Worship

Through worship we bless God and minister to Him.  We praise Him for who He is through singing, other worshipping arts, and the spoken word.  Our worship services include celebration, adoration, proclamation, and exultation.

PRAISE:

The Sacrifice of Praise:
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
We are a Royal priesthood – Priests offer sacrifices

Hebrews 13:15

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
New Testament Priesthood:  We offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
Forms of worship:
With our voice – Singing, shouting, speaking
With our hands – lifting, clapping, playing musical instruments
With out bodies – standing, dancing, bowing / kneeling
God inhabits our praise:
Psalm 22:3 “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”
Example found in 1 Kings 8 / 2 Chronicles 5:2 – 7:11
The whole of Israel gathers together in celebration
When they come together as one in worship, a cloud filled the temple
Solomon spoke the word of the Lord
Fire came and consumed the sacrifices and glory filled the temple
God manifested His presence among them

Cornerstone Worship:  A four part form of worship
Our Goal:  The Manifested Presence of God

Christ ministers in the midst of His gathered body
4 Stages:
Celebration:  In the first part, called celebration we praise God for what He has done in our lives and the lives of those around us.  This is characterized by faster music including dancing, clapping, shouting as well as the congregational announcements, offerings, and testimonies.  Relationally, we speak to each other.
Includes:
First set of music
Greeting
Welcome
Offering
Testimonies
Dance
Flags
Prepares our heart for worship

Adoration:  In the second part, called adoration, we worship God for who He is.  The attention is on who He is and our love and adoration for Him.  This is characterized by slower music addressed directly to God.  Relationally, we speak to God.
Includes:
Second set of music
Dance expressions
Kneeling
Spontaneous songs
Instrumental Selahs
Prepares our heart to hear God’s Word

Proclamation:  In the third part, called proclamation, God’s Word is preached as we hear what God wants us to hear on that particular occasion.  This takes the form of a sermon, a prophetic word, or a piece of special music or dance.  Relationally, God speaks to us.
Includes:
Prophetic Words
Sermons
Drama
Special Music
Prepares us to respond to what we have heard

Exultation:  In the fourth part, called exultation, we respond to God’s Word and allow His presence to change us.  Songs of response, commitment, and dedication as well as congregational declarations and altar ministry characterize this.  This section is usually ended with an up beat song of praise as the service ends.  Relationally, God has spoken to us and we then respond.
Includes:
Salvation
Healing
Deliverance
Body ministry
Altar ministry
Prepares us for our mission

Other Scriptures for worship:

Ex 34:14, Deu 11:16, deu 26:10, 1 Sam 15:25, 1 Ch 16:29, Psa 5:7, Psa 22:27, Psa 29:2,  Psa 95:6, Psa 96:10, John 4:21, John 4:23, Rev. 4:10, 1 Tim 2:8, luke 19:37,  Daniel Chapter 3.

this is NOT the whole list but it is a start to the wonderful world of understanding worship.

“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.  And you said ‘ surely the Lord our God has shown us his glory and His greatness, and we had heard His voice from the midst of the fire.  We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yes he still lives.’

‘Now therefore why should we die?  For this great fire will consume us;  if we hear the voice of the Lord anymore then we shall die.  For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have and lived?’

‘You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do.’”

See for them the presence of God was pretty scary, they had the impression that those who spent time with God were next to death.  God as a big bad daddy, was out to get them.  A major factor in this is an orphan spirit.  They didn’t see God for who He is.  Nor did they do what they were told by the people who were making that sacrifice for them.

But lets look at this closely.  They were afraid to die, ok… we are too so what makes that special?  Well, we act the same way, but our death is not so literal nor is it so scary.  They who looked upon the face of God under that covenant were surely going to perish.  Even Moses glowed just by being close to God for that time on the mountain.

For us though, we are lazy and disobedient.  “Why should we die?”  That is thought of the church today, why should we when a “prophet” or other man/woman of God will stand up and tell us what He is saying to us.  Why should we die?  Why should we make the effort to get close to God and hear what he says, we are probably not going to do it anyway right?  It is a lack of respect for the Father, and God Himself called it a Lack of Fear.

Here is why we should be different. The life that comes from our death is amazing!  It is powerful and satisfying and everything that we long for.  All of our passions, and hopes and dreams tied up together in one answer.  The Lord Jesus Christ.  We can truly be as one, and this is the only life that comes after death.  We miss it completely or we enter into this awesome thing and it works itself out in us as we come to the mountain of fire.

Coming to the mountain is that process of killing the flesh.  The Israelites did not want to, nor do the Americans, nor does most of the church.

Ok.. so lets be real. What does this look like?  Let me share my life with you.

God is asking me to trust him.  With my job, my money, my family and everything else.

So what… well he has put me in a place that I am totally not able to do any of this by myself.  I can’t get a house, but I am losing one. I can’t work more for more money because I wont walk away from my call, and I don’t have a completed degree which would allow me to make enough money to work at the church for free.   I have to invest in my family with time and I can’t take that time and put it into other Jobs because then I rob from them my first priority.  With all that stress of this rock and a hard place that I am in,  God keeps telling me that He is good and is in control.  This is like a Holy Ghost setup!

God turned up the heat on me and now the things that are in my life, the trust issues and insecurities that are there, are surfacing and I feel out of control.  However, that is where God wants me, and YOU.  He wants to put to death all the things that are not HIM and replace them with the life that He has.

The price for admission is death.  It is that simple.  The way to get to God the father and hear what he has to say is to be like Jesus.  Through the cross into resurrection.  It took Jesus 33 years to die so don’t expect it tomorrow, but really expect it to happen.

1) A picture of a crew boat with everyone working together in perfect unity, rowing in perfect unison. This is God’s heart for us in 808, to be in unity and work together as one.

2) The Lord said that we were all brand new cars.  Not used not ever driven before, but brand new.  That we need to have the mentality of a new car and not a used one that is just left over.  (Cars often mean ministries in prophetic themes) The Scripture that was given was, “The old has gone and the new has come.” The car seen in the picture was Jessica’s Ford Focus. A reminder for us that we need to focus and “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

This speaks that the ministry that is happening is one that is new for us and is not just a re-run of something that has been done before, but it is something special.

The devotional that we had was about absolute truth and how the Bible IS absolute.  Our generation does not have absolute truth.  We have been taught subjective “truth” that changes with situations. This isn’t really truth at all.  The truth is that God is the same yesterday, today and forever!  We read from Joshua chapters 1-4.

It gets even better! During our prayer time there were 3 healings.  Seth Adkins’ knee was healed, Mark Moffitt’s knee was healed and so was Jake Kasper’s.  It was amazing!  While Seth was being prayed for he saw a vision of the city walking on a bad knee and it was being healed so that it could rise up again.  Praise God…that is powerful!