Worship God West 2013 – Message 2: Faithful to Proclaim (2 Cor. 4:1-6) – Kevin Deyoung

Worship God West 2013 – Message 2: Faithful to Proclaim (2 Cor. 4:1-6) – Kevin Deyoung

 

Is there enough truth in your singing to change and save those who hear?

 

The 3 M’s of ministry:

1)      Means – verbal proclamation

§  We need truth shot through all the elements of our worship service.  What will people learn about God from what we sing?  As in the parable of the sower, we don’t need to choose who we sow to, we just need to keep sowing!  The audience and its response is not sovereign, the Word is.  People don’t need a watered-down Christianity, they need a loving Christianity.

2)      Manner – we are servants of the servants of God

§  When I am small to myself, I am great to the Lord, and when I am great to myself, I am small to the Lord.  Preach God, not ourselves.  The goal on Sunday should not be for people to come away with amazement over the musicianship, but over God.  Your skill does not need to be evident, but it will not be wasted.  We are like the best man in a wedding.  We are not the point but the pointer!

§  “He that would preach Christ alone must of necessity forget himself.” (Calvin paraphrase)

3)      Message – Jesus Christ is Lord

§  Proclaiming the Lord’s death (in communion)

§  Preaching Christ crucified

§  We cannot help whether people see or not, but we can give them the truth to see.

Will people walk away from our worship service saying “That was cool!  What was it all about?”

 

Worship God West 2013 – Message 1: Faithful to Receive (John 4) – Craig Cabaniss

Worship God West 2013 – Message 1: Faithful to Receive (John 4) – Craig Cabaniss

 

Ø  You can’t be a Christian if you can’t receive a gift.  A Christian is one who receives –Christianity is unique because it is a religion primarily of receivers, not doers.

Ø  Worship originates with the Father seeking – not with us seeking (John 4:23)

·         True worship emerges from the Father’s pursuit of us, not ours of Him.  Worship arises from our receiving, not our contributing! 

·         It is vital as leaders that we are far more aware of His relentless pursuit of us than we are of our pursuit of Him.

 

Concentrate on receiving and you will…

1)      Magnify Grace

§  What is the aroma of our worship?  It will be grace if and when we focus on His amazing work in our lives, not what we can bring to Him.  The result of this will be humility, gratefulness, and a sense of uncontainable joy

§  Have we lost our awe?  Sometimes we lose our sense of amazement at what God has done; it becomes commonplace.  I want to have a lively awe, not a diminished one!

§  We ought to prepare for worship (especially as leaders) by contemplating our receiving – not our responding.  Our primary identity is “recipient of mercy and sought by the Father”.  (Wow!)

2)      Be Positioned to Respond

§  We are called to be faithful receivers and faithful responders. 

§  We are not called to originate worship.  God is the originator of worship.  Freshness in worship is not driven by human creativity, but by divine glimpses of Christ through the scripture.  Worship- leading is a stewardship.  It’s His thing, not ours.  The point is not for people to be impressed by us, but by God. 

§  Grace requires that we receive before we respond.

Worship God West 2013 - Called to be Faithful: My experience

    Wow!  I just got back from my first Worship God conference, and it was amazing!  I am so, so grateful that God provided the money for me to be able to go.  It was more than worth it!  I learned a lot, was encouraged, convicted, and blessed, made new friends, and had a lot of fun. 
    The worship times were incredible.  Getting to praise and worship God with hundreds of other Christians and be led by wonderful musicians was awesome!  It was a blessing to be able to just let go and praise Him.  One of the things I loved most was the spontaneous things that occurred during these times.  For example, After the sermon on Friday night (Faithful to Grow), one of the pastors stood up and just shared that during the message, he had felt a burden to encourage and pray for the church plants and small churches represented there.  He asked people to lay hands on those near them who were representing such a church and he prayed then and there. 
    It was also so fun making new friends, and growing relationships with the old ones.  I met people from other parts of California of different ages and roles in their church, and was blessed by the fellowship and encouragement.  I also had the privilege to make a friend from New Zealand!  And of course it was great getting to spend time with people that I don't get to see very often (and those I do!)
    The breakout sessions were awesome as well!  My favorite was one on vocal harmony and improvisation.  It was challenging, but so much fun!  We did things I had never done before (I had no clue what I was doing!) but I did fairly well, and definitely learned some things.
     I will be posting my notes from the main sessions, so if you're interested, stay tuned.  I hope God will provide for some of you to attend in the future as well!
   

Recital and other things

Today was my final recital with BethEl Ballet Academy.  I have been so blessed to be a part of this ministry for the past 8 years.  Miss Beth is amazing and has taught me so much about how to be a better dancer and a better woman. I have grown a lot and had a ton of fun dancing with the most amazing group of girls ever! 

Today's recital was also a day of goodbye's, as one of my dear friends is moving to New York in a few days. We had a special time of prayer and grieving with her and her family and we are looking forward to seeing what God does in their lives, and how He uses them in New York.  We love you, Raquel!

And I had some goodbye's to say as well.  This being my last recital with BethEl, there will be a lot of people I will miss as I leave them behind.  I'm so blessed to have so many people who love me, and the BethEl people will always be my family.  I will still enjoy coming back in the summers and seeing all of them.

On another note,  I published my book about a week ago!  That's crazy!  I can't believe I was able to complete it.  It's up for sale on Createspace and Amazon....I'm so excited!  Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.amazon.com/The-Conflict-Love-Volume-1/dp/1482778491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370746281&sr=8-1&keywords=sarah+bethany+johnson+conflict+of+love

I'll leave you with a verse to finish this post.

Trust in the LORD and do good ; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD ; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.  Cease from anger and forsake wrath ; Do not fret ; it leads only to evildoing.
Psalm 37:3-8

Endings

   Tonight marks the end of my time dancing with Dance 4 Joy Ministries.  I have been with the ministry since it was founded about 5 years ago.  It has been a wonderful experience, especially these last few years as I got to teach with the ministry and be part of an amazing adult ministry team.  I will miss these wonderful ladies, but I can't wait to see how the Lord grows and uses this ministry over the coming years! 
   Thank you Lord for all the things I've learned, and thank you Jessica, Jill, Danielle, Christy, and Ruth for all the encouragement, advice, and good times!  I'll miss you! <3

~Sarah~