiritual world i am defying all the darkness and i'm telling you there's an eternity coming where you're not going to have the opportunity to do that but in in this planet in this world that's where you have your chances to say put me on record my god is good he gives and he takes away blessed be the name of the lord my god is good everything around me is bad but i will praise him and i'll put my hope in him nothing is fair but i'm gonna praise god and you know what happens it garners the attention of those around and it changes you it says in this text about midnight they were praying and singing hymns to god and the other prisoners your translation might say and all the prisoners were listening to them even that quiet little song because see this wasn't some six-story multi-building compound [Music] this was a flippy in jail that may have had a couple dozen people in it everybody was in your shot and all of them were hearing something they'd never heard before and all of them were thinking who are they singing to who are they singing about who are these men and soon they found out all of us worship in the noonday but when we choose to believe in god in the midnight hour i'm telling you the people in your office they're listening people in your world your sphere they're listening and you can't stop it you couldn't stop this prison revival this night nobody could stop this prison revival this night why because you had two guys who were sold out to a confident belief that a sovereign god was in charge of their lives that a good god was in charge of their lives maybe they remembered him that night because they were old testament bible scholars maybe they remembered him that night paul did i remember jehoshaphat let's sing it let's sing it give thanks to the lord for his love endures forever let's just keep believing that tonight give thanks to the lord for his love endures forever it shut down the moabites and the ammonites and the minionites and it's going to shut down whatever's coming against us tonight give thanks to the lord his love endures forever and they were in a line of the faithfulness of god they were in a story of the sovereignty of god they were reminding themselves and their circumstance honestly really didn't change that much you're like oh yes it did the doors flew open the jailer woke up in the earthquake he comes running in with his sword thinking he's going to take his life because everybody escaped and it's going to be on him they they call for the light and paul is already announced hey chill out man we're all here they bring the torches in and sure enough they're all there and the jailers like what's going on and they tell him about jesus and they tell him he needs to be forgiven and he needs to repent of his sin and he says i want to get saved and he gets saved that night and he gets so saved that he goes and gets his family and they all get saved and they all get baptized that night and they have a change of heart instantly so that the jailer starts tending to the wounds of paul and silas their wounds did not go away apparently or else he would not have to attend to them so they still had an eye that was shut in a laceration on their lip and they still had whelps on their back and a big gash in their side they still had all of the heart and the pain and all of the implications of what had happened to them but yet their praise had changed them and changed them ultimately their circumstance did change and god's not opposed to that these men were falsely accused and paul told him i'm a roman citizen and i didn't get due process and somebody's gonna be real nervous when they hear that [Music] he he he did not just stop and say okay we got out and that was all good people got saved it was a great night he said oh and by the way i want some justice in this situation but even in that and even though they got let go they still were all smashed up so it's no guarantee that the song in the night instantly changes the whole circumstance but it is a guarantee that the song in the night will have an impact on you and it will change you in the circumstance and it'll save your life a song in the night will save your life so if you're in the midnight hour what do you do you start by getting on your face and surrendering before god louie i just lost my son i would say get on your face louie we just got a call and say get on your face louie is all blowing up and going crazy around me have you got on your face are you on your face start by surrendering to a great god secondly get a jehaziah in your life get a voice in your life that will say listen to me god is good listen to me god's got a plan listen to me god is gonna come through for you listen to me god is fighting for you listen to me do not listen to them listen to me god is the god of the ages and you belong to him listen to me there's nothing that's too big for god listen to me god is with you in the midnight hour get a jahisil and get them close to you and get everybody else in your life four layers away all the people who are telling you you deserve better than this let's see what we can do to get even let's try to find out a solution or commiserating with you or just you know having another drink with you or saying they're going to pray for you and i'm really sorry to hear that get all of them away and get a jehaziah in your life who says thus saith the lord the god of israel is with you thus saith the lord the god of israel is on your side thus saith the lord god almighty is going to fight this battle for you you are going to see the salvation of god in your life i don't know how i don't know when i don't know where i don't know what but i do know god [Music] i'm telling you when the darkness closes in tries to extinguish your faith it's it's most likely that the voices around you are people that have had the darkness extinguished their faith and they've got nothing to offer you but ask god for a voice of god who will bring the word of god to your story thirdly lock eyes with jesus it's so easy when we're in that in that place to just be totally fixated by the darkness [Music] but jehoshaphat said i don't know what to do but my eyes are on you discipline a vision [Music] looking for the hope that only comes from you [Music] and then lastly lead with a song [Music] it doesn't have to be complex most likely it's not going to be a track listing of 15 songs when you're in the kind of darkness i'm talking about you normally don't have that kind of capacity you need a phrase a verse a chorus that is biblical and it mirrors hope that you can hold on to and you need it in the day and you need it in the night you need it every moment you need it every hour you need it when you're rising you need it when you're going to sleep you need it in your car you need it when you're walking you need it at your work you need it when you're eating you you need that song and you need to lead with that song that is your way to step in to the power of this moment to say you know what i have a song i'm not even a good singer but you know what god doesn't care it says and the men said give thanks to the lord his love endures forever they did they weren't singing in four-part harmony they didn't break out in a gospel choir they they weren't on the worship team they just had faith of heart faith moves the heart of god he doesn't need more songs he wants belief and faith and hope he doesn't need more songs he wants to render people who believe he's sitting on a throne and if you will bring that song lead with that song here's what i promise you god will show you what to do next because i don't know what you need to do next but he'll show you he told them exactly what was going down go they're coming this way and this way you go here you go here you want the army to come i want you to show up tomorrow show up tomorrow i think that's the main thing he's gonna say to you show up tomorrow that's what he's gonna tell you sing a song and show up tomorrow get on your knees and then show up tomorrow put your face on the ground then show up tomorrow get a confession of worship then show up tomorrow praise me then show up tomorrow invite me in then show up tomorrow build a throne then show up tomorrow call on heaven then show up tomorrow and see what god will do in their case he wiped out all the enemies and he might do that in your case or maybe he'll say go right go left maybe he'll say tell them you're a roman citizen and demand justice maybe you'll say i want you to forgive maybe you'll say i want you to go left who knows what he'll say but he will lead you tomorrow if you show up with a song of praise he will lead you he will lead you he is with you and if you feel shredded right now he feels all that with you if your life is just splattered on the ground he feels that he loves you [Music] and he's just wanting to remind you today i am the great i am and i came for you in the midnight hour and when i said it is finished the sky was black [Music] and a violent earthquake shook the ground and all the tombs around me were open and dead people flew out alive just by me being in the midnight hour for you [Music] i love you your eyes on me don't lose hope worship god and invite light into the dark it will lead you you

Channel: Passion City Church

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Keywords: worship, louie giglio, passion city church, atlanta church, passion city, passion, sunday gathering, christian, passion city church worship, louie giglio sermons, giglio louie, city church, giglio, passion city church sermons, Atlanta, passion church, louis giglio, cumberland, temptations, live church, live worship, live worship songs, live worship music, passion city online sunday gathering

Id: 0GEmJz-cyPs

Length: 40min 26sec (2426 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021