What Does 'true Worship' Look Like? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: April 5, 2013

Date Preached: April 7, 2013

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: The Five Functions of the Church

Sermon Title: What Does True Worship Look Like?

Sermon Text: Colossians 3:1-17 [ESV]

Introduction:

This morning I am beginning a five (5) week series on the FIVE (5) functions of the church. I will do this week and next week…THEN on April 21st Ben will preach week 3 and then I will finish out with the next 2weeks…

There are five (5) separate functions of the church and it is my belief that they fall in a particular order of importance!

Worship: A lifestyle of reverence toward God, all else is meaningless without the proper worship of our Savior!

Discipleship: We must make a firm commitment to growing in our faith

Evangelism: We must make a firm commitment to sharing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world around us… we are called to share and we MUST!

Mission/Ministry: After we are saved, we aer called to good works and reaching the lost around us… we are called to DO what God has called us to do

Fellowship: Christ desires and promotes UNITY in the church and the Christian fellowship of the believers is important…

These 5 “functions” are not just a list of programs that churches should be involved in... BUT what they represent is what the church must BE and how each believer should be living out their lives.

Let me explain what I mean: As Christians, we must stop thinking that church is a place to go--- People church is NOT where we go… church is WHO we are!

We ALSO have to stop comparing our fellowship with other fellowships! We have to stop focusing on what other fellowships have or what we DO NOT have!

The focus for our fellowship should be on these 5 functions… This is because these five (5) functions act as a mirror to help us to see our own individual calling as well as the calling of our fellowship!

So… IF we don’t GO to church but we ARE the church… then how are we -- AS THE CHURCH -- doing in living out each of these 5 functions for our fellowship?

WORSHIP:

Do we worship as we should?

Do we truly understand what worship is really about?

DISCIPLESHIP:

Do we disciple like we should?

Do we fully understand what discipleship is all about?

EVANGELISM:

Do we evangelize like we should?

Do we understand what evangelism is and why it is so important?

MISSIONS/MINISTRY:

Do we do missions and ministry like we should?

Do we truly understand missions/ministry and what it does for our witness for Christ and for us as believers?

FELLOWSHIP:

Finally, do we fellowship like we should?

Do we understand what fellowship is all about and why it is so important?

This morning, as we begin this series, I want us to take an in-depth look at the 1st element or function of the church… it is the element of WORSHIP!

Let me ask, have you ever thought about what it really means to ‘worship’? You hear people say that we going to have a ‘worship’ service?

BUT just what does it mean when we say that we are going to “worship” God? When you hear the word ‘worship’ what do you think about?

I know that I am like MANY people… I know that when I hear the word worship, in my mind I begin to think about SONGs and MUSIC…

When we think like that… we think that we have our ‘worship’ time with the hymns and the choir BUT then when the preacher steps into the pulpit, for many that is when the WORSHIP ends!

The word, “Worship” is defined as a reverence toward something usually a deity.

‘Worship’ as a verb… to treat somebody or something as divine. To show respect by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion or love.

Worship as a noun… the adoration, devotion, and respect given to a deity… the services thru which people show that adoration, devotion, and respect!

When we define Christian Worship we see that is an act of devotion directed towards the God of Creation… the God of the Bible.

The actual English word for worship is derived from the old English word “worth-scipe”, which refers to and expresses a sense of worthiness or you could actually pronounce it ‘worth-ship’

For the Christian this ‘worth-ship’ is directed toward the God of heaven! As believers, we offer God praise because we believe He is ‘worthy’ of adoration, devotion, and respect!

So when we ask the question, “What does TRUE Worship look like?” We need to go to the Bible for answers!

What is TRUE Worship of God? I want you to turn in your Bibles to Col 3 where we can find Paul describing how believers are called to live ‘In Christ’.