DiscipleShift Part 8: Disciples Worship

INTRO

Recap:

Jesus calls His Disciples to Follow Him. A real disciple follows Jesus, learns from Jesus, and adopts the heart and passions of Jesus. All of this so that their life may mirror their master so that when others see them, the recognize that they have been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)

Examined Growth Stages of a Disciple:

Spiritually Dead

Spiritual Infancy

Spiritual Childhood

Spiritual Adulthood

Spiritual Parent

We established the best way to determine where we are at in our spiritual growth is to explore and look at the spiritual disciplines in our lives and how we are doing with those disciplines.

Spiritual Disciplines

All disciples must be disciplined. The Spiritual disciplines help us to grow in our relationship with God.

“God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.” (Celebration of Discipline)

So far we have explored the foundational disciplines of Getting God’s Word into us and Prayer.

Today we will look at the Discipline of Worship!

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

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.

1) WORSHIP WITH MEANING

Worship that is not meaningful.

Matthew 15:7–9 ESV

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

When we worship with only our lips but not our hearts our worship is meaningless and worthless.

Meaningful Worship:

True worship is not done in a moment. It is a life that recognizes God for who He is and exalts Him through glorifying Him in all things.

“To worship God means to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise, or better, to approach and address God as He is worthy.” (Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritual Life, 103-4)

Worship is not just a service you attend, but it is a life you live.

Matthew 22:37 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Our worship will not always be perfect, but we must seek to make sure that it is not absent of meaning. Our worship must be meaningful, focusing on God and responding to His infinite worth.

2) WORSHIP WITH REVERENCE

John 4:23–24 ESV

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 Holy Spirit gives us the opportunity to worship with meaning. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us to worship in a way that honors God the way He desires to be honored.

The Spirit of God must lead us to worshipping the Lord through what God has revealed to us through His Word.

John 14:23–26 ESV

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Worshipping in Spirit and Truth is not going through religious motions, but it is recognizing the worthiness of God and responding to Him by laying our wants and desires at His feet and living out His will and desires for our lives, through the obedience of the truth revealed to us in His Word.

3) WORSHIP WITH OTHERS

Hebrews 10:25 ESV

not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We do not only worship God alone. While our worship of God is done personally, we should gather for corporate worship together!

Ephesians 2:18–22 ESV

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Worshipping God with others, being physically gathered, is not just about being in the same room, its about serving together with the same heart.

We do not just simply gather and sing, but we gather and grow in our knowledge of His Word. We are to also gather and serve because of the worthiness of God.

As disciples, we cannot just be consumers…we must be servers, mirroring the heart of our Master who served us with His life.

We cannot simply worship alone. We must also worship together!

CLOSING

ARE YOU OFFERING YOUR BODY AS A LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY AND PLEASING TO GOD?

IS YOUR WORSHIP OF GOD MEANINGFUL, REVERENT, AND WITH OTHERS?

IS YOUR MIND BEING RENEWED BY THE SPIRIT AS YOU GATHER WITH OTHER BELIEVERS AND SERVE THE LORD TOGETHER?