God-Made 2
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Worship and gratitude
Worship and gratitude
Welcome back
AS we get started this week, I want to backtrack as in this series, I told you all last week that we would have 7 keys to a true relationship with God.
What were the first 3?
Daily Devotion
Read his Word
Engage in Prayer
But what were the details of those, how do we effectively do those?
Devotion isnt reading the word, its committing yourself to the Lord
reading the word is a part of that, but don’t read the word to check a box, dont read the word to make it look like you are to someone else. Read the word, with intention to learn about God and who he is.
Engaging in prayer, I specifically asked you, to not pray more. but to pray with intention and pray with dedication. Who remembers what prayer looked like most of the time in scripture?
Ultimately, everything we do in our relationship with Jesus is motivated by #1, daily devotion. that gives us our motivation to do anything, and our motivation to do literally anything else in life, comes from him and him alone.
this week we are going to be talking about just one point, but remember to keep up with all these, because they do all work together.
#4 CULTIVATE GRATITUDE AND WORSHIP!
now this is a carefully doctored statement. I have decided on these words very intently and in the order they come in.
what are the definitions of gratitude and worship?
WORSHIP - the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
GRATITUDE - the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness
These things can be done for God, and for others, for people, for our extracurricular activities, for sports teams, etc.
But lets break them down further, starting with Gratitude.
Gratitude is thankfulness, but also sharing that thankfulness. Gratitude is being receptive and understanding of where God is and what he has done for you, but also showing your thankfulness to him and others.
I believe there is an element of EMOTION in the idea of Gratitude. In scripture, the word commonly used for gratitude is more closely related to thanksgiving.
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
we read this verse last week and in this it tells us to not be anxious, but be in prayer always and consistently and with thanksgiving.
This is not talking about turkey, this is talking about the element of our prayers that is constantly thankful for the life we do have, for the blessings we have been given and for the love God has already shown us.
In the OT, the only communication that people had with God was effectively just them showing gratitude,
When they received good news, they thanked God.
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles and the judgments he uttered,
When they received bad news, they thanked God.
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
These are just two examples, but you can think back to Abraham who wondered around the lands and he would make altars and sacrifices anytime he ran into the presence of God.
Gratitude is being constantly aware of the things we do have and the things we have been given as well as the things he has taken away because he knows what we are in need for, and he is good. God is good. he is goodness and in that there is no bad, so anything he does, is good.
GRATITUDE IS EMOTIONAL RECOGNITION OF WHAT GOD HAS DONE, AND WHAT HE WILL DO
But let’s jump over to the second, Worship
What is worship? I gave the definiton earlier but what IS worship? what does it look like? what doesn’t it look like?
Worship is defined as the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
But how do we worship? U
Usually we think of worship is a Sunday morning service, maybe Wednesday nights when we sing songs of praise and adoration to God, and while, sure those things can be worshipful,
worship is a heart posture. It is declaring God above and lessening self who is below.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I usually read out of ESV myself but the NIV really paints a picture in this verse of what I want us to see in worship.
Paul writing to the romans tells them to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, what does this mean?
You aren’t dying or sacrificing or hurting your physical body, you are offering the life that you have to God as a vessel. Him to use you, more of him and less of you.
He then tells the people that this is their TRUE AND PROPER WORSHIP
Proper worship according to super-christian Paul is that we offer ourselves to him as a living sacrifice.
this takes us back to the same words we talked about weeks ago in the analogy of carrying our cross. The cross we deserve to be on, and Jesus took from us.
Our sacrifice is putting down that ball, our sacrifice is putting down the things of this earth that will fade, that we seem to care about so much and following him through the hard, picking up the weight of something that was already handled and finished, but as a reflection of his love for us.
Jesus talks about real worship very often, and the funny thing is, no one knew it
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
This confused the people because they thought he meant to knock down the building that was the temple and he could rebuild a large stone building in a few days. Wasn’t what he meant. as he was saying that the temple was himself
The end of this verse tells us that the disciples knew of what he meant once he died. The temple being accessible for worship. at any and all times. Christ being the temple himself, and us having the connection to God through him and his sacrifice.
but this is important because it showed these people back then that worship didn’t have to be restrictive. the only worship done in these cultures during Jesus’ time was at the temple. It was THE place of worship and Jesus comes and changes that.
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
She calls him a prophet and she proves exactly what I just said. she is on this mountain, and she is at a famous well called Jacobs well.
This is a place where the people of Israel were blessed and worshipped here distinctly, as they heard and felt the presence of God here. like I mentioned about Abraham.
this woman then says “you say Jerusalem is the place of worship” Jesus didn’t say that, she is talking about the people of Israel believing they have to go to the temple to worship. But watch how Jesus himself responds in
The hour is coming, when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Spirit and truth. These things are connected. where worshipful spirit is, there is truth.
Truth is in the spiritual worship.
Heres the thing, gratitude and worship come from a devoted spirit.
both of these two elements, come from the same daily devotion that is #1. External motivation is not needed when you are devoted to God. If you successfully devote yourself to the Lord daily, you will find your self worshipping him and being in gratitude daily
We are called to be in worship and do it with gratitude. and why?
well Philippians 2:9-11 tells us
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Yours, your friend an athiest a muslim, a democrat, a republican, a asian, an american, a hebrew, a jew and a german. black and white
But here’s the difference, and this verse tells us this.
It may be too late for some of them to declare his glory, though they will confess it.
This verse tells us that every knee will bow before him, every tongue will confess his name, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. In hell.
This at first glance seems like a great happy verse, but in reality it is a condemning and scary verse. It shows the reality of what happens if you choose to not serve him in this life.
Homer said this at B2SB, but I think it was pretty good and true.
Some of you may remember, Ozzy Osbourne died like a week or so before camp,
Some people speculated on whether Ozzy gave his life to Christ before his death. He apparently had been in church and all that.
Homer said someone asked him, “Do you think Ozzy Osbourne went to heaven?”
and homer said the right answer, “I DONT KNOW”
But he added this, If Ozzy came back for one more concert today, it would be the most effective and beautiful presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that this world would ever seen, because no matter if he was in heaven or Hell, he would advocate for heaven, he would advocate for repentance and for turning your life to Christ, because he either has seen the glory of God and what it really means, or he would warn you of the weeping and gnashing of teeth that is hell.
And I don’t think that could be much better said.
One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess whether you decide to do it now or not. but If you wait and make your decision when your time is up, you will bow and confess from the depths of hell in despair and pain for eternity,
and that's not cause God sent you there, it is because you did not choose God.
And let me be clear, coming to wednesday night and calling yourself a christian, going to sunday mornings and praying at a football game
DOES NOT COUNT AS YOUR KNEE BOWING AND TONGUE CONFESSING.
That only comes in truth when we devote ourselves to him.
Before we end, there was one more word that I want to talk about in the #4 Cultivate gratitude and worship.
What does Cultivate mean?
Definition:
try to acquire or develop
The word cultivate means in the context of this point, that it is an effort filled trial at a goal, and the thing about my use of this word is, you are not done with it, ever on this earth.
The word cultivate is normally used in a agricultural sense where someone cultivates the ground or livestock or things like that.
Simple question, when a farmer cultivates a crop, what does he then do?
harvests it, and does it over again.
Think of your worship life as being a farmer. It’s a process, daily devotion to checking in on the produce, watering it, feeding it and making sure it is stable enough to grow during all times.
And sometimes we get to this mighty worship filled point where the last 6 months of small worship come together in this great extravagant outcry to God of our worship and adoration, and then we do it again, and again, and hopefully our metaphorical crop is now here once a week, once every couple days and maybe even every single day.
But we aren’t done.
Cultivating is creating a culture of worship around ourselves. Cultivating means we have to bring things into the public sphere of Seth that are worshipful and evident. If someone can’t tell that I am a Christian by how I walk and talk and carry myself, then I am doing it wrong. Because clearly I am not worshipful to God.
Worship isn’t singing, worship is living life inspired by Christ for any and all to see.
and it is not so they DO see it and you look like Mr. high and mighty, it’s so they see the love of God pouring out from you and your spirit.
We have to cultivate gratitude and worship, put it in the forefront of our lives and give God the glory and praise that he not only deserves, but we can’t not give it to him, because he is the only reason we have a chance to be here, he loved us so much that he gave us this chance to call for him, to cry out and pray and read his word and devote ourselves to him when we already messed all that up.
Are you cultivating Worship in your own life.
DO you crave to know God more and more and can others see that from you?
BIG IDEA
A life that cultivates gratitude and worship is consistent and eternally god-gratifying
