Being Friends with God - "Worship"

Worship
Developing Your Friendship with God
(From Rick Warren's "40 Days of Purpose"

Intro: Worship Wars
Two issues that split the church
Finance/Money (or hiring/firing a pastor)
Worship (Style and Form)

What is authentic worship?

AsCo-ordinator of Contemporary service in Athens, AL
Contemporary service was started with bad blood between
New data projector equipment
Memorial committee
Asked “why do we need a contemporary service?”
Not authentic worship!

What is considered authentic has less to do with what our tastes and likes and dislikes. It has to do with our willingness to surrender ourselves to God almighty, creator of heaven and earth. That is what worship is all about
.
Worship is about surrender, giving yourself over to God – offering your life as a living sacrifice to him. It is about trusting God implicitly no matter what you experience in life. It means celebrating the belief that God wants more than our just surrender ... he wants to “Become Friends with us.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!??

I’ll say it again: God wants to become Friends with you ... and me.

[Romans 5:10] says, “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled (NLT) “restored to friendship” to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

How do you become friends with God?

Conversation
Meditation – thinking about God – his word

Developing Your Friendship with God

James 4:8 says, (NLT) “Draw close to God and he will draw close to you.”

This is from Building Friendships 101: the basics of Building Friendships. If you want to build a friendship with someone you have to be willing to get close to one another

Rick Warren says “If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God you must learn to honestly share your feelings with him, trust him when he asks you do something, learn to care about what he cares about, and desire his friendship more than anything else” p. 92.

Choose to be honest with God

[Ex. 33: 1-6] God frankly speaks of his disgust with Israel’s disobedience
He would keep his promise to give them the Promised Land, but he would not go one step farther with them.

Moses as a “friend” of God, speaking with equal candour responds [vv. 12-17] – God can handle our frankness and he encourages it – this demonstrates authenticity

Choose to obey God in Faith

Don’t normally associate obedience with friendship – this is a matter of trusting God that he knows best

[John 15:14] “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
Not fear or compulsion – but because we love him

Choose to value what God values

Friends care about things that matter to the other person
[2 Cor. 11:2] Paul says, “The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me!”

David felt the same way [Ps. 69:9] “Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Desire friendship with God more than anything else
Psalms filled with examples of this desire

David passionately desired to know God above all else ... using words like longing, yearning,