Over the past year Northwoods Community Church has been shifting. We're still seeker focused, but we don't want people to watch worship or to talk about God, but to worship and talk TO God.
Hebrews 4:16 We can approach God's throne at any time with confidence. Imagine this large chair on stage is God's throne.
Psalm 100:1-5 When we approach God, we should worship Him. Why? 1) He is God; 2) He is good.
It is not enough to teach about God; we must teach about Him AND worship Him. Don't be watchers--be worshipers.
John 4:23 God is seeking people to worship Him in sincerity and truth. People seeking after truth don't want anything less than an authentic encounter with God.
Invite people to come sit with God on His throne and be with God.
Don't let our negative feelings (sorrow, depression, anger) stop us from worshiping!
The best place for spiritual seekers is in a Church where He is genuinely worshiped and He responds with His Presence.
1. Worship enables our hearts to perceive the invisible.
Psalm 34:3 Magnify God--through praise.
What changes when we worship is our perception of God's greatness.
There was a small boy who was using a telescope backwards, looking out into the street. His father gently corrected him, saying, "Johnny, that's the wrong way to use a telescope. Everything will look extremely small."
"That's right Dad," he said with a small. "That bully who's been pushing me around looks really small!"
Worship is our telescope to magnify our perception of God.
Psalm 69:30 30 I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
2 Corinthians 4:18 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2. Worship enables our hearts to discern the inaudible.
3. Worship enables our hearts to believe and receive the impossible.
When our faith is stirred, we embrace fresh possibilities.
4. Worship enables our hearts to embrace the impossible.
1 Peter 1:23 We have been born of the imperishable.
1:4 Our inheritance can never perish or spoil or fade.
Hebrews 12:28 We receive the Kingdom of God which cannot be shaken.
Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe had no faith in God and she descended to depression and suicide. Arthur Miller, writing after her death, said he wished he had had some faith to encourage her. We have that faith.
Take-away 1: Set a time daily for personal worship of God, even if it is only 10 minutes, even if you only do it three times a week.
Take-away 2: Come to Church prepared to worship. Set your mind to encounter God and praise Him.
About Me
- jjvors
- I'm a 53 year old 6 Sigma Black Belt. I've been a Christian for 37 years, and Christ dominates my life and thinking. I started from the view of scientific agnosticism, but God drew me to Him in my teens. I am more analytic and scientific than most Christians. I believe all disagreements are due to false assumptions. I've had more than my share, so I'm willing to examine my own. Most people don't even want to examine their assumptions, let alone change them. I've been on the internet, Usenet, since 1993. Before that, I used Decnet to go to Digital's sponsored newsgroups. My company, Caterpillar, was a big Digital customer. I first worked with computers in 1969 as a 13 year old in 8th grade. Our school (Ford Jr. High School, Brook Park Ohio) had a time share to an IBM 360.
