Weekly Challenge
This week we are looking at the heart and whether or not we really worship God as opposed to other things like wealth. This week I challenge you to give God a larger portion of your time. Plan to spend 1 hour a day in God’s presence—reading, praying and worshipping.
Read Deuteronomy 6:1-9. Deuteronomy 7:26
Our rugged individualism has done little to help people in our society, let alone in our churches. Broken people with desperate needs are hiding behind the scenes desperately waiting for someone to break through the veneer of superficiality to bring hope, light and peace.
If we as a church are to make inroads in supporting people and in equipping people to live powerful and productive lives and if we are going to reach the world for our Lord and Saviour we must break through this veneer of superficial individualism.
The Great Commandment that Yahweh spells out for us here applies at every level. But it is written, not to the individual, but the to nation of Israel. Corporately the nation was to love the Lord their God.
Even though we are not a nation, the passage can be applied first and foremost to us as the Christian Church, the people of God. As a church we are to love God wholeheartedly. The entire focus of the church must be to love God, to serve Him and to bring glory and honour to Him. It cannot and should not be about worship services, music styles or even “my’ role in the church or “my” satisfaction with the church. It’s about God, not us.
Closer to home, the passage applies next to the family and not to the individual. Notice that parents are told to teach their children what it means to love God and to fill their houses with things that pertain to loving God. Deuteronomy 7 tells us to banish all ungodly and unclean things from our homes, lest God strike us down. Pornography, certain videos, possibly certain styles or genres of music, lying, proceeds from theft/deception etc etc have no place in the Christian home. They must be destroyed and removed.
Finally, we can apply the passage to ourselves as individuals. But we must never think that I can love God individually and in isolation from others. Worship really isn’t a ‘private’ thing. It’s a corporate thing. In the Old Testament God created a nation for Himself. In the New Testament God created a church for Himself. If you are serious about God then you are serious about corporate worship of God. Individualism has a role to play but it isn’t the be-all and end-all of worship that western Christendom has blessed it as.
As an individual believer my personal and private worship of God affects and determines the quality of our corporate Church worship. When I live for God throughout the week and serve Him with humility and passion our gatherings are holy and pleasing to the Lord. But if I serve myself and live throughout the week for my own pleasures our corporate worship time is reduced and together we become a stain in the Lord’s garment. What I do affects what we do corporately and the quality of our worship.
Put bluntly Biblical worship that glorifies God is about more than just me. It’s about us. But even more so, it’s about God.
Prayer:
Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¥ Pray that God would equip and allow your church to worship Him acceptably in reverence and in awe. Pray that each believer would be coming along to church to worship with a pure and humble heart that has sought all week to bring glory and honour to God.
¥ Pray that God would bring many people into the Kingdom through the quality and visibility of your life for Christ. Pray that this would be true for everyone in your Kingdom Worship Centre.
Discussion Questions For Families and Groups
1. Why does God desire whole families to worship Him?
2. Is it fair that our life during the week affects our worship of God on Sondays? Explain your answer.
3. How can we encourage each other to live for God each and every day of the week?
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