Due to the fact that my household would be a bit too busy with Christmas Eve preparations, we made the decision to postpone our normal Bible Study with the Cincotti's until next week.
But because I try to provide some form of encouragement for the path of Christian Discipleship "24/7", I have decided to launch the next lesson of the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course.
As I stated previously: "I developed the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course in 2020 as part of my master’s thesis in Christian Counseling to “fill in the gaps” of the Christian Twelve Step/Celebrate Recovery – Teaching Curriculums by introducing concepts of Christian Discipleship that I found important in my walk of faith and in my recovery over alcohol, drugs, sex addiction, and food addiction."
We hope it encourages you to follow Jesus and to overcome any hurts, habits, and hang-ups that still persist in your lives.
God Bless You All,
M.T. Clark
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Listen to the podcast: Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course - Lesson 6 -Worship - Podcast
Or Watch it on YouTube:
Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course
Lesson 6: Worship
Discipleship
Principle 6 – Our lives are to
be an expression of our love for the Lord, a continuous act of worship. Our
hearts of stone must be turned to flesh and beat to know and love the Lord more
and more.
In John 4:23-24 Jesus
says But
the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
A major problem
with the body of Christ is the twofold problem of ignorance and or a lack of
application of the disciple’s call to worship.
The life-transforming power of worship cannot be understated as it can
break down the barriers between knowing God intellectually and knowing and
loving God experientially. A life of
worship is living in the context of our faith, where we rejoice over being rescued
and given a new and eternal life that we get to experience here and now.
This lesson’s purpose is to encourage followers
of Jesus Christ to use their lives as an act of worship and a continuous
expression of our love for the Lord.
In Matthew 22:37 tells
us, Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
This is the first and great commandment.
Community
Worship – The Local Church
Hebrews
10:24-25 says “Let
us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let
us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one
another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
The
most obvious act of worship is to attend the worship services at a local
church. Church services contain elements
of prayer, praise, and scripture reading as the purpose of Christians gathering
together is to give worship and glory to God and to instruct, encourage, and motivate
the body of Christ to follow Christ’s example.
The
church teaches Christians how to offer continuous worship to the Lord with
their lives by teaching its members how to approach God, know Him, praise Him,
and communicate with Him. Prayer, praise, and Bible study are disciplines
that Christians can take outside of the four walls of the church building into
their private lives and the community at large. Our community gathering is to serve the
purpose to worship the Lord and to encourage one another in doing so. Regular attendance and support of the local
church are necessary components in our lives of worship. While we tend to focus
on our individual journey and relationship with God, in no way should
membership to a local church body be forsaken. Engagement in the local
church is the primary way to learn, grow, and mature in our Christian faith.
Individual Worship
- Our Daily Practice – Disciplines and Demeanors.
Romans 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
While church services may be once or twice a week, we are to worship the Lord continuously with our very lives. A daily practice of worship and communion with God is our reasonable service and is the foundation for a deep personal relationship with the Lord. If our attention and hearts are directed to God, we are blessed by His presence, guidance, strength, and love. Our daily practice of worship will go beyond traditional Christian disciplines as we mature in the love of the Lord.
Psalm 95:6 says: Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Colossians 4:2 tells
us to “Continue earnestly in prayer, being
vigilant in it with thanksgiving;
Prayer – From silent prayers to simple conversations with God, our first
act of worship is to communicate with God. Our faith in God is demonstrated
through our regular communication through prayer: making our needs and thoughts
known, offering our observations, and petitioning the Lord on behalf of others.
The more we pray to the Lord the deeper our relationship with Him becomes as we
place ourselves humbly before His presence in reverence and love.
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In John 6:63, Jesus
tells us: “It
is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I
speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Bible Study – Whether integrated into prayer or studied separately, a time to
read and reflect on the word of God is one of the most effective ways to know
the heart of God and to hear His voice as He reveals Himself through His word.
Our lives are transformed by integrating His wisdom into our lives. To read, to
understand, and to be changed by His word is the full intention of Bible study.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Walk – As we go about our day and walk through this life, we worship
God and express our love for Him through our demonstration of our Identity in
Christ through the way we live.
· We Give Thanks. Our worship of God begins and continues each
day with a regular practice of gratitude where we give thanks to the Lord for
the blessings in our life and the things we encounter, remembering His
provision and His protection.
· We Meditate – We remind
ourselves of our salvation and freedom in Christ and renew our mind with God’s
word as we shape our thoughts, attitudes, and actions to be consistent with our
new life and thus join in harmony with God’s will and ways for our lives.
· We Repent – We worship
God by speaking the truth and progressively turning from our old ways. We
consider our old ways to no longer be a part of who we are. We recognize that
we have been given the power to overcome and need only utilize it by living
according to our new life in Christ. Our old habits are surrendered for a
higher call and a higher purpose. We admit to the harmful effects our habits
inflicted on our minds, bodies, and our relationship with God and others.
Instead of fondly remembering our old habits, we examine them with the light of
truth and expose the darkness, desperation, and futile nature of how we were
seeking happiness and fulfillment without God.
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· We Love - Our successful
adaptation of our identity in Christ cannot be simply the product of mental
ascent or a work of cognitive therapy alone.
We must love the Lord for who He is and for What He has done for us. If
our actions are motivated by love and a desire to express our love for God, we
will grow because we are acting and thinking in a way that is approved by Him.
While we will never be able to earn God’s love, we will accept the fact that we
are worthy of His love because He said we are.
If we are worthy, the Lord has given us the power to express our
worthiness through thought and action. We can change because of the love we
have received. As we grow, we share the
love of God we have received with others by sharing our hope and through
performing good works motivated by love. As we progress and have the revelation
of our ability to love Him, we begin to proclaim our love mentally or verbally
to God continuously.
· We Forgive. Having been forgiven of everything we have
ever done; we obey the word of God and forgive others as an act of worship. We
let go of our hurt and offense. Our default response becomes forgiveness. While
we can protect ourselves and advocate for what is right, we will forgive
because we have been forgiven. We forgive others the worst because we are not
the judge, God is. He will repay. We
instead forgive and pray for the transgressor to come to know God’s love and
forgiveness and to repent. Forgiveness
is a spiritual discipline that requires practice. As we learn to forgive the
small things that pop up in our daily experience moment to moment, we will gain
the skill of forgiveness.
While we are not saying we must forgive
everything done against us in the past immediately, we are setting ourselves on
a course to realize that goal. The goal of peace can be reached through
forgiveness.
Work
1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us…. “whatever you do, do it all for the glory
of God.”
Our
work is another place where we can worship the Lord and give Him glory.
Wherever we are in our professional lives, we are to worship the Lord by
representing the kingdom of God to the best of our abilities through our work
performance. While there may be limits to outright evangelism at work, everyone
at your place of work should know that we are Christian. While we are there to
work, moments of personal conversation should be utilized to give our testimony
of God’s goodness, the truth of Jesus Christ, and to encourage others to follow
Him. When co-workers encounter loss or
disease, we need to offer our prayers and hope. Our conduct should represent
that of a servant: performing our duties morally, faithfully, and to the best
of our abilities.
The
Garment of Praise – Bridging the Mind and Heart
Isaiah 61:3 tells is “To console those
who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called
trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD,
that He may be glorified."
The
remedy for the”spirit of heaviness” or lack of affection for God is to worship
the Lord through praise. Those whose
faith is in their head can use the key of praise to experience the truth of
God’s love in their hearts and to transform their relationship with God.
Ephesians 5:18-20 tells us “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This verse reveals the spiritual reality
that our worship of God with praise and thanksgiving is directly related to the
infilling of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God.
Earnestly seeking the Lord through praise can open up a whole new dimension to one’s faith as the Holy Spirit will bring joy and revelations of Biblical truth in the midst of genuine enthusiastic praise. Praise takes the power of the spoken word of God and brings it up a notch as the word is lifted in exaltation to the Lord. During praise, the Holy Spirit will bring into remembrance moments from your journey in Christ and will encourage and exhort you to keep going and to take steps in new directions.
Psalm 9:1-2 I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. Sing to the Lord
Scripture
repeatedly commands us to praise the Lord with song indicating a loud and
lively expression of our praises. These verses indicate that praise can and
should be done as a private individual practice. If we are timid or concerned with what others
will think of us when we worship, we can eliminate those concerns by praising the
Lord in the privacy of our homes where we can prepare our favorite songs and
praise the Lord completely uninhibited. We can even take our individual praise
on the road with us and sing to the Lord in the car as we commute throughout our
day. God is always with us, so it is appropriate to sing His praises whenever
the opportunity arises. Our lives should
be a continuous soundtrack of praise to the Lord.
Praise as an individual practice draws you into a deep relationship with the Lord as you are continuously bringing the presence of the Lord into your environment as you bring honor and glory to Him. Praise also lifts our spirits by keeping our spiritual eyes on the Lord and it renews our mind as we are proclaiming our identity in Christ with a musical demonstration of our faith. With every song of Praise we are binding ourselves to the Lord and reminding ourselves that we are experiencing our new life in Christ and that our membership in the kingdom of God is an undeniable fact as our fruit of praise shows that the Lord has our heart.
Psalm 149:3 says “Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.”
As we praise privately, we can even incorporate the joy of dancing for the Lord into our practice. Dancing, raising hands, clapping, and stomping feet to music engage one’s entire body as an act of worship, exercising the body as well as the spirit. For those too timid to ever dance in public, a private practice of praise allows us to pour out devotion to the Lord without limits.
Psalm 34:3 says “Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.”
Our private practice of praise prepares us for corporate praise. As we praise privately, we become more confident to join and to contribute to the enthusiastic praise at corporate gatherings. As we learn to unashamedly praise the Lord publicly, we become an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ to do likewise. While our praises are directed to the Lord, they become an object lesson to others that loud enthusiastic praise is an appropriate expression of our faith and we can rejoice in it together. Our corporate praise edifies one another and brings us together as a community joined together by the love of God.
The Heart of the
Matter
All the various ways to worship the Lord
that we have presented are to be done with the “heart of worship” – with
genuine heartfelt devotion and love for God, as a part of our daily Christian
lifestyle.
Our faith is not a political ideology or
a philosophy of living with its principles and precepts. Our faith is a
relationship. It’s a love relationship and so the power of worship to transform
us must be fueled by a love for God.
The defining
characteristic of a Christian is the love we have for God and the love that
overflows from that relationship to others.
Wrap Up
As disciples of Jesus Christ, our
worship goes beyond a weekly observance. Our lives become a continuous
expression of our love for the Lord as we incorporate various Christian
practices to maintain and mature our relationship with Him. More than intellectual study or following a
moral code of ethics, our lives of worship are a spiritual practice that seeks
the infinite wisdom of the Lord not to know facts or to show ourselves approved
but to familiarize ourselves with the One who first loved us. Our obedience to
biblical principles isn’t done out of a fear of punishment or out of doing
one’s duty as much as it is our heartfelt response to demonstrate our love and
understanding of God.
The importance of a heart connection to
our faith is what makes Christ’s burden a light burden as we can endure
anything for the One we love. Praise as a private spiritual practice is
recommended to bridge the mind and heart of faith together and to develop a
deeper experiential bond to the Lord.
Regardless of which spiritual discipline we practice, His presence is
experienced the more we seek Him with our hearts and minds, worshiping Him in
spirit and in truth.
Review and Examine.
1. How can worship help us in our recovery or our Christian walk?
3.
In what ways do we
worship the Lord in a church service?
4.
In what ways can we
worship the Lord in our daily lives?
5.
Why is praise an
important spiritual discipline? In what ways can we praise the Lord?
6.
How can our work be
used to worship the Lord?
7.
What is the most
important part of your worship practice? Why?
------Join us next week for the next Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course Lesson----
or
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, and "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com.
These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247
Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship