Something that is evident throughout the Bible is we as a people were created for community. Starting with Adam and throughout generations of our Christian history there are examples that we were made to do life with others. Christ presented this with the calling of the 12 disciples. When you really think about it, Jesus was God in the flesh and He didn’t need people around Him to complete what the Father had set forth. He was showing us that we all need to be in a community of believers. If we were made for community, it would make sense that we would worship with other believers as well.

Just as we are stronger as a group, worship can be stronger within a group than by yourself. Although that does not mean we can go without private worship. When we worship with a group it may be easier for someone to connect with their Father or step out and experience God because the people around them make them feel comfortable. It also provides a since of community and you actually see other believers pressing into the same God that you worship. When I get the opportunity to watch a worship service while serving in an area of ministry, there is something that makes a deeper connection when you listen to a few hundred voices joining together in praise to the Lord of Lords.

Being in a worship community is very important in our spiritual development, but we should not neglect the act of private worship either. Sometimes worship in a large setting can become routine or even a little bit clique because we begin to just go through the motions of worship. It is in this time that our private worship becomes extremely important in the development of our community worship. We can only change from the inside out, not the outside in. When we begin to go through the motions we think that what we are doing outwardly will become what we are inwardly. Instead we become like the Pharisees that looked good on the outside and horrible on the inside in the area of worship. We lose the connection we once had because we are no longer sowing what is good for us.

Private worship builds self discipline within us and gives us a greater understanding of our Father. This can come in may different forms like prayer and quiet time or maybe having your own personal worship service in your bedroom. Whatever is the pathway for you, we encourage you to pursue that in your private life so that you may benefit in your outward life. Just to clarify, you should be worshiping because you love our God and not because you receive something in return. Worship was never meant to be self beneficial but a way of being obedient and praising our Creator King. After all, God gives us 24/7/365, the least we can give him is some set aside time of private worship and even that should not be enough for us.

One of my favorite worship songs is a song by Hillsong.  It is called “Desert Song” and one of the verse says:

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

It captures one of the hardest examples of life that we can go through, but it is in that time that we need a worship community around us. We need people to lift us up and help us along the faith journey. It is in times that this song talks about that we will begin to reap in public what we sow in private.

Mathew West in his song “The Motions” not only gives us a good summary to what we have been talking about over the past weeks but also encouragement in our private pursuit of worship. The lyrics to the song say:

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

This should be enough to encourage us to pursue private worship time and encourage us to have a deeper appreciation of our worship in community. We would encourage you to pursue both of these things with a hunger that can not be satisfied. Our prayer for you is that you will never have enough of God and continue to dive into his amazing deep waters.

Next week we will be launching into a new series called “Sea of Faces”. The ministry team has been praying for great things to happen by God’s hand over this next season and we would ask that you would join us in this prayer. Over the next series, we will be looking at the reality of our world feeling like a sea of faces. We live in a world that is lost, and we are the ones that God has put here on earth to reach those far from His arms. He sent His son to die for everyone and our mission is to share that with the world no matter what differences we may have. We are much stronger as a community, and we want you and your friends to be a part of this. Look for our new post next week and some pretty cool things that we will be doing over the summer to help with our mission of reaching those who are lost.

Dive Deep,

KC

As we learn how to dive more into worship though prayer, acts of service, and spending time with our God, it would be good of us to talk about why we need to worship. God created us for a purpose, and this week Philip Roland, one of our staff members, was gracious enough to write out some thoughts and ideas on this subject.

You came and bled and died
Gave all you had in life
All for love, all for love
Your life destroyed the grave
Brought grace to those in need
All for love, all for love

Christ died for love. All that Jesus did, he did for love, because everything he did was done according to the will of God (”For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” -John 6:38). God is love personified–-the very definition of love (“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” -1 John 4:16). Everything he does is loving and everything about him is loving, from his grace to his mercy to, yes, even his anger (for his anger at us when we sin is derived from his desire for holiness and the knowledge that we suffer when we separate ourselves from him with our sin), and this is because it is his nature to love. As a result, when we say that Jesus died for love, it is not simply a statement of Christ’s love for us, but an affirmation of God’s character and his status as the source of all true love.

Because of this, the fact that Christ died for us while also dying to serve the Father’s will is not contradictory as some people believe (and my affinity for John Piper is about to be made pretty evident here with what I’m about to say). He died first and foremost for the glory of God, and we do benefit from this–obviously we are to gain directly from Christ’s death and resurrection giving us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and our lives begin anew. In addition to this, however, at a deeper level we are also fulfilled because the Father was glorified through Christ’s sacrifice, and when God is glorified, our ultimate purpose (to glorify God) is fulfilled–-our lives are enriched as a result. The world is only at the right place when God is in his correct position as supreme over all creation. We ourselves are only truly fulfilled when God is glorified, for we were created for God’s glory. When we use our lives to bring glory to God, it naturally draws us closer to him and further fills our lives with his presence, and certainly, what does having an abundant life (John 10:10b) mean if not to have a life filled with God’s presence and Spirit?

We were made for his glory and we find ourselves empty and hollowed out within when we use our lives to pursue other things. This is why when you go into a time of worship with the right motivations–-to lift up and glorify God above all else–-that you often come out of that time with a sense of fulfillment. Your soul knows that you are living out your purpose, and you are made complete because of it. It is for this same reason that if you enter a time of worship seeking this feeling rather than looking to put God first that you will leave dissatisfied. As soon as you begin to pursue this fulfillment as your main concern it becomes unavailable. It only exists as a by-product of placing God at the center of everything. To chase after an emotional high in a time of worship puts the focus on something other than God and renders that sense of wholeness unobtainable.

We must realize that even though God has given us all specific gifts and abilities that we are to use to pursue the specific purpose he has for our lives, that above all else we were made for his glory! Christ died for love and we are to live for love. It is by doing so–-by living our lives in such a way that we die to ourselves and raise God high–-that we will change our world for the better! By chasing the light of God’s glory in all that we do, we will spread the love of God throughout the world. Where we go he will go, and as he is glorified we will be made fully alive.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dive Deep,

Philip

In the beginning of the world, God would walk through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. How cool could that be to walk along side of your Creator in a peaceful setting? But we might think that now it’s not possible to get that connection with God. We sometimes get too wrapped up and forget that we have the ability to “walk” and spend quality time with God. We do this through intentionally praying to God about what is going on with us. Our God is a god that longs for us to talk with him because He wants to be engaged. He is always waiting for us to come and spend some time just soaking in His presence so that He can refill our cups.

 This means that we have to be intentional about spending time with Him. Daniel is probably one of the best examples of prayer in the Bible, and he models for us a method that works in Daniel 6:10 that says:

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

The writing that this passage talks about had banned prayer to anyone but the King, but Daniel knew that his God was the only King, and that was the only person that he would bow to. Daniel had made a habit of praying three times a day, and just because something was put into effect that would make this illegal, he chose to remain faithful to God and spend time with Him in prayer.

Daniel was intentional about prayer in the easy times, so when the hard times hit he was able to stand in confidence because he honored God, and through this honoring God saved him from the lion’s den. Daniel was privately honoring God in his daily life, and God honored him in his public life. We should strive to be intentional about when we pray to develop a sense of discipline. God also wants us to talk with Him about the things that are going on in our lives because He, like a parent, wants to be involved in our lives.

It is one thing for us to say a few words here and there to God about what is going on with us; it’s another thing to truly connect with Him in prayer. God doesn’t want us to be casual about our relationship with Him, just like we don’t want to be casual with our best friends or significant others. God wants to talk to you, but unless you make an effort to establish that relationship, He can’t move in you. Prayer is not for us, but it’s for God to move in us.

If you find yourself in a place where you are just going though the motions of prayer, now is just as good of a time to make a change to become intentional. God is waiting for us to go to Him and cast our cares at His feet. He is a God of love and mercy. Everything will work to the good of those who know Him if we just allow Him to. This week, we want to encourage you to move from a place where you may not be as intentional about prayer as you should be. We are going on a journey to start pursuing Daniel type prayers and we want you to join us so that you may be able to change and lead others to what we have.

Daniel day prayers require us to show the same type of reverence and obedience that Daniel showed throughout his life. We are asking for the next week for you to intentionally pray three times a day, morning, noon and night. Some of you might be thinking that the noon one will be hard because you work in an open area, or it may seem weird if your co-workers see you praying, but let us remember that our God died for us on the Cross, and we should never be ashamed to live for Him!

So during the next week, begin to become intentional about praying three times a day. If you aren’t sure what to pray about, start by what is on your heart. Pray for the people around you who are unsaved, hurting, in times of trial, in times of triumph, and become intentional about lifting up others. Be prepared to honor what God asks of you in these times, because we believe that there are things He wishes of you. Begin to honor Him privately, and He will honor you publicly. Even though we are only asking you to sign on for a week, we want to encourage you to make this a lifestyle. If you want to sign on to this, we are setting up some tools to encourage you to live in this new lifestyle. Check the Dive Deep Facebook Page for more info. To God be the glory and we pray that He uses us in a mighty way.

 Dive Deep,

 KC

Living a life of prayer is one of the ways that we can begin to actually practice being living sacrifices like Paul talks about in Romans 12. In verse 12:2 it says:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Most of the time we have a hard time figuring out what the pattern of this world is, but it becomes quite easy when we have open communication with our Father in heaven.

Last week we talked about bowing down at the feet of our Father in humility. This week we are studying  exaltation of others though prayer. Some people love to get compliments; it’s just how they are geared. Even though compliments lose their worth as time goes on, lifting someone up in prayer is not something that is easily forgotten.

To lift others up, we should strive to have a better communication with the Father ourselves. He always hears our prayers, but when we earnestly seek Him, our words have more power. Look at this as if you have a good friend who asks you to do something: you wouldn’t hesitate to do what they ask, but if a friend that you talk to once every few months ask for something, you will help them but it will be in time.

As we connect more to our Father in our prayer life, we can really discover what His heart is for us. Paul says in the passage that we should not be conforming to the pattern of this world, and heavenly communication is required to understand what that means. On the surface, it means that we must rebel against our current culture. Our world tells us to worry about things, take everything on ourselves, and that we are in control of our lives. This is not the case! Given we have free will, our God is ultimately in control of what goes on in our world.

When people begin to actually pray for something, the outcome is amazing: people are healed, lives are changed, and the Kingdom advances. During his time on earth, Jesus believed prayer was very important. Before he was taken to be crucified, he prayed his heart out. His prayer was not casual, but was very intentional. We tend to take prayer lightly and think of it as something we do to “bless” our food or end our day.

We don’t understand how to pray because we haven’t tried to pray earnestly to our God, or maybe we have tried and it hasn’t worked out the way we want to. In conjunction with bowing down, we have to humble ourselves so that we can lift up intentional acts of prayer. This doesn’t mean that we can’t pray for things that we want, but it means that we should really think if they are something that God would want for us. The stuff of this world will fade, but our true treasure is in Heaven. God loves it when we ask him for things like wisdom, faith, healing, comfort, and provision. It is through these prayers that He is able to move in our lives.

Prayer is a time that we should spend soaking in the amazing glory of our King. We should make it our intent that during that time we pray to really connect with the Father. Another thing we should strive for is to be in constant communication with Him about everything going on in our lives. Though this, we will begin to have a renewing of our mind.

This week we encourage you to be intentional in selfless acts of raising others up though prayer. There is something moving about really connecting though prayer. We hope that you find that same connection that we all strive for.

Dive Deep,

KC

Serving others is something that Jesus illustrated quite well to His disciples and set up a model for us to follow. John 13:1 explains the big idea behind serving when it says:

“…Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love”

After saying this Jesus began to wash his disciple’s feet, a task that was usually done by a servant. As His last lesson to the disciples He showed them what it truly meant to serve. We are called to have a sense of selfless service which requires humility. Jesus wasn’t washing their feet because he was required to but because he wanted to. The Creator of the Universe humbled himself to be as low as a servant to present the best model for serving others.

Selfless service is something that is hard for most of us to do, because we still believe that the world revolves around us. Our days are about what we can do for ourselves, about what we can do to get ahead at work, about what other people can do for us in our life, and about the stuff that shows off what we are like to everyone else. Until we grasp the concept of humility we can never truly serve others in the spirit that Christ demonstrated. The first step to being humble comes out of surrender and bowing down to Christ before all other things.

We tend to be afraid to serve because if we do we may feel no one will exalt us for the work we did. We never did anything to get where we are, and we tend to become ungrateful because of our self-centeredness. It becomes scary when we ask God to show us some way to serve and what He asks may put us in the background. The only way we can truly serve in a way that is pleasing to God is to bow down to His will first and trust that He will take care of us.

There is a major difference between serving and doing acts of service. Many times the things we do have good intentions, but not the right heart intent. We begin to serve people and expect them to recognize we did something. Jesus is the only reason we are here and his opinion matters above all others. Self serving people end up living a life full of treasure on this earth but miss the point John 13 is talking about. Christ is more pleased with us when we serve with the right motives to please Him rather than to please others. We  must become content with our recognition in Christ.

Humility is a hard thing to practice because it goes against the grain of what the world tells us. We are not of this world but created for a specific purpose by God. We have to be in the world but not of the world. We should be the people going against the grain when the rest of the world says fight for yourselves.  We should be fighting for others. When the world tells us to learn things to get ahead of others in ways that cut others down then we should be uplifting others first. Humility and contentment come hand in hand, and if we can begin to practice those things we will be able to serve out of selflessness, not selfishness.

This week we want to encourage you to start to bow down to our Creator in things that you know are keeping you from living a full life of worship though service. Even if this is not your pathway as the body of Christ we should be living this out in our lives in reverence for our God. Try actually bowing on your knees when you are praying or worshiping. It may feel awkward at first but as you get used to it you will find it may help you connect better. Pray for a spirit of humility and contentment thoughout this week. These are qualities that Christ believes are required for us to have as Christians to be set apart but not self apart. Take the step in living a life of selflessness not selfishness.

Dive Deep,

KC

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- This is your spiritual act of worship.”

What Paul was really saying is that worship is not only the song you sing but the life you live. Everything you do expresses you in worship. Some of us do great with worship with song, but what about the rest of the time? How are we doing in that? Over this series we want to unpack what Paul is talking about and dive into the subject of worship. Come along with us as we learn more about worshiping our amazing Father in Heaven.

Probably the best way to understand worship is for us to understand more of the reason why we were created. There are many people who believe they are here for different reasons, but we have been placed here for a specific reason and that is to serve and worship our God. Sometimes we casually toss this to the side, but our God desires for us to worship him wholeheartedly. By God’s design we are all created differently and as parts of the body of Christ. With that in mind we all connect in different ways to our God.

Worship happens when we have an intimate connection with our Heavenly Father. It requires a heart interaction as opposed to a head interaction. Our attention is focused on Him, and we end up feeling much closer to God in times of worship. Some people can’t fully engage in a worship song, but the way they worship is through acts of service or quiet times. The fact is that we as Christians tend to find it strange when someone isn’t engaged in worship on a Sunday morning, but that’s the beauty of the way God made us all unique.

When we look in Romans, Paul says  “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices…” He presents a paradox for us, because traditionally in Biblical times you would sacrifice animals as atonement for your sin. What most people don’t do is look at the context of this verse to understand that the idea of being a living sacrifice isn’t a paradox at all.

The word therefore means that we have to look at what was said in the past verses. Paul has been writing about how God has sent His Son to save all of us through His mercy. In response we should offer ourselves as living sacrifices, because His Son was the ultimate living sacrifice.

We know worship is having a connection with our Father. When we think about it there is no way to obtain that status without the blood of Jesus Christ, but even that is not enough. Paul goes on to say in Romans 12:2 that we:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

We can not stay stagnate if we are to truly worship our God. If we are connected to the Father we will want to change. Paul is communicating to us that we can not just show up in church every Sunday, sing a few songs and call that worship! We must change something within us, because if not we aren’t really worshiping our Father. Our change starts on the inside deep in our soul and overflows to our outward appearance. Worship becomes a process, not a moment.

If you wonder how you are worshiping God look at how you act in day to day life. Are you truly allowing a transformation to take place and renew your mind, or are you just worshiping without the heart. Paul was passionate about followers grasping this concept. In this series we want to unpack what it really means to worship our Father who has poured out His mercy on us. Take this week and do a self inventory of how you are really worshiping our God and begin to see where you need to undergo a transformation.

Dive Deep,

KC