July Focus: What is Worship?

Worship of God is:
(See Colossians 1:15-23, Psalm 8, Psalm 18, Psalm 29)

(1) A response to the revelation of God that attributes Him glory.

(2) An acknowledgment of God's pursuit of us

(3) Done through words, actions and affections.

Created to Worship

(See Romans 12)

We are created worshiping- there is always something we are looking towards, ascribing worth to and finding our identity in.

Our worship needs to be daily working out of our understanding God better and conforming our lives to reflect His perfect plan.

How do we worship?

(See John 4, Matthew 6:5-15 and Revelation 7:9-10)

(1) In Spirit and Truth - we need His spirit to teach us how to approach him and worship him and we need to know the God we're worshiping, the truth of who he is and who he has called uss to be, continually growing in our understanding of who he is, how he pursues us and what it means to live a life centered on the cross.

(2) In Right Community- it is a chance for us to come together as a community that reflects God's kingdom in a way that will magnify the fullness of who God is.



What does this worship look like?
(See Revelation 7:9-10)

(1) Our worship should be a bridge, ushering in the kingdom of God here in the earthly realm as a reflection of the heavenly kingdom.

(2) Multiethnic worship can be defined as worship to God, who alone is worthy of worship, offered to him by as many of the multiple people groups that He has made and whose worship to Him reflects the ethnic/racial cultures that he has also created.



What does multiethnic worship accomplish?
(See John 17)

(1) Gives us fuller worship of God - there's no one culture that possesses complete knowledge of God- as pieces of the puzzle, we need different cultures to complete the mosaic that God intended our earthly worship to be.

(2) Challenges and grows our community in ways that we can't if we are too monocultural or monethnic in our approach of God.

(3) Missions-oriented- If people who experience our communities begin to see a fuller picture of who God is and begin to see a more beautiful representation of His kingdom, his people, they want to know more about him.



FOR AUGUST: We'll focus on how we can understand all of this better and implement it on our campuses as well as revisiting the discussion on humility.