 TikTok is not a great place to get your theology. Yes, I'm on TikTok. Yes, I post a lot of videos on TikTok, but ultimately if you want to be built in your faith, if you want to get correct theology, you're going to run into a lot of bad stuff on TikTok. No, Jesus is not the only way to salvation and Jesus never said that. And today I want to point out one of those kind of destructive misconceptions about worship that I found in a TikTok. Let's respond. Jesus is here. People are speaking in tongues. People are waving flags and praying. Okay, it looks like a small group type situation worship in somebody's living room. Okay, you get the point, you get the point. Okay, we're not going to have a conversation about speaking in tongues today. We're not ready for that. That's not what this video is about. My main critique and my main problem with this is that statement, Jesus is here. And is that a true statement? Yes, of course, Jesus is there, Jesus is everywhere. The problem is it's often used in context to big emotional experiences in worship. There'll be big music coming up and Hillsong will or Beth will get on the stage and everyone's rocking out to oceans or reckless love or whatever it is. People are raising their hands, maybe they're dancing, maybe they're praising God, whatever it is, but they're like, oh, Jesus is here, Jesus is present in this moment. Well, using that type of language is damaging and it's confusing because we're conflating this idea with our emotions are positive, you know, highly strung up emotions in these moments to Jesus presence, right? As if our emotions can usher in God's presence. Well, friends, I got something to tell you. God's presence is not determined based on our emotional experience. God and Jesus is no more present in our lives or in our worship, whether we are jumping up and down, we're singing a happy song, or we're kind of feeling downtrodden and we're in a tough, discouraging season and we don't feel as excited and we're dancing around with flags, but in both those moments, Jesus is present with us. Proverbs 15.3, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good Jeremiah 23.2, can a man hide himself in hiding places so that I do not see him declares the Lord? Do I not feel the heavens and the earth declares the Lord? God is omnipresent, which means he is everywhere. So there's nowhere that he is more present or less present. I think one of the big issues that I have with this kind of terminology that, oh, God is present or Jesus is here in big, you know, highly emotional environments is that we're teaching ourselves to understand God's presence as relating to how we feel about his presence. So I've dealt with anxiety pretty much my whole life and in those moments where I feel most anxious, my emotions are telling me that God is distant, that he is far away, that he is absent. That's what my emotions are telling me. My feelings don't dictate reality so when I feel really sad and discouraged or anxious in those moments, that doesn't mean that God is distant. No, actually, he is present with me. I think it's important, too, as we're thinking about worship and approaching worship. A lot of the times we're not approaching it, like, oh, man, I can't wait to boogie and party and worship God joyfully. Like, no, we're discouraged, we're sad. Something tragic happened in our lives or we're just filled with sorrow for some reason and we're just feeling down. I don't think those moments, we should see that as like, well, I guess Jesus isn't gonna show up today or like, you know, I guess it's the presence of God isn't gonna be very strong. It's like, no, I think in those moments where our faith, where it's really challenging for us to continue on in our faith, to trust God, to trust in him rather than the lies and our emotions that are distorting the way that we see the world, man, it's in those moments that our faith is really growing in those challenging seasons. That is where we're developing that perseverance to keep following Christ regardless of everything that's telling us to turn back. I think this is a really important conversation that we need to have because more emotions do play an important part in the Christian life. And I don't agree with the people that are like, you should just be stoic and, you know, not show any emotions because that's irreverence. Like, I think there's definitely a level to where you could get irreverent, right? But I think emotions do play an important part in our life because that's how God created us. Like, he wouldn't, you know, he created us with the emotions, he created us with the intellect. So mind's body, soul, like it all works together, right? But that doesn't mean that we take in our emotions always as truth, just like we don't take every thought in as truth. We need to understand what God has said about who he is and let that be the most determining factor, the final say, give him the final say on everything. Friends, I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments down below. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe because I'm putting out new videos like this all the time. If you wanna help support my ministry of helping people follow Jesus daily, head to my Patreon link in bio and support this ministry on a monthly basis. It would be such a blessing. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you next time. God bless.