A Community Made to WORSHIP

OVERVIEW — Worship as a way of life

• Worship is our created purpose

• Worshipping God for a community of Christ-followers ought to be part of a daily rhythm,

reorienting our focus from everything else that commands our attention

• Daily worship is an act of rebellion against a rebellious culture

• It’s not meant to be complex, drawn out, flowery or put-together

- Setup:

• Sunday is the day we most associate with our worship of God. It is important, the “holy

day” in our week as a culture. We are encouraged to launch out from this place, with a

Scripture and songs in our ears, go and endure our week.

- By next Sunday, when we’ve endured our work, school, maybe our families; maybe

we’ve been riled up by the news cycle; maybe endured (or lost) a tough conversation

and have a lingering frustration…or maybe life just hasn’t been kind this week, we’re

looking to come and not feel emptied out.

- Or maybe life is good, the pace of things is easy, you “can’t complain”. Regardless,

many find there way back here to get refueled, recharged, and hope the batteries last

another week.

• Unfortunately, if that’s what worship is for us as it has been for me during various seasons

of my waking life…that’s not all what worship is supposed to be. Not at least according to

Scripture.

- Anchor point — Acts 16:25-34

• Singing psalms/hymns is the response Paul and Silas gave to their circumstances:

having released a girl of a demon, then beaten and imprisoned, they worshipped.

Then a miracle took place, they spoke salvation to their “enemies,” then were fed,

clothed, housed and ultimately released.

- Three things at work in this passage:

• POSTURE

- Our daily posture, how we approach life or our circumstances is a reflection of

our posture towards God

- Despite their current situation, Paul and Silas worshipped, audibly where the rest

of the dungeon could hear

• Psalm 63:1-5 - likely sung and known by heart (along with Psalm 100)

- Our posture towards God is our alignment in worshipping Him- True worship only comes from a place of humility, desperation, of awe and

wonder at our Creator

• OBEDIENCE / REBELLION

- Paul/Silas singing was in obedience to the Gospel: they’d been transformed

mind and spirit, so there was no other response they could give

- They were desperate for and knew entering the eternal presence of God would

be sweeter than even being released and sent on their way

• Heb 12:28-29

- True worship is an act of rebellion against the “evil rulers and authorities of the

unseen world against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in

the heavenly places”….it’s desperation for things to be not as they are but to be

as God intended

• EXPECTATION

- Praising/worshipping and the timing of an earthquake…maybe a coincidence,

maybe not

- Worshipping God leads to the miraculous….small and large

- We can’t conjure/dictate the miracle…but when we expect God to move, he

does

- True worship is expectation of God to do miracles, desperate for God to reveal

himself

- Conclusion

• A thread woven throughout: DESPERATION

- Desperate for God’s presence, desperate for things to be restored, desperate for

people to not die in sin and shame and to know Jesus

- THE QUESTIONS

• How is our daily worship? Are we desperate for God above all other things?

• As individuals and as a community, what’s our posture? Are we better at this than

those around us or do we know our gaps and need for God to continue revealing

himself to us?

• As individuals and as a community, are we obedient to the Gospel in our worship?

Are we rebelling against the sway of culture, singing when others would think we

ought to be worrying/complaining?

• As individuals and as a community, do we expect God to move, to reveal himself,

to do miracles when we daily worship him?

• How do we as the Community of Believers at Newsong — in a spirit of worship — come alongside those in shrouded in guilt/shame or seasons of suffering and offer

Jesus?

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHILE READING SCRIPTURE

What does this reveal about God?

What does this reveal about you in relation to God?

What do you need to do about it?