Week Four (Worship) - Sunday

Worship

It almost seems ridiculous to include worship as a holy habit for one who is a Christian.  Yet, as we look at the statistics, the majority of Americans believe in God, but roughly only 20% attend worship one or more times a week.  What is really astounding is that here in the Bible Belt, we are no different. We, at best, only have roughly 21% of our population in worship during any given week.

Maybe the problem is that we really don’t understand what the purpose of worship is.  Let’s begin our exploration of worship first by having you answer this question: “What is worship?”    

What I have been taught, worship is to give adoration to something and show that it is worthy of our reverence.  Thus with this definition, worship is not limited to God alone.  After all, we adore many things, don’t we?  We adore family, friends, and sports teams.  So, there must be different in our adoration of God.  This assumption is what is called Christian worship and it is the responsibility of every Christian to participate in.  It is crucial to understand it for what it is.  Worship is our praise and service to God.  The focus of worship must always be on God and not on ourselves.  It is for God’s pleasure, not ours.  This needs to be repeated – worship is for God’s pleasure, not ours.  But we benefit from it as well because when we truly worship God, we are blessed by God’s presence.  Our attitude when we enter into worship is directly related to how blessed we feel when we leave a worship service.

When we worship is another aspect we must consider.  Most Protestant Christians have long regarded Sunday morning at 11:00 as the proper time for church.  The reason that this time slot is so prevalent does not rest on any theological basis, but rather goes back to our history as an agrarian culture.  As our ancestors came to this new country, they realized that they had to tend the land and livestock on a daily basis.  Sunday was no exception.  Cows had to be milked and other animals had to be fed each morning.  So, when churches began to spring up through the countryside, the time that most found it best to gather to worship was after their daily chores and before lunch.  Today, however, most people no longer have the same responsibilities to tend livestock, so many churches are beginning to offer several choices of worship times.  Some churches have found that some people like to rise and worship early, while others like to sleep in late and then worship.  Some churches are even experimenting with holding worship services on Saturday night.  The time of worship is not what is important – it is the regular practice of worship that is essential.  There is an old adage that says, “Worship begins when we begin to worship.”  In other words, worship should be a lifestyle.  It should be both public and private, since we should show our adoration for God at all times.  Each should compliment and strengthen the other.

The last characteristic that we should address about worship is style.  The variety of styles of worship runs the gamut.  Just like we here in North Carolina have difference in our taste for barbeque, so we also have differences in our taste of worship.  The problems with styles of worship arise when we forget that worship is for God’s pleasure and not ours.  When this happens, we begin to emphasize our way of worship being the only proper way to worship.  Yet, it is also important to recognize that since we are all different and certain things stimulates us while other things serve only as distraction, there will always be difference in opinion over worship styles.  However we choose to worship, we should always worship in a way that serves to direct our focus towards God.  For some, this may be singing the hymns that are rich with our theology and reciting ancient creeds.  For others, it may mean singing songs that fill us with the sense of God’s presence and having all of our senses flooded with different form of media.  All forms that point worshippers towards God are valid forms of worship and must never be relegated as improper or trivial.  Worship is for God’s pleasure, not yours and not mine.


JOURNAL QUESTIONS

1. Reflect on your sermon notes and journal reading from today.


GROUP EXERCISE

10 minutes - Community Building (informal time of gathering)
10 minutes - Sharing of Concerns and Praises
  5 minutes - Prayer for One Another
30 minutes - Discussion of Topic
                     - What journal entry would you like to share?
                     - How many ways have you experienced worship?
                     - What are some of the other ways you know some people worship? Though they may 
                    not be the way we like to worship, what are some positive comments you can make                           about those forms of worship? 
                    - How important is our attitude in worship?
                    - Which do you think is more important in worship: God getting the glory or us getting 
                       spiritually fed? 
  5 minutes - Wrap Up/Closing Prayer 

Week Three (Accountability) - Saturday

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.







^Reflect
Why should we confess our sins?

Week Three (Accountability) - Friday

Nehemiah 9:1-3

1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.





^Reflect
Why should confession precede worship?

Week Three (Accountability) - Thursday

Psalm 32:1-5

1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. 





^Reflect
Once David confessed his sins, what happened to him?

Week Three (Accountability) - Wednesday

1 Corinthians 12

1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret? 31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.






^Reflect
How is the Community of Faith described here?

Week Three (Accountability) - Tuesday

Acts 2:1-4

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.





^Reflect
When did God bestow the Holy Spirit? What happens when the church comes together?

Week Three (Accountability) - Monday

Exodus 36:8-38

8 All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman. 9 All the curtains were the same size--twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. 10 They joined five of the curtains together and did the same with the other five. 11 Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set. 12 They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. 13 Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit. 14 They made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle--eleven altogether. 15 All eleven curtains were the same size--thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. 16 They joined five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another set. 17 Then they made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set. 18 They made fifty bronze clasps to fasten the tent together as a unit. 19 Then they made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of hides of sea cows. 20 They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. 21 Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, 22 with two projections set parallel to each other. They made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way. 23 They made twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle 24 and made forty silver bases to go under them--two bases for each frame, one under each projection. 25 For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, they made twenty frames 26 and forty silver bases--two under each frame. 27 They made six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle, 28 and two frames were made for the corners of the tabernacle at the far end. 29 At these two corners the frames were double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both were made alike. 30 So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases--two under each frame. 31 They also made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, 32 five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle. 33 They made the center crossbar so that it extended from end to end at the middle of the frames. 34 They overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. They also overlaid the crossbars with gold. 35 They made the curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. 36 They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases. 37 For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer; 38 and they made five posts with hooks for them. They overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold and made their five bases of bronze.





^Reflect
This selection tells of the construction of the Tabernacle. Why did I have you read this? (Hint: Who constructed it?)