Worship Is Your Life

WORSHIP IS NOT PART OF YOUR LIFE; IT IS YOUR LIFE.  -Rick Warren

I love what this implies.  It implies that everything we say and do, whether right or wrong, means that we are worshipping someone or something.  Worship is not just the songs you sing on Sunday Morning.  It is all about the way that you live your life!

“Worship is not just for church services.  We are told to “worship him continually” and to “praise him from sunrise to sunset.”  In the Bible people praised God at work, at home, in battle, and in jail.  Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the morning and the last activity when you close them at night.  David said, “I will thank the Lord at all times.  My mouth will always praise him.”

Rick Warren says, “This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship – do everything as if you were doing it for Jesus.”  The Bible says, “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life, and place it before God as an offering.”

WORSHIP IS ALL ABOUT FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS!

What does your worship look like?

How Do I Bring Glory To God?

One of the questions that I hear a lot in ministry is “What is God’s will for my life?”  It is a question that is significant.  If we are going to live our lives for Jesus, than we must know what it is that He has for us…  His will.  So how do we live our lives in a way that brings glory to God?  Rick Warren gives us these 5 principles for giving our lives to glorify God:

WE BRING GOD GLORY BY WORSHIPPING HIM.  Worship is our first responsibility to God.  There is no doubt that we worship God by enjoying him.  C. S. Lewis once said, “In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him.”  Rick Warren said, “God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty.”  John Piper notes, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”  Worship is far more than praising, singing, or even praying to God.  I believe that worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving him, and given ourselves to be used for his purposes.  The Bible says, “Use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.”

WE BRING GOD GLORY BY LOVING OTHER BELIEVERS. When you were born again, you became a part of God’s family.  Following Christ is not just a matter of believing; it also includes belonging and learning to love the family of God.  John wrote, “Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life.”  Paul said, “Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified.”  It is your responsibility to learn how to love as God does, because God is love, and it honors him.  Jesus said, “As I have loved you, so you use love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

WE BRING GOD GLORY BY BECOMING LIKE CHRIST.  Once we are born into God’s family, he wants us to grow to spiritual maturity.  What does this look like?  Spiritual maturity is becoming like Jesus in the way we think, feel and act.  The more you develop Christlike character, the more you will bring glory to God.  The Bible says, “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.”  God gave you a new life and a new nature when you accepted Christ.  Now, for the rest of your life on earth, God wants to continue the process of changing your character.  The Bible says, “May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – those good things that are produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.”

WE BRING GLORY TO GOD BY SERVING OTHERS WITH OUR GIFTS.  Each of us was uniquely designed by God with talents, gifts, skills, and abilities.  The way you’re wired is not an accident.  God didn’t give you your abilities for selfish purposes.  They were given to you to benefit others, just as others were given abilities to benefit you.  The Bible says, “God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you…. Are you called to help others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  The God will be given glory.”

WE BRING GOD GLORY BY TELLING OTHERS ABOUT HIM.  God doesn’t want his love and purposes kept a secret.  once we know the truth, he expects us to share it with others.  This is a great privilege – introducing others to Jesus, helping them discover their purpose, and preparing them for eternal destiny.  The Bible says, “As God’s grace brings more and more people to Christ,…  God will receive more and more glory.”

WHAT WILL YOU LIVE FOR?

Made To Worship

These Nine Things Are True About EVERYONE Who Is In Christ (And are true for those who do not know Christ!)

#1 – I Was Dead –  Ephesians 2:1

#2 – I Was An Object Of Wrath – Ephesians 2:2-9

#3 – I Had No Purpose –Ephesians 2:10

#4 – I Was Separate From Christ – Ephesians 2:11-12

#5 – I Was Excluded From Citizenship – Ephesians 2:12

#6 – I Was A Foreigner –  Ephesians 2:12

#7 – I Was Without Hope –  Ephesians 2:12

#8 – I Was Without God –  Ephesians 2:12

#9 – I Was Far Away –  Ephesians 2:13

AND…JESUS IS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT ME NEAR – Ephesians 2:13

via Perry Noble: Lead Pastor of Newspring Church

10,000 Reasons

I just wanted to share this song with you that has blessed me immensely.

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

You’re rich in love, and You’re slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

Jesus, I’ll worship Your holy name
Lord, I’ll worship Your holy name

Sing like never before
O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name
Jesus, I’ll worship Your holy name
I’ll worship Your holy name

Free Christmas Music

I came across this free song on Pete Wilson’s Blog.  I really like this new song and I hope you will.  You can see his post here:

Hope is alive!! Merry Christmas (and feel free to share the song with anyone).

A Lifestyle of Worship

Guest Blogger:  Zeke Dorr, Contemporary Worship Leader at FBC The Woodlands.  You can follow Zeke’s Blog Here!

To live a lifestyle of worship is to live a life of obedience, obedience to the holy, perfect, triune God.  If you’re a believer, and have been in church for a long time, you’ve probably heard and almost disregarded Romans 12:1-2.  In fact, if I hear a speaker about to quote those verses, I have a tendency to tune out.  It’s terrible, I know.  It almost seems as though that scripture has been so commercialized that we zoom right past it.  Let me offer you a fresh outlook on Romans 12:1-2.  Be challenged.

Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

What does it mean to present your bodies as living sacrifices?  To understand this, you must know that in the Old Testament, dead animals were offered as sacrifices to God.  In our American culture we tend to think that the word sacrifice means giving up something that is actually ours to keep.  The Jewish way of thinking behind this word was to give back to God what was actually His in the first place.  In the New Testament, we are commanded to “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice.”  We are commanded to give to God what was actually his in the first place! (1 Cor. 6:19)   It’s funny, but our lives aren’t actually ours.  

This is where obedience comes into play.  What’s God saying to you today?  Are you being obedient to His call?  Are you pursuing what He has called you to pursue?  To live a life of worship, one must be willing to be completely open to what God has in store for your life.  In verse two, Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.  This verse is straightforward.  It’s saying, don’t become part of the world, but change your way of thinking.  I love the last part of verse two when it says, “that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Paul is saying that if we’ll really live out this life of worship and obedience that God has called us to, and then we’ll know His perfect will.  I want to know the will of our Father.  I want to join in on His story.

Here’s the good news.  He’s worth it.  He’s worth living a life of obedience.

We’ve been bought with a price.  We are called to glorify God even with our body.  (1 Cor. 6:20)

He’s worth it,

Zeke Dorr