Sermon Central
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Being A Worship Leader
Contributed by Bob Cook on Aug 15, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: This is a message written to believers about what worship really is. It is not an event but a lifestyle.
Being a Worship Leader
• Last week Pastor Scott spoke about giving thanks and how not to be swayed by circumstances.
• A direct result of being grateful or thankful is an attitude of adoration, love, or reverence.
• These are all synonyms for worship.
• I am not going to tell you how to worship.
• When we talk about worship we usually think of the time between the opening prayer and the offering.
• As soon as the pastor starts talking you know the worship time is almost over.
• Or if you are a counter then you know we usually do 3-5 songs and then we are done.
• Or you may feel the songs getting slower then you know that we are almost done.
• Some of us even think of it as the musical time.
• The “worship time” is often what is cited when differentiating between denominations.
• Charismatic or traditional -“holy rollers”
• This is where the preaching starts.
• Let me say this first.
• WORSHIP IS NOT AN EVENT.
• It is who God created us to be.
How important is worship to God?
• Tell story about Job.
• He gave us free will so when we choose to worship Him, He will be blessed.
o Talk about the free will of Adam and eve.
• He is after YOU not your worship songs.
• He wants YOU to be the worship.
• He wants YOU to be the song.
• Many of the church signs and welcome statements say come and worship with us.
• The services are often titled the morning worship service
• Most of the time the people are gathered to hear the word instead.
• The structure of the service is not the problem.
• It is the mindset that exists among Christians.
• Most Christians think of worship as an event that happens at a place at a specific time and it lasts for certain amount of time.
• Worship is not an event, it is a lifestyle.
• It starts by you loving Jesus purely and wholeheartedly in a response to His love for you.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual[ 12:1 Or reasonable] act of worship.
• We can not worship like this on our own.
• We need to ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to worship like we are directed in John 4:23
But the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.
• The word spirit here is lower case so it is not the Holy Spirit.
• The Greek for spirit here is “pneuma”
• The word spirit here is defined as “breath or essence”
• Essence means “the nature of a thing”
• So we are called to worship with our essence or what we are made of.
• The word truth means “fidelity or resembling the original”
• This would then read worship in your essence or what you are made of (your thoughts and beliefs and attitudes) and in resembling Him in those things.
• We are to be the worship leaders in our church.
o Our young people are taught the principle found in 1 Timothy 4:12
• Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
• We are to be the worship leaders in our home.
o Men, do you show more excitement about a sporting event than you do about the things of God?
o Ladies, do you spend more time reading the sale ads than the word of God.
• We are to be the worship leaders at our workplace.
o Do we look different when we are at work?
• We are to be the worship leaders in traffic.
We are to be like Jesus in our thoughts and actions and that is how we truly worship something.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual[ 12:1 Or reasonable] act of worship.
