Apr. 19, 2026

We worship God when we give attention to His word and respond in faith.

Pastor Dave's sermon begins at 32:47 min into the video. The music “Shout To The Lord", "Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest)", "Come Let Us Worship And Bow Down", “We Bow Down”, “Thou Art Worthy”, “Behold Our God”, and “I Exalt Thee” are licensed under CCLI Copyright #2723035 and Streaming Media #22024223 licenses.

Opening - Drawing from Psalm 95:7–11 and Hebrews 3, Pastor Dave continued the series "We Are Here to Worship!" with a clear, grounding theme: hearing God's Word and responding to it in faith is itself an act of worship. He set the stage by reminding the congregation that worship isn't limited to singing or raising hands — it reaches into how we listen, how we trust, and how we obey.

Today Is the Day to Hear His Voice - Pastor Dave zeroed in on one word in Psalm 95:7 — today. He pointed out that the urgency in that word is intentional. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't promised, but today is the moment God calls us to respond. He read the passage aloud: "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness." (Psalm 95:7–8 NKJV)

To bring it home, he reached back to a classic TV commercial — E.F. Hutton, an investment firm from the late 70s and early 80s. In every ad, the moment someone said "E.F. Hutton says," the whole room went quiet and leaned in. The tagline: "When E.F. Hutton speaks, everyone listens." Pastor Dave grinned and made the turn: "When God speaks, everybody should listen." He also pointed out that Hebrews 3 quotes Psalm 95 almost word for word, adding that the Holy Spirit Himself is the one who spoke those words — which means God's Word isn't just ancient text. It's alive and active right now.

Don't Harden Your Heart - Pastor Dave walked through what a hardened heart actually looks like, pointing to Israel's wilderness wandering (Exodus 17:1–7; Numbers 20:1–13) as the cautionary example. God had rescued them from Egypt, provided manna, and brought water from a rock — and still they complained and refused to trust Him. He named a few ways our own hearts can grow hard: complacency, becoming calloused or desensitized to God's voice, and outright disbelief. He paused and said plainly, "When we hear God's Word and our response is not faith, our heart begins to get hardened." He also flagged a common modern drift — the idea that Scripture was "just for back then." As he put it with a bit of a smile, "God's Word is for today. It's fresh. It applies to now."

Four Attitudes When You Hear God's Voice - Pastor Dave wrapped the message with four practical attitudes drawn from Hebrews 2:1 and the surrounding chapters.

1. Pay attention. He quoted Hebrews 2:1 — "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away" — and illustrated drifting with a story about kayaking on Medicine Lodge Lake. He'd borrowed an inflatable kayak, tried to fish, and kept getting blown back to shore by the wind. No anchor. "There's lots of currents in this world that draw us or push us away from God's Word," he said. Stay anchored.
2. Don't doubt. He was candid: after studying the Bible since age 12, there are still parts he doesn't fully understand — and some parts he wishes weren't in there. But he said, "I'm still persuaded this is God's Word. And it's right for me."
3. Be diligent. He reminded the congregation that we have more access to Scripture than any generation before us — apps, audio Bibles, dramatized versions, online teachings — and yet, he noted, less appetite for it.
4. Believe and obey. Pointing to Matthew 7 and Jesus' parable of the two builders, he made the distinction clear: one man heard and did; the other heard and didn't. One house stood. One didn't. "It's not just the hearing," he said. "It's in responding and obeying."

Conclusion - Pastor Dave closed by bringing the whole message back to its heartbeat: giving attention to God's Word and responding in faith is worship. It's not passive. It's not optional. It's how we honor Him. He challenged the congregation to lean in — to God's Word, to His voice, to His promises — and to trust Him even when understanding falls short. Faith, he reminded us, is trusting what God said even when we can't wrap our heads around it.