Part 11 – Worship - God transforms

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Doctrine Series – It

ʼ

s all about GodPart 11 – Worship: God Transforms

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We believe in the

Trinity

, 1 God who is a community of 3 personswho

continually

and eternally

pour

out unbroken, untainted,unashamed love for each other as Father to Son, Son to Spirit,Spirit to Father, Father to Spirit, Spirit to Son and Son to Father!We believe that God reveals Himself to us through the

revelation

of His Word, and in the

Bible

, which is true and good we receiveall that He has to say about

Himself

, about who

we

are, aboutwhat He has

done

, about what we should

do

, and about what Heis going to do in the

future

.We believe the Bible that says, God

made

us, He made us to belike Him, to be His

image

-

bearers

on the earth, as

creatures

wehave been designed to rely on and obey and

receive

everythingwe need from our

Creator

. And as His creation, we were made tobe good and to display His

glory

, because He alone is very goodGod!

Unfortunately

, we turned to the things that God had made

instead

of keeping our eyes on God – instead of responding to thecontinuous outpouring of the Creator

ʼ

s love, we turned and ratherresponded to

creation

! The created snake, convinced the createdman that the created fruit would create a better way of life for Hiscreated ego, and so sin entered what God made good, and manturned his back on the Creator – in favour of creation!But the very good God, even through He was

pushed

awaybringing a change from the state of being “very good” to a cursedworld in which we now live, God still gave favour, held back ondestroying us all, and made a

promise

to

pursue

us and not leaveus alone.

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We are using a book by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears called “Doctrine: What Christians ShouldBelieve”, Crossway Books, 2010 as a guide for our doctrine series. Todays message on Worship, hasbeen further resourced from one of my favorite books: Wayne Grudem

ʼ

s “Systematic Theology” IVP,1994. Check out our book table!

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Jesus

, we believe is God the

Son

come as a

man

, born of amother like the mothers we celebrate today, only this motherconceived by the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Incarnate Son of Godeven though she was a

virgin

.We believe in Jesus, who comes to a cursed world,

humbles

himself under all the fullness of it, even to

death

upon a cross, butin all His life

continued

to

pour

out eternal Trinitarian worship tothe Father by the power of the Holy Spirit and lives a

sinless

lifemaking himself the acceptable sacrifice for our sins – He laysdown His own spotless life for you and for me. And because theFather is so pleased with the life and death of Jesus, He

raised

Him from the dead so that we can be renewed in

hope

!The Risen Jesus starts His

church

, 2000 years ago, and believersfrom all nations gather together to

devote

their lives to God! Todaywe get to be untied together with God because He has come to bewith us, to keep loving us, to point us in the right direction, to takeus home, and in the end we will

worship

Him for His glory and Hisworthiness for

eternity

!Wow!I shared that with you all again on purpose because I want you tosee that in all

Doctrine

and the truth about all God and all aboutwhat He has done – all of it, is motivation for a fitting responsefrom you and I,

heartfelt

Worship

in spirit and in truth!

•

What does it mean to Worship?

At this stage I want to introduce a pattern that I believe completesworship, it is:

1. GOD

– US – GOD.I will explain this as we go.To worship something is to place

worth

upon it. To

pay

homage toor

pay

tribute to, to admire, revere… Ultimately, true worshipwould be find that which is worthy of the

highest

place and ascribethe worth due to it. “

Worth

-

ship

”.

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Another helpful word in worship is “

Glory

” and in Hebrew istranslated “

Kabod

” which means copiousness,

weightiness

–abundant in supply and quantity, high renown, honour, magnificentand having great beauty!Well, this should be God.

1 Chronicles 16:29

says: Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;

There is

none

more Holy than God, there is none moresplendorous than God! There is

none

more

deserving

of glorythan God!If we come to understand who God

really

is, completely and fullyas He is truly is – that would mean having a

biblically

faithful

understanding of God, one deep in Doctrine, we would then seehow

worthy

God is, and

worship

would be a fitting response toGod!It all starts with God! He is eternally good, He creates, He loves,He gives, He is the source that never runs dry, He initiates everyaction, be is the

beginning

, He is the start! Everything goodcomes from God.

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

2.

GOD –

US

– GOD.Well, if

God

is so generous and so loving and continuouslyoutpouring – then for us to be made in His

image