Becoming a Worship Catalyst

Pastor Kurt Gebhards at Harvest Bible Chapel, Hickory, challenged us last week to be worship catalysts. A catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates change or activity. And he said that if we are born again we are meant to be a catalyst: a person whose talk, enthusiasm or energy causes others to be more enthusiastic, energetic or friendly. And we should be helping others praise God.

To do this we should be praising God ourselves continuously. Bless, praise, boast, magnify and exalt God are words mentioned over and over again in the Bible.  He is glorious and we as His children need to do something about this! Worship Him for who He is and what He’s done for us!

Isaiah 43:7 says He created us to glorify Him. People should be able to recognize Him in us, so we must live our lives in a way that puts Him on display. If we aren’t doing this we aren’t doing what we were created to do!

We should also be doing this corporately. Romans 15:5 says, “O magnify the Lord with me” and “let us exalt His name together.” Our worship is designed to stimulate each other.

Also when we go to church we should be prepared. Arrive early with a heart that is prepared for worship. Prepare yourself for impact with God! Pray for the service. Greet people. Ready yourself for a meeting with the King of Kings!

We aren’t at the service for ourselves, but for God and others. So be a spiritual catalyst in someone’s life so they can be drawn closer to Christ. Because Christ’s glory hangs in the balance. He doesn’t deserve lukewarm worship. We want other people to glorify and honor Him!

How much glory and praise is God deriving from your life?

Purchased for a Price

Pastor Jon Krick at Harvest Bible Chapel in Hickory gave me a lot to think about with his sermon this morning. (And that’s my definition of a GOOD sermon!)

The whole thing was on one verse. 1 Corinthians 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

He got us to really think about what the cost was to Jesus. Leaving heaven and all of His divine rights, being born to a human, working as a carpenter and then a painful humiliating death on a cross.

Jon suggested we need to write the verse Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" in our Bibles above 1 Corinthians 6:20. Because Jesus: perfect, sinless, Jesus took on ALL the sins of the world at that moment on the cross. He who had had a perfect relationship with God since before time began, was separated from His Father – for us!

It cost Him. Dearly!

Next Jon reminded us that since we, as Christians, are saved we have the Holy Spirit living in us and our bodies really are the temple of God.

Those are two reasons we shouldn’t take our sins (whether they are internal "heart and mind" sins) or external (the things we do) lightly. We really do sin against Him. Jon stressed that we remember what it cost Him.

Puts a whole new light on those little sins we commit without even thinking about them, doesn’t it?

I loved where he said that if we bought something that was really expensive (or “of great price”) we would really remember it. And so does God. We have value to God! Jesus was forsaken so that we never will be.

Our take away message from this is: first we remember (what He did for us) and then surrender. To surrender we need to stop doing what isn’t pleasing to God. We also need to renew our hearts and minds. Our purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.



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Christian Service

Yesterday’s sermon in church was about service. The pastor used Hebrews 6: 9-12 for his text. 9But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. 10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 11And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience)inherit the promises.

He said in verse 9 the things that accompany salvation are service. That service and salvation always go hand in hand. He asked us how good our relationship was between our salvation and our service, because what good is it to say we know God, but then deny Him with our deeds.

Christians must learn to identify needs and meet them. And we serve in His Name and for His Glory.

Then he asked, “What memory will God have of your ministry?”

I loved this part. He pointed out that God chooses to forget a believer’s sins. But He remembers every act we’ve done for His Glory. Even if we had mixed motives or didn’t do it as well as we hoped he kindly accepts our offerings.
With the unsaved, though, He will remember all their sins because they have chosen to live under the law. God chooses what He will remember and forget based on our salvation.

So, Christians should be filling up the memories with service. And everything we do all day long counts. We should do even the tiniest thing with integrity and in a way that Glorifies God.

Thoughts from reading 1 Corinthians

Thought from 1st Corinthians

Christians must not first consider their rights, but how best shall they act in situations to glorify God and reveal Christ’s life in them.

Our all-absorbing preoccupation is to be holy in all matters of life and to come to a mature understanding of God’s will for us and our place in church life.

From 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

We should look at ourselves to see if we truly reproduce Christ’s love in inward emotions, mental attitudes and outward actions. Am I: patient for a long time? Kind? Not jealous? Not boastful? Not arrogant? Not rude? Not insisting on my own way? Not irritable? Not resentful? Not happy over another’s fall or over wrong? Do I rejoice over another’s good? Or over right?

Love in view of eternity! God wants us to love!

Some thoughts about being God’s evidence!

The book of Romans tells us that God will crush Satan under our feet – every time we embrace good and shun evil. When we live by the truth and do what is right and good regardless of resultant consequences, God is glorified and Satan shown a failure.

What you are, Is God’s gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.

Mother Teresa once said,
“To offer a home to the homeless Christ, start by making your own home a place where peace, happiness and love abound, through your love for each member of your family and for your neighbors. Give someone a smile, visit someone for a short time, make a fire for someone who is cold, read to someone.”

Paraphrased from Matthew 6:22-23“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.”

What is the meaning of life?

Christians are told that the chief aim of life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To glorify God means to reflect Him so that others see Him through you. Jesus did this on earth. He tells us in the Bible “when you see me, you have seen the Father.” Our goal is to become like Christ, which then glorifies God. To enjoy Him forever is to know that whatever is happening, you are in His hands, He will take care of you, and having peace with that.

There is a wonderful story called ‘The Refiner’ that is based on a verse, Malachi 3:3. “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” and also on Isaiah 48:10 which says, “Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver, I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.” The story goes, “I heard a silversmith talk about refining silver. He said, “I must sit with my eyes steadily fixed on the furnace. The silver is too precious to risk losing. If the time necessary for refining were exceeded by the slightest degree, the silver will be injured. If I take it out of the furnace too early – it won’t be purified. When the silver is in the furnace I must focus on it and not let anything distract me, waiting for the exact moment to take it out. I know the silver is pure when I can see my face reflected there.”

If our goal is to become more like Christ, to reflect God, this story tells us that trials are a necessary part of the process. When a trial comes my way, my first inclination is to ask God to save me from it. But, sometimes He doesn’t save me! He is the great silversmith. While I’m in the furnace He focuses and watches. His job isn’t a quick rescue mission. His job is to purify. He has plans for us and will never forsake us!

God’s grace is sufficient.

We fulfill what we are meant to do when God is recognizable in us! To Glorify God is to show Him to the world!

Random thoughts on God's Glory

Glory = the outward shining of the inward presence of God.

The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the exact replication of God. And Jesus told his disciples that if they’ve seen Him, they have seen the Father.

R. Kirby Godsey in his book “When We Talk About God…Let’s Be Honest” writes, “God is in the heart and soul of our being, and we cannot know ourselves fully until we know God. God is present in us, and in Christ we see how God’s presence in a person redefines the character of being a person.”

The human job description can be reduced to one phrase; “Reflect God’s Glory.”

God lets you excel so you can make Him known. Never forget the source and purpose of your success. (1 Chronicles 29:12) Give God the Glory!

Show me your glory!

Moses had spent 40 years as a shepherd when God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. Shepherds have always held a special place in the Bible. David, “a man after God’s heart”, was once a shepherd. It was shepherds on the night the baby Jesus was born that a host of angels appeared to and Jesus is often referred to as the Good Shepherd. Shepherding is a quiet, lonely profession where there is plenty of time to listen for God’s voice.

It wasn’t easy getting the Israelites away from Egypt, but it was harder still living with them in the desert! Moses was in charge of at least 2 million people. People, who just like us, one day are good and one day disappoint God. Moses constantly intervened with God for the people. In fact in some conversations with God when both were disgusted with them, God would refer to them as “YOUR people” and Moses would come back with, “but, YOUR people….” Neither wanted to claim them!

For as much time as Moses spent talking with the Lord, and the Bible says in Exodus 33:11 that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a friend, Moses yearned to know God better. He wanted God’s total guidance in dealing with these people and in doing God’s will. At one point when God threatened to take His presence away from what He called “these stiff-necked people” Moses said, “If thy presence will not go with me; do not carry us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15) Moses wasn’t willing to make a move without God. Moses related God’s presence with His favor when he asked, if God didn’t go with them, how would they know they had found favor in His sight?

Today, Christians don’t go anywhere without God. We have His Holy Spirit inside each of us. The Holy Spirit is evidence of God’s favor with us, but we need to listen for His guidance and obey Him.

Moses also asked God to let him know Him better. At this point Moses probably knew God better then any other living man. But, it wasn’t enough for Moses. To know God, really know Him, means to be changed by that knowledge. And once a person is saved they will act differently. They will show God’s love, reflect His light, spend time with God and worship Him with great joy. And finally, Moses wanted God to show him His glory. God chose to do this by showing Moses His goodness and His character, revealed by His name. He told Moses He was “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7) God shows us these attributes of Himself because we are called to have them too. Christians are to have goodness, mercy, compassion, grace, love, faithfulness and be slow to anger.

God gives Christians His presence in the Holy Spirit and His knowledge in His Word, the Bible. These show us God’s glory; which we are called to reflect to the World.

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3