20150215 ASH PM Everyday Worship
Our theme for this year is Supernatural Springs and our focus this month is the Supernatural Spring of Worship.
The question I want to start with this evening is:
What is it important for us to do every day?
There are four things that the Bible suggests are important for us to do every day:
we need to pray
we need to praise and worship God
we need to love and serve God and
we need to love and serve each other.
Each day of our lives can be very different from another.
We have things we need to do,
things we plan to do and
things we would like to do but never seem to get round to doing.
The circumstances we find ourselves in can affect how often we pray, how often we praise and how often we truly worship God.
Our circumstances may vary from day to day - but we should always make time to praise and worship God every day.
We can start the day with the best intentions.
We decide, today is the day I will pray more,
or, today is the day I will read my Bible more.
or, today is the day I will worship God more.
or, today is the day I will show my love for God by serving others in some way....
We start the day with the best intentions,
and then somehow it’s time for bed
and we did not actually spend any time doing what we should have done.
Have you ever felt that your everyday Life can get in the way of your everyday worship of God?
Sometimes our everyday life can get in the way.
Sometimes we let our everyday life get in the way,
sometimes we make sure our everyday life gets in the way,
sometimes we can give ourselves an excuse for not doing what we know God wanted us to do.
God has given us free will, free choice, but sometimes the choice we make is to do things our way instead of God’s way.
We know God’s way is the right way, we know that God’s way is the best way.
But...
But, sometimes, no, often, often we would rather do it our way.
Friends the truth is, the best thing we can do everyday is desire to follow God’s way.
To pray everyday.
To seek His will everyday,
to seek His glory.
To serve Him in faith and love.
To worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.
It’s not something we can do in our own strength, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to equip and empower us.
We need to be willing to allow God to transform the way we live our everyday lives so that we can truly worship and serve God.
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So, what is everyday worship? Lets look at the first two verses of Romans chapter 12:
So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2 NLT)
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. (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)
If we have placed our trust in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, if we really love God - then our everyday relationship with Him is of vital importance.
The way we live our lives each day, every day, is a reflection of how much we trust God.
The way we live our lives each day, every day, is a reflection of how much we love God.
The way we live our lives each day, every day, is a reflection of the place God actually has in our lives.
God is meant to have first place, every day, not just on a Sunday.
God is not an after thought.
God is not just something to fill the few gaps in our life that are not occupied with worldly things.
God is meant to be at the centre of our focus, our purpose, our reason, the centre of our life.
He is meant to be the one we love above all others, the one we worship, the one we serve.
Is God the main focus of your everyday life?
Is spending time worshipping God part of your everyday life?
Is serving God in love part of your everyday purpose?
Is God really at the centre of your everyday life?
Every Daywe need to allow the Holy Spirt to work in us and through us.
Every Day we can show the World that we are Children of God.
Every Day we can show God has a real place in our lives.
When and where do you worship God?
Is in just here in church on a Sunday?
What about during the rest of the week?
What about when you are at work, or in your car, or in the shops, or with your friends, or with your family?
Do your friends see that worshipping and serving the God who loves you is the most important thing in your life? Or would they thinks its something or someone else?
Does your family see any spiritual significance in your everyday life?
Is God allowed to be involved in your everyday life?
Our Every Day perspective of God is important.
The way we spend every day is important.
We can divide up our days into hours, minutes and seconds, but how much time do we actually set aside for God?
How much time do you set aside for worshipping God?
Not how much time you would like to set aside... Not how much time do you intend to set aside...
How much time do you actually set aside
Every Day to worship God?
There is a big difference between what is necessary and what is essential,
there is a difference between what we see as necessary and unnecessary.
How we divide our time every day influences how we live every day.
How we divide our time reveals the importance God actually has in our lives.
The way you organise your life,
where you place God in your life,
effects your faith, your spiritual growth and your worship every day.
Does God have the central place in your life Every Day?
Every day, we are meant to make time for God.
Every Day we are to allow God the opportunity to bless us, to use us, to empower us.
Every day we need the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.
Every Day we need to make time for God.
Every day we need to build on the foundations of our faith in God.
Every day we need to grow closer to Him.
Everyday we need to worship Him.
Do you remember what it was like to be a new Christian?
The excitement, the joy, the desire to learn and discover, the way you praised and worshipped God for saving you from your sins.
Do you still feel the same way?
Do the things of God fill you with more excitement and joy than the things of the world?
Does spending time reading your Bible excite you?
Does spending time in worship fill you with joy?
Is there a strong desire to learn more about God and how He works in you and through you?
Do you think you expressed your love for God in worship more when you were a new Christian than you do now?
If the journey that you are taking in your daily walk as a Christian is leaving you cold to the things of God - it’s time to let the Holy Spirit warm up your heart.
Perhaps you have reached a stage in your life where you feel like you are just going through the motions.
Sunday comes, and Sunday goes, and you have travelled through it on auto pilot.
Maybe you have fallen into a mundane, natural routine.
Maybe each week your attitude is the same, you come to church expecting nothing more than you did last week.
Maybe you only come to receive something from God, maybe you don’t even think about what you could be giving to further His kingdom, or to be a blessing to others.
Maybe you are even expecting to experience less today than you did last week.
Maybe it’s time for you to ask God to bring a Supernatural Stream into your life.
Maybe its time to let the Holy Spirit bring forth a fresh stream of worship in your life.
It is the Holy Spirit who brings healing
He is the source of spiritual refreshment.
He is the One to help us keep going and growing.
It is the Holy Spirit who produces fruitfulness of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (the hallmarks of a Christian life) (Gal. 5:22-23).
Will you choose to live a Spirit filled life, a Spirit refreshed life?
A Spirit filled life, experiencing the power of God every day, a spiritually fruitful life every day,
a changed everyday lifestyle, a changed everyday life.
A dynamic and living relationship with worshipping and serving God at the centre of it all.
Friends let me close with this:
don’t choose second best, do not conform to the things of the world, don’t let the worship and service of God fall off of your list of priorities.
Integrate your commitment to Christ into Every Day of our your week - not just Sunday.
God is meant to have first place.
Not second place - not last place - First place.
Whatever the problems or pressures in your life, - whatever responsibilities you may have,
whatever circumstance may occur,
never put other things before God.
Life may bring its challenges but we should never compromise our relationship with God.
Keep your focus on God.
Embrace God every day.
Be committed to God Every Day.
Worship and serve God every day.
Allow the Holy Spirit to help you and transform you every day.
Your ordinary days, and your extra ordinary days, your good days and your bad days. Every Day.
Manage the time God has Given you to include time to worship Him and to serve Him.
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. (Romans 12:1-2 The Message)
Amen
