Here is a peak of my teaching notes on Christ-Centered Worship from the Man Up family night of worship. This is just the form/structure/guide and not everything I actually taught. Maybe you can still pull some nuggets out of it.
Christ-Centered Worship
Man Up Family Night of Worship
Benjamin Durbin
Colossians 3:1-17
Key Truth #1: Everyone worships something
One of my greatest fears is that God would look at our events, our services, and our lives and proclaim this passage from Matthew 5:18
"'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" Matthew 15:8-9
Would he look at us and say they pray, they sing, and they preach for nothing. It is vain. Empty?
The Big Question
What is my heart supposed to be doing so that the preaching and singing is not in vain?
Or
What turns all of life into worship?
The Answer:
Being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ!
Key Truth #2: Right worship comes from a heart position that magnifies Christ
"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." - Colossians 3:1-4
Key Truth #3: When you see your position in Christ, you will worship
1) I died with Christ. vs. 3
2) I live with Christ vs. 4
3) I am raised with Christ vs. 1
4) I am hidden in Christ. vs. 3
5) I am glorified in Christ vs. 4
The life of a Christ-Centered Worshiper
In view of my wonderful identity in Christ,
I seek and set my heart and mind on things above.
Key Truth #4: I am dead, so I put to death the earthly.
"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."
Key Truth #5: The opposite of right worship is idolatry
Worship Distortions
Pleasure
Power
Pride
People
Key Truth #6: I am alive, so I bring to life the heavenly
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." - Colossians 3:12-16
Note how many things we do TOGETHER in this passage
Note the variety of expressions: teaching, admonishing, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
Key Truth #7: Worship is all of life
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17
Worship is continuous in the everyday activities of life
We do not simply go to the church for worship. It is just as much about how we live when we are not gathered.
But as continuous worshipers, we do gather ourselves together to continue our worship, but now in the context of our family in Christ.
Key Truth #8: The way to worship is falling madly in love with Jesus.
Worship is responding to God for who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing.
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." - Ephesians 2:1-7
