Consuming or Consumed - November 2, 2025

Some of you noticed it—no lyrics on the screen. If that feels strange, imagine this: what would your marriage feel like if it was completely scripted? If your pastor handed you a little book and said, “These are the words you’re going to say this week.” Even if the words were good, it would still remove the authenticity of love. Sometimes you just need to say what’s in your heart. Worship is a response to who God is.

When heaven worships, it’s not because someone handed out a program. It’s because God is there. You see it in Scripture. In Isaiah 6:2–3, the seraphim cry to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)

They’re not performing. They’re responding. And when you get to Revelation, worship is still happening. When Jesus is revealed, heaven reacts. Revelation 5:12–13 says:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:12–13)

That’s what worship is. It’s a real response to the real presence of God.

I told you today we’re hitting a reset button on worship because worship has become a consumer product. Preferences. Styles. Familiarity. And we’re not building our worship around preference. We’re building our worship around presence. Psalm 27:4 has always been a straight line for me:

“One thing have I asked of the LORD… to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

I found myself worn out this week—not from life, but from the presence of Jesus. I was supposed to put together a set, and I didn’t. I’d rather be overwhelmed by Him and respond honestly than produce something clean and controlled. So today we responded. If you don’t know what to sing, say what’s on your heart. If you catch something someone else is singing, agree with it. That’s family worship.

And let me say this clearly: if it’s hard for you to respond to Jesus in worship when it’s safe in a room like this, we have to challenge whether we’re responding to Him when we leave this place. Uncomfortable worship exposes chains. Sometimes it’s the exact place where chains fall off.

I used my brace story because it’s real. After surgery, I was terrified to sleep without that brace. It felt protective, but it was immobilizing. And the Lord spoke something simple to me: bondage can become comfort because it promises protection while keeping you stuck. God will lay you down sometimes—He’s a master surgeon—but He also says, “Get up and test it.” Healing includes movement.

There’s something else I said that matters: worship “to the best of your ability” is natural. It’s real, and it’s good. But when you come to the edge of what you think you’re capable of because you want God to have more, worship becomes supernatural. That edge is where obedience starts to look like faith.

I also want our church to learn how to feed ourselves. I’m giving you a simple tool for that: SOAP—Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. This isn’t complicated. It’s consistent. And we’re doing it together because faith is corporate. Hebrews 10:24–25 says:

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together… but encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:24–25)

If you don’t have a practice in the Word, start simple and start today. Write the verse down. Treat it with care. Let it live in you.

And I want to correct something we’re working through as a church: 2 Chronicles 7:14 has an order to it. Scripture matters. Here it is:

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

We’re not rushing this verse. We’re living it.

This week I also shared visions the Lord gave me—pictures of scarcity and consumerism in the church. People fighting over a small piece of fruit because they don’t abide in Jesus. Leaders trying to sell what should be freely given. The Lord is moving us from consuming your leader’s fruit to producing your own. That’s not a threat. That’s freedom. Jesus didn’t build a church of dependents. He built a church of disciples.

Jesus says it plainly in John 15:4–5:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you…Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4–5)

Abiding produces fruit. Pride produces comparison. Scarcity produces competition. Humility opens the door to fruit because God gives grace there. James 4:6 says:

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

We ended with communion because communion is received, not earned. It’s covenant. It’s presence. Jesus says in John 6:53–56:

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53, 56)

And we remembered this: if anyone thirsts, Jesus doesn’t say “perform.” He says “come.” John 7:37–38:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me… Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37–38)

So here’s the question we’re living with: are we consuming, or are we being consumed by the presence of Jesus? Because the church that abides becomes a garden. Fruit grows. Joy becomes full. Love becomes real. And worship becomes what it was always meant to be—a response.

Amen.

At Riverside Church, Jesus is the center of everything we do. We are a prophetic, presence-centered church committed to worship, prayer, and spiritual formation.

Watch more messages at onechurchqc.org/teachings, read our vision at onechurchqc.org/vision, or visit onechurchqc.org to plan your visit.

If you’re seeking a Spirit-led church in the Davenport and Quad Cities region, we invite you to come experience God’s presence with us.