- There is a sacrifice that everyone can make,

but too many people miss it.

Today, we're exploring the sacrifice of gratitude

and how it stops us from chasing things

and instead gives us the ability to reflect,

come to a new realization and rely on God.

Hey, I'm Hannah and welcome to Crossroads.

Today we're exploring what is perhaps

one of the angriest songs ever written, maybe, probably.

Man, the writer had all of the feels,

and there's a song that gives me all the feels

no matter when I listen to it.

And it's a song from the '90s all about chasing.

[singing] Don't go chasing waterfalls

Just stick to the rivers and the lakes

that you're used to

I know that you're gonna have your way

or nothing at all, but I think you're moving too fast.

[paste in from last week♪♪]

- Believe in yourself, the rest is up to you.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, y'all.

Anyway, there's a reason that universally

everyone understands Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls;

it turns out that they might not be what they seem.

And today, as we explore Psalm 50 together,

we're going to see that

it's not all it's cracked up to be either.

All this talk about waterfalls has me remembering

the time that I got to stand on

one of the natural wonders of the world: Victoria Falls.

This waterfall isn't a hidden gem. It's mainstream.

See what I did there?

Come on, you can laugh. It was funny.

See, around here,

we talk about guiding people spiritually.

We talk about leading them on their spiritual adventure.

And I will tell you,

this was an adventure that was unmatched.

I fell in love with this waterfall pretty rapidly.

And as you can see, I was just gushing with joy.

Okay. Okay. I'm done with the waterfall humor.

But, hey, sometimes you've just got to go with the flow.

Okay, now I'm done with the waterfall humor.

Today we're talking about Psalms 50,

and among all the other Psalms

that we've talked about to date

that have a very heavy emotion

and almost lyrically lament and praise God,

sometimes in the same Psalms even,

this Psalm really helps us see why

this series is called All the Feels,

because the writer is angry,

like the little red character from inside out.

Oh, and by the way, if a moment ago,

when I said all the Series of Psalms,

if you got kind of freaked out,

there are more episodes of Psalms, actually,

and we'd love for you to see them.

You can go to Crossroads.net to find out more.

But today we're talking about Psalm 150,

and the writer is just straight up mad.

And he's angrily talking about a subject

that most of us avoid like the plague: sacrifice.

No, seriously, it's a sucky idea to sacrifice anything.

And just like the writer, many of us

probably identify with what he's doing,

which is being angry.

And I know I do.

I don't want to speak for you,

but they say it's a secondary emotion.

But I will tell you, I'll be honest,

it's my first response.

Like, anytime I see anything I don't like

or somebody does something, I just responded in anger.

It is not secondary for me

But there's a difference between my kind of anger

and the anger that's in this Psalm.

See the writer, his name is Assaf,

and Assaf was a chosen worship leader

for the people of Israel.

See his anger in this moment, it's righteous.

What? What does that mean?

Well, Assaf was a chosen worship leader, like I said,

appointed by King David over ancient Israel.

And what's so cool about him is not only was he a leader,

but he was actually by his bloodline,

considered to be a priest.

Now, all that means is that King David saw him,

saw that he would have some potential.

And it means that him and God, they were tight.

They were like this.

And so when he's writing this Psalm,

you can see that he's addressing the people of Israel.

But quickly, it goes from third person to first person

because he starts to write down

what God is saying to him and he starts to say stuff

to the children of Israel.

Now, I've been doing all talking.

I'm sure you're really rushing and wanting to know

what that Scripture said, so I'll hush

and read from the Scripture. The writer says:

Insert dramatic music, I mean, for real,

it feels like the big monster is just coming

to get us and eat us alive because we failed.

Now, there's a lot to unpack

in the beginning of this Scripture,

and even more so as we'll see a little bit later on.

But what we can clearly see is

that Assaf is just setting the stage.

He's letting us know that God,

even though it sounds a little bit scary,

He's not coming as the big bad wolf,

He's coming as the Almighty God, the one who judged.

Not for fun, but because His judgment is righteous,

His judgment is perfect,

and He does it in a way that's full of mercy

and full of second, third and fourth chances.

And that's good news for us.

The scripture goes on and says:

Now, there it is, the word that we've been waiting for,

the one that's reserved for special people,

the ones that are disciplined: sacrifice.

It's a word that, if we're honest,

makes most of us shudder

because it's actually not easy to do.

If it was easy, everyone would do it.

If we're honest, I'm not going to speak for ya'll,

I'm gonna speak for me,

I don't like sacrificing all the time because it's hard.

I don't like the idea of giving up something

in the short term just to have long term gain.

And don't even get me started on sacrificing

for other people because I really don't want to do that

because it's actually an inconvenience to myself.

Now, maybe I'm not alone.

Maybe you're out there and you're like,

"Yeah, Hannah, I'm like you.

I'm like you, I want to have cake now.

I don't want to be on a diet.

I don't want to have a healthy heart later on.

I want to do it right now."

Now, listen, truthfully, we're on the same page now

because even sometimes I don't struggle

with just worldly sacrifice,

I struggle with spiritual sacrifice.

God calls us to give 10% of our income,

which is our tithe.

And I don't always want to do that,

because even though it's good for me,

I just hate the idea of giving away my money sometimes.

It just sucks.

Sacrifice feels out of reach

and it really makes me shift in my seat.

And I don't always like that. It doesn't feel good.

"What?

Hannah, I thought you said Jesus wants us to feel great."

Okay, I didn't say that,

but why would He call us to something that hurts?

Well, it's because sacrifice is a sign of surrender.

See, in ancient Israel, when Assaf wrote this Psalm,

it was customary for religious leaders

and religious people to often give sacrifices.

And not just in the Hebrew culture, either.

Other religions are doing this.

They would give sacrifices for the atonement of sin,

for thanksgiving, even in request, and for supplication.

And in verse eight, God has to clearly say that

"I'm not displeased with your burnt offerings

and sacrifices," just because He doesn't want them.

He's saying them because those things are common

and the heart behind why they're doing it, it's off.

See, sacrifices were common because they brought results.

So if they brought results, why is God so freaking angry?

Well, I'll tell you. Let's get to the point.

Hannah, you've talked enough.

He's angry because the heart behind the sacrifice,

it's unacceptable.

It's what I call a little waterfall-ish.

It just means that what it seems to be on the surface,

like a waterfall, beautiful, glorious, all worthy.

It's actually not all it's cracked up to be.

See, before you get too confused, let me explain.

Waterfalls are made by soft rock under hard rock.

Which just means that underneath all that water

is actually a really not a full rock,

it's actually not what it seems to be.

And that's what the children of Israel were doing.

They were giving their sacrifices.

They were doing the thing, being traditional,

being faithful, doing all the things that their preacher

or priest told them to do.

But underneath it, it was empty.

Their hearts were empty.

I can relate to the children of Israel in that moment.

I can relate because I know that sometimes

I give my tithe just because I'm supposed to do it.

Sometimes I go to church or watch online

because I'm supposed to do it.

Sometimes I volunteer in student ministry because

I feel like I'm supposed to do it.

But God's asking the children of Israel

something very important in this Psalm.

He's saying, "Are you going to give Me

waterfall sacrifices, or are you going to give Me

what I actually want, which is real sacrifice?"

So God goes into another spiel in this Psalm

about how He owns everything.

And I always thought growing up that that just meant,

Oh, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

He must be rich.

And well, I think if you think about it

in natural terms, we would define that as being rich.

But excuse my grammar, that just ain't what He meant

when He was talking about that.

What He meant was, "When I ask you for something,

when I ask you to sacrifice your money or your time,

it's not because I need it.

It's not because I don't have enough volunteers.

It's not because I don't have enough money

and the lights are about to go off in heaven.

I'm actually asking you to sacrifice

because it invites surrender into your life,

and it's for you."

"What? That sounds challenging.

Hannah, you're challenging me right now?"

I'm glad. If you're sitting at the seat of challenge,

you're actually right where you probably need to be.

I'm a touch uncomfortable if I'm being honest,

because sacrifice makes me shift in my seat

because God is asking us all the question:

is your heart in it?

So the sacrifice isn't the problem.

He loves giving us His time.

He wants us to give our money, all the things.

But He wants to know, is it a waterfall sacrifice?

Is it just cute on the outside or is it in your heart?

"So what kind of sacrifice is God looking for then?

Hannah, tell me the answer,

since it's not the ones I'm giving,

the ones that seem empty.

What should I be doing?"

Now all the churchy people think they know the answer.

They think it's Jesus. That's the perfect sacrifice.

You're wrong.

But I'm going to tell you the real answer,

so stay with me, I promise.

- Hey, guys, I'm Kyle. - And I'm Andy.

- Hope you're enjoying this message.

If you are, we'd love you to engage with us

in even more ways. - That's right.

Around here at Crossroads, we believe that

the act of giving is a spiritual discipline,

meaning that it's not something God wants from us,

but for us.

- If giving's something you want to do,

or maybe you want to try out,

you can go to Crossroads.net/give.

Let's get back to the message.

- So it turns out God wants a sacrifice,

and not just any sacrifice,

but a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Hey, growing up I always thought that

I needed some very grand and elaborate testimony

that was going to make me more interesting,

not just to people, but shockingly, to God.

I thought that I really didn't have a story to tell

because for the most part, I feel a little textbook

and what I call like a pew baby,

which just means that I was raised in church,

I was always at church.

And somewhere along the line, maybe about 13,

thankfully, church actually got in me.

And so I started to follow Jesus.

I started to walk with Him, learn His ways.

And I really even used to study the Bible

on my lunch breaks in high school,

not because I was trying to be this, like,

holier than thou person,

but truly the food was disgusting.

I needed something to do. No, I'm just kidding.

But seriously, I did have some hard days,

but I don't ever feel like

I had this grand story of rescue, you know?

Like, it wasn't like my dad, who literally

had a spiritual encounter with God

that was like Paul in the Bible.

Not me, I was pretty boring and lame even.

I never even had, like, a backsliding moment in college

where I just turned my back on God

and decided He wasn't for me. Nope.

Crazy enough though, this all pretty much bummed me out,

so I started to shy away and not really tell anybody

about what God was doing in my life

because I thought it was too small.

I thought that it did not measure up

to all the things He's miraculously done

for other people and how they have

awesome testimonies of rescue.

And so when I would be in church

and worship God through music,

or even through giving or even through volunteering,

I really was only doing it because I thought

it's what you were supposed to do.

See, I had a lot of waterfall sacrifices

because I thought that if I just keep doing the thing,

keep doing the thing that looks good on the outside,

God's just going to be pleased with that.

It's going to be fine.

But, you know, they looked good on the outside,

but they were really horrible on the inside.

They were empty because I missed

what God was trying to say, what He actually wants.

Of all the sacrifices that I could give,

He says in verse 14:

Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and fulfill the promises that you made to the Most High.

"Now wait a second.

I thought we were supposed to serve in Kids' Club.

You mean to tell me that my tithe

is not an acceptable sacrifice?

What are you talking about, Hannah?

God, what are you saying?

Why are you so angry in this Psalm?"

See what I missed in my story

and what I'm sort of missing now is

if I don't have thankfulness,

not just for the things that He hasn't done,

but for the things that He is doing.

If that's not -- if my sacrifices aren't flowing

out of that gratitude, then they're empty.

See, the only way to cure those waterfall sacrifices,

the ones that just look good on the outside,

is to really be thankful

and offer those as a sacrifice of gratitude,

doing those things out of thankfulness to God.

That is what I was missing.

See, thankfulness does something for us;

it forces us to do three things:

to reflect, to realize, and to rely.

For most of my life,

I never shared my story of God's redemption

because I just thought it was too small, too textbook.

See, but really, once I started to get thankful,

once I take a second and actually say,

"Man, God, I'm going to be grateful for just a moment,"

my story starts to shape up,

starts to look a little bit different.

And I can squint my eyes and I can see and realize

that actually God has been up to some pretty amazing things.

See what He's done for me physically, for example,

I'll just count all the times I was probably supposed to die.

Not even going to talk about birth.

I'll talk about the time that I got hit by SUV head on.

I mean head on, smacked.

And I walked away with nothing but a broken toe.

I'll tell you about the time that I fell asleep

with a gas valve on and the air was full of gas,

and I did not die.

You guys, I'm not joking, it's not a joke.

I think about the time I was held at gunpoint.

And I would think about the time

I was just recently in two car accidents

that probably should have killed me.

See, it's this reflection when I get thankful,

when I say, "Thank you, God, for doing those things for me,"

that it makes me realize, it realizes in that moment,

see that realization, what it brings me to

is the next R reliance.

It makes me realize that actually, no matter what I do,

I can't do anything for myself.

It makes me realize that God has more for me.

See, I just told you about the physical times

I wanted -- I possibly could have died.

I didn't tell you about the times that

God has actually protecting me

from spiritual and emotional death.

Because there have been times, y'all,

and still times where I just believe I'm worthless

or I just believe I am worth nothing.

That this life right here is actually not worth living.

And God has saved me from that.

There's been times when my pride and my anger

probably should have destroyed

my relationships that I'm closest to.

But God didn't allow that.

Let me tell you how I got to that conclusion.

It's when I realized what He was doing.

It's when I stopped focusing on all the things

that my story didn't have, when I stopped focusing

on all the grandiose that I was looking for

in my testimony and started to realize, "Wait a second.

God actually has done some amazing things."

See, but here's the promise:

Thankfulness doesn't just get us to a place

where we're like, "Oh, God, You're so good. Oh, my gosh."

Thankfulness has something for us.

It actually is a sacrifice, y'all,

because some days we have to push

and we have to press to be thankful.

Because if you're anything like me,

there are moments when you just get so much bad news

in one week you're like,

"God, how can I possibly be thankful for this?"

It's so easy to chase after the things

that I don't have, to go after waterfalls

like the song says, it's so much easier.

But God invites us into gratitude

because it makes us rely on Him.

I'm not crazy.

I know that life actually just sucks sometimes.

See, I know from experience that there are weeks

where you lose your only grandparent, your cousin,

you have friends lose two babies,

you feel like you get eaten alive by inflation

because three of your siblings just lost their job,

You've got two siblings with high risk pregnancy,

oh, and by the way,

your mom is in and out of the hospital.

See, it's in those weeks where it gets

really, really hard to say, "Thank you, Jesus,"

because there's too much going on.

And if you have that question, if you say,

"Hannah, how can I be grateful?"

I'm right there with you.

I'm standing right there with you

because it's a valid question.

Why does it actually hurt to be thankful?

And that's why God says it's an acceptable sacrifice,

because that gratitude makes us reflect on what He's done.

It makes us stop chasing for all the things He hasn't,

all the things that we wish we had.

It makes us stop trying to be like the Joneses

and keep up with the Joneses.

Gratitude makes us thankful.

It makes us thankful for the place

where He's going to take us, the place that we are.

And it makes us rely on Him to take us there,

not our own selves.

See, we serve a big God who loves us so much,

so unconditionally that he sent His son, Jesus,

not just to be down here and walk among us,

but He sent Him so that we could have life

and life to the full.

And that means life that's full of ups and downs,

life that's full of crazy weeks.

And yes, life that's full of good and wonderful things.

See, and maybe I just gave you one reason

right there to be grateful,

because Jesus is a good reason to be grateful,

because when we get that life, we have something

that the rest of the world only wishes they had;

we have hope.

So whether you have been following Jesus, awesome,

or this is your first time here today

and this is the first time you're hearing

Jesus spoken to you in a language that you understand.

Welcome, and I'm so glad you're here.

And I'm glad you're here

because we all have a chance at hope.

And the way that we get there is through realizing that

what Jesus did for us allows us to be grateful,

allows us to be thankful.

And when we are, when we say, "You know what?

I'm going to have a sacrifice of thanksgiving,"

it pushes us to a new place.

And not only does it push us to a new place,

but we honor God.

See, at the very end of that long rant of Psalm 150

and God describing all the ways

that waterfall sacrifices are empty

and how they make us empty.

In the last verse, He says this:

See, our sacrifices need to flow

from a heart of thanksgiving.

They can't just come out of formality

or they can't even not happen at all.

Maybe you've never been thankful.

God is saying that He wants us

to forget about sacrifices in the form of worship

and tithing and volunteering if they don't actually

flow out of a heart of gratitude.

He's saying, "Forget about it."

See, we aren't giving anything to God

because He needs it.

I was reading an article about

the making of Waterfalls by TLC.

And the ladies, they say that the song,

it sounds like an encouragement to run from your dreams,

just stay to what you're used to.

But what it really is they're saying, be careful.

The song is a warning against

self-destructive behavior and chasing.

See, our tendency is to just do whatever it takes

to look normal, to feel normal.

But when we sacrifice in thanksgiving,

when we do things out of a heart of gratitude,

that's the best way not to self-destruct,

because it keeps us from chasing things

that God never had for us.

It makes us realize that we actually have

a story so powerful that somebody needs to hear

and we need to tell it,

and it makes us rely on God.

So now is the time that we're going to get

to hear some music and actually worship,

which is just prayers set to music.

And thankfully, this song that we're about to hear,

you probably won't know it because

it's the exact Psalm that we've been studying.

But during this time, now is the time for action.

Maybe I've said something that stuck with you.

Maybe you have more questions.

Whatever it is, actually, here's the main point, y'all:

we have to be grateful.

So some of us need to write a list, like me.

I write a list of what I'm thankful for.

Some of us need to stop complaining long enough

so that we can realize what God has done

and reflect on His goodness.

Some of us just need to take a pause and take a moment

and realize what God has done in our life.

Hey, if that's you now,

this song is the perfect time to do that.

It's the perfect time to soak up the words

and let the words soak in and to decide what it is that

you're going to do to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

- We hope you enjoyed the message today

and you were able to get something out of

going deeper in the Book of Psalms.

- It doesn't have to stop here, by the way,

because this series is connected with the thing

we've been doing all year long called the Bible Challenge.

- Yeah, we as a community are in the Crossroads App

all through the week, reading

and diving deeper into Scripture.

I'm in there. Kyle's in there.

Brian is in there. You're in there.

- We're in there because it's making our lives better

and it's helping us connect to God.

If you want to dive in, all you have to do

is download the app and you're all set.

- Hey, that's all we've got today.

We'll see you next time on Crossroads.

- [singing] I'm living my best life

Wake up with the sunrise

Does not look a thing

How many people do you know would say that

they're living their best life? Really?

And what about you?

I'm going to show you how to live your best life

through an ancient way of living

that you can rediscover today.