Time Alone With God

Dr. Tim Johnson

Day
One style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">

If you were in the worship service this weekend you know
that I shared a bit of the following with you… "Several years ago during my
first pastorate, I found myself slowly dying internally. I was becoming very
hardened…not mean mind you, but just numb. I was taking care of things simply
because of a high responsibility theme in my life. The demands of life were
killing the work of God in my life. I was not any more busy
than any other person who was self employed, but there was just something going
on internally that was slowly suffocating my life.

This particular year, I took a group of men from our
church to Promise Keepers and I had no idea what was about to happen in my
heart. I was about to enter into a new realm that would change my life forever.
Even though I was leading a church, I was a walking dead man
internally…something had died and I was not sure what that was.

As I got settled in my seat, a worship leader walked up to
the platform and asked us to pray that God would style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">open our eyes to see God for who
He is, not to open our eyes to figure out how to get through whatever problem we
were facing. That was a turning point for me and as continued to
be. What I was introduced to was the meaning of true worship. For too many
years, I saw God as the great Genie in the sky who (if properly addressed and
treated) would bring all your dreams to reality. I thought God's purpose was
to bless us.

As a follow up from this weekend's focus from Nehemiah
9, I want to challenge you in your worship of God this week.

Read
href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV&passage=Acts+17%3A22-29">Acts
17:22-29

Re-read verses
22-23. All people worship, not just believers in God. Why? class="GramE">Because all of us assess value to everything. We constantly
evaluate the level of value of what is brought before us. We assess the highest
value by giving allegiance to someone or something. The object of your
allegiance can be anything. We don't have a shortage of gods: people,
projects, position, power, etc.

We've taught this in the past. The way to
discover what or who you worship is by following certain trails that will lead
to a throne. And on that throne, you will find what you value most. Follow the
trail of your time/energy, trail of affections (what moves you), trail of your
allegiance (what you will die for), and the trail of your possessions.

Spend some time following those trails and
ask God to show you who/what is on that throne.

Trail of time-

Trail of affections (what do you think
about?)-

Trail of allegiance-

Trail of possessions-

Close your time in prayer offering up those results you
have discovered and ask God what He thinks of those findings.

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic">Day
Two

Worship is about God.
It's not about being human centered. It's not about me. It's not about me
getting my needs met. It's not about my preferred style or personal tastes. In
worship we gather and encounter the presence of the living God, and we declare
His greatness, His goodness, His glory with our hearts, minds, souls, and
strength.

Read
href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV&passage=Acts.+17%3A24-26">Acts.
17:24-26

Correct worship is so important that if it gets off track,
if the center of the target for worship is not painstakingly clear to all of us,
it will mean disaster for all the people of God. You can trace it through the
Bible. When the people of God got fuzzy about worship, they got divided. And the
outcome of division is loss of spiritual passion…cold hearts, hard
spirits…leading to death of a community. However, when there is passion for
God, the activity of God is high in the lives of the worshippers.

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Psalm
95:1-6 style="FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="LAYOUT-GRID-MODE: line">Come, let's shout praises to style="FONT-VARIANT: small-caps">God, raise the roof for the Rock class="GramE">Who saved us! Let's march into His presence singing
praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns! And why?
Because God is
the best, High King over all the gods. In one hand He holds deep caves
and caverns, in the other hand grasps the high mountains. He made the Ocean—He
owns it! His hands sculpted the Earth! So come, let us worship: bow before Him,
on your knees before God, Who made
us! Oh yes, He's our God, and we're the people He pastures, the flock He
feeds. style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">The Message Paraphrase

style="layout-grid-mode: line; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> face="Arial">I don't know if you noticed it in the reading, but worship is a
verb. Go back and underline all the actions words.

Worship is a participatory act. The problem is that we
live in such a spectator culture and if we are not careful, we bring that
culture into the way we worship. You and I go home and when we finally sit down,
we grab the remote control and off we go. And if we don't like what's on, we
change the channel. Some are better than others at changing the channels at
great speeds. I used to sit there in amazement and watch Lauren move through the
channels at an amazing speed. Now, we just go to the "Channel Guide" and we
can see not only what is on, but what is coming and decide what will meet our
needs.

We hold all the authority and we are saying, "You must
entertain me." We live in a spectator culture and true worship runs against
that because it is a participation event. And that spectator culture follows us
into our churches as well. If we are not careful, we begin to fill the roles of
worship like this…

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Audience
= You

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Actor
= Whoever is on stage

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Prompter
= God

God has not arranged it that way. God is the audience and
you and I are the actors. We are on His stage and we are to move in a way that
He is pleased with…in all areas of our lives. Worship is a verb, and that
means that you and I are to give God worship that comes from our hearts, minds, class="GramE">souls.

face="Arial">Close your Time Alone With God by
confessing any wrong roles you have been filling and commit to live this day for
God's pleasure, not yours.

face="Arial">

style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> face="Arial">Day Three

face="Arial">Remember this definition of worship? Worship is our response,
both personally and corporately to God for Who He is and what He has
done, expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live
our lives.

Read href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV&passage=Acts+17%3A27">Acts
17:27 style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">

All authentic is a response to
the revelation of who God is. God reveals, we respond. No one can make you
worship. Real worship happens when we see how awesome and incredible and great
God is. That's when worship happens. It's a natural response to what we have
seen God do.

When you are experiencing and seeing God at work in your
life, you don't need a director to stand in front of you and say, class="GramE">" Ok everybody, could we all get focused for a minute,
we're talking about God here….He created the heavens, created the earth,
majestic God, holy in all things, unending in His power, knows all things,
…now we're going to sing together, could we just get focused, could we just
give God some attention."

If you are struggling thinking that your worship is pretty
anemic, could it be that you are not seeing the activity of God active in your
life; could it be that you are not giving much in worship to the Creator of the
Universe? Remember, worship is about God and His greatness, not about us! When
was the last time you went to a birthday party for someone else and you were
offended that they did not sing to you? The party is not about you, it's about
someone else. Worship is not about us getting our needs met, it is all about
focusing on Jesus!

Read
Revelation 1:12-18 and notice the response in coming into contact
with Jesus.

When he saw Jesus, he just fell down because he was
overwhelmed with the greatness of God. Ever seen anyone fall down, or bow their
heads? In our cultural I wonder if we really see God in His true greatness. The
point is that when we see Him as He is, we respond in appropriate ways. I'm
not advocating falling, bowing or anything. I'm talking about responding to
God for Who He is.

My fear is that some of us have a postage note size God
that fits into a small part of our world, a little compartment of our lives that
we let in and out of our lives at our bidding. Sometimes we go to Him when we
have a need. We have this teeny, tiny God and no wonder we don't offer much at
worship.

We rarely just sit back and think what a great and awesome
God we have Who spoke the world into being (my speaking gets me into trouble,
God's brings creation), Who is all together righteous, holy in all areas, Who
knows all things, is everywhere at the same time, all powerful…and I just want
to be still and bow down.

Authentic worship is our response to God.

Close your Time Alone With God
praising God for Who He is.

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic">Day
Four

The word "Worship" comes from an Old English word that
was roughly pronounced "worth ship" and it meant to assign worth or assign
value to something or to put a price tag on it.

In the story we
are looking at today, Jesus was approached by a woman wanting to get this whole
thing on worship right. And, recognizing that we all express ourselves
differently, how do we worship together when we are so diversified? Is singing
loudly with gusto like me, raising hands, standing still, or bowing down the
litmus test for true worship? Is true worship defined by everyone being forced
to look the same? It is very interesting that this woman asks a "where" or
"how" question (method) and Jesus answers with a "who."

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; layout-grid-mode: line; color: black; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> color="black" face="Arial">Read href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NIV&passage=John+4%3A20-24">John
4:20-24

The last part of verse 23 is very interesting to me… style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="LAYOUT-GRID-MODE: line; COLOR: black; FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">,
for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. style="LAYOUT-GRID-MODE: line; COLOR: black">God is seeking
to find those who are the true worshippers. If that is the case, then we must
find out what true worship looks like.

The Bible says that the real worshippers know God
personally. "In Spirit" is a
reference to what is going on deep in your heart. If you have not invited Jesus
Christ to come into your life to forgive you of your sins and to become the
leader of your life, then the Bible describes your heart as a heart that has not
yet awakened yet spiritually (the potential of life is there, just not awakened
yet). True worship begins by having a personal relationship with Christ.

Worship is true when it is authenticated by
the way we live ("…in truth"). Remember our working definition of
worship… style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">

style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> face="Arial">…expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live
our lives.

True worship is a reference to a lifestyle that is backing
up the words or the heart.

The Hebrew background for the word "Truth" meant
faithfulness or trustworthiness.

God is seeking those who are faithful and trustworthy.

He said that we "must"
worship. The words style="LAYOUT-GRID-MODE: line; COLOR: black; FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">"must
worship" are style="LAYOUT-GRID-MODE: line; COLOR: black">in the present
tense which means that it is an on-going event. Literally, "must keep on
worshipping and keep on worshipping…"

We must approach worship
focused on God and discipline our minds to stay focused on Him. The problem is
that most of us only have a 7 ½ minute attention span, or at least that's
what TV shows program for. When it gets so intense and the plot is so thick and
deep on style="FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Everybody Loves class="GramE">Raymond style="mso-spacerun: yes"> the station
believes that they need to give you a break and an opportunity to settle down.

Isaiah put it this way, " style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Isaiah 29:13
…They honor Me with their lips, but their hearts
are far away. And their worship of Me amounts to
nothing more than human laws learned by rote.

The Greek Translation of that
Hebrew passage is "Their
worship is a farce" Spend the rest of your Time Alone With God by committing
to honor God in your heart as well as your lips today.

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic">Day
Five

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic">Read href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=ROM%2B12%3A1&showfn=on&showxref=on&language=english&version=MSG&x=17&y=13">Romans
12:1

"To offer"- in the Greek
is a technical term translating the Old Testament word that describes the
placing of a sacrificial object on the altar; and once you put it there it was
there to stay. It's not yours anymore; its out of
your hands. Paul says he wants us to do the same with our lives. Present your
bodies, yourselves as a living sacrifice. In the old system, the object was dead
and would just lay on the altar. But imagine what a
living sacrifice would do? A living sacrifice knows what's coming. Part of
what Paul is saying, is the sacrifice of your life must happen again and again
every day. Every morning you get up and say, okay God, I place my will, my
struggle with sin, my possessions, my desires, my relationships,
I put them all on the altar. It's not mine any longer, it's yours. I'll
regard my life this day as a living sacrifice offered up to you.

The fact that this entire verse is in
the present tense gives the idea of an on-going sacrifice of endurance or
sustained attention. There are so many opportunities for you to give up
or to take the easy way out, but God is asking us to offer our daily lives to
Him. When we do that, he calls it a "reasonable (or spiritual) act of
worship."

"Reasonable act of worship" could also be translated
reasonable act of service. There's an intrinsic connection between worshipping
and serving. style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: normal">That
which you truly worship in your heart is that which you serve with your whole
life.

Close your Time Alone class="GramE">With God by praying this verse to God… "Jesus, I give class="GramE">my everyday,
ordinary life—my sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around
life—and place it before You as an offering today..(Taken from color="black">Romans 12:1 Msg) color="blue"> style="mso-spacerun: yes">

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