i am an offering

As usual - a great day at Living Word yesterday.

We sang:

• Rise Up O Church of God
• Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)
• How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
• Speak O Lord (Townend / Getty)
• We Are Called to Be God’s People

We had a bit of a glitch with the final hymn - but those things happen.  I was so encouraged by several things yesterday:

• The lady battling cancer continues to raise her hands in worship with a joyous smile on her face.
• A visiting friend of a young teenager in our congregation closes her eyes in worship and I could see her mind exalting Jesus Christ through it.
• A young man raises his hands to God during the Lord’s Prayer (I had to have my eyes open because I was holding my squirmy daughter )
• Finding out that two new regular visitors sing, play the bass and play the guitar

Wade preached a fantastic sermon on the 4th commandment - very convicting and encouraging.  We are able to bring our daughter to the zoo and thouroughly enjoy watching her “ooh” and “oh” and scream in delight at giraffes, squirrel monkeys and many other animals.  Ended the day with a movie with my wife and got to bed slightly early.  A great Sunday.

Do you have an accurate picture of who you are and your abilities? Do you think you are the absolute best at something and no one can do it better? This is something that we will struggle with as Christians. We are naturally bent towards pride. Thankfully, though, when we trust and obey the Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to join in His nature and join in the fight against pride. It’s not an easy task, but we fight every day.

Worshiping God by Having a Correct Understanding of our Gifts

Part of learning to worship God is learning that God has stamped His nature on us through the Holy Spirit and beginning to realize when we do things that are contrary to His nature. How do we join in God’s nature, being able to fight our natural tendency for pride? Paul shares this in Romans 12:

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Romans 12:3-5

My Struggle

It’s interesting that I have been enjoying and living by verses one and two of this chapter but never really thought about these verses until recently. I’ve come to examine my heart and really think about the fact that yes, I might be a little prideful at times. It has required a shift in my thinking, constant dependence on God, and prayer for forgiveness and grace every time I realize that I’m being prideful.

How about you? Are you cultivating a heart of humility, thinking of yourself “with sober judgment” and putting others first? Let’s take the journey together.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was of the winners of Bob Kauflin’s book giveaway. Here is my response to his question of “why worship matters:”

What is the ultimate purpose of a follower of Jesus? Looking at each answer that might be given to that question, a common theme lingers: to glorify Him.  If you believe that the ultimate purpose of a Christ-follower is to make disciples, you still must glorify Jesus while making disciples.  If you believe that the ultimate purpose of a Christ-follower is to reach the lost, you still must glorify Jesus while reaching the lost.

To glorify Jesus means to honor Him, above all else, in all things.  Because in all things we must glorify Jesus, this is why worship matters

We must give Him glory in all things - therefore we must worship Him in all things.  Check out some more great responses to why worship matters.

Do you view your interactions with others as an act of worship to God?  The Bible is full of commands of how to treat each other.  Here’s just one of many examples,

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32

In your relationships, do you worship God by choosing to:

• Build up instead of tear down? (Including building up and not tearing down even when you’re not with the person you’re talking about?)
• Pray for people that you’re struggling with instead of complaining about them?
• Forgiving and asking for forgiveness?
• Have compassion for those who don’t know Jesus instead of judgment?
• Resolving differences in your family before the sun goes down?

Let’s worship God by how we chose to respond in our relationships.

Hopefully by now you realize that one of my passions is to teach others to worship God with every aspect of their life.  Often times we equate worship with Sunday or with a particular time or thing that we go to.  But if we are to honor what God says in His word, we do this:

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

“In word or deed…”  That includes everything. So let’s look at some ways we can worship God that you might not have thought about:

Media Choices

This is one of the most important areas where we need to learn to worship God.  We are bombarded with literally thousands upon thousands of pieces of media every day.  We have a choice to turn away from some (or all) of it. How can we do this?

• Just because a TV show is popular doesn’t mean it’s going to build you up.  In fact, most popular TV will slowly fill your mind with things that cause you to change how you make decisions over time, even if you don’t realize it.  Be discerning in what you watch.  If you are prompted by your “conscience” (which is really the Holy Spirit) to turn something off, turn it off.
• Be careful what music you’re listening to.  Studies have shown that explicit content shows up on MTV once every 38 seconds.  If the music videos are showing it, it’s obvious that it’s first coming from the music that these videos are made from.  We can easily chose to not listen to something.  Change the dial from your popular secular station to the Christian station.  By no means am I suggesting that you can’t listen to “secular” music, as much of it is full of good content (think Switchfoot, P.O.D., Daughtry, etc).  It is just so important that you learn to discern what is good content, and what is not, and most of the time the popular music stations are not playing the stuff with good content.
• Movies.  Just because someone you met randomly says it’s the funniest movie this year doesn’t mean anything.  Their definition of funny could include things that we shouldn’t even be thinking about. Keep yourself safe and visit pluggedinonline before you watch a movie.

Making choices about media that honor God is an act of worship and an act of worship that should be occurring every day in our lives.  Tomorrow we will look at worshiping God in our relationships.