Transformative Living Through Worship: A Call to Holistic Growth

1. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God. William Temple

2. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living To worship is to experience reality, to touch life. It is to know, to feel and experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of a gathered Community. It is a breaking into the 'Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the 'Shekinah' of God. Richard Foster: "The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him (John 4:23)

3. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12: 1,2

4. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living What does it mean to be transformed? ‘to change into another form’. “Metamorphosis”

5. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living . ‘After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured (transformed) before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light’. Matthew 17: vv1-2

6. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living ‘Be transformed’ ‘be continually transformed’ Therefore if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come. The old has gone and the new is here! 2 Cor. 5:17

7. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living 2. What is the goal of this transformation? To become more like Jesus And we all (who are allowing us to be transformed) who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory are being TRANSFORMED into his image with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18

8. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living ‘Present/Offer our bodies (all that you are) as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God' Hebrews 10:5 (NLT) 5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.

9. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living 3. What is our motivation to seek this transformed life of offering true worship? ‘In view of God’s mercy offer yourselves as a living sacrifice’ Romans 12 v. 1

10. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living The motivation for transformation is due to the love of Jesus 2 Cor. 5: 14 -15 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

11. Worship as Lifestyle – A call to transformative living when 'the windows of heaven were open,' when God 'did appear in the midst of the congregation' when 'the spirit of glory. As usual rested upon them.' John Wesley