This is a series on worship?

Over the past two weeks, we've begun a series on worshiping God... but you might have noticed that we haven't really hit the big "worship" topics. Why haven't we talked about the "style" of worship (like contemporary or traditional) or the "stuff" of worship (like singing and playing instruments)? Good questions.

First, no- we didn't forget. Instead, we wanted to begin the series by remembering what makes worship possible in the first place. We were people who saw God's glory in creation and heard it in the word... and we blew God off, we lived for other things, we considered Him insignificant. We didn't worship Him- we ignored Him. So what happened? Simply, Jesus lived for us, died for us, and sent the Spirit to change us. Ignoring and blowing God off isn't our destiny anymore... worship is. But "worship" songs that forget Jesus' finished work aren't really worship. So we wanted to start there first.

So here's where we're headed: this week, Eric will be preaching on the privilege of singing. The following week, we'll be looking at what it means to be expressive in worship. Finally, we'll tie things up by thinking about how to live during the week to make the most of Sunday morning. All of that will hopefully enable us to clearly understand what it means to "present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Rom 12:1)

Don't follow your heart...

Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them... Deut 11:16

Last Sunday, we saw that the foundation of worship is the finished work of Christ. It is Jesus who has made it possible for us not to relate to God on the basis of how obedient we are; instead, when we come to God we meet with the grace that Jesus purchased for us... that our Father extended to us. What a great joy it is to come gratefully to God, in awe of who He is. So why don't we come to Him this way every day? Why do we find worship services boring?

Our hearts can be so easily deceived- led astray and turning aside... giving our attention, our adoration, our worship to things and people instead of God. So we need to be careful (to "take care") not to let this happen. We want our worship to be "acceptable" but it often isn't.

That's why I'm excited that we have Jason Reyes coming this next week. Jason's going to take us through Psalm 19, ending with these words, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer." Acceptable worship comes from hearts that meditate on the glories of the gospel and the greatness of God. So let's anticipate good things this Sunday!

What you got here that's worth living for?

Did you know that the Bible actually says, "You shall not worship the Lord your God"? It's true... but only in part. Actually, the full sentence is "You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way." Moses wrote that twice in Deuteronomy 12 when God was telling Israel how to worship Him. In the beginning and the end of the chapter, He reminded them that they weren't supposed to simply imitate the ways that the people around them... God had something different in mind for Israel. But what? How does God want us to worship Him?

Without sounding too much like a teaser... come join us this month to find out! But here's a pretty cool tidbit in the middle of the chapter. In the midst of all the other regulations God set up for the Israelites, He reminded them in verse 7, "you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you."

What a great reminder that is for me as I get ready for Sunday morning: I am preparing to rejoice because God has blessed me! I don't have to look any further than Calvary as proof of that fact. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Rom 4:7-8)

(btw- if you're still reading and can identify the source of the title, you can claim your prize on Sunday...)

a living sacrifice

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2)

Over the next 5 weeks, we're going to take time to look at what God says about worship... about why we worship Him and how we are to worship Him. We'll look at how the big call to worship God with everything we do every day applies in a concentrated way to specifically what we do at church on Sunday. I'm excited about the way this can fuel our faith to apply what we just learned in our series on faith from James "... no human being can tame the tongue... With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:8-10)

Let's look forward to the ways over this next month that God wants to transform both our everyday worship AND our Sunday worship together!

The Redemptive Rescue...

"My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." (James 5:19-20)

This Sunday, we'll be soaking in the wonderful rescue plan laid out for us in this text. It's one we're all called to and all covered by. It's one we're all ultimately amazed by- that God's grace can indeed cover over the vast sea of our sins. How good to experience what was sung in Psalm 32:1-2 "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity..."

Praying in boldness...

This Sunday, we're going to be looking at James 5:13-17, a section your bibles may have titled as "The Prayer of Faith." Given our current burden to be in specific prayer over this month, I'm glad we're in this passage at this point. The other reason I'm glad is that it affords us the specific application of praying as a church for those who are sick.

All this is built on our confidence in the gospel. Consider this quote, taken from Milton Vincent's A Gospel Primer:
"If I want my life to bloom full and loom large for the glory of God, then I must have boldness- and nothing so nourishes boldness in my like the gospel! The gospel gives me boldness first by banishing my greatest fear, the fear of God's eternal wrath. Indeed, Christ bore God's wrath upon Himself... that I might be released from the daily fear of such wrath as I think ahead to judgment day... The more I comprehend what God has done for me through Christ, the more I find myself confidently coming before God in prayer (Heb 4:16), speaking to Him in situations in which I formerly would have shrunk from Him, and offering requests that I formerly would have been too timid to offer (due either to the largeness of the request or my own sinful unworthiness)."

It's easy for us to think that God's pleasure to hear our requests is based on us moving past our unworthiness to a place of maturity or obedience. But our confidence to offer large and audacious requests (for a place to meet or for healing from sickness) is always based on Christ's character and work for us. Additionally, our confidence is rewarded by the "increased enjoyment of God and the bounty that He gives, due simply to the fact that I was daring enough to ask for what was needed." (Vincent, pg 52).

So, are you daring enough to ask God in boldness, trusting that He can be enjoyed in the process?

A Fruitful $42...

Sovereign Grace Ministries is offering a pretty steep discount on their books and other materials. You can purchase books for $7 (shipping's free), so I wanted to let you know of six small books that are easy to read and challenging to apply. (All of these books are written by CJ and Josh.)

1. Living the Cross-Centered Life: This is a great book on growing deeper in your functional application of what Jesus accomplished for you.
2. Humility: This will help you to relate rightly to God and others through restoring an accurate view of God and of the Cross in your life.
3. Stop Dating the Church: This will assist you in becoming dependent on and invested in God’s grace through a local body.
4. Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: For married folks, this book can rekindle your view of caring for your spouse through the lens of the Song of Songs.
5. Sex is Not the Problem (Lust Is): This is a great book for married and single folks on how to fight lust. (Bob Donahue referenced this on Saturday in Copley.)
6. Worldliness: This will help you to resist the culture's increasingly attractive love-affair with the world.