Wednesday Night Study on April 2nd

This week we continued in our series on worship. We asked and tried to answer a somewhat simple question: What happens when we worship? We answered this question from Romans 12:1-2. We first talked about how when we worship God gets glory. This point is pretty self explanatory. God is worshipped for His own purpose.

The second point was the main challenge of our lesson. We discovered that the second thing worship does is changes us. I believe however worship changes us in a very specific and unique way. Worship changes us from the inside out and not the outside in. I used the example of a caterpillar entering a cocoon and emerging as a butterfly. This process is called metamorphosis. This is very similar to the term Paul used to describe the transformation that occurs in the life of one who worships and encounters Christ. I used the example this way, if we pin wings on a caterpillar it is not a butterfly and if we pull off a butterfly’s wings it does not become a caterpillar. This is the challenge for all people who think they are worshipping Christ. The challenge is that if we go around plucking at a little bit of prayer, witnessing, and church, we find ourselves as an ugly little caterpillar with wings pinned all over us. Whereas because of the cross of Christ we can be a beautiful butterfly that is changing to be more and more about His mission and more about His glory.

I went on to discuss how I believe this process of change occurs in us. I believe as we begin to experience the truth of who God is we first change in the area of our will. I believe this refers to the very center of our being; deep down where faith and fear exist, deep down in the desire of our hearts. I believe after our desire is changed it then leads to a change in our mind (our way of thinking). This changes the way we see other people, our self, and Christ. Then after our desire is for Christ and our mind is like His mind then and only then are we able to do something of worth with our bodies. This that can be of worth is our outward actions. After the worship changes our want to, it then changes our how to, and finally it changes our outward actions. In this passage of scripture the author describes us as living sacrifices with our bodies surrendered to Christ. I believe this is what he is discussing in this passage: worship and its effect on us.

We closed with a simple question: “Are you changing from the inside out by God or the outside in because of you society?”