The Jesus Correction with Craig Smee 1
The Jesus Correction
The Worship Correction
In Jesus’ time on Earth, He wasn’t interested in token gestures. He didn’t care about outward behavior. He shook up anyone whose faith was lukewarm, and He brought hope to the broken, the lost, and those tangled in sin by showing them what true worship could be.
In this series, we’ll go beyond the simple words or phrases that we often use to loosely describe what it means to follow Christ, and open ourselves up to discover the knots in our lives that Jesus wants to correct, so that we can live an authentic faith. We will leave with an understanding of the roadblocks Jesus wants to remove from our spiritual walks as well as a renewed.
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Week 1: The Worship Correction
Week 2: The Purpose Correction
Week 3: The Hypocrisy Correction
Week 4: The Pride Correction
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Unbridled expression of who and what we are.
Nations are divided, communities fight, and families fracture
Jesus came to explain the full picture of who we are. He came to describe God, help us attain wholeness by understanding our source and our future and He came to help us understand our humanity in the context of eternity and divinity.
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John 14:9 (New Living Translation)
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
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Worship is the unique reflection of who God made you to be.
The full expression of who we are. The desire of who God is. We have clouded our journey. Jesus wants to correct our thinking to enlarge the expression of who we are and who we have been made to be.
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The expression of life, the full living declaration of our humanity often goes undeclared and the desire for fullness is left unfulfilled and empty.
Dreams remain fantasy
Plans remain desires
Songs remain unwritten
Stories end on cliff hangers with no next seasons
Business never seems to finish
Answers are only fit for today
Songs we sing—Sermons we preach—Acts service we do
Empty
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Ecclesiastes 1:14 (New Living Translation)
14 I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.
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To explain ourselves, we set practices that make sense for a moment but get repeated for a lifetime. We take fulfillment from regulating others through these practices and attach divinity to the human religion of self created rhythms.
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Matthew 15:1-2 (New Living Translation)
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Pharisees—Obsessed ceremonial cleanliness
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Our emptiness drives us to adhere to self-sustaining ideologies (we called it Worship)
But worship is not an act or a rule to follow, it is an unbridled expression of the wonder of the life we have been given.
Obsessing over externals.
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Matthew 15:7-8 (New Living Translation)
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain…’ ”
Jesus needs to correct our WORSHIP
Hollow, Empty, Vain
Praising God externally because of an internal explosion of joy
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We have confused worship: Style, Environment Song selection.
Different? Love worship—Don’t like worship.
Hymns
Charismatic—Raising hands—Shouting—Dancing—Ribbons.
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Worship isn’t about the style of music—The condition of your heart.
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Christianity is not a hobby—Not an interest—Not just a part of our lives.
Christ is life! Because Christ has a unique ability to bring us understanding about what we desire to express, what we desire to shout out from the highest places. What life we desire to live.
He has this unique ability because He alone can explain the source of those desires.
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Worship isn’t limited to the songs we sing—Life we live!
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HOW DO WE EXPRESS OUR WORSHIP?
Sometimes we bow in reverence.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Ps 95 Psalmist said…
Kneel in reverent submission—You are holy!
One day every knee will bow…
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Sometimes we lift our hands in adoration.
Not a weird thing—Bible thing—Paul (lift holy hands to God)
4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name, I will lift up my hands. Ps 63:4 David in the wilderness
Sign of: Surrender or a sign of Victory
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Sometimes we dance in celebration.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing. Ps 149:3
David said you turned my weeping—into dancing!
Someone has been Set free! Healed! Forgiven.
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Sometimes we worship with a sacrifice of praise.
Hebrews 13:15 (New Living Translation
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise… Hebrews 13:15
We worship him when we feel Him and we worship Him when we don’t. We worship when we are joyful and when we are low.
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Our worship isn’t based on our circumstances it is based on His character.
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Daily, we lay down our lives as an act of worship.
Romans 12:1 (New Living Translation)
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. Romans 12:1
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Worship isn’t just the songs we sing—Life we live.
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Who is God?
Our Rock, our Redeemer, Righteousness.
God is our Deliverer, our Defense.
Our Strength, our Shield, our Salvation.
He is the Bread of life—Living water.
He is the Good Shepherd—True vine—Way, Truth, and Life.
Light of the world—Lamb of God—Lion of Judah.
He is All-powerful—All-knowing—Ever present.
He is the Alpha—Omega—Beginning and end.
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INVITATION
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1 Chronicles 16:25-36 (New Living Translation)
Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods.
The gods of other nations are mere idols,
but the Lord made the heavens!
Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and joy fill his dwelling.
O nations of the world, recognize the Lord,
recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.
Give to the Lord the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.
Let all the earth tremble before him.
The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.
Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
Cry out, “Save us, O God of our salvation!
Gather and rescue us from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
and rejoice and praise you.”
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
who lives from everlasting to everlasting!