The Centrality of Worship

Life-Changing Worship
The Centrality of Worship

I. Introduction

A. I Corinthians 14:33 (NAS) For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

II. The Reason We Attend Church Revolves Around !

A. Hebrews 10:19-20 (NLT) ¹⁹And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.

1. In the Old Testament, your experience of God would be strictly through the .

2. The main reason we come to church and “gather together” as a church family is so we can corporately the Presence of God!

B. The “” of God

1. That’s our goal when we come to church—to !

2. Psalm 22:3 (KJV) “The Lord inhabits the praises of His people.”

a. “Inhabits” (“Yashab”) – – to sit down, dwell, remain, settle, abide

3. James 4:8a (NAS) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

4. Acts 4:31 (NAS) And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

5. Psalm 34:8a (NAS) O taste and see that the LORD is good!

6. Nothing may have changed in your circumstances, but been changed!

C. Hebrews 10:21-22 (NLT) ²¹And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, ²²let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

D. Hebrews 10:22 (NLT) Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

E. Psalm 87:2 (NAS) The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.

1. God has made us “” without each other!

F. Hebrews 10:23-25 (NLT) ²³Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

1. You need to be involved in a family!

III. Some Ways to Help You Experience God’s Presence at Church

A. yourself to experience God’s Presence.

1. “Preparation” starts the !

2.

a. James 4:2c (NAS) “We have not because we ask not!”

b. Pray to be by that day, too!

B. on getting to church !

1. Getting to church early will not happen without serious !

C. When the service begins, on God!

1. Hebrews 12:2a (NAS) “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.”

2. II Corinthians 3:18 (NAS) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

3. God is a !

D. Sing to that !

1. Give your entire to that Person!

2. Romans 12:1 (NAS) “I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

IV. Conclusion