Good Morning,
This week we are going to look at my message from Sunday on what Worship is, "The Devotion Factor." The key to Worship is understanding that compassionate devotion is the key to loving God.
There questions we all must ask ourselves occasionally; are we
in devotion mode to God in every area of our life? As we learned last week, hope
floats and hope expands if we trust Him in every area of our lives. He’s always
there restoring when Life gets difficult; and we know we have the advantage. We can
do this together. It’s not always an easy task walking in faith and love.
Thank goodness we have each other and this amazing church
to help us through those times we struggle. We need each other for a reason:
God created us to be a part of this amazing thing called the church; to love
and be loved.
Did you know “Love is a Verb?” 1lovenoun \ˈləv\ “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.” Well it’s a noun unless you attach an object to it, an action; then it becomes a verb. My heart is to share our vision for making love a verb.
Love
as God desires us to love comes with action. Friday’s mobile food bank was love
in action. When I ask you to give someone a hug it takes an action on your part
to get up hug them so they know you love them. When I challenge you to ask
someone how can I make your day better…it takes action. I loved the phone call
from Joe the other night. He says hi pastor this is Joe, how can I make your
day better. You just made my day better.
Our Mission @CFW is to: Love God &
Love People [this is our purpose for being as a church]
Mission must have Vision.
Love
sets in motion [love is an action] these core values in our lives:
1.
Worship
– we {Worship by Embracing a lifestyle of Devotion to God} by being culturally
relevant yet never compromising God’s word.
2.
Prayer:
3.
Service:
4.
Outreach:
5.
Nurture:
We
embrace these core values so we can grow spiritually. Love sets in motion Worship
– we {Worship by Embracing a lifestyle of
Devotion to God} by being culturally relevant yet never compromising God’s
word.
There
are three things we see love does in worship: Lifestyle devotion, being
culturally relevant, and never compromising Gods word. Next week Pastor Charley
will share on how we can be culturally relevant in worship without compromising
God’s word.
What you think a life devoted to God looks like?
How
do you love in action? Every day we are challenged with the fact that we must love as
Jesus commanded us to love.
In
Matthew 25 Jesus indicates to us that he gauges our love for him by the way we
treat people around us.
Jesus
challenged us in Matthew 25:35-36
“For I was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and
you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you
looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
He’s clearly
painting a picture on the way to love. It’s easy to sit in church during a
worship service and get all charged up and have the love of Christ bubbling up
inside you. That is important. But wouldn’t it be a more accurate indicator of
our love for him when we love our spouses, kids, and neighbors when they are
unlovely to us.
In John 13:35 “By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The bible further defines that love
isn’t feeling, but a conduct. 1 John 3:18 “Dear
children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” That
means love is not something we feel or say, love is something we do. When we
say we love God there is an action behind it. When we say we love others we are
not to feel sorry for them but to actually love and help them.
More Tomorrow.
Remember you are Loved!
No comments:
Post a Comment