Today we began our series called CORE. We are preaching through our five core values: Worship, Community, Growth, Service and Generosity. Today we started by talking about worship, asking the question: Are you the kind of worshipper God created you to be? We saw that God is actually looking for a certain kind of worshipper (John 4:23). We looked at biblical worship which is: Seeing God accurately and responding appropriately. We saw how Peter did this in Luke 5:1-11. You see this throughout the scripture in passages like this one in Luke 5 and other places like Isaiah 6. The pattern is people have an encounter with the living God and they don’t leave feeling all warm and fuzzy. They are blown away by who God is (holy and righteous), which forces them to reflect on who they are (sinful). However, God is gracious and allows us to speak with Him and be used by Him. Our appropriate response is like that of Peter leaving everything to follow Him or like Isaiah saying, “Here I am send me.” The appropriate response is a surrendered life. Like Paul says in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.” God wants a completely surrendered life.

We say at Southbridge that worship begins with a decision to trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and it continues as a lifestyle of responding to His revelation of Himself. Worship is not about singing a song, volunteering for a ministry, giving some money or anything like that. Worship is a matter of the heart. When your heart is surrendered to God those things can be great expressions of worship, but if your heart is not surrendered to God those things are done in vain.