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Main Nugget

• We may not know or understand the totality of God’s plan for us, but we are to worship Him. Even through the trials, we are to worship Him anyway (God’s End in Sanctification).

Forming Our Habits to Grow Our Relationship with God

• The Israelites and Jews put great store in their temple, especially Solomon’s temple. In I Peter 2: 5, Peter tells us that we disciples are the living stones. We are that of what the Church is made (God’s End in Sanctification).
• We also know that any building of the temple must be through Him. He is still putting His temple together. One way to look at this is the spiritual temple is being increased. It must be a living entity. It must be a living sacrifice. Thankfully, God is still adding people as living stones. God still offers people salvation. The second way is God is increasing us. We grow as we are sanctified (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Mankind was created to worship God. Unfortunately, we disobeyed God’s one instruction. We lost the most important thing we had — a relationship with God. There was only one way that relationship could be restored. The penalty for sins had to be paid. There was only One Person Who was able to pay the price. That is God’s Son, Jesus. Only He could make atonement for them. Only the shedding of Jesus’ blood would pay the penalty (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Because God is Sovereign God, He is worthy of our praise. Because He is our Creator, it is our duty to worship Him. The obligation comes when we must worship God with our hearts, not just our lips. Our worship must flow from our love of God (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We must submit totally to Him — and be sincere. When God asks us to submit, He is asking us to follow His laws and commandments. All are ones we can keep (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• In Revelation 8: 3, we are told where the worship is to happen. It occurs at the altar of God. We come to the altar, acting like priests. We offer sincere worship at this altar (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Our worship must stem from God’s worthiness. We have to worship God for Who He is. He is a loving, caring Father (Why We Worship God).
• God gives us specific instructions regarding what is and isn’t acceptable ways to worship Him. He gave specific instructions as to how we are to worship Him. The main point here is that God has specific requirements for worship. God will only accept genuine spiritual worship. We do not want to deviate from them (Why We Worship God; God’s End in Sanctification).
• Spiritual worship is about how God has called us to worship. It isn’t about us worshiping any way we desire. This is evidence that we can’t just be a good person. God requires spiritual worship to be performed His way rather than the world’s way The worst thing we could do is follow the customs of the world. They may look all nice and shiny, but they aren’t designed to be loving and uplift us. We can’t even look like we are doing research on worshiping something else than God. It is too easy to be sucked into it. We need to leave it alone. (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• God is worthy of our spiritual worship. More importantly, He designed Plan of Salvation, so that we could worship Him again (Why We Worship God).
• God has no problem coming to us. He has always come down to us. He was face to face with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He was in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, leading the Wilderness Wanderers to the Promised Land. Most importantly, God came down in the form of Jesus. He willingly came down, died, and rose again so that the penalty for our sins could be paid (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• God makes His presence known not just by dropping thoughts into our minds. He uses all our senses to get our attention and get us in gear (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• God will be with us every step of our journey (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• We like the think that God is always near calling on us. We picture Jesus always knocking on our door. (Rev. 3: 20). Does God resign Himself that we aren’t going to repent and back off? He was still pleading with the church, but half-heartedly (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We must prepare to be in God’s presence for all eternity (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• God charges us with our sins. He cannot associate with sinful creatures. These sins undermine our worship (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• God provides His best for mankind by offering us the Plan of Salvation. The best God could give us was the birth, death, and resurrection of His Son. By no other way could we gain salvation (A Twist on Best Spiritual Worship).
• God chose to offer us the Plan of Salvation. It is up to us to accept it (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• God provides His best for mankind by offering us eternity (A Twist on Best Spiritual Worship).
• Salvation isn’t the end. Sanctification is. It is the restoration process (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• God is holy — we aren’t. Jesus comes to us as we are. He sees the worthiness and beauty in us. Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t leave us as we are. Once we ask Him to be our Savior and Redeemer, we start on the Sanctification Road. What God is doing is sanctifying us so that we are holy as He is (God’s Nature and Our Nature; God’s End in Sanctification; A Twist on Best Spiritual Worship).
• The wonderful thing about prayers is they will be answered. When we sincerely pray in God’s will, and in Jesus’ name, God will hear (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• We sometimes question how God can hear all of the different prayers. He can hear them all because they come to Him as one prayer. Every prayer must come through Jesus (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Prayer is an important indicator of the sincerity of our spiritual worship. We have to be in communion with God to genuinely worship Him (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Many in Jesus’ day thought suffering was the result of sin. Jesus’ suffering clearly shows us that is not the case. We can’t think that, because Jesus was 100% God, He didn’t suffer. He was also 100% man. He did suffer (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Jesus suffered in order to provide mankind redemption. So, the cause of His suffering was our sins. It is only through this suffering and atonement that we gain access to God. We are forgiven of our sins, making us holy and righteous. We can only have communion with God when we are pure as He is (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).

• The great thing is Jesus had to suffer only once. True, it has been said that Jesus suffered from the cradle to the grave. But Jesus died only once to provide us salvation. We may continue to sin after conversion, but that doesn’t mean Jesus had to die again. Jesus died once so that everyone had the opportunity to be redeemed (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Jesus suffered physical death, but the spirit is more important than the physical body (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• It was always in the Plan that the Messiah would suffer. God could have designed the Plan of Salvation to be fulfilled in some other way than death. He could have saved Jesus from death. But that was the Plan (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Our sufferings are not more extraordinary than Jesus’. He still suffered even though He was God (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Why was Jesus the only One Who could pay the penalty for our sins? He could provide redemption for us because He was the only One Who never sinned. He was the only just Person. Everyone else has chosen to disobey God. Jesus was the only One totally obedient (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Jesus was just; we aren’t. He died for us anyway. This shows us how much Jesus loves us (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Jesus could not raise Himself from the grave. Only God could do that (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).

Glossary

Worship

Praise

Sin

Salvation

Holy

Redeem

Prayer

Forming Our Habits to Grow Our Maturity

• We have to follow God’s directions. He wants our obedience. Our sacrifices have to be pure. No, I don’t think this is necessarily out of place. Yes, it is the end goal. We can only truly get there through sanctification (Why We Worship God).
• This positive holiness has to get down to the heart level. It has to permeate our lives. We just have to make sure it is God’s moral attributes and spiritual graces that we are imitating and not the world’s morals. We also have to make sure that we have all of God’s spiritual graces. That is the only way we attain perfection (God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• Why is it important that we are being sanctified? It is because, by being sanctified, we are becoming holy and righteous. Renewing our hearts is another way to describe sanctification. Mankind was one way in the Garden of Eden. Sin happened, and we changed. We need to change back so that our character will be more like God’s (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• If we aren’t in the process of sanctification, God is not with us. That really speaks to those who think they can make a profession of faith so that they have fire insurance, but not do anything about it. We must change our character to God’s (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• If we don’t renew our hearts, we are not sanctified. If we are not sanctified, we are not holy. If we are not holy, we will not be admitted to eternal life with God (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• To withhold our spiritual faculties is to deny them the end and use for which they were given (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Our motivations have to be right and our worship sincere. We must worship God because He is worthy of worship. We have to keep the Lord’s Day. The assemblies, meetings, and feasts must be done in devotion to God. We have to tithe. To me, this is more than only giving money. It is giving God His due in all things. We must worship in faith and with repentance (Why We Worship God).
• We can and do fake sincerity in private worship. But when we get to that point, don’t we usually stop worshiping? (Why We Worship God)
• Bottom line is our worship must be an unblemished offering to Sovereign God. Our priority must be to give God the worship He is due. He must be the central, foremost object of our worship. The offering of worship must be given in reverence to God. Our spiritual worship must stem from Who God is and His difference from us. We can’t get sloppy and weary in worshiping Him. Our spiritual worship must stem from our quest for godly wisdom and understanding (Why We Worship God; God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• To restore our worship of Him, we have to do exactly what God says for us to do (Why We Worship God).
• Only those who fear God are truly wise. Spiritual worship is when we cry out for this knowledge and understanding. We are looking for knowledge and understanding that only God can supply (God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• God has given each of us talents and abilities through His grace. He doesn’t give us these just so we have them. We are to use these gifts to worship Him. If we don’t use them to His glory, we sin. God does not give each of us every gift. Also, while God can give several disciples the same gift, He gives them to us at differing levels. If disciples don’t use their gifts, the focus is wrong, rendering the gifts ineffective. We have a responsibility to use our God-given gifts correctly (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• In other words, we worship God by using our gifts to serve other disciples. Remember, James was talking to the church who — along with the Jews —had been dispersed across several nations. He isn’t talking about serving non-believers. That being said, we do use our gifts to serve non-believers. We use them God’s way, not the world’s way, to witness to them (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• If we don’t use the talents and gifts God has given us, we sin and do not worship Him. We are stewards of the gifts God gives us, not owners (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• We have to prepare for worship. If God Himself is approaching us, we have to know we are in the best possible place to welcome Him. We have to repent of our sins. We need to be focused on Him. We should be excited to be spending time with Him. It is important that we are navigating the Sanctification Road (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• It is really hard to read — no less understand — God’s Word. It is really hard to keep the law. Come on, no one can keep all the laws God gave us. That is the point. We should serve God because He is worthy, and we aren’t. There is no way we’re going to save ourselves (Why We Worship God).
• God wants all to accept the gift of salvation. In order to accept the Plan of Salvation, we need to repent (God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• From the get-go, a response is required. Our first response is to accept the gift of salvation. After we have gained salvation, our response is to serve God and others (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• We are living stones and priests only when we have asked Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer. It is only through His intervention that we can access God (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• We shouldn’t be surprised to be called priests. We should expect that when our devotion to God is at that level (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Our attitude in spiritual worship must be that we are seeking to please God. The attitude we have in prayer should be one of sacrificial offering (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• We can’t try to limit God based on what we know and believe is true. We have to worship him in spirit and truth (Why We Worship God).
• We have no access to God when our sinful natures reign in our lives. We will not act differently toward Him until we submit our lives to Him. God doesn’t want us to be ruled by two masters (God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• Being a disciple focuses on the positive — having a relationship with God, become more like Him, and the presence of grace. Another positive is that holiness is about imitation. We have to imitate God’s moral attributes by imitating Jesus (God’s Nature and Our Nature).
• It isn’t about being a moral person and self-gratification. It is about submitting our Will to God, obeying Him, and serving one another. It is about doing God’s good rather than the world’s evil (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• We only gain access to God after we have sincerely repented. God can’t let us into His throne room until we are set to leave our sins behind (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• We have to have made a sincere profession of faith. That is shown by a genuine desire and intentional submission to God’s plan for our lives (God’s Approach to Man in Worship).
• We think that suffering is bad. There is good that comes out of the pain. We learn much as we go through suffering. New ways are seen, and thought processes are changed (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• Conquering these sufferings are beneficial. We find out what we can withstand and celebrate our victories. But we have to watch how we approach these sufferings. Yes, we withstand — but only when we depend on God. Our sufferings aren’t about us and how strong we are. They are about how dependent we are on God (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• We show we are redeemed because of our spiritual worship (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• We must go through a refining process in order to worship God. Refining is important in the sanctification process (God’s End in Sanctification).
• It is easy for some to say we don’t need to be sanctified. We don’t think we need to change. But changing is all about switching from the old to the new. We are changing to meet the new standard — God’s standard. It isn’t a flip-the-switch deal. It takes time and incremental steps (God’s End in Sanctification).
• The goal of both the refinement and sanctification processes is to remove the impurities and make us/the metals pure. Mankind has a sinful nature that needs to be removed so that we can associate with God once more (God’s End in Sanctification).
• We are to reflect God. Because of that, it should be our desire to worship Him (God’s End in Sanctification).
• It is our duty, obligation, and privilege to worship God (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We sin and break God’s laws at times. However, we can choose to obey them and be successful (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• The psalmist said that we should worship the Lord with gladness. We shouldn’t consider submission a hard yolk (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• It is our privilege to worship God because He has redeemed us (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We worship God for Who He is and what He has done for us (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• When we do not worship God – when we don’t even acknowledge Him – our sinful nature reigns unchallenged (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• By nature, we have sinful natures. These became part of us when Adam and Eve originally sinned (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We think, after conversion, that we can’t sin. We also think that God has forgiven us of all our sins, so everything is okay. We forget about the sanctification process. God has forgiven us of our sins, but He does not exempt us from our cleansing (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We prepare our hearts for worship when we read God’s Word. We focus on God when we listen to Him. That helps us focus on Him (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• When we don’t use our knowledge to worship God, we live far away from Him (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We can’t offer worship to God that is not acceptable to Him (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• God tells us in His Word what is acceptable worship. We have to be knowledgeable about what is and isn’t acceptable (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• We want to stay close to God so that we can worship Him as we grow in our faith (If Spiritual Worship be Required).
• Our spiritual graces show how we use or morals to worship God (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• Our worship must be true, honest worship of Sovereign God. Our focus must not be elsewhere. We worship God because we love Him. We must worship God because we believe He is Sovereign God. Worshiping Him because of Who He is must be the foundation. We would humbly worship Him (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• Worshiping God brings us inner peace. Part of this is because God is forgiving (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We have to worship God in purity. If purity means without sin, our worship has to be true worship God’s way. We would be obedient in our worship (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• If sober means self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment as evidenced by a calm and temperate disposition, sober worship would follow those lines. I would say it would be respectful and consistent (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• Our worship of God brings us hope. True worship will be rewarded with eternal life (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We must diligently worship the right way (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• All we know was that, regardless how the outside looked, Jesus saw their hearts, and they weren’t right (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We know that diligence is important. It has several related words – consistency, perseverance, endurance, and discipline (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• Revelation 3: 2 doesn’t say watch. It says wake up. The one has us looking for the threat without. The one here has us looking for the threat within (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• Being a disciple isn’t just in name only. We have to love God to be a disciple (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• When our worship is wrong, we lead others to worship wrong. We are to lead them to God, not away (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We can’t be disciples in name only. We must be totally committed to God (Spiritual Graces in Spiritual Worship).
• We prepare our hearts for worship by seeking Him (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• What does it mean to be prepared for worship? We have to seek God before we can worship Him (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• God mercifully calls us to salvation. He calls us because salvation only comes from Him through Jesus, but we have to search for Him. In this search, He provides us the answers. We search for God the same way that we seek Him (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• We don’t know how God will call us. It could be through God’s Word, His Church, or His Spirit. However He chooses, He speaks to our souls. When God calls, we need to promptly answer. We need to do as He asks. That is the obedience for which God is looking. We don’t ask questions. We don’t doubt. We make a conscious decision to do what God says (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• We were created to worship God. So, it is our duty to believe in Him. But God allows us to choose. He gave us free will to do so (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Our focus must be on God so that we can hear this echo. Notice how short God’s part is. “Seek my face” (Ps. 27: 8 KJV) and “Come and talk with me.” The echo must come from our hearts. Genuine spiritual worship comes from the heart (Ps. 27: 8 NLT) (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• We get that focus by reading God’s Word, praying to Him – seeking Him. When we do all that, God through His grace will meet us as we worship Him (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• How many times do we think we can’t witness because we don’t know God’s Word from cover to cover? We think our faith is too small. God is looking for a simple response. It is a practical and personal response (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Spiritual worship shows us where our hearts and thoughts fail God (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Worship is part of our sanctification process (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• We don’t have a correct handle on sin. We aren’t going to understand and correct the things we need to until we worship God (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Worship is where we interact with God so that He can correct us. After worship, it is our duty to determine how God wants us to change (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• God doesn’t validate us as who we are. He corrects us so that we can become like Him (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• As He shows us how to grow, God comforts us. He is with us and love us through our sanctification process (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Spiritual worship starts with our purity (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• Purity — being sinless — has to be complete. Our inward transformation must be seen in our outward walk. Our outward transformation must be because of an inward transformation.
• Every aspect of our lives must be pure (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• It is only through our fellowship with God that we can attempt to be pure. Our attempts on our own will fail (Before and After Spiritual Worship).

Glossary

Obedience

Sanctification

Faith

Forming Our Habits to Grow Our Relationship with Others

• Prayer is how we are distinguished from non-believers (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• Our prayers are added to all other prayers. Yes, we are to pray individually to navigate the Sanctification Road as we should. But the prayers of all the saints are offered as one (The Attitude of Spiritual Worship).
• We have a tendency to downplay our spiritual gifts — if not deny them altogether. God doesn’t want that. That doesn’t grow His kingdom (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Luckily with practice, we get better using these gifts. We need to use these gifts within the church to serve other disciples (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• We can’t lose sight of the true purpose of the gifts. Yes, they are to be used to serve others. But their true purpose is to help sanctify us (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Our purpose is to worship God (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Without the engagement of our spirits, no act is an act of worship. The posture of the body is best to testify to the affection of the mind (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Our worship of God must be true worship. It can’t be lip service (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Spiritual worship is more than just doing the actions of being a good person (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• We have to be fully engaged to be a disciple of Christ (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• It is believing that we are in need of a Savior because we have sinned, that we can’t save ourselves, Jesus is the only one Who can save us, and we have to acknowledge God as Sovereign Lord. That reinforces that we can’t just have head knowledge. We have to have heart-knowledge (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• Our belief in God has to make a difference in our lives. It has to change who we are, what we do, and why we do it (When We Don’t Use Our Gifts in Spiritual Worship).
• It is our job as disciples to reach those who haven’t heard of Jesus’ love and sacrifice (Redemption in Spiritual Worship).
• We know it is God sanctifying us. The world may like to think it is us following all of the self-help books, but we know that we could never become as God is on our own (God’s End in Sanctification).
• Disciples won’t be at the same place on the Sanctification Road. Even those of the same age and same background won’t. Our faith is individual. It is between God and us where we are at and how He is going to get us where we are going (God’s End in Sanctification).
• We have to individually and collectively worship God. It was His plan all along that we were made to worship Him (God’s End in Sanctification).

Making the Connections

• The Israelites were worshiping — but not the right way. They hadn’t gotten to the spiritual worship level. Isn’t there nothing worse than thinking we are doing it God’s way, but we aren’t? (Why We Worship God).
• Mankind is proud. We are proud of our abilities and our accomplishments. Unfortunately, that can tend to make us become self-righteous. We feel we are always right. But it doesn’t stop there. We think others must think the same way we do. This was the same thing the Pharisees did. They rewrote God’s Word by adding a lot of laws that God didn’t say or even intend (God’s End in Sanctification).
• However impure mankind is, God is always looking to refine us. That can only start when we accept His offer of salvation (God’s End in Sanctification).
• The bottom line is we need refining because we have sinned. God offers us salvation and a process through which we can be refined (God’s End in Sanctification).
• We can take comfort in the fact that God knows we will not be able to be totally pure in this lifetime. We must want to be pure and must be navigating the Sanctification Road so that we are getting closer to being pure (Before and After Spiritual Worship).
• • •  

 

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Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme

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Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life nuggets