Dispelling the Worship Myth - All In #2

That's an interesting title for the second sermon in the "All In" series, isn't it? In here, Joseph says some things about being "present" in worship. Lately, living in the present moment is something that has been coming up a bit in my life, so I'll write about that...

I listened to this quick video, which talks about how often "today" is used in the bible...

• 2 Corinthians 6:2 - "For God says, 'At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.' Indeed, the "right time" is now. Today is the day of salvation."
• Matthew 6:11 - "Give us today our daily bread."
• Genesis 24:12 - "Then he prayed, 'Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.'"
• (Here's a search on it if you want more.)

So much of our lives are about tomorrow (the next job, retirement, buying a house), and I'd wager that a lot of our prayers are similar. But God is here, right now; active today. How does that affect you?

The other day I was trying to put myself in the mindset that God is taking care of me right now. In that place, I literally don't have to worry about anything because God is real, and has promised to take care of me. Try and exist in that moment - where God is literally holding you in His hand. You are sustained, right now, because of God. That's beautiful and freeing.

I have been pretty stressed this week with an overload of responsibilities and activities outside of work; so much so that I woke up this morning with a headache just trying to figure out how I'm going to do everything I need to do. On the way to work, I was thinking about how there was literally nothing at that moment I could do to help me finish any of those things, and so what was the point of worrying about them? This isn't a reckless abandonment of responsibility, but rather existing in the moment, because that's all I have.

Here are some notes from the sermon, based on Romans 12:1.

Romans 12:1 - "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship."

• What does God want in response to His gift of grace?
• Worship
• God is only honored with a particular form of worship.
• There is "true and proper" worship - holy worship
• What is "holy worship?"
• Holy = set apart; anything that is in line with God's particular way of life
• Worship = fixation that determines your behavior
• 3 characteristics of holy worship
• Worship that honors God is conscious
• "true and proper worship" or some translations have "reasonable"
• Deliberate, calculated; the head and the heart
• Present - aware, immersed
• Worship that honors God is comprehensive
• "offer your bodies" - our most valuable possession, everything!
• You are letting go of control and entitlement
• This is saying that nothing is off limits to God
• God wants our dreams, our pasts, our futures, everything...trusting God's mercy for our past and His hope for our future.
• Worship that honors God is continuous
• "living sacrifice"
• Worship doesn't just happen at church or in moments - it's perpetual
• Life is like a big arrow made up of a bunch of little arrows
• Worship is asking God to align all of the little arrows (conversations, events, etc.) to orient the big arrow towards Him
• Is worship a normal part of life or the anomaly?
• Are worship events the rare thing?
• This doesn't mean adding more church events
• If worship is the anomaly, be patient -- it's an entire life change
• God wants what He paid for, and giving that up to Him is really aligning our lives with where it fits anyway

http://www.churchinhollywood.com/media.php?pageID=15

Note: This was written some time ago, so present tense items are not actually present tense, which is ironic in a way, given the subject matter.