Worship: More Than Singing

 Matthew 22:37, Colossians 3:17, 22-24

1.  Let's answer the "how" of worship.  How do you do it?  Do you think most people have limited worship to singing, music, and what we do it church on Sunday?

2.  For John the Baptist, people saw what he was doing, what he was saying, and how he was acting, and they approached him asking "are you the one, are you the savior, are you the perfect person we have been waiting for that has all the answers and knows how we should live life?"  Then, John the Baptist was able to share with the people about Jesus.

What are you doing at work that would cause people to come to you wanting to know "what's your secret?  Why are you different?  What makes your life seem so much better than anyone else?"  The way you worship through your work can give you all kinds of opportunities to point people to Jesus.  So what are you doing to gain that reputation?  What are you doing to be a minister at work?

3.  One person serves hard and calls it a chore.  Another person serves hard and calls it worship.  What's the difference?  What can you do to turn even the hardest tasks and mundane chores into worship?  (It's all about where your focus is.)

4.  What are some of the ways you have categorized your life into spiritual and secular?  Do you catch yourself taking off your spiritual hat after church and being a different person at work during the week?

Worship: Quality Revelation

Isaiah 6:1-10, John 12:37-41

-How would you assess the quality of the revelation we've received of Jesus?

-If this revelation of Jesus is so incredible, why do we struggle to respond with appropriate intensity?

-What holds you back in your response to Jesus in corporate worship? (Mood, musical preference, not an expressive person...)

-How strong is your grip on the revelation of who Jesus is? Is it something you meditate on and commit time to, or is it a cursory section in your routine that yields no return?

-How are you going to go about embracing and uncovering the revelation of Jesus this week?

Bottom Line

Head-The quality of the revelation determines the intensity of the response.

Heart- Does our response to Jesus accurately reflect the quality of the revelation we've received?

Hands-Tighten your grip on the revelation.

Worship: Sibling Rivalries

Luke 11:38-42



1.  Let' go ahead and take a poll: Who is a Mary, and who is a Martha?  Briefly explain why you would call yourself that.

2.  When you first gave your life to Jesus, what was your initial desire?  Go, do, join, lead, and jump right in?  Did you feel an obligation or a duty to do something right off the bat?

3.  Why is it so hard for the Martha's to identify, understand, and worship instead of just getting up and DOING all the time?  Are you serving and doing in order to try to get to God, impress God, or earn something from Him?  Or is it an overflow of your relationship of God?  (one of the best ways to determine that may be your satisfaction level in service.  Do you hate it, not look forward to it, wish you didn't have to?  Or are you excited about the opportunity, show up fired up and ready to go, and understand the WHO and the WHY behind the WHAT?

4.  What about the Mary's?  Do you think it's really possible to have a REAL, growing, and healthy relationship with God without actually getting up and serving, giving, doing, and responding?

5.  How can we have the best of both worlds?  What is the real question at hand?  (the real question is "what are we doing first?")  How is this really a both/and not an either/or?

Leave with this challenge.

-Worship and relationship is a choice.  No one can make you grow deeper and move forward.  No one can make you closer to God.  It's all up to you.  If you're not where you want to be, then there is only one person to blame and one person that can fix it.

Martha- Slow down and get closer to God.  Start with what matters.  Start with the WHO.  Stop preparing presents and gifts FOR God and start enjoying the presence OF God.  Worship.

Mary- Get up and do something with what you've learned.  It's time to respond to God's revelation. Worship.

 

So What?

 

Head-Intimacy with God leads to service of God, not the other way around.

 

Heart-Determine for yourself whether you need to begin responding to God in worship through cultivating intimacy or if you need to respond to God in worship through service.

 

Hands-Act on what was determined.

Worship: The Who

Isaiah 6:1-8

1.  Why is it so important to start a conversation and understanding of worship with the WHO?  Why not start with the where, when, how, or why?

2.  What are ways that we "see the Lord" today, in comparison to how Isaiah saw the Lord in vs 1?

3.  What is a good working definition of worship?  What are some other things we worship, and how do we worship them? (ascribing worth, our response to God's revelation)

4.  What are some effects of seeing the WHO behind worship, and why are those important? (confession of sin, realize the standard of goodness and holiness).

5.  What are some ways that you can share with the group that have been powerful in helping you see the WHO behind your worship?  (time in the word, prayer, attending church, reading the Word, seeing it in other people).

 

Bottom Line:

Head: Worship of God begins only after we see who He is (holy and intrinsically worthy of worship).

Heart: Many of us don't respond to God with worship because we don't truly understand who He is. We've not contemplated the depths of His holiness or asked the Holy Spirit to reveal His glory and consequently we've not allowed ourselves the opportunity to see God as Isaiah did, for if we had seized that opportunity we would respond as Isaiah did.

Hands: If you've not seen God for who He is then you've not worshipped God as He deserves to be worshipped. Use your time in prayer and Scripture this week to intentionally be overwhelmed by who God is! Don't think so much about your requests or how you want Him to improve your life, simply think about the Who and plead with the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the reality of who God is so that you can worship Him rightly.