Hey family, this is Pastor Torrey.

I'm so glad that you are listening to the Potter South at 1LA and Denver Podcast.

Pastor Sarah and I are praying for you and we believe this message is going to be just what you need.

God bless you and we'll check back in with you after this message.

You know, one of my just favorite parts of service and if I'm honest,

I had to learn to make this my favorite part of service.

When I was growing up worship used to be like the pre-show and the message was like the part that I was really connected to.

But the older I got and the more I recognized what happens in our exchange with worship,

the hungrier and hungrier became just to experience God's presence through worship.

And sometimes when I'm worshiping I have to remind myself to not just allow it to be this routine lifting of the hands,

but to really allow the words that are being sung to sing to my spirit,

a lullaby to my fears, a lullaby to my joy, to allow that worship to really place my eyes on the one who was in control of it all.

And it is through that worship, through that adoration of God's promises, God's faithfulness,

that I am able to open myself up and I ascend. That's what I love about worship is worship is how we ascend.

Instead of asking God, can you come down and intervene and trust me, I have those moments still.

But through worship I'm no longer asking God to come down.

Worship says, God, pull me up. Allow me to ascend.

I want to see things the way that you see them.

I want to speak the way that you speak about this situation.

I want to hear what you're hearing, God, I want to move the way that you're moving.

And for me, the only way that happens is when I lift my hands in worship.

And the beautiful thing about worship is that you don't always need a worship leader.

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