How can I say I love and not ever show love? How can I say I love Jesus, but never show it through serving others? It seems that so many believers have convinced themselves that they can be lovers of God, yet never demonstrate that love. How do we fall for this? And, how can we get unstuck from it?
Lifegroup Discussion Questions below!
As we are wrapping up this series on heroes, we gave a short overview of the things our church did this summer. If you missed it on Sunday, you should have a look!
I am really proud of our church in what our church is doing to serve each other and our community. I shared this little statistic on Sunday, and I thought I would share it again:
So, here is the first question for you and your group… What is a worshipper?
Don’t worry if your group has some trouble putting their finger exactly on it. It can be a difficult concept to grasp… Especially since we are so used to having worship watered down in our 21st century American culture. Here are some good definitions that may help you out. Read each one and discuss it with your group.
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is, and what He has done; expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.
-Louie Giglio
Worship is what we were created for. This is the final end of all existence-the worship of God. God created the universe so that it would display the worth of His glory. And He created us so that we would see this glory and reflect it by knowing and loving it-with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. The church needs to build a common vision of what worship is and what she is gathering to do on Sunday morning and scattering to do on Monday morning.
-John Piper
Worship is the sign that in giving myself completely to someone or something, I want to be mastered by it.
-Harold Best
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
-William Temple
Redemption is the means; worship is the goal. In one sense, worship is the whole point of everything. It is the purpose of history, the goal of the whole Christian story. Worship is not one segment of the Christian life among others. Worship is the entire Christian life, seen as a priestly offering to God. And when we meet together as a church, our time of worship is not merely a preliminary to something else; rather, it is the whole point of our existence as the body of Christ.
-John Frame
Are these the types of things that come to mind when we talk about “worship?”
We have been talking about serving all summer. With these definitions in mind, is it possible to not serve, and still be a worshipper?
Look back at the graphs above. What do they say about worshippers in the American church? What do you think that means for us?
What needs to change in your group so that you can truly worship together?