Have a Seat 4 Worship

As a Jesus Follower I live my entire life as a Worship. Beyond that, I would not be who I am today if not for incredibly meaningful private times of singing before God.

There is much benefit for us to learn more about our singing (in private, in small groups, and on a Sunday) as a Worship to God.

Music is an invisible phenomenon created by visible tangible objects. Physicists classify it as a form of light. The highest goal and purpose of music is to be a vehicle for God to express His greatness, glory, and His love to mankind. It is given to man to express his appreciation and worship to God. – Mike Herron

If Sunday morning worship is going to be meaningful for me, I must be privately in awe – jaw dropping wonder of God.

Worship takes 2 Forms:

• The majesty of God – we declare/describe His greatness!
• The redemption of man – we sing about our being forgiven, healed, & strengthened!

Here’s some Bible to consider:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5

“I will praise the Lord at all times.

I will constantly speak his praises.

I will boast only in the Lord;

let all who are helpless take heart.

Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;

let us exalt his name together.” Ps 34:1-3

“Then I will sing praises to your name forever as I fulfill my vows each day.” Ps 61:8

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord;  may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.” Ps 103:1-3

“Be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph 5:18-20

“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” Col 3:16-17

Psalmic Worship – refers to the heartfelt, enthusiastic, expressive worship found throughout the Bible and described in detail in the book of Psalms.

David and the other psalmists uncovered a wonderful, foundational truth: emotional and physical responses that are a natural part of our human makeup find their highest fulfillment in the worship of almighty God. They described warm, satisfying, loving, emotional worship involving the total person. – Mike Herron

In the book of Psalms we see that “Psalmic” worship uses the voice (speaking 34:1, singing 47:6, shouting 27:6), the hands (lifting 63:4, playing instruments 33:2,3 string/wind/percussion, clapping 47:1), and body posture (bowing 95:6, standing 134:1, dancing 149:3). These nine forms are found in the Psalms. – Mike Herron & Ernest Gentile

Sing until your heart is changed. Sing until you feel different. Sing often and in many different ways. God loves to hear from you. Believe it or not Jesus sings through you by God the Holy Spirit.

Here’s a glance at the process:      (from Ernest Gentile)

• The mind receives.
• The heart believes.
• The will is summoned.
• The emotions are ignited.
• The body expresses.
• The life shows forth Christ.

Weekend Worship – convened to serve and please God with our praises and to serve and meet people’s needs with God’s sufficiency. When we gather, it is not for a concert or a performance. It is a piece of time intentionally set aside to tune in to what God is saying and to respond to Him with our whole hearts.

Worship is for God but it is also for you. Passionate worship allows God’s presence to overflow you with His love and healing, lifting you up and filling you afresh. Worship is for our recovery, restoration, reviving, redemption, and refreshing.

The presence of God is a personal, real, and life-changing presence of a living God who abides in us and dwells among us. The church must have a passion for His presence and experience it in the corporate gathering as well as carry His presence into their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

A wholehearted worshipping church is a church that is filled with God’s manifested presence where people’s lives are changed. – Pastor Frank Damazio

When we find ourselves hurt, angry, lonely, and/or tired we must not think that we are alone! We must believe that God is with us. He is for us. We must come to realize that Worship is a way that we can see our life CHANGED. 

Study of People Who Tried to Quit Smoking: 0% People who tried Alone Quit…and 5% of People who used a Tool (patch etc) Quit, but 45% People who used a Tool and had a Community Successfully Stopped Smoking.

God has provided us Tools (our voice/body/understanding) and a Community (friends who are believers, the church) to help us make a change!

When we find ourselves hurt, angry, lonely, and/or tired we must WORSHIP our God. As we do, we will see Him in His rightful place as our BIG GOD and everything else will be smaller. 

Let us come back again to worship in it’s 2 forms:

Worship takes 2 Forms:

• The majesty of God – we declare/describe His greatness!
• The redemption of man – we sing about our being forgiven, healed, & strengthened!

Can’t fly solo

If I don’t think I have issues…then I have issues. Living lonely will block me from progress, from growing up into who God created me to be.

4 Aspects of Your Life:     (from Chris Hodges)

1. Arena – Things about me that I know, and you know. Today I’m wearing my Ravens Super Bowl hat.
2. Mask – Things about me that I know, but you don’t know. You don’t know that I rap during my commute.
3. Blind Spots – Things about me that you know, but I don’t know. You can see the food in my teeth, but I can’t.
4. Potential – Things about me that you don’t know and I don’t know, but God knows. I’m able to bring dozens to Jesus who will,  bring thousands to Jesus, who will change the world.

The last three can only happen in relationship (Mask, Blind Spots, Potential). That is where our secrets shared.

You’ll never reach your potential until you deal with the wound of yesterday. The devil know that process is true. That’s why he tries to disrupt the process, stop the potential, by interrupting the relationships. Our relational wounds may cause us to settle for less.

Get close to as many people as you can and fulfill God’s destiny for your life.

This is why, at @CBCBaltimore we’re: Helping people connect with Jesus, grow in faith, and share His love.

Selflessness

Here’s some reading to material that may help you consider how you can be a better team player & Jesus follower:

Selflessness “Courageous Generosity” – you’re not crazy, it’s a God idea! 1 Corinthians 9:19-27

Servant Leadership and avoiding the plague of becoming an “expert”.

“When you stop giving & offering something to the rest of the world, it’s time to turn out the lights.” – George Burns

“We’re here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don’t know.” – W. H. Auden

“You have not lived today successfully unless you’ve done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

“I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” 1 Cor. 9:23

To serve the crucified & resurrected Messiah we must each take up our own cross daily, die to self-interest, and serve the One who bought us.

“How will this way of living and/or course of action contribute to, or hinder, the work of the gospel?”

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some,” “…find common ground,” 1 Cor. 9:22

“Every culture has good and bad elements in it. Yet in every culture it is important for the evangelist, church planter, and witnessing Christian to flex as far as possible, so that the gospel will not be made to appear unnecessarily alien at the merely cultural level. But it is also important to recognize evil elements in culture when they appear and to understand how biblical norms assess them. There will be times when it is necessary to confront culture.

“Even to begin to assess such matters aright, we must know what freedoms and constraints are ours in Christ Jesus. We must develop a firm grasp of biblical theology.

“There is a rigid limit to his flexibility (Paul) as he seeks to win the lost from different cultural and religious groups: he must not do anything that is forbidden to the Christian, and he must do everything mandated of the Christian. He is not free from God’s law; he is under Christ’s law.”  “The Cross & Christian Ministry” – D. A. Carson

“Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ:

• Their allegiance to Jesus Christ and his kingdom is self-consciously set above all national, cultural, linguistic, and racial allegiances.
• Their commitment to the church, Jesus’ messianic community, is to the church everywhere, wherever the church is truly manifest, and not only to its manifestation on home turf.
• They see themselves first and foremost as citizens of the heavenly kingdom and therefore consider all other citizenship a secondary matter.
• As a result, they are single-minded and sacrificial when it comes to the paramount mandate to evangelize and make disciples.”  from “The Cross and Christian Ministry” – D. A. Carson

“No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. You must live for others if you wish to life for yourself.” – Seneca

“All getting separates you from others; all giving unites to others.” – St. Francis of Assisi

“A person first starts to live when he can live outside of himself.” – Albert Einstein

“Life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents. I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits. A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps.” – Charles Goodyear

How do you cultivate an attitude of selflessness?  – John Maxwell “17 E.Qualities of Team Player”

1. Be Generous
2. Avoid Internal Politics
3. Display Loyalty
4. Value Interdependence over Independence

To become more selfless…                              – John Maxwell “17 E.Qualities of Team Player”

• Promote someone other than yourself.
• Take a subordinate role.
• Give secretly.

Jonathan Edwards’ Prayer of Dedication 

I claim no right to myself, no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me, neither do I have any right to this body or its members, no right to this tongue, to these hands, feet, ears, or eyes.

I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own.  I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself wholly to Him.  I have given every power, so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect.  I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace I will not fail.  I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness.  His law is the constant rule of my obedience.  I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life.  I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

I receive the blessed spirit as my Teacher, Sanctifier, and only Comforter, and cherish all admonitions to enlighten, purify, confirm, comfort, and assist me.  This I have done.  I pray God, for the sake of others, to look upon this as a self-dedication, and receive me as His own.  Henceforth, I am not to act in any respect as my own.  I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God, or to fail to make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business.

If I murmur in the least at afflictions; if I am in any way uncharitable; if I revenge my own case; if I do anything purely to please myself, or omit anything because it is a great denial; if I trust to myself; if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me, or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s.  I purpose to be absolutely His.

Have a Seat 3

In Luke 24 we read the story of a resurrected Jesus walking with two guys who were unsure about Him. Jesus is patient with doubt. He asks them questions and slowly points to the truth in Scripture. They asked Him, the “living truth”, to sit down with them and eat. That is when their eyes were open.

Here’s some source material, for CBCB Life Group Leaders, to consider when discussing this coming Sunday’s “Have a Seat” Part 3:

(Please keep in mind that this raw source material. Please prayerfully consider what discussion questions to lead your group with. The Scriptures listed here should prove very helpful. Thanks for serving people! You’re reflecting Jesus and working on something that lasts!)

Where did we get the idea that God left us alone? Jesus is a personal savior. He never intended for us to be alone.

In John 14 – 17, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His death by informing them that God would be sending them the “Holy Spirit”.

What does that mean?

Helper / Advocate – providing relief, consoling, encouraging, mediating on behalf of, “the one who falls down beside us,” “alongside”

Reading Jesus’ words without prejudice, in John chapters 14 – 17, we find His description of the activities of the Holy Spirit:

Helper / Advocate who:  Teaches, Leads into Truth, Reminds, Convicts, Speaks for God, and Brings Peace.

In Dr Luke’s account of the events following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, we read Acts 1 & 2 and find the Holy Spirit’s activities on a few levels: Baptism, Filling, and Gift (which is to say “enabling”) the results of which are: Spiritual Strength & Guidance.

Please remember that this is all within the context of: salvation, forgiveness of sin, healing, life change, and city change.

In Romans 8:24-28 we read about using this gift of the Spirit with: Powerful, persistent, hopeful prayer in relationship and in accordance with God’s will.

In 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 we read that the purpose for these spiritual gifts is helping people! It’s not spooky, for show, nor about celebrity.

So we could say that the Spirit lead life should bring Life Change, Peace, and Courage.

Let’s take time to look at what“We Believe”. It’s a perfect time to ask questions and grow in the“confident hope” that Jesus wants us to have. Over the next five weeks we’ll discuss what we believe about: God, salvation, the spirit filled life, worship, and prayer.

We’re all about helping people connect with Jesus, grow in faith, and share His love.

Remember, if you have to miss a Sunday for work you can always listen to a previous Sunday talk at iTunes (search City Bible Church Baltimore) or on our web site.

“Have a Seat” Part 2 notes

Here’s some source material, for CBCB Life Group Leaders, to consider when discussing this coming Sunday’s “Have a Seat” Part 2:

(Please keep in mind that this raw source material. Please prayerfully consider what discussion questions to lead your group with. The Scriptures listed here should prove very helpful. Thanks for serving people! You’re reflecting Jesus and working on something that lasts!)

Have a Seat Part 2 – Salvation  Helping people connect with Jesus, grow in faith, and share His love.

“God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8

• With God we win, all other options lead to failure. God has allowed evil to provide us two choices.
• Death is a beginning not an end. The beginning of the rest of your life will be in one of two very real places, heaven or hell.

Eternal Results to our Response:

• Luke 16:19-31
• Luke 13:22-30
• Matthew 25:31-46Acts 17:30-31
• 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
• Revelation 20:11-15; 21:1-8, 22-27; 22:1-7

Jesus chose strong & terrifying language when He spoke of hell. I believe He chose to speak this way because He loves us & wanted to warn us.

• We could never do enough good things to have a relationship with God.
• Grace is the only way to step into a relationship with Him.

“Those who listen to my message & believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” John 5:24

Fresh Start – A second chance at life. By turning away from our sin and turning to Jesus we are provided an opportunity to be new.

“To cause to be completely reformed or improved; to re-establish on a new basis”

“It is a new beginning, a creative act of God.”

“It is spiritual re-birth, spiritual renovation,  renewal, re-creation, restoration of things to intended state.”

• You are new.
• You are saved.
• You have eternal life.
• You will not be judged.

Water Baptism – Public confession of your faith in Jesus. Immersion in water as a symbol of identifying with Jesus’ death, burial, & resurrection. A sign of death to your “old” life and a resurrection into your “new” life.

• Trusting & relying upon God is the only way we grow in our relationship with Him.

Fresh Start – Evidences

1. Assurance
2. Ability to Call God, Your Father
3. Considering Heaven
4. Free from Sin
5. Ability to Live Right
6. Love for God & Others
7. Love for God’s Word
8. New Desires

• Romans 8:16
• Galatians 4:6
• Colossians 3:1-3
• Romans 6:14
• 1 John 3:7, 4:19
• Psalm 119:97
• 1 Peter 2:2-3
• 2 Peter 1:4

Helping people connect with Jesus, grow in faith, and share His love.

Have a seat

In Luke 24 we read the story of a resurrected Jesus walking with two guys who were unsure about Him. Jesus is patient with doubt. He asks them questions and slowly points to the truth in Scripture. They asked Him, the “living truth”, to sit down with them and eat. That is when their eyes were open.

Let’s take time to look at what “We Believe”. It’s a perfect time to ask questions and grow in the “confident hope” that Jesus wants us to have. Over the next five weeks we’ll discuss what we believe about: God, salvation, the spirit filled life, worship, and prayer.

We’re all about helping people connect with Jesus, grow in faith, and share His love.

Remember, if you have to miss a Sunday for work you can always listen to a previous Sunday talk at iTunes (search City Bible Church Baltimore) or on our web site.

Here’s a snapshot of what we believe:

• God is so passionate about each one of us; He’s bigger, better and closer than we could imagine.
• The Bible is the perfect guidebook for living life.
• Jesus is God clothing Himself in humanity so we can see Him.
• God lives in and through us now by the Holy Spirit and wants us to be filled and overflowing with His presence.
• Nothing we see around is an accident. God created it all.
• We could never do enough good things to have a relationship with God. Grace is the only way to step into a relationship with Him.
• Trusting and relying solely upon God is the only way we grow in our relationship with Him.
• With God we win, all other options lead to failure. God has allowed evil to provide us with two choices. If we choose God, He can bring good even out of evil events and He tells us in the Bible that there is victory for those who choose Him. The other option isn’t so good.
• Death is a beginning not an end. The beginning of the rest of your life will be in one of two very real places, heaven or hell.
• The church is God’s family and He wants the church to do as He did, to serve people just as He did.
• Jesus is very real and He is coming back.

Reading for discussion of God’s nature & attributes

Here’s the verses we discussed last night…in context of God’s nature & attributes:

This is an introductory list and not complete by any means, and yet it provides a great exercise!

Genesis 1:1

Hebrews 11:3

John 4:24

1 John 1:4-5

1 John 4:16-17

Isaiah 57:15

Deuteronomy 33:27

Revelation 1:8

Revelation 4:8

1 Timothy 1:17

Acts 17:27

Matthew 18:20

Jeremiah 23:23-24

Isaiah 66:1

Isaiah 43:2

Psalm 145: 9,15-16

2 Peter 3:9

Romans 2:4

Hebrews 4:12-13