Wednesday Eve Cell-a-brations

And I hope that you'll risk tonight just being yourself and letting God expand you just a little bit this evening. And I want to say particularly, let me have all your attention, if you're a little more comfortable in the things I'm going to talk about tonight, it's going to be important that you help some of those who aren't as comfortable because it will be a stretching night for a few people. So look around and see the people who are stiff as a board and you'll know where you can be assigned. I'm going to talk tonight about worship. And if you look in the yellow sheet, we made this so bright that you can't possibly lose it. It's called Entering into Small Group Worship. That's the beginning part of tonight. And so the first period of the evening will be about that dynamic and then the second half will be more corporate in nature. I want to start by just sharing with you something that I couldn't help but reflect upon. How many of you, I see Paul and Greg sitting in the back. That's still the rooted Presbyterianism in them. Can't help themselves. You were here day one on. Paul is one of the original nine brothers that said, Hey, I'm there. Wouldn't you say, those of you who have been with us a long time, we've had a wonderful heritage of worship in our church. I mean, we have been blessed over the years. I started thinking about this, Dave. We didn't know much when we started, believe me. We did not know much. Whatever we had learned, we had learned in our youth fellowship. We came as some young people who knew that God was moving around the country in worship, but not really how to do it. And we started learning. We just started eating up everything we could get our hands on and going places and people coming to us. The Lord would teach us things. But anyhow, the heritage of that over the years led to some pretty wonderful things. You may not know this. Some of you are newer. 1987, 88, and 89, we had worship conferences that North Way held out at the Sheridan North. They were actually East Coast regional conferences. We had people, 400 and 500 registrants full time for four days. People would fly in, come to these conferences, and receive teaching, not just from us but from other folks from all over the country. Marvelous times. The banner ministry that we more or less take for granted. North Way probably has at least a reputation, and I mean this in a positive way, of one of the premier banner ministries in the country. That was started in that season of time. The Lord used lots of different things to expand our hearts in that. We had some wonderful worship tapes. How many of you have a copy of Journey Through the Veil? That's our last tape. That's scary. That was quite a few years ago. Susie wrote most of the songs. I helped with putting together the concept and our band. All volunteers. Everybody just put their time into it. I get letters from people around the world that have gotten copies of that little cassette tape. I think it's time that we think about doing something else, something newer. What do you think? Not that there isn't almost an overload of worship music out there, but there's something about when it's coming and flowing out of your spirit. All these things are just wonderful expressions of God's faithfulness to us. Not that we've always done everything we should or have been altogether fulfilling God's perfect vision for us. There's a scripture in Acts where the Bible says that the Lord is going to restore Davidic worship. What he's talking about there is in the end days, as the Holy Spirit has poured out, people will worship once again with that same passion that David worshipped and which were the psalms that all of us love and so on. But tonight I want to talk about, first of all, what happens when you get in a small group to worship. I don't know about you, but this is something that we've got to overcome. I'm going to have very little problem if you've got the time to just enjoy worshiping the Lord on your own. Assuming that you're in a car and no one can hear you or locked away. No one's evaluating, but if you have the time, it's just great. You open the psalms or you put on a worship tape or you just sing your heart out or whatever it is. You and the Lord, I mean, it's good. How many of us find that when we finally get here on Sunday and get tuned in and we just kind of sense the Spirit of the Lord, it's good. Then maybe you have a couple of other larger settings where you get into those settings and it's good. And you sense God is pleased. But one of the toughest venues for worship is a small group where you have eight or ten, maybe a dozen people. And part of the order of the evening is, well, it's time to worship the Lord together. Because what happens in that setting? Well, when you're with a thousand people or even a hundred people, your faults as a singer or your hesitations, all that, that kind of gets buried. Who knows? You get with eight or ten and you start frogging out there or that monotone in the wrong key or whatever. And you're saying, I don't even want to hear this, let alone the person next to me. So we all tend to just be much more conscious of ourselves, right? Isn't that the point? Well, I want to talk tonight about how important it is that we overcome some of those inhibitions. Because one of the things, one of the values in our cell ministry is learning how to open up in worship in the small group setting. And as we do this, there's a whole list of benefits. I'm not going to get into those tonight. But one of them will be, as you learn to worship the Lord expressively and biblically in a small group setting, you'll find the Holy Spirit will begin to activate some of the gifts we've been talking about. Some of the expression gifts, some of the revelation gifts. And the two go hand in hand. They do. So there's a lot of other things, but that's one of the reasons. Let's look here real quickly. I'm going to go right down this list and then get ready because we're going to do it tonight. Here's five ways to help you overcome your inhibitions and enter into small group worship. Number one, and who's helping me tonight? Karen, thank you. You've got to start with forgiveness. You say, well, what do you mean? I mean, I'm not mad at anybody. Well, I have discovered, in fact, do we have that on overhead, Matthew 5, 23? If not, turn to, we may not. Turn to, in your Bible, Matthew 5, 23. Here is an axiom. Don't bother coming to try to worship the Lord if you've got a bad attitude. Because God does not look on the outer man. He looks on the heart. And friends, there are times, there are times when all of us know we come to a worship experience, whether it be in the large assembly, but particularly in the small assembly, which I'll talk about in a moment, when we have an attitude. And I want you to look and see what the Scripture says about this. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. In other words, don't come and pretend that, you know, Lord, you and I are really tight, and I worship you, and you're my God, and you're my Redeemer, and my Savior, and my Forgiver. But, oh man, I can't stand Shelly. Oh, oh, oh. Why? Why did Dave say that to me? What's wrong with him? In our minds, you see, because God knows. The very first thing, the first question you need to ask yourself, Lord, am I holding, am I harboring anything in my spirit? Because until you can release that to the Lord, worship is going to be a shell for you. It's going to be a hollow experience. So, forgiveness. And remember, I mean, that's another old teaching, but forgiveness, I know, is much easier said than given. And you're saying, well, wait a minute, are you talking about my husband who divorced me, you know, blah, blah, blah, and I still don't know if I forgive him. Well, I'm talking about the degree to which you're aware and conscious of unforgiveness. It's your responsibility to deal with that. And mainly the day-to-day kind, forgiveness. Now, you may need to go and make it right afterwards, but at least in your spirit you can give it to begin that time. Second, open to the Spirit. Once you've allowed God to reveal in your heart what needs to happen, then you say, Holy Spirit, come, come and fill me with your life. If you want to put a scripture on that, one of the best New Testament passages on worship is in John chapter 4, and it says in verse 24, God is Spirit, and those are in Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to come in preparation to open your heart to worship. Open to the Spirit, John 4, 24. Then Roman numeral 3, concentrate on Christ. Concentrate on Christ. Worship, at least in its initial stages, friends, is very much a mental discipline. Wouldn't you say? Even though we worship in spirit and in truth, the first thing that's got to get engaged in worship isn't your mouth, it's your head. Isn't that right? Mentally, the enemy knows if he can start you thinking about anything else and get down that road, how many of you find in your prayer life that the toughest thing you've got to do is get your mind thinking about God and get it off of the kids who need to get dressed for school or the stuff that's piling up in the basement or the bills you haven't paid. I think Oswald Chambers calls it mental wool gathering. That's a good 19th century phrase. But that's what happens in worship. Our mind gets drawn in a lot of different directions. To me, the worst place for distractions is in the small group. I'm going to talk the second half of the evening about distractions in the large group setting. But in the small group, it is so easy to be… What are some things that can distract us in the small group? Dogs barking. We don't have that problem here, usually. In my small group, our small group leader had a dog. It was on amphetamines or something. It would just jump up and down against the glass door. Outside, just jump up and down. And we'd be trying to worship, and then we'd start laughing. And it wasn't holy laughter. It was just laughing at the dog. What else? What's another one? Babies. Babies. It's sometimes hard to sense the anointing when there's this ongoing rush of wailing. What else? The telephone can ring. We have had a few interruptions here of that nature. But by and large, we're free of electronic distractions. But there's all kinds of things. In the small group setting, one another's personal hygienes can enter in. You're more aware of somebody's breath and this and that. It's just more intimate by nature. Someone hasn't changed their socks, guys. So all these distractions are not holy. This isn't godliness. This is all just stuff that complicates things. So you have to begin to put the mind on Christ. And that requires just a major amount of effort sometimes. I can say so much about that. There's a course we used to sing, one of the verses of which was, Let's forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him and worship Him. That is still a good word. Forget about yourself, concentrate on Him and worship Him. Number four, understand the direction. You see, in worship, there is always a flow. I want to write that underneath there. There's always a flow of worship. And by definition, what does flow imply? Point A to point B, it implies there's a direction going on. If there's no flow, that means it's going nowhere. And in a small group, it takes a while to discern, What is the flow of this going to be? Is it going to be exuberant? Is it going to be declarative? Is it going to be intimate? Is it going to be soft? Is it going to be holy? And then your role as a participant in that small group is to enter into that flow. Listen real carefully on this one. This is true about corporate prayer in a small group as well. One of the greatest impediments to holding back the Spirit from releasing the Spirit is we all tend to think that what we're going to say, do, sing or shout or whatever is like, this is it. I mean, the group's been waiting for me to say this prayer or to start this song. When in fact, I've discovered that if I just say, Lord, let me enter into what you're doing here and follow what was just said or spoken or prayed or sung with something that's in that flow, that it begins to grow. It begins to mount in power. It's not that you shouldn't initiate at all. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, be sensitive to what flow is going and then get into that flow. And you'll find that the level of your worship will rise. The stream will rise as you understand the flow. Now, I should say here that it's the responsibility of the leader of the group to kind of discern what that flow might be. But in some cases, your group may not have a leader that's real strong. So the Lord will sort of, you'll sense tonight, hey, we just seem to be really focusing in these few moments on the names of God. And we're just going to stay there. And so I'm not going to bring in a whole new subject. We'll just do that for tonight. And that'll be the flow. That will make your small group worship experience much more meaningful. And finally, speak and sing as led. You don't have any of these? I don't have that one. Isn't that weird? You don't understand the direction of this. Well, that's what it is. Number five, speak and sing as led. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, Psalm 34 verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always or continually be on my lips. Friends, this last part, again, I know how basic this is for some of you. But in a small group is not the time to sense the anointing for holy silence. There is a time for holy silence. But when the group is seeking to worship, if you just sit there and say, I'm in a holy silence. Unless the flow has taken you there, then that's a different story. But I can't overemphasize how important it is that you contribute your voice. And let me assure you that God does not care how blessed a singer you are. Most of us aren't all that blessed. But together, there's something sweet about our voices and the strong kind of carry the week. And the Lord is pleased with it. And we can all speak. And one of the things you'll hear Dave and I do, and Susie or Jeff or Scott, whoever might be leading Praise and Worship, John Wall, you'll hear us say, declare your praises, speak your praise. Well, there is a discipline of that, that you have to sometimes just do. And so when there's a time in your small group gathering when the leader may say, let's just speak our praise to the Lord. Well, it's an interesting study. How that can usually, I mean, I think if you put a clock on it, it would be about 28 seconds. And we run out of spoken praise. I mean, God has given us everything about this life, creation, all of nature, all of the good things we have. And in 28 seconds, we say, praise God, hallelujah, we love you, Lord, thank you, God, glory to Jesus, praise God, hallelujah, goodbye. And it's 28 seconds, you know. And instead of really allowing, you know, as the Psalms do, just to begin to probe the faithfulness of God. And just think about, oh, man, I could go on that one for five minutes of spoken praise. So sing and speak as led. Led by who? Led by the spirit in your life. And again, sensitive to the leadership of another person who might be leading your small group. Okay? Now, if you look at those five things, forgiveness, openness, concentration, understanding, and speaking, it's a little acronym which means, which spells focus. And that's the key to effective small group worship is focus. Bring the focus from everything out there to the place where it needs to be on the person of Jesus. Now, I thought, well, what should we do to apply this to life? You know, we can't all go to our cell groups tonight because some of us have our groups here and some don't. But I thought, well, why not practice this? So, this wonderful band, look at them up here, how charged they are. But rather than have them lead us at this time, we're simply going to allow you the privilege of spending some time in a small group worship experience. Now, if you're new to us tonight, or I know some of you are newer to this whole church, this whole thing is different for you, this is going to stretch you because you're going to have to go from being real safe to now you're going to be in a group of six or eight people, and I'm going to ask you to have some time of praise and worship before the Lord. Now, here's what we're going to do. We're going to spread around the auditorium. This is a big room. There's a good-sized group tonight, but there's plenty of room, so no one has to be within 15 feet of any other group. And I'm not going to go around and count heads, but I would say six is a minimum and ten is a maximum. Okay? No one has a problem with, you know, if there's a threesome and it makes 11, I'm not going to yank one of you out. But below six, too small, more than ten, well, you just can start hiding again. So I want you to find, and it can be, Aaron might come all the way over here and get with Missy, it doesn't matter. You don't have to be with your friends. You can be if you'll feel more secure. But we did give you a little something to help. This blue sheet has two things on it. They're a listing of several of my favorite psalms of praise and worship, ones I just like to read from time to time, and then the blue, I'm sorry, then the choruses are some of the more familiar and easier to sing choruses. And so you can use these or not. Your group may just, this may not be the flow of your group. Your group may be flowing a different direction, and you can just put this on the chair. This is just meant to be something there to help you just a little bit if you'd like to. Okay, enough direction? So now what you have to do, and I want you to be very inclusive, and I don't, I want to appeal again to those of you who say, oh, I can't wait for this. Look for the people who right now are, you know, they're, they want to get under their chairs or they're going to head right back. Unfortunately, Bill has locked the door so you can't leave. You are going to stay. And we're going to give you a chunk of time. This isn't going to be a three-minute exercise. We're going to give you about 12, 10 to 15 minutes. We'll just sense what the Lord is doing. So that means you're going to have to do this. Okay, but it's going to be great, and you're going to delight in bringing pleasure to the Lord. Okay, so let's stand together and take your blue sheet and your Bible if you have it, and go with the people that you feel like you can maybe risk this with, and then spread out. Now, one more thing. You may want to appoint a leader in your group, but if not, you can just kind of let it work. Some of you go in the corners, okay? Don't abandon each other. Make sure you stay together. Some of you are going to get one of the worship team members, but they're not going to lead it. They're just going to be part of it. All right, here's a little rebellious group of four. They need two. They need at least two down in front here. Oh, folks, I recommend that you stand as long as you can. I recommend that you stand as long as you can. Well, this group here, I thought it might be. Yeah, go down and help this little rebellious group. They need some help. Glory, glory, glory to the Lord. God, speak your praise to them. Speak your praise, Lord, we have served you. Worship your name, mighty one. Lord, we delight in your glory and in your presence. In your name, Lord, find a habitation over us all. May you fill up this place, God, with glory. May we see you, Lord, for your fullness of the beauty and loveliness. May all of our... Now in the presence of the Lord, let's just be quiet for just a moment. In your eyes, holding me still. Holding me in your arms. In your arms, holding me still. Holding me. Take them in your arms, Lord. Lift us to your sweet dreams. Holding in your arms. In your arms. In your arms. Holding me still. I want to ask you to do something. Just keep your eyes closed. And why don't you just put your arms around you right now. Lord, we can't feel you in the flesh, but you symbolize me right now. Thanks for putting her. Thanks for accepting us, Lord, in our struggles. Thanks for forgiving us in our sin. Embracing us, Lord, in our humanity. Thank you for holding on to us, Lord, in our fierce struggles. Renew us, Lord, and when we leave this place in just a moment, remind us that those arms are locked securely around us. In the name of Jesus, be seated for a moment. I want to ask you a question. As you worshiped in your small group, was that good? It really varied from group to group. This group was little. They had Dave and Mike, and they spiked themselves up. It seemed like most every group I circulated around was in some expression. And that was a group of folks that had relatively unrehearsed, unprepared. I mean, Susan and I were thinking, well, should we stop this? What did you learn? Real quickly, just share with each other. What things did you learn? Wasn't it as scary as you thought? Great, that's a good comment. And, you know, what is the ultimate expression of that in Revelation? When we gather around the throne, there's going to be people there from every nation and tribe and tongue, and we're all going to be worshiping because we're lost. Yeah, the longer you got into it, and actually that's one of the actions. You have to do this for a while. And if you're new, and this is new to many of you, and I'm sure it is to at least some of you tonight, don't be intimidated. It's a growing thing. Some people around you have been doing this for a long time, working the way into it, but it is. It does help to have some instruments, doesn't it? But unfortunately, we can't pack these guys in a van and take them around to all the cell groups. But you know what? We can discover some things. And you don't always have to have an instrument in a van. Sometimes just your voice really is God's provision. You know, you all have your five-stringed instruments that you can play. So it's a time to discover things about yourself. I need to go. It's 8.30. I'm just going to share with you. I didn't get to the back side of the page. So we'll pick this up next weekend. Let's do this one thing. If you feel like God is doing something to you, I just tell one person on Sunday, Hey, by the way, Wednesday nights, God's meeting us. And I really sense he is. And he's going to continue to do that. And I want to thank the band tonight. Don't you? Just for coming. I appreciate you guys. Very much. What do we have here? Transethnic Fellowship. This is our group that meets to build on strategies for building bridges of racial reconciliation. It's tomorrow night. Up there in the Prairie Chapel. If you've never been, come tomorrow night for the first time. Those of you who have been part of the group, you know what we're working on. And we're going to be building on that tomorrow evening. Valentine Dance. You've heard about this somewhere. It's coming. But let me say, if you're hesitant, wondering if this will be worth that much money, the answer is, no doubt. It really was. It was fun. The final sign-ups, I guess, for the grief support and search for significance, small groups which start next Monday and Tuesday. You can call in, I think. Pastor Scott, you can just call in, registration. And then this Sunday, after the great Youth Ministry Sunday last week, getting back into this series on coming home to the community. What I'm going to do is I'm going to talk a little bit about wineskins, and that is the structure that God's giving. And then I'm going to also talk to someone Sunday about the new wine the Board's pointing out. I'm going to give you a little bit of a report about our visit to Pensacola and the amazing thing that's happening there, a revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God and what I think that means, perhaps, to us. So expect the unexpected on Sunday. Plus, we have water baptism in both services, and so we're going to have some people. It's going to be powerful. It'll be a great service. If you've been hesitant, bring someone on Sunday that you want to see God at work in a church. He's doing some great things. Okay? All right. Chris, if you'll help me, and Bill McCabe, you sit back here. I have a couple of people. If you want to, if you brought your tithes or a special offering tonight, the guys will be in the back. Oh, Walt, Walt will be there. Thanks. Walt will be there. He'll receive your offering tonight as you leave. So let's stand. I'd like you to just pray over us, throw in a hand with someone. Get everything. Lord, thank you that your word tells us that we have been called priests, the kingdom of priests, the Most High God, and that tonight we all experience something of that priestly ministry. And Lord, in return, we sensed your presence. We heard your voice. Some of us have been comforted, Lord. Some of us have been reminded of your love. Some of us, Lord, have been forgiven afresh for today's failures in a way that we really needed to be touched. But, Lord, all of us will say tonight, thank you for being such a wonderful God. And thank you, Lord, that you are as real to us as the air that we breathe, the next breath that we take. So sustain us along, Lord, and help us tomorrow to share your love with whomever you bring across our path. Help us to have the courage, Lord, and open up those arms of love this Sunday. And then why don't you take those arms and just give someone a big hug and say, hey, it was great to be with you. God bless you. See you Sunday.