Come Back to God: A Call to Worship

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Drifting in the Ocean

How many of you have been swimming in the Ocean? Such a cool experience, huge waves, gross salt water, sandy beaches, lots of people, fear of sharks, clear water.
some people like playing in the sand, some in the shallow water where you can skim board. People like me, we like going out to the deep water. I love the thrill of not being able to feel the ocean floor beneath me. When my family took trips to the ocean we’d all get on tubes and go out deep and just lay there.
Those of you who’ve been in the ocean like this before, what happens when you go out far from shore? Do you stay in the same place?
Absolutely not! The ocean has so many powerful forces at work. Tides/waves coming in going, wind blowing, under-currents, rip-tides. Every time my family set out to the beach we would swim in a straight line away from land, but when we stopped and looked back we were diagonal from the place we started. Also, after a certain point you start getting pulled further away from shore into really deep water. As we swam the current/tide/waves moved us away from where we thought we were. After we would just lay on our tubes in the deep water for 10 minutes we would swim to shore and have to walk along the beach like 10-15 minutes just to get back to place we started from.
Drifting is a natural part of the ocean, but it can really dangerous and disorienting. Usually at public beaches there are signs warning about the dangers of getting too far from shore and not being able to make it back safely.
I think swimming at the beach is a great illustration for how our relationship with God sometimes goes.

How many times in our life do we find ourselves accidentally drifting away from God?

How many times in our life do we find ourselves accidentally wandering away from God?
We go to camp every year, we go to church every week, we read our Bibles, we think about Christian things, we tell ourselves that this year, we’re going to stay close to God and yet there are still moments when we find ourselves so far away from God.
This happens a lot, right? I’m not here today to beat you up or make you feel bad for drifting away from God. Okay?We all have seasons of life where we’ve drifted.

What do we do whenever we realize we have drifted and we want to come back to God.

Tonight, I want us to talk about what to do whenever we realize we have drifted and we want to come back to God.
There are lots of ways that we can come back to God. Reading our Bibles, praying, talking to mentors/parents, etc. Tonight, I want to talk about how worship can be a time for us to come back to God.

Worship is more than singing

Let’s be clear, worship is more than just singing. You can worship God through every little thing you do. Worship is about your attitude and your heart. That is what is most important. Tonight, I do want to talk specifically about what we do during our times of worship and what you could use that time for.
Worship is all about a posture before God. For thousands of years people have worshipped gods and worshipped our God. It’s all about putting ourselves in a place that recognizes that God is God and we are not.
Worship is a time for us to come back to God.

Worship is a time for us to come back to God.

I don’t know what you know or believe about worship. I’ve said a lot about it in the past couple of years. You may see it as just singing practice, you may see it as the most important part of your life. It may be awkward, it may be holy.
If you’re a Christian, worship is a special time.
Life is tough. Being a Christian doesn’t mean your life automatically becomes perfect and all your problems go away. In fact, your life is tougher. The devil is coming after you, people are watching you looking for excuses to call you a hypocrite, you are frustrated at yourself for hanging on to sin that you want to give up.
Let me remind you of a few powerful pieces of scripture tonight.
Jesus gives us words of comfort as he knows all about how corrupt our way of living is.
Matthew 11:28 CSB
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
So we come back to god in worship for a time of rest.
James 4:8 CSB
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
There are so many things in life that steal away our focus. We get distracted by the things we want, the things other people expect of us, and stuff that doesn’t matter.
worship is a time when we realize we’ve drifted away and we come back. A time for us to get back on the path and move closer to God. It takes us humbling ourselves and admitting to ourselves and God that we’ve messed up. That we still need God’s forgiveness.
So we come back to God in worship to refocus on Him.
Romans 5:8 CSB
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I could talk all night about how much God loves us. How much he loves you. I don’t just mean tolerates, puts up with you, but genuinely loves you.
He wants us to connect with him in worship.
You DON’T have to be perfect to come back to God in worship.
Romans 8:31 CSB
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Worship should be a celebration that we’re on God’s side. Even though life is tough, it stinks at times, God is with us and for us.
We come back to God in worship to celebrate our relationship with him.

Worship is NOT a way to EARN God’s forgiveness or favor

I want to be clear. When we gather to sing, it’s not like our worship is part of a contractual agreement we have with God. it’s not like if we pray and sing songs he’s going to bless us more. It’s not like, Oh crap I’ve really screwed up. Well If I sing louder tonight, that’ll help make it better with God. That’s wrong theology. If you believer that, I’m not saying you’re dumb or anything, I just want you to understand that there’s a healthier way of looking at it.
So talk to me, if this is news to you. We don’t worship God to earn anything. That’s missing the point.

Worship is an invitation for us to come back to God.

Remember, God created us, knows us, he loves us. Worship is a time for us come back to God.
We’re gonna watch a video of a skit. In the skit the main character is in a really close relationship with Jesus. As the story moves on she starts drifting away from Jesus and gets caught up in stuff that takes her away from him. Her life goes downhill and it gets to a point where she has to decide if she’s going to come back to God.
Lifehouse Everything Video

Tonight: Come back to God

Starting tonight, I hope you change the way you think of worship.
Let this be a time when you come back to God. Whether you’ve drifted away from him or you’re still in a good spot. Let this be a time to reflect on how much God loves you and a time for you to refocus back on God.
This has been a heavy night. So as we sing these few songs, if anyone needs to talk or pray, come find one of the adults in here and we’ll listen to you.
Let’s pray.
prayer.
Instructions:
Tonight we’ll be singing along with recordings of worship music. We might sing these songs a little differently. Just do your best, nobody look at each other for singing something wrong.
There are some moments in these versions of the songs where the guys may be singing something different from the girls and the words on the screen may just be for one part and not the other.
You don’t have to follow the words on the screen if you’d rather just follow what you hear.
Let’s stand and sing.
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