A Life of Worship: Week Four- Living in Worship

Post Introduction- Our goal for this study is to wrap up our series on worship by discussing how it can become a lifestyle rather than a series of choices. We hope to see our students making worshipping in all ways a habit in their lives.

The Lesson

(15-20 mins depending on conversation)

We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about different ways to worship God. Even though there are other ways to worship, this week I want to focus on making worship a habit. Just like bad habits, good habits are easily formed with the right attitude and can be pursued in all situations. Worship in our every day life can be seen as any of the things we’ve already discussed, but also in the way that we treat and conduct ourselves every day. Our bodies and minds are gifts from God and treating them with the respect that they deserve is worshiping God, too.

1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

This verse tells us that we should glorify God in our bodies. This means that we should monitor what goes into our bodies as much as what comes out. We need to be eating, watching, and listening to the right things to honor God and take care of our bodies. Being intentional in this way in our walk with Christ makes forming other worshipful habits more simple.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 “ and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask you but to fear the lord your god, to walk in obedience to him, to serve the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

We should all strive to do each of these things, serving God with all of our heart and soul makes everything else sort of fall into place.  Just like we discussed last week, God wants us to be all in!  I’d like to focus on Daniel tonight, because I think that he is a great example of what can be accomplished when you make acts of worship a habit.

At the beginning of the book of Daniel, Daniel and many other people from Jerusalem were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and brought before him to be trained for 3 years for various positions in his kingdom. The men were hand selected for certain attributes like physical fitness and wisdom, and assigned a special rich, luxurious diet.

Daniel 1:8-17 "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds."

Because the chief official was caused by God to favor Daniel, we can assume that Daniel had lots of habits that honored and worshipped God.  Even so, he easily could have succumbed to the temptation to eat these fatty, unhealthy foods that he had probably never had before. Honestly most of us probably would’ve succumbed to the temptation. (Imagine going to an all you can eat buffet and only eating dry salad and drinking water!) But instead he chose to stick with what he knew was good for him and the habits that he had already formed and at the end of the ten days, he was better for it. It may not always be easy to worship God or take care of our bodies, but when we make it a habit it honors God and because it honors him we will end up better off. Daniel went on to have favor with many important rulers and kings, as did his friends (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego).  Some time later, he had climbed up the ranks so much that the king was prepared to place him in charge of the entire kingdom!

Daniel 6:3-5 "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

Daniel honored God so much in every aspect of his life that the other administrators could find no fault in him aside from his relationship with God.  Think about how difficult this would be for someone who had not made living a life of worship a habit! We all know what happens next.  The administrators convince the king that he should pass a law that no one can pray to anyone but him for 30 days, and anyone caught doing so will be fed to the lions.  Once again, Daniel could have easily taken a 30 day break from God or secretly continued to worship him, but he stuck to his habits and did the exact opposite.

Daniel 6:10:11 "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help." 

Daniel didn't even pretend to follow the decree of the king.  He was found praying and thrown into the lions den, where ultimately God saved him because of his habits of worship.  These weren't tame lions, either, after the king pulled Daniel from the pit, he threw the other administrators in and the lions crushed their bones before they even hit the bottom!

When you make worshiping and honoring God a habit it makes it easier to do it when you’re faced with something difficult.  There are so many people in the bible who had to the courage to do the right thing because doing it was second nature for them.  Worshiping can be done in so many different ways that there really isn't a reason that we all can't form a habit of worshiping in at least one every day.

This Week's Challenge:
Try to infuse an act of worship into every day. Starting the habit of living a life of worship now will help you in the days and years that are ahead of you.

A Life of Worship: Week Three-Giving and Serving

Post Introduction- Our goal for this study is to continue to further our students' understanding of the different aspects of worship and teach them about the importance of serving in the church and the community, regardless of age or ability.

The Lesson

(15-20 mins depending on conversation)

Tonight we’ll be talking about giving and serving. I initially thought about doing separate weeks for these, but I know that at this point in your lives a lot of you don’t have jobs so you don’t have your own money to give. It’s important to understand that while tithing and giving offerings is a crucial part of your relationship with God, it’s not the only way to honor Him with giving. We can honor God by giving our time and talents or things that we have that may benefit others.

Proverbs 3:9 “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.”

What would this look like for you guys? For your parents or those of you with jobs it’s giving the tithe, or 10%, of the money earned before putting  it towards anything else. But if you don’t have money, we could view it as making time for God intentionally. This can mean spending time with Him in quiet time or making time to serve others or the church.  Sometimes, it can be hard to view serving others as serving God. But, we could view the life of Jesus as a perfect example of the importance of serving others.

Mark 10:45 “ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

If we think about the way Jesus served others it's easy to feel inadequate. Just because we can’t perform incredible and unbelievable miracles, does not mean that we don’t have anything to offer others, though.

1 Peter 4:10 “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

Ask These Questions:

What gifts has God given you that you can share with others? 
Are you actively sharing this gift? 
If not, why? 
Do you enjoy serving others? 

We don’t need to serve others just for the sake of saying that we served if we don’t want to do it.  Doing things with the right heart and intentions is a large part of giving our time and talents as an act of worship rather than obligation.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

God doesn’t want us to be grumpy givers, He wants us to give cheerfully because we desire to do so.  We don't just need to be cutting up and having fun though, either.  God also expects us to be hard-working and all in when we serve.

Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

While it is true that there are some things  you don’t want to do until you start doing them, God doesn’t want us to do things halfway or with a bad attitude. I love that our pastor  has the standard set  for our church that people can say no to things that they don’t want to do. But, it’s important to remember that we should be serving somewhere because it’s a great way to bring more people to God and to worship Him. Have you ever done something that you initially did not want to, but you felt good about it afterwards? What about something you did want to do? It feels really great to serve, doesn't it!?

Proverbs 11:25 “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

Giving makes you feel good. We need to be giving God 100% of whatever He has gifted us with, whether it’s serving with it in the church, sharing it with others outside of the church, or even using it as an avenue to share God. There are some skills that are not necessarily useful in a traditional ministry aspect, but there are people that we are around when we use those skills that we can love on and show God to with our words or actions.

This Week's Challenge:
Think of something that you enjoy doing or have a talent for in a different way.  Try to think of how your words or actions in that activity can be honoring to God and show Him to others.

Put it into Action:
Our students used this Sunday as an opportunity to serve in the church.  We made a weekend of it and spent Saturday afternoon fellowshipping while making muffins and eating tacos!  On Sunday morning our students served the muffins before service and greeted at both doors.  Not only did this get them involved and serving in the church, but it also gave some of our other hard-working volunteers a break!