Gospel Patrons 2 : Worship
Drawing from the story of Nehemiah and the Israelites, the sermon highlights the importance of preparing and participating in worship to fully experience God's presence and work in our lives. The message encourages believers to carry this spirit of worship into their daily lives, allowing their joy and praise to impact the world around them.
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So it was a Friday night about 20 years ago, and it's a Friday night that I'll never forget. You know, there's
those days in your life that are etched in stone in your mind or your heart. That's what it was. It was a
Friday night. It was in a.
In a city called Covington, Kentucky, which is just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. And I was
gathered there with. With 2,000 middle school students. That might be in itself a good enough reason for
me to never forget the night. Right?
But seriously, I had gathered in Northern Kentucky with 2,000 middle school students, and I was in
charge. I had just accepted a new job with an organization, and my job was to put on conferences for
middle school students. And if you've ever heard me talk about. There was a time in my life I used to
travel pretty much full time. When was I.
Well, that was that season. And I was putting on this conference for these 2,000 middle school kids. It
was the third time I'd ever done it. The first time was in Portland, Oregon. There was about 200 kids.
No big deal. The second time was in Joplin, Missouri. There was about 500 kids. And I was like, okay, this
is getting a little bit larger, a little bit bigger. Now it's my third conference, and I'm showing up to the
Midwest, 2,000 middle school kids, and then all of their leaders.
And I'm, like, a little nervous about the event. Well, the event starts to get rolling. All these students show
up. We're on a second floor of the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. And as we gather, all the kids
are hyped.
You can imagine church camp on steroids. I mean, that's what it was, right? And so all of these kids are
hyped. They're all sugared up. They're all showing up.
They come into this big room, all these students together, our band, who was my buddy, his name was
Johnny. It was the first time he'd ever led worship at one of our conferences. So he's all nervous, and he
gets up on stage, and we do some welcome stuff. We do some rules, we do some, hey, we're glad you're
here. And then he starts playing the first song, and.
And we're like, okay, we're rolling. Everything's gonna be fine. I go and sit backstage to start thinking
through my message and to make sure that my message is in place, that I'm ready to go. And then they
move on to the second song. Now, the second song was a song called Everlasting Love.
It's A worship tune. I don't expect anybody in this room or anybody watching online to know the song at
all. But this song wasn't just a song. Like, it was the song that every middle school and high school
student back in the early 2000s absolutely loved. And in the middle of the song, as soon as you would hit
the chorus, it had dance moves.
You would hit a certain part of the song, and everybody in sequence would go.
Everybody. At the exact same time. And then you'd pause. And then all of a sudden. So you can imagine,
right, this was Christian line dancing to the fullest, right?
And it wasn't a big deal. I'm backstage and they break in a song. I'm like, oh, the kids are gonna love this.
They get to the chorus, and of course, everybody hops. They do their three claps while they're hopping.
And I'm sitting on the ground, and. And then the next thing I know, it doesn't feel like the ground is under
my butt. Like, I don't know if this makes sense. I'm sitting backstage on the ground, and they start
jumping. 2000 students at the exact same time on a second floor of a giant ballroom.When they do this, the ground or the floor starts to move. Like I said, my bottom was no longer on the
ground because I was bouncing off of it. And I thought, this is not good. This feels a little off. So I walk out
from backstage, go down a long hallway.
Now they're into the verses. Nobody's dancing. Everything seems normal. I come around the corner, and
as I come around the corner to come in the front end of the ballroom, the person in charge of the
convention center is running up the stairs, and she's going, what are you all doing? I'm like, we're just
worshiping.
She goes, no, no, that's crazy. And we start. We move, and we move to the doors, right at the exact same
time. They bounce three more times, and the doors start flying open. We walk in, the projectors, the
screens, everything's moving.
And she looks at me and says, this is not good.
To which then, no joke, the song's coming to an end. A security guard runs onto the stage again. My
buddy Johnny, who's never led worship at this event, is playing guitar. And a security guy is running at
him going, stop, stop. And he gets up there.
The guy takes the microphone away from Johnny, and he says, you are no longer permitted to worship
like that. He literally said, this by the city of Covington, Kentucky. I am not allowing you to worship like that
anymore. And all the middle school kids are going, huh?
By the city of Covington, Kentucky, you are not permitted to worship like that. Why would the kids worship
like that? Because they were full of joy. Why would the kids worship like that? Because they were full of
excitement.
Because they wanted to participate in what was going on in the room.
Could that be said of us? Could that be said of you? Could that be said of me? Could somebody look at
our worship? And our worship is so involved, so exciting, so deliberate, that people said, there's
something wrong here.
Like, this doesn't look right. There must be like, like. Like we don't want you to worship like that. What
would it take for us to have that kind of joy in our worship? And I think what it would take for us to have
that kind of joy in our worship is for us to understand the work that God has actually done in our life.
Because once you understand the work that God has done in your life, around your life, it should lead us
to a place where, going, God, I can't help but worship you right now, right? And. And that's what we see in
the people of Israel in the story of Nehemiah. We're coming to the very end of the book, and we're getting
into the 12th chapter. And what you'll see in the 12th chapter is all the people of Jerusalem, they all
gathered together.
If you've been with us two weeks ago, you remember they really dug into God's word. And then last week
we saw it where they said, no, we promise to support the work of God. We promised to serve, we
promised to give. And then they just broke out in worship. They just broke out and said, man, I gotta
worship God.
Because look, he has completed the wall. He has done the work around us. He has done the work in us.
He has done the work through us. And they couldn't help but worship.
They projected joy and praise to God and to everyone around them. And I think that's what happens when
you see something accomplished in your life. You graduate from high school or college, there's some joy
that comes with that. There's some accomplishment with it. You take pictures, you show your diploma.Cause you're excited about what you accomplished. Maybe you've been on at some point in your life.
Maybe you went on like a weight loss thing, or maybe you got healthy through the gym. And you kind of
had the before pictures and the after pictures. And what you do is you start to show people the before and
the after because you're excited about what has happened, what has transformed in your life that maybe
you've remodeled a home before.
And you show people the before and the after because you're excited about the work that was done in
your house, that maybe some of you have restored a car before. And you show people the before and the
after because you're excited about the work that was done. Because we need to be have the exact same
kind of excitement about the work that. That God is doing in our life and the work that God is doing in
those around us, and the work that God is doing in his church right here that we call the Rock. Woo.
Thank you. Now, I might get a little excited about it, but what I want you to hear is this, that if we really
want to worship like that, if we want to project that joy because of the work God is doing in your life, then
there's a couple things we're going to have to do. And it's a couple things that we see the Israelites doing
when it comes to worship. If we want to worship like that, we want to worship with excitement. We want to
worship it with joy and project praise.
Well, you've got to prepare to worship. You got to participate in worship. Talk about being prepared for a
second. If anything is of any worth in your life, you'll prepare to do it, right? Well, like, think about it.
If you're gonna get married, you're gonna take some time to prepare for the wedding, right? Some of you
might know my youngest child is engaged right now. And I'm like, why don't y' all just go get hitched,
right? Let's save everybody some money. Like, just go have at it.
And they're like, no, we want to have a wedding and we want to do this. And they're preparing for their
marriage. Think about this. If you've ever had a child, who here has had a child? All right?
Did you find out you were pregnant? And then go, oh, well, in nine months, we'll figure it out then, and
we'll worry about it then. No, for the next nine months, you're in preparation mode. Like, I could have had
a joke there. There.
My brain. It's okay, it's Thursday night, right? But, like, you're in preparation mode that you're thinking
about, well, where's the baby going to sleep? And what kind of crib do we need? And what are we going
to name the baby?
And what's life going to be like once the baby gets here? And are we going to have to change our car? Do
we have to get rid of the Jeep Wrangler and get a minivan and things of that nature, right? You're in
preparation mode. That.
That if you think about anything of value, if you're an athlete and you're like, man, I want to play this
game. I got to prepare, I got to practice, and I got to be ready for the game. Even this. As simple as this. If
you go to the movies, you prepare to go to the movies, right?
Like, some of you stop at Walmart or Target on your way to get the cheaper candy, right? Like, I know it.
We all do it, okay? And then you get there and you get in line, you get your popcorn, you get your drink.
Especially if you're older, you go to the bathroom.
Cause you know you can't sit in there for two hours, right? And here's one other thing you do. You get
there early. You're never late to a movie because you say, this is of worse. But we are late to church all
the time, right?Amen. Like we have a habit. Like, I'll be late to church. Like, a movie is worth it. So I'm gonna prepare,
and I'm not gonna be late, and I'm not gonna leave early.
Maybe once the credits start rolling. Unless it's a Marvel movie. All right, once the credits roll, then I can
leave. But I'm not gonna leave before the credits. But, man, when it comes to church, we're strolling.
When we want, we figure it out, it'll be okay. It's not a big deal.
But if it's of great worth, we'll prepare to be there. We'll prepare before we even come. That we'll say,
man, I gotta do some work. As I get there, I want you to think about the Israelites. Let me dig into the
scripture here.
That it says this in Nehemiah, chapter 12. That it says this, that the priests and the Levites first purified
themselves, then they purified the people, the gates and the wall. Meaning this. Like, before they started
worshiping, they went and they purified themselves. An older word would be they consecrated
themselves.
They said that we gotta get right before we go and spend time with the Lord. Now, I wanna be real careful
with this point, because especially maybe you're here for the first time and you're like, man, I know I'm not
right with God. Listen, you're okay to be here. You're in the right spot. I don't want you to think you gotta
get right to come to Jesus.
That is bad theology. Jesus gets us right? But for those of us who have come to know the Lord, then we
should not be coming into church just so that we can get something. We should be saying, don't. God, I
want to go and I want to give you something today.
I want to give you my all. I want to give you my praise. And that starts before we sit down. That starts
when we're. We're maybe knowing that I'm heading to church.
That starts by maybe going, man, let me put some right music in and just get my mind right. Let me. Let
me listen to God's word while I'm driving to church. That maybe if you're at home before you come. And I
know it's Thursday night, so not always true of everybody here that you're coming from work.
But, man, if I have a chance, I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna spend some time in God's word. Or, man,
before I start praising, I'm gonna recognize that, man, I've got some sin in my life and I've gotta give that
over to Jesus before I even start another. Another week before I start moving forward. Like, I just. I just
wanna.
I just want Jesus to forgive me and to purify me and to set me right so that I can really praise that I
believe there's something to this idea of what would it look like if before I got to church, I actually prepared
to meet God? Not that I accidentally meet God while I'm at church, but I prepared myself to go into church
to meet God when I'm there, because I'm trusting that God's here and His Spirit is here, and. And I'm
going to encounter him. The Israelites prepared, and then the Israelites participated. Let me go on to
another scripture that says this.
In Nehemiah 12, it said, I led the leaders of Judah to the top of the wall and organized two large choirs to
give thanks. One of the choirs proceeded southward, the other went northward. Just for clarity, let me
make sure I can kind of take the whole context of the chapter here and make sure we understand what's
going on. That Nehemiah had gathered two large choirs and he said, we want everybody in Jerusalem to
participate in the worship. So he brought the two choirs together, he told them what they were going to
do.
And then he took half the choir, or one choir, and he sent it northward around the city, going along the
wall. Then he took the other choir and sent them southbound. All right? And those who are goingnorthbound, they're singing, they're worshiping. They're encouraging the other people from Jerusalem to
Gather in.
So more and more people are coming, they're joining in. Like, I start coming over to this side, I start
preaching this side, you're naturally going to start getting more engaged, right? Because you can, like,
you can sense what's going on. Same thing. The choir was going around to this side of the city.
So everybody on that city part of the city started talking to join in with that choir and started to worship.
But while this choir was going this way, there was another choir going this way, and they were going
southbound. So then everybody on the southbound part of the city started to gather in, started to come
alongside, started to worship as well. Well, if you think about it, if they both were going around the wall,
eventually they get to the other side and they would come together and everybody would worship today
together. That.
That all of Jerusalem would come together and everyone would participate. We see the same thing in
David's life. That King David one time he went to a guy named Obed Edom. You see, what had happened
is there was the Ark of the Covenants, where the presence of God resided. And the Ark of the Covenant
was in the household of Obed Edom.
Now it was there because the last time they tried to bring the ark to Jerusalem, they did it wrong. They
didn't do it proper. They didn't worship properly, and bad things happened. And so they put the ark there
at Obed Eden's house. But David is like, man, I want to get the ark.
Because, see, Obed Edom, his house was being blessed. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there's
a blessing there. And David is like, I want the ark to come to Jerusalem. So they went to Obed's house,
they got the ark. They started to carry it in a proper way, the way God had told them to.
And it says this in Scripture. They took six steps and then they stopped. They prayed. Can I say it this
way? They purified themselves.
They prepared for the worship in front of them. And then after they offered sacrifices, then they went
towards Jerusalem, worshiping the Lord, celebrating the Lord, giving praise to God. David was so into his
worship worship that he was dancing. And it says that he was dancing in his linen ephod, which is
basically his underwear, that he had taken off his king's garment. And I don't know if he took it off because
he humbled himself and ripped it and said, I don't want to be seen as a king right now.
I don't know if he just took it off because he's hot and sweaty and was dancing I don't know. What I do
know is he was basically in his underwear and he was worshiping, and everybody with him was
worshiping. And they were coming into Jerusalem, and all the people started worshiping as well. That all
the people started coming out to the streets, that everybody started gathering around because everybody
started to participate. Now, there was one person who didn't.
It was actually David's wife. Her name's Michael. And she was like, oh, how you distinguish yourself today
in front of the young maidens. And David said, I will humble myself even more than this because I must
celebrate my God. This is a great story.
You can go read it sometime. There's so many details in it. But the point I want you to see today is this,
that David called everybody into worship. That Nehemiah called everybody into worship. And when we
come together like this, we're calling everybody into worship.
I want everybody to participate. Because think about it like, here's the things that will happen today. We
will sing. And when we sing, we're praising God. When we pray, we're talking to God.When we take communion, we're remembering God. When we get baptized, we're being cleansed by
God. When we share God's word and we're listening to God's word, we get shaped by God. When we
respond, we obey God. When we connect with God, we get transformed by God.
That those are the type of things that happen in a worship service. So I want everybody to pray. I want
everybody to sing. I want everybody to be transformed. I want everybody to take that step of baptism.
We want everybody to respond, to take those steps of communion, because we want everybody to
worship. We want everybody to come alongside of one another, and we do this together. Now, let's admit
this real quick. Singing is not everybody's gig. I get that.
Like, some of you, like, you hear the people on stage sing and you're like, man, that's awesome. I can't do
that. And so for some of you, you're like, I ain't even trying now. Some of you try, and that's fine. That's
why we keep the music up loud, okay?
Everybody wonders, why do you keep it so loud at the rock? So we can't hear you sing off key. That's the
whole reason. And there's another reason you can ask me about later. But anyway.
But seriously, like, for some of you, you love to sing out loud. You love to belt a tune. Whether you're on
key or not doesn't matter, right? Because to God, it's a beautiful Noise. But you love, and that's great.
Others of you, you're just like, man, I'm just not really into singing. That's okay.
It's not okay to say, I don't want anybody to sing. It's okay for you to go, I'm not the one who's necessarily
going to sing. But I hope during that time that maybe you're, like, listening to the melody and going, man, I
love hearing God's people sing. Then maybe you're reading the lyrics and you, you see how they come
from Scripture and you're like, man, that's something I need to recap. Remember, I need to lay my life
down before the Lord.
That, that you might not physically raise your hands, but in your heart, you know you're surrendering to
God. That, that you might not love to sing, but you might love instruments. And you just, you see guitars
playing and you're just like, man, that's awesome. You know what I mean? That there's ways to praise
God in the songs without actually even opening your mouth.
That's why I say this, that we should all do it together. No matter what your angle or what your desire,
whether you're trying to sing loud or whether you're just participating with the group. Because when we
prepare and then we participate, and it makes a difference in the world, it makes a difference. One to
Jesus. Look at this verse.
It says, therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our
allegiance to his name. When we come together and we take communion, when we take steps of
baptism, when we respond, when we're praying, we're declaring our allegiance to Jesus. Whether you're
doing that because you're singing out loud or whether you're doing it because you're recognizing the
lyrics in your mind, we're proclaiming our allegiance to Jesus, and we're proclaiming joy that we're letting
other people know. Let me read this last verse from Nehemiah. It said, many sacrifices were offered on
this joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy.
The women and the children also participated in the celebration. And the joy of the people of Jerusalem
could be heard far away. That with great joy they celebrated the work of God in their town, in their
community, in their own lives. With great joy they proclaimed praise to God with great joy they let other
people know. Some other verses that came to mind when I was thinking about this.Psalm 100 says, Shout with joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, come before
him Singing with joy. Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what
he has done. Sing to him.
Yes, Sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. That we proclaim it when we sing. We
proclaim it when we pray. We.
We proclaim it when we talk out of joy. We proclaim what God has done and is doing when we worship
because we've prepared and we've participated. Here's the bottom line. God takes notice, but so do other
people.
The security guard got on the stage that Friday night and Cincinnati, and he said, by the city of Covington,
Kentucky, you're no longer permitted to worship that way. And the room went silent. I ran up to the stage
and kind of smoothed some things over and said, all right, guys, there's obviously some issue. Y' all
bouncing like that. And the floor kind of moved.
I don't know if you realize that. So for. For the rest of our night, the way we're going to worship, we're just
going to have to stand a little bit still. All right, well, get 2,000 middle school kids to stand still, right? It's
like, let's go, Jesus.
You know what I mean? But. But we did our best, right? You know, and we. They didn't stop us from
worshiping.
They stopped us from worshiping like that, right? And. And in that moment, we understood it. And. And I
kind of understood it, but I saw, like, took care of it with the people for a moment, and then we went
offstage and.
And I started talking to the people. Police officer, some more. By now, the fire department was there. By
now, the ambulances were there, and all of them are coming upstairs as well. And I look at our rep, and I
go, okay, seriously, what's going on?
She goes, the ceiling on the first floor fell in. Now, it was like a drop ceiling, you know what I mean? But
because the floor was bouncing, the ceiling, ceiling titles on the first floor were falling to the ground. There
was a convention on the first floor. Everybody on the first floor was running out of the building yelling,
earthquake, earthquake, earthquake.
Well, I didn't know any of that.
So for two hours, they ended up having somebody else teach for two hours. I'm dealing with these
people. We're trying to figure out if we can even continue letting the students go upstairs because they
were worried about the structural integrity. Had nothing to do with the fact that we were praising God. It
wasn't a religious reason.
They were shutting us down. They just thought, we're gonna fall in, right? And so we talked for Several
hours. The next morning, I had to meet back at 6am with the structural architect and engineer. They flew
in overnight.
And I'm talking to the guy. And as I'm talking to the guy, he's like, man, I pulled. Put that floor through so
many different kinds of tests. He said, I didn't think about having 2,000 junior high kids jump at the same
time. I said, well, I can recreate it if you want.
He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We were able to continue worship throughout the weekend. We just
had to be careful. But you know what's interesting? For the next 36 hours, all the way through Sundaymorning, everywhere I went, dude, are you part of that group that about tore down the convention center
the way you were worshiping?
Yeah. Going to a store. Wait, wait. Are you part of that group? Go to lunch.
Are you part of that group? Guys, for three straight days, that's the only thing people talked about
because they had taken notice that there was a group of middle school students who wanted to worship
the Lord so bad that they made sure everybody else knew about it. What would it be like when our middle
schoolers leave for camp on Monday morning if they are so fired up about Jesus that all we hear for
weeks to come is how much they love Jesus?
What would it be like when our high schoolers go to camp for a little while? Or a high school who are just
part of our church are so on fire for Jesus, you can't stop their worship? Or our young adults are so like,
listen, I want our. This gin to just be marked by the way they worship. But not just this gin.
All of us, all of us who are willing to worship in our way that honors God, some of you are going to dance
like crazy like Louis.
And then there's gonna be some of you who are like me, who your feet ain't gonna leave the floor. That's
okay. But we worship.
You need to hear this, because here's the kicker. I've been talking a lot about how we worship in this
room. But do you realize worship isn't just a thing? Thursday night thing, it's an everyday thing.
And the way you worship every day is first you prepare. Like, I want you to hear this. First you prepare.
You wake up in the morning, you open up God's word and you say, lord, I want to acknowledge you right
now. Purify me.
Consecrate me. Lord, I'm sorry for my sins, for anything I might have done that is wrong. Lord, set me
apart, Lord, make me Holy and help me to live for you today. I prepare my life before I go into my day.
Therefore, when I go into my day, no matter what I'm doing that day, I can do it as if I'm doing it for the
Lord.
And I can worship him and his goodness and his grace and his greatness. I can clean a toilet. I can. I can
work in an office. I can work at the hospital.
I can go to school. I can drive a truck, whatever it might be. I can worship the Lord that day because I
prepared myself to participate with my. In his presence as I live out my life. That's how we're supposed to
worship.
And when we're doing that every day, we. Well, then when we come in on Thursday night, we're like, let's
make the floor move. And I know it'd be really hard to make this floor move. It's solid concrete. Well,
except that little area over there that we're really having problems with.
But let's. Let's see the room move because of the presence of Jesus. So I'm gonna invite you to stand
with me, and we're gonna. We're gonna go into a time right now of worship. Well, how do we do that?
Prepare. I want to lead us in prayer to prepare us, and then we participate. For you, participating might be
taking that step of baptism and getting cleansed by the Lord. Because you've never accepted Jesus as
your Savior. You've never taken that step.
If you're ready to get baptized, our baptistry is right there. It is ready to go. We have people that are right
there at the prayer corner that would love to talk to you about baptism, that maybe for you, that your
participation be like, I'm going to take communion, and if you didn't grab some on your way in by thedoors, there's communion for you. Participating might be throwing your hands up and singing at the top of
your lungs. For you to.
Maybe participating is going to be folding your hands and just listening to the words of the songs. But let's
participate. And just as we shouldn't show up late to a movie or to church, let's not leave early. We don't
leave movies early. Let's not leave here early.
Let's see what the Lord has for you tonight. So let's prepare, and then let's participate. Let's prepare by
praying. Pray with me, Jesus. I come before you right now.
Lord, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for your grace. I thank you for the way you're moving in
the church, the way you're moving in our lives. I thank you for the way that you save, you set apart, you
heal.
Lord, I pray right now for forgiveness. Lord, we are sinners, every one of us. Myself included, chief of
sinners. Lord, I know that we have all sinned against you. And for some of us, we've come to you and
we've been cleansed.
But we still sin and we still need to ask for forgiveness. Not to be saved, but just to own it. There's others
in the room, Lord, who haven't surrendered to you, Lord. And I pray that they would ask for forgiveness
for that first time to be saved of their sins. Lord, we come to you repenting because we want to be right.
We want to acknowledge you, we want to accept your love. We want to accept your lordship. We ask that
you would prepare our hearts in this moment just to bless you and allow our joy and our praise to be so
loud that it is heard throughout this community tonight and every day in the way we live. Lord, we love
you, we praise you, we acknowledge you, prepare our hearts in your name. Amen.
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Gospel Patrons Worship Loudly
Connect
To connect with each other and set the stage for discussing worship and joy.
Begin with a simple icebreaker to help everyone connect. Ask each person to share a
memorable experience they had at a concert, event, or worship service. What made it
memorable? How did it make them feel? Encourage them to think about the elements of joy and participation in those experiences.
Transition into a discussion about worship. Ask: "What does worship mean to you personally?How do you feel when you are fully engaged in worship?"
Discover: Breaking Down the Sermon
Objective: To explore the key themes and messages from the sermon.Understanding Joy in Worship:
Question: The sermon described a moment when middle school students worshiped with such joy that it caused a physical reaction in the building. What does this tell us about the power of joyful worship?
Discussion: Reflect on Nehemiah 12 and the Israelites' joyful worship after the completion of the wall. How did their understanding of God's work in their lives lead to such joy? How should your understanding of God’s work in your life and in the church produce joy in you?Preparation for Worship:
Question: The sermon emphasized the importance of preparing for worship. How can we prepare our hearts and minds before coming to worship?
Discussion: Consider the example of the priests and Levites purifying themselves in
Nehemiah 12. What are practical ways we can "purify" or prepare ourselves for worship today?Participation in Worship:
Question: The sermon highlighted the importance of participation in worship. What are
some ways we can actively participate in worship, even if singing isn't your thing?
Discussion: Discuss the different forms of participation mentioned in the sermon, such as singing, praying, taking communion, and listening. How can each of these be an act of worship?
Action Step: Commit to a daily routine of preparing your heart for worship. This could
include a morning prayer, reading Scripture, or listening to worship music. Share with the group one specific way you plan to prepare for worship each day.
Respond: Practical Steps to Live Out the SermonParticipate Fully:
Action Step: Identify one area of worship where you can increase your participation.
Whether it's singing more boldly, engaging more deeply in prayer, or being more attentive
during sermons, choose one area to focus on this week.Share Your Joy:
Action Step: Think of one person in your life who might benefit from hearing about the joy you experience in worship. Plan to share your experience with them this week, inviting them to join you in worship or simply sharing what God has done in your life.
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COMING SOON