Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
WHAT ABOUT WORSHIP?
I was asked recently to speak to our awesome people at Flame Youth on What About Worship? I have posted my notes below.
Worship – means to ascribe, attribute, assign and credit worth towards something and to give honour
Worship can be also referred to as Worth-ship. Placing worth on something and in our case that thing is God.
We can worship many things in our lives:
We can worship money
We can worship romance
We can worship our family and friends
We can worship ourselves
We can worship our TV
We can worship the movies we watch
We can worship our heroes // actors // pop stars // sporting legends // our favourite teams
Sometimes it’s easier to worship created things rather than the creator of those things
When Flame Youth joins together and sings together, we’re not just getting ready for a message or a sermon... It’s not just the handful of songs we sing before the preaching starts. It really is so much more than that!
When we worship we are actually reconfiguring or realigning our lives so that God is placed in his rightful place, at the top of the worship chain and all other options are removed.
What is worship? It’s not about us!
We often think worship is about us when we come expecting the music to pump, to lift us and take us somewhere. We are expecting the worship time to serve us, bless us, lift us, but worship is not about us!
Worship is all about Him!
Worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.
Worship is about ownership of the fact that it is your own responsibility to touch God and not the worship leader’s role to make you enter God’s presence.
John 4:23-24 "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
Psalm 40 1-3
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
ACTS OF WORSHIP
(1) Present your everyday life before God as an offering
(2) Embrace // Acknowledge // Give credit for everything God does for you
(3) Say no to the culture of the world that drags you down
(4) Recognise what God wants from you and be quick to respond
Worship is humility, selflessness, loving, serving, passion in action, surrender of a life designed with a free will but chosen to be consumed by God.
We have a free will and cannot be forced to love God. It must be a choice that we make. We cannot be coerced or tricked into loving God. It must be a deliberate choice.
In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce asks ‘How do you make somebody love you without affecting free will?’ and God responds ‘Welcome to my world son, if you come up with an answer to that one you let me know!’
Bruce’s girlfriend Grace left him and he is left with the disturbing challenge to win her back but he can’t make her love him. Bruce can’t mess with free will.
It’s the same in our lives. As much as God is honestly yearning and seeking us to worship Him, He can’t make us. He holds the universe in His hand but he loves us so much that He creates us with free will so we can choose to worship Him and not just be robots that are designed to simply love Him without any consideration or decision process.
God wants us to make the choice to worship Him.
As much as Bruce tried to get Grace to love him and as much as he tried to use his powers, he could not make her love him.
As much as we as worship team try to make you worship God, as much as my preaching tonight is designed to bring you an awareness of the importance in worshipping God, our team can’t make you worship, I can’t make you worship. All I can do is encourage you.
I said earlier this evening my definition of Worship is that worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.
I have presented to you your options and tonight all I can do is encourage you, implore you to lift your eyes above your current perspective, turn your eyes upon Jesus, and worship Him... and when you do... everything else falls into right perspective and the things that we thought were so important and the things that we thought so mattered... all of a sudden... those things don’t matter anymore.
Worship – means to ascribe, attribute, assign and credit worth towards something and to give honour
Worship can be also referred to as Worth-ship. Placing worth on something and in our case that thing is God.
We can worship many things in our lives:
We can worship money
We can worship romance
We can worship our family and friends
We can worship ourselves
We can worship our TV
We can worship the movies we watch
We can worship our heroes // actors // pop stars // sporting legends // our favourite teams
Sometimes it’s easier to worship created things rather than the creator of those things
When Flame Youth joins together and sings together, we’re not just getting ready for a message or a sermon... It’s not just the handful of songs we sing before the preaching starts. It really is so much more than that!
When we worship we are actually reconfiguring or realigning our lives so that God is placed in his rightful place, at the top of the worship chain and all other options are removed.
What is worship? It’s not about us!
We often think worship is about us when we come expecting the music to pump, to lift us and take us somewhere. We are expecting the worship time to serve us, bless us, lift us, but worship is not about us!
Worship is all about Him!
Worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.
Worship is about ownership of the fact that it is your own responsibility to touch God and not the worship leader’s role to make you enter God’s presence.
John 4:23-24 "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
Psalm 40 1-3
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
ACTS OF WORSHIP
(1) Present your everyday life before God as an offering
(2) Embrace // Acknowledge // Give credit for everything God does for you
(3) Say no to the culture of the world that drags you down
(4) Recognise what God wants from you and be quick to respond
Worship is humility, selflessness, loving, serving, passion in action, surrender of a life designed with a free will but chosen to be consumed by God.
We have a free will and cannot be forced to love God. It must be a choice that we make. We cannot be coerced or tricked into loving God. It must be a deliberate choice.
In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce asks ‘How do you make somebody love you without affecting free will?’ and God responds ‘Welcome to my world son, if you come up with an answer to that one you let me know!’
Bruce’s girlfriend Grace left him and he is left with the disturbing challenge to win her back but he can’t make her love him. Bruce can’t mess with free will.
It’s the same in our lives. As much as God is honestly yearning and seeking us to worship Him, He can’t make us. He holds the universe in His hand but he loves us so much that He creates us with free will so we can choose to worship Him and not just be robots that are designed to simply love Him without any consideration or decision process.
God wants us to make the choice to worship Him.
As much as Bruce tried to get Grace to love him and as much as he tried to use his powers, he could not make her love him.
As much as we as worship team try to make you worship God, as much as my preaching tonight is designed to bring you an awareness of the importance in worshipping God, our team can’t make you worship, I can’t make you worship. All I can do is encourage you.
I said earlier this evening my definition of Worship is that worship is everything within us responding to everything He has done for us.
I have presented to you your options and tonight all I can do is encourage you, implore you to lift your eyes above your current perspective, turn your eyes upon Jesus, and worship Him... and when you do... everything else falls into right perspective and the things that we thought were so important and the things that we thought so mattered... all of a sudden... those things don’t matter anymore.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
HOW TO BE A GODLY FATHER
Many men desire to be good fathers, but what really matters is whether or not they are godly fathers. Here are four Biblical principles that, by God’s grace, can be used to lay a sound foundation in helping fathers become godly fathers.
1) Godly fathers are first godly men
It doesn’t work for fathers to bail out and say to their children, "Don’t do as I do, do as I say!" (Matthew 23:3). Children must be able to see an example of Christ in their fathers.
Paul says to his spiritual children in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Until men by faith follow in the example of Christ themselves, they cannot be godly examples for their own children.
2) Godly fathers love their children unconditionally
Unconditionally is a significant word. It implies that love is not merited or earned and that the father’s treatment of his children is not dictated by what they can offer him in return. The father of the prodigal son stood waiting and watching for his son to return to him (Luke 15:20).
When he finally did return, the father didn’t judge the son or force him to earn back his favor, love, and approval. He simply embraced him and threw a celebratory party for his son. He could do this because his love for his son wasn’t based upon what his son could do for him but simply and strictly upon the fact that he was his son.
Godly fathers don’t make their children earn their approval, and they don’t use their children’s behavior as a condition for their love.
3) Godly fathers train their children how to love and honour God
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."
Ephesians 6:4 echoes the Proverbs passage, saying, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
Training in righteousness requires learning the Scripture for the Bible is how a child must come to know Who God is and what God wants.
4) A Godly father seeks to give his children good gifts
Godly fathers go beyond just giving spiritual gifts such as wisdom and Biblical instruction. They love to give good gifts of all kinds. Our heavenly Father is the ultimate example of this.
James 1:7 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."
Just as our Father is the giver of every good and perfect gift because He knows when, how, and what to give us, so to us dads need to become a giver of every good gift.
He knows what we desire and ask for because He knows and cares for what we really want and need. Fathers, too, ought to be sensitive to their children’s desires and needs. They need to avoid the extremes of spoiling their children by giving into their every whim and being too stingy and holding back from their children.
A child’s view of God will largely be shaped by their father’s treatment of them. So as fathers take interest in what brings their children joy, they will go a long way in helping to shape a healthy view of a God will do for them what is necessarily the kindest, wisest, and best.
1) Godly fathers are first godly men
It doesn’t work for fathers to bail out and say to their children, "Don’t do as I do, do as I say!" (Matthew 23:3). Children must be able to see an example of Christ in their fathers.
Paul says to his spiritual children in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Until men by faith follow in the example of Christ themselves, they cannot be godly examples for their own children.
2) Godly fathers love their children unconditionally
Unconditionally is a significant word. It implies that love is not merited or earned and that the father’s treatment of his children is not dictated by what they can offer him in return. The father of the prodigal son stood waiting and watching for his son to return to him (Luke 15:20).
When he finally did return, the father didn’t judge the son or force him to earn back his favor, love, and approval. He simply embraced him and threw a celebratory party for his son. He could do this because his love for his son wasn’t based upon what his son could do for him but simply and strictly upon the fact that he was his son.
Godly fathers don’t make their children earn their approval, and they don’t use their children’s behavior as a condition for their love.
3) Godly fathers train their children how to love and honour God
Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it."
Ephesians 6:4 echoes the Proverbs passage, saying, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
Training in righteousness requires learning the Scripture for the Bible is how a child must come to know Who God is and what God wants.
4) A Godly father seeks to give his children good gifts
Godly fathers go beyond just giving spiritual gifts such as wisdom and Biblical instruction. They love to give good gifts of all kinds. Our heavenly Father is the ultimate example of this.
James 1:7 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."
Just as our Father is the giver of every good and perfect gift because He knows when, how, and what to give us, so to us dads need to become a giver of every good gift.
He knows what we desire and ask for because He knows and cares for what we really want and need. Fathers, too, ought to be sensitive to their children’s desires and needs. They need to avoid the extremes of spoiling their children by giving into their every whim and being too stingy and holding back from their children.
A child’s view of God will largely be shaped by their father’s treatment of them. So as fathers take interest in what brings their children joy, they will go a long way in helping to shape a healthy view of a God will do for them what is necessarily the kindest, wisest, and best.
Friday, September 4, 2009
FORGIVE AND RELEASE
Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive
Luke 23:34 - Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Luke 23:34 - Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Jesus was released from this planet to heaven when he uttered the words "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
The same release is available to us when we forgive those who sin against us. We are released from the weight of our baggage created by the unforgiveness we are holding onto when we release those who hurt us.
Imagine someone that holds onto unforgiveness against every person that does something wrong to them. Imagine if that unforgiveness is represented by a phonebook. So when ten people have hurt this person they are now permanently carrying around ten phonebooks!
This would certainly be an uncomfortable state to be in and you can imagine the agony after a day, a week or even ten years of carrying such a weight. But as we forgive those who sin against us, we are putting each phone book down and leaving the baggage behind.
As we forgive we are made free! What a much better way to live!
Forgive and release!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
FORGIVE AND REMEMBER
Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.
In life you are going to find people who constantly repeat their offence towards you. Do we need to continue to forgive these people? The bible says we must.
Matthew 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
The Bible never tells us to “forgive and forget”, it asks us to “remember and forgive”!
Christianity is a religion of remembrance! Throughout the Old Testament God calls his people to remember the hardships of their lives in Egypt as well as during the 40 years of wandering in the desert.
In the New Testament, Christ instituted Holy Communion as a sacrament of remembrance of his death. We are repetitively reminded to “remember” and to be transformed through the exercise.
The cross is our level ground for reconciliation: we remember Christ dying for our sins and our iniquities and that is a call to repentance, confession and forgiveness. And we remember him on the cross carrying our pains and our sorrows, crying to the Father to forgive and that is a call to healing and forgiveness.
You cannot remember Christ on the cross without being transformed into a better person! A person who understands the power of forgiveness.
Joseph remembered what his brothers did to him in handing him over to slavery. The thing is... Joseph turned it around by not only forgiving his family... but the very thing that Satan intended to be bad with Joseph’s dreams being squashed as he is handed over to slavery... Joseph turned it around for good by forgiving his family and saying that God had always ordered his steps and led him to his final destination as joint ruler of the land.
Forgive and remember that Christ has forgiven you so you should return the favour.
For those that continually want to hurt you, you must make the tough decision to remove yourself from the position of continual hurt. Forgive and move on!
In life you are going to find people who constantly repeat their offence towards you. Do we need to continue to forgive these people? The bible says we must.
Matthew 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
The Bible never tells us to “forgive and forget”, it asks us to “remember and forgive”!
Christianity is a religion of remembrance! Throughout the Old Testament God calls his people to remember the hardships of their lives in Egypt as well as during the 40 years of wandering in the desert.
In the New Testament, Christ instituted Holy Communion as a sacrament of remembrance of his death. We are repetitively reminded to “remember” and to be transformed through the exercise.
The cross is our level ground for reconciliation: we remember Christ dying for our sins and our iniquities and that is a call to repentance, confession and forgiveness. And we remember him on the cross carrying our pains and our sorrows, crying to the Father to forgive and that is a call to healing and forgiveness.
You cannot remember Christ on the cross without being transformed into a better person! A person who understands the power of forgiveness.
Joseph remembered what his brothers did to him in handing him over to slavery. The thing is... Joseph turned it around by not only forgiving his family... but the very thing that Satan intended to be bad with Joseph’s dreams being squashed as he is handed over to slavery... Joseph turned it around for good by forgiving his family and saying that God had always ordered his steps and led him to his final destination as joint ruler of the land.
Forgive and remember that Christ has forgiven you so you should return the favour.
For those that continually want to hurt you, you must make the tough decision to remove yourself from the position of continual hurt. Forgive and move on!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
FORGIVE AND FORGET
The first thing we must do when it comes to unforgiveness in our lives is forgive and forget. We don’t forget what’s happened to us but the thing we must forget is the act of retaliation or revenge.
In the message bible Romans 12:19 says:
Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
Wounded people often say...”you know what, you don’t understand. What they did to me is so horrible, I will never forgive them, I can’t forgive them for what they did...
But what if God said that...
Luke 6:37 says:
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Forgive and forget and release unforgiveness from your life.
In the message bible Romans 12:19 says:
Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
Wounded people often say...”you know what, you don’t understand. What they did to me is so horrible, I will never forgive them, I can’t forgive them for what they did...
But what if God said that...
Luke 6:37 says:
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Forgive and forget and release unforgiveness from your life.
Monday, August 31, 2009
FORGIVENESS BRINGS FREEDOM
All people have wounds, luggage that we sometimes choose to carry. We sometimes think we are over our wounds but at times we are into our wounds more than ever and the wound gets reopened and hurts and then it becomes a day, a week or even 10 years later and now the wound has become part of us. It gets to the point where the wound shapes who we are and defines where we are heading.
The fact is hurt people hurt people. In life there is a higher way and a lower way and it’s very easy to stick to the lower road and seek revenge against those that hurt us. We get to the point where we can’t shake it and leave it behind so revenge becomes our only hope.
We sometimes say why does this happen to me? Why are people always picking on me? Where is God in all of this when people come against me?
But here’s the encouraging thing. The bible says:
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
God knows all, sees all, understands all, and is with you in the midst of your circumstances.
Over the next three days I am going to share three things that we must do when it comes to unforgiveness in our lives.
The fact is hurt people hurt people. In life there is a higher way and a lower way and it’s very easy to stick to the lower road and seek revenge against those that hurt us. We get to the point where we can’t shake it and leave it behind so revenge becomes our only hope.
We sometimes say why does this happen to me? Why are people always picking on me? Where is God in all of this when people come against me?
But here’s the encouraging thing. The bible says:
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
God knows all, sees all, understands all, and is with you in the midst of your circumstances.
Over the next three days I am going to share three things that we must do when it comes to unforgiveness in our lives.
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