1. Worship: Bringing God Glory Sermon 2: Made to Worship February 21 st 2016

2. Where We Started: Deuteronomy 6:4-5 on page 284: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Which Jesus quoted in Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:29-30, and Luke 10:27. Exodus 34:14 on page 141 “14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

3. The End and Beginning… How was your week? The last 167 Hours. Did you come full from a week of worship and ready to worship together? How prepared are you to focus on God?

4. Understanding “Worship” The Hebrew and Greek show us the posture of worship with words related to bowing and the English concepts remind us that God alone is worthy to be magnified. All aspects of our congregational worship service should draw us to look at God and enlarge His presence in our lives.

5. Input and Clarification Too often our focus has been about the 1/168 th instead of all 168 hours of worship in a week. The life, and lifestyle, of worship is brought forward in passages like Romans 12:1 on page 1763. When we think of a life of worship we are thinking of worship as a noun.

6. Romans 12:1 Page 1763 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” The newer NIV says: “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.”

7. Understanding as they Understood “spiritual” can be translated “reasonable” from the word logiken – where we get our word logical from. The word for “worship” is the noun form related to liturgy or sacred service so we have a life that is lived in logical service of God. The noun form occurs in only 5 NT - John 16:2; Romans 9:4, 12:1; Hebrews 9:1, 6

8. Upcoming Our fifth sermon will be about the 1/168 th “Worshipping Together.”

9. Worship Stats The majority of Canadians do not regularly attend church services but the majority consider themselves to be religious. Only about 20% of Canadians attend Christian church services weekly.

10. Global Stats 5 largest religious groups account for 5.8 billion people and 84% of the population of the world, are Christianity – 2.2 Billion Islam – 1.6 Billion shades of Buddhism – 1 Billion forms of Hinduism – 0.5 Billion traditional folk religion – 0.4 Billion.

11. 2015 Poll 63% of the globe identified as religious, 22% as not religious, and 11% as "convinced atheists.“

12. What Do We Do With This? “Worship” has become misdirected. Definition: “Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity.” “Worship is devotion towards something you trust to care for you.”

13. Connecting to People’s Desire to Worship Acts 17:16-34 (Page 1723) – Paul’s discussion about worship in Athens and how it may be helpful as we speak to people today.

14. Acts 17:16-34 on page 1723 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

15. Acts 17:16-34 on page 1723 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

16. Did You Notice? Paul initiates spiritual conversation. He does this on a constant basis with a variety of people. Some people ask questions about his core content – Jesus, Good News, and the resurrection. Some people want to know more in a more formal process.

17. Acts 17:19-21 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

18. Acts 17:22-23 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Paul starts with a complement acknowledging what they have right. He finds a way to take their beliefs further and challenge their assumptions.

19. Acts 17:24-28 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

20. Acts 17:24-28 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Paul speaks of the unique character and abilities of God. He addresses how God wants a relationship and how He leaves the last part to us. He uses a reference that they trusted.

21. Acts 17:29-31 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

22. Making the Connections Paul draws them from ignorance to repentance. He speaks of the judgment, the central role of Jesus, and the evidence of the resurrection.

23. Acts 17:32-34 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. The majority reject the message but a few respond and go further.

24. God Made Us To Worship This process is possible because everyone has a built in need for a “higher power.” We know our limits and look for something else that has enough power to save us and care for us.

25. The “Big Questions” “What is the purpose of life?” “Why am I here?” “What happens after death?” God gives answers to these questions. The challenge is to help people slow down and acknowledge the questions and then help them know God through his word.

26. For The Next 167 Hours Consider Who is in your life right now that can use the help to know God - at all, better, or more clearly? Who is spiritually receptive? Initiate spiritual conversations with as many people as possible being ready to take things further as the opportunities present themselves.

27. Conclusion God alone is worthy of worship and we all have an internal desire to worship so help direct people to God who is completely worthy and reliable.

28. Next Week John 4:23-24. “23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”