A Call to Worship

"But the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for him to help them." (Isaiah 30:18)

How many times have we tried to solve our problems ourselves while all the while our Heavenly Father is waiting for us to ask for help.  And the problem is that when we solve a problem, we get what we can do in our power.  When we wait for God to solve a problem, we get what God can do in His power.  Would you prefer what God can provide or what you can provide? 

Today, should face a problem, let me suggest that you resist the urge to fix it.  Rather, close your eyes, and focus on God. Go to Him. Pray to Him. Rest in His love and compassion.  Let every problem you face become a call to worship!

A Better Way . . .

"But all your feverish plans are to no avail because you never ask God for help." (Isaiah 22:11)

Isaiah observes the hurried activity of Jerusalem as they prepare for an attack against them.  His conclusion is that their plans are futile because they are ignoring God.  We often do the same thing don't we?  We find ourselves in a crisis and we get busy solving it.  We work when we should worship. We fix when we should fast.  We plan when we should pray.

“The more you pray, the less you'll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry." --Rick Warren

"Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, 'You are the Son of God!'" (Mark 3:11)

Jesus' authority was such that even the demons would acknowledge Him.  That had to be quite a sight--Jesus walking down the street and demon-possessed people falling down before Him.  That got me thinking this morning.  If the demons submitted to Jesus' power 2000 years ago, then of course they still do.  That means that the closer I am to Jesus--the less trouble the demons can cause.

I have been teaching for many years that the way to overcome addictive sin in our lives is by worshiping God.  When we focus on our sin and shortcomings and with hands clenched determine never to sin again--well, we tend to keep on sinning. The secret, it seems to me, is to focus on God--His power, His character, His holiness.  When we live in the presence of God through worship and prayer, the demons flee.

Let's walk close to Jesus today through prayer and worship and watch those demons fall down before Him.

Self-Giving Worship

What follows is taken entirely from, "Self-Giving Worship", Don Williams, Jesus and Addiction.

In the addictive church, people come to worship in order to get rather than to give. As users, their preoccupation is, "What's in it for me? Do I enjoy the aesthetics? Are people friendly to me? Do I like the music? Am I inspired by the choir? Does the preaching feed me? Is the pastor friendly? Does the pastor know my name?" Such pious expectations about our spiritual growth barely hide our full-blown narcissism. Often I hear people say, "I'm going to another church. My needs aren't being met here." Whatever the merits of this complaint, it has nothing to do with worship. The reason is simple.

Worship is not getting; worship is giving. The word worship in Hebrew means "to fall down, to surrender, to submit," as in a slave or subject bowing low before a mighty king. The word in Greek means "to come toward to kiss." This kiss is not an act of intimacy, it is an act of submission, as in kissing the ground before a sovereign, or kissing his feet.

Worship is the basis for a life of self-giving; it is surrendering ourselves to God. Consider Psalm 95:6: "Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker," or Psalm 99:5: "Exalt the Lord our God, And worship at His footstool; Holy is He."

In the New Testament we are called to worship as priests. There is no clergy class. (See 1 Pet. 2:5) All believers belong to this priesthood. Like Israel, we are not to come to God empty-handed. Slaughtered sheep, goats, or bulls, however, are no longer acceptable sacrifice. The last bloody sacrifice was made on the cross by Jesus. What then are we to bring?

1. First, as priests, we are to give God our bodies (Romans 12:1).
2. Second, we are to bring God our praise (Psalm 100:4; Hebrews 13:15).
3. Third, we are to give our prayers in intercession (Hebrews 4:16).
4. Fourth, we are to bring our tithes and offerings to God (Malachi 3:8-10).
5. Fifth, as priests we are to bring God our acts of mercy as a part of our worship (Hebrews 13:16; 1 John 3:17; Matthew 25:40).
6. Sixth, self-giving worship includes evangelism (Romans 15:15-16).

The Word on Work...

"Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and woking with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others" (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

Why do we work?

We work to EAT (2 Thessalonians 3:7-13). A big part of having a job is earning the resources needed to live. We should each do everything that we can to earn the necessary resources to live without unnneccessarily depending on others. The time may come when we all need help from our brothers and sisters and we shouldn't be ashamed to ask for it. The first step, however is making sure that we are doing all that we can under God's providence to provide for ourselves.

We work to GIVE (Ephesians 4:28). God blesses us so that we can bless others. When we understand that the resources that we receive belong to God and that He is merely resourcing us to do his work then we are free to give generously. Our perspective changes when we see our job as a way to finance ministry rather than a way to enrich ourselves.

We work to WORSHIP (Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-23). Our work is worship when we do our work as unto Christ. In every moment of every task, we can do our work's activity as worship of God. This may be especially true when our work is difficult or without reward. Do it for Christ. We never look more like Christ than when we are lovingly taking up our cross--those difficult tasks that force us to deny self.

Tres de Mayo Worship Service...

Today was an unusual day at Cornerstone in that we highlighted our Hispanic families and let the Spanish language be the dominate language of worship and preaching. The idea to tie a service to Cinco de Mayo came from Fernando Caballero who is one of our primary worship leaders. The songs were contemporary which is our primary style of worship but the words were a mix of Spanish and English with Spanish being used more prevalently. The preaching in the 8am and 9:30am services was handled by Oscar de la Cruz who is a fairly new addition to Cornerstone but a powerful addition. Pastor Oscar will be leading Cornerstone in starting a Spanish language service in the very near future. The 11:00am service featured Pastor Oscar's son, Oscar Jr. Both men did a tremendous job of passionately bringing the Word of God to the church. This was a great day at Cornerstone and an idea that we will certainly repeat in the future.

Worship Questionnaire - Part IV

Question #4: Listed below are a number of words that can describe the worship experience. Select the words that best indicate your understanding of a desired worship experience (choose all that apply):

Spiritual - 94%
Biblical - 69%
Emotional - 55%
Intimate - 53%
Celebrative - 53%
Humorous - 50%
Spontaneous - 46%
Casual - 34%
Practical - 30%
Reverent - 28%
Creative - 25%
Serious - 19%
Innovative - 12%
Solemn - 3%
Formal - 0%
Predictable - 0%
Liturgical - 0%

No surprises here!

Worship Questionnaire - Part III

Question #3: Do you believe that it would be better to continue having multiple services in our current facility or to bring everyone together in one larger service in another location?

Multiple Services - 60%
One Service - 29%
No Response Indicated - 11%

Our people clearly love the convenience of multiple services--I do as well! The thing that I do not like about multiple services is the way that it divides our church. We also lose the momentum of the larger unified service. The "No Response" response was not an option on the questionnaire but seemed significant enough to report.

Worship Questionnaire - Part II

Question #2: At present we have two worship services on Sunday morning--8:00am and 11:00am. In the past we have also held services on Sunday morning at 9:30am and on Saturday evening at 6:00pm. Please indicate your preferred worship time (choose only one):

Sun, 8:00am - 32.6%
Sun, 9:30am - 32.6%
Sun, 11:00am - 32.6%
Sat, 6:00pm - 02.2%

Three Sunday services win the day with Saturday being an "also ran". We definitely like the convenience of multiple Sunday morning services at Cornerstone.

Worship Questionnaire - Part 1

We recently asked for feedback on our worship services at Cornerstone through a simple questionnaire. I want to take the next few posts and share a summary of the questionnarie along with my thoughts on what it might mean if anything. To begin with, let me share that we had a very small response to the questionnaire. It was passed out individually to every person in attendance at both of our worship services with the instruction to place the completed questionnarie in the foyer on the way out after the service. The questionnaire was one page with eleven questions. Out of 232 worshippers, only 44 questionnaries were actually turned back in. That's only a 19% participation. So, the most significant question is perhaps the one that we didn't ask--"Why would only 19% bother to answer the questions?" My possible responses to that question would be: #1--I'm pretty happy with worship as it is and I don't want to go to the trouble of answering questions. #2--I needed more time to pray about my responses than what you provided. #3--I forgot to turn it in. Regardless of the reason, here is what 19% of our worshippers thought our worship service on July 1st. I do not believe that the response is large enough to draw any firm conclusions regarding our worship at Cornerstone except for the obvious conclusion that we do not like to fill out questionnaries.

Question #1: At present we do not provide a printed order of service. Do you consider a printed order to be (choose only one).

• Essential - 2%
• Important - 16%
• Helpful - 25%
• Unneccessary 57%

There doesn't appear to be a large outcry demanding a printed order of service in the worship folder each week. I'm a little surprised that some would view it as essential. What do you thinnk?

The Worship Purpose

Cornerstone Baptist Church exists "...to Experience God's Greatness!". This is our first purpose and the purpose that we will continue to accomplish throughout eternity--the worship of the Most High God. In coming to Cornerstone six years ago, our worship service received the most immediate attention, simply because it is what everyone sees and experiences. Many times people judge a church simply by observing worship. The heart of the congregation is revealed in worship. I encourage our people to worship passionately with an eye towards God's pleasure. Nothing in the worship service is about us--it's all for God.

I do not believe that style should be the focus of worship but rather the focus of worship should be connecting people to the presence of God. The most important thing that should ever happen in worship is for people to humbly come into the presence of a holy and gracious God where His Holy Spirit can work life-change. With that said, I would characterize our services as mildly contemporary. My wife, Tina, leads from the piano with a praise team made up of 3-5 vocalists, electronic drums, keyboard, acoustic guitar, bass (sometimes), and other percussion. My wife has an amazing gift of leading us into worship and her selection of songs includes mostly contemporary with one or two hymns sung in a light contemporary style. It is not unusual to sing songs that Tina has written in her personal times of worship. These are my favorites!

We want to leave room for the Holy Spirit to change our direction in worship and so we do not list a strict order of worship in the worship folder. A typical service will include, along with the music, testimonies from the congregation, an extended time of guided prayer, video clips, the offering (received as worship), and an altar call (also considered as worship). The message is usually heavy on application coming from a verse-by-verse exposition of the Scriptures. We are currently working through Amos in a series that I've entitled, "How to Survive Prosperity". It is not unusual for our worship to include laughter as we rejoice in God's miraculous work or when I just happen to hit a funny streak (I love to get our people laughing).

We have a broad mix of worshippers representing a multitude of denominational backgrounds. A typical service will have a sprinkling of hands raised, a host of wet eyes, and (hopefully) a crowded altar at decison time. We are casual enough to allow the consumption of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, soda, etc. during the worship services. We have children's church offered in all three Sunday morning services with the kids being released right before the sermon. I will often have the Deacons at the front to receive responders during the altar call or sometimes just myself.

There is much more that I could share but this post is long enough. Feel free to post a question and I will be more than happy to further elaborate.