Truth: Before you stand to work, sit and worship. After crossing the Jordan, Joshua is ready to get to work. God is going to insist that Joshua focus less on the work that needs to be done and more on being prepared for the work. Joshua meets the Angel of the Lord, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, who reminded Joshua that it was God who did the fighting and Joshua was to worship in his presence before going to work.   

Response: Have you experienced times you have advanced without worshiping first? Ask the Holy Spirit to point out areas in your life that distract you in your worship of God. Pray for strength and desire to prioritize the worship of God.

Truth: Worship produces power, direction, and peace. For our work to be effective for the kingdom we must be connected to God, our power source, thus we must prioritize worship. The direction we need for our work comes from God that is received when we are walking in intimate communion with God. Worship keeps us in a posture of dependency, reminding us that it doesn’t all depend on us; it depends upon God, which produces peace.

Response: Can you think of a time when you were simply “going through the motions” as a Christian? Can you trace those times to a lack of power due to a lack of worship? List some areas of your life where you are depending on yourself and not God. Pray that God will reveal areas of your heart where you can improve your posture of submission and your worship.

Truth: Meet God in His word daily and meet God with His people weekly. Worship is responding to who God is and what He has said. So, worship must begin with going to the place where God has revealed Himself – His word. God also reveals Himself in the context of the gathering of the saints. We must make gathering with the people of God for worship a priority in our lives and families.

Response: What are some things that keep you from meeting God in His word daily or with His people weekly? What are some practices you can develop to grow in these areas? Ask the people of God in your community at church to help you grow in these areas. Surrender your life to Jesus by yielding command to the Angel of the Lord – Jesus Christ.

Family Response

Truth:  Lots of people worship as if it is a duty they have to perform for God.  They agree to worship God at a certain place for a certain time in exchange for His provision of their wish list called “prayer requests.”  But worship isn’t just something we do to God, worship is how we experience God; therefore, worship must be a daily part of our life in Christ Jesus.

Response:  Worship at home helps prepare our children for worship at church.  Many church-attending parents lead their children to pray to God pretty regularly and routinely have Christian music playing in the house.  Our children also need to practice worshiping God through His Word in our homes. Depending on the age of your kids, worshiping God through His Word might be 1) reading Scripture over them even before they can respond, 2) reading a Bible storybook with them, or 3) guiding them to read a verse or set of verses for the family.  As soon as they can talk, lead them to talk through responding what’s read from God’s Word with their actions and attitudes.

Response:  Pastor Rickey shared a humorous anecdote related to his level of preparedness or lack thereof when it came to doing a job.  Give your kids a good laugh at your expense and share a work disaster of your own.

Prepare for Sunday, June 16, 2019