The Unlikely Team - Part 1

Many of us can remember the playground as a kid . . . lined up against the fence as teams are being carefully selected.  Were you ever the last kid standing at the fence?  Feeling alone, uncomfortable, realizing that nobody actually wanted you on his or her team, but inevitably you were taken as a consolation prize by the captain who lost the rock-paper-scissors battle that started this whole thing.

In case you were wondering, that is not the ideal method of building a team.  Unfortunately, many times our Worship Teams can be viewed as such.  “Oh sure, they only allow the cool kids on the stage.  Apparently once you reach a certain age you will be discarded from the cool crowd.  I sure wish I was part of the cool crowd.”

Granted, we need to get along with the people on our team, and trust is an absolute necessity.  However, working with people from different backgrounds, demographics, status, and interests has many benefits as well, each person brings with them a whole new level of influence.  I realize I cannot reach everyone in our church . . . however, the more diverse people we have on stage, the more opportunity for each person to find someone they can connect with because of their own similarities.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (ESV)

   ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  ¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

What Is Worship? - Part 1

•  Worship is extravagant respect, admiration, and devotion to God.

•  Worship is responding to all that God is with all that I am.

Biblical definition:

       Genesis 22:1-14 Abraham was so enamored with God, so close in relationship with Him that he responded every time God came calling.  We see Abraham's purpose and devotion in worship because of his preparation and faith he practiced when God asked him to sacrifice his only son.

      Exodus 10:3 "Let my people go so that they may worship me."  God's desire was to free a nation from slavery so that they might worship Him.  Before we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are enslaved to our sins, but Jesus has set us free; primarily to worship Him.  The first commandment reminds us of this: "You shall have no other God's before me."

            "God meant for a new convert to be a worshiper first.  After that he can become a worker."  A.W. Tozer

      Romans 12:1 Our lives, as a whole, are intended to be an act of worship.  In view of all that Christ has done for on our behalf, to worship, yielding our whole life, moment by moment, is the only logical thing left to do.  

            "To come into the presence of God and kneel before Him one hour takes all the strength we possess."  Watchman Nee

Fundamentals & Essentials of Worship

A DISCUSSION:  Fundamentals & Essentials of Worship

• There are many people that have been Christians for a long time and know all about “worship".

• There are many people that are Christians and are uncomfortable with “worship".

• There are many people that are NOT Christians and don’t have the slightest clue about “worship".

• My goal is to explore some of the fundamentals of “worship” and what it looks like INSIDE and OUTSIDE of the church.

DISCUSSION #1:

How would you define “WORSHIP”?

Before we can determine whether or not it is important, we need to determine what it is!

      "Acknowledging that someone or something else is greater - worth more - and by consequence, to be obeyed, feared, and adored…Worship is the sign that in giving myself completely to someone or something, I want to be mastered by it.”  --Harold Best

Book: Music Through the Eyes of Faith

DISCUSSION #2:

What does “WORSHIP” look like?

• Worship of an object or relationship.

• Consumes your thoughts and actions.

• The object of our attention, topic of our speech, the outflow of our income, etc.

      "Worship of the living and true God is essentially an engagement with him on the terms that he proposes and in the way that he alone makes possible."  --David Peterson

Book: Engaging With God

      "Reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign, in response to his gracious revelation of himself, and in accordance with his will."  --Dr. Dan Block

Book: For the Glory of God

DISCUSSION #3:

WHY do we need to “WORSHIP” God?
• Worship is our testimony to the world of what the Lord has done.
• We have the opportunity to glorify the creator of the universe.
• Worship is what we were created for.
• God does not need us to worship Him in order to be validated, He gives us the opportunity to worship Him.  Romans 12:1-2

HYPOCRISY.
• Is it hypocrisy to do things for my wife, even when I don’t feel like it?  I made a commitment to my wife.

• Is it hypocrisy to continue to sit through class, even when I feel like it?  I made a commitment to my education.

• Why are we so afraid as Christians to be hypocritical by worshiping God, even when we don’t feel like it?

HOW do we need to “WORSHIP” God?
• Lift your hands.
• Use your voice.  Psalm 100
• Kneel.
• Jump around.

      "Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin".  --William Temple

(1881-1944) Readings in St. John’s Gospel