Heart of Worship part 2

When it comes to worship, we all need to ask ourselves the question, what should I do to invite God to the church service? What is my part in all of this? We all have a part to play. There’s the worship team’s part, the congregation’s part, and God’s part. If we all do our own part, the presence of God will be a reality in our midst. So what are all these parts?

1. The worship team has an important responsibility to help bring in the presence of the Lord. It is important that each member of the team prepares his/her own heart for the Lord. They are also there to help the church body to interact and to encourage them to worship God.

2. The church body has the responsibility or part (as well as the worship team) of inviting the presence of God and the Holy Spirit in. When the Lord see’s that His people are worshipping Him, then He is pleased. The worship team will only be able to go as far as the church body will go.

3. God has a part. As we (His people) worship and bless His name, then will He begin to move and bless us! Think of it like inviting Him as a guest. The Holy Spirit needs a invitation before He will come. HE IS A GENTLEMAN. We all have a PART TO PLAY during the worship time. If we do our part, God will most assuredly do His!

By: Steven Overbaugh

Heart of Worship

 

I want to talk to you about something very close to my heart – worship. I have been privileged to be a part of music and worship since my early teen years.

So what is worship exactly? It’s thanking God and praising Him for His goodness and love. It’s telling God how much you love Him. Worship is giving God what belongs to Him. Having a heart of worship is more than just singing a few songs on Sunday morning to jump start the service. No, it can be lifestyle. You can bless God throughout your day (Psalm 72:15)! Sometimes I just pick up a guitar and sing praises to the Lord in my house. You don’t have to play an instrument or even sing good to praise God though. It all sounds good to Him!

So what does it mean to have a heart of worship? First off, it’s a decision we have to make. A decision to give glory to God. Having a heart of worship is laying aside all of me and giving all to Him simply because of who He is. It’s having passion for God! One thing is for sure, the closer you get to God, the more you see how good He is. The more you see how good He is, the more you will want to praise and thank Him! When we press into His presence and bless Him, He begins to bless us. Pretty amazing!  God can do so much for you in just a few moments of time. As I wrote about in the last blog, there is a great move of God He wants to bring in THIS HOUR and in OUR TIME. So we have to do our part to help bring that to pass. To do this we must prepare our hearts and lives for Him and one way to do this is to worship Him; UNASHAMED – UNAFRAID. John 4:23 “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

So I encourage us all today to press into God with worship in our daily lives and at church. Let’s give back to God and expect great things!

By: Steven Overbaugh

Get Ready

For the past couple of weeks, I have talked about the importance of evangelism and reaching out to every generation. Now I want urge and exhort you. Its time to be a DOER OF THE WORD! Its time to put what has been said into practice. I like what James 1:22 says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (NLT) Its not enough to just HEAR a good sermon on reaching the lost; we have to put it into practice. God calls us to live by His Word. I don’t want to be a Christian in word only. I want to be a Christian in action! A good way to start reaching out is to begin inviting those around you to church. Do you have a friend, family member, neighbor, or co-worker who could use some help from God? Simply give them an MBC invite card and say “come check us out sometime.” If you make a practice of this, it gets easier every time. 

March 9, 2014, Pastor Jim had a Word from the Lord concerning this very subject. He said: “There are MANY that must be reached with the power of the living God. There’s a great harvest to be reached; they must be reached by those who are ready to reach them; by those who are equipped; by those who are anointed; by those who purpose to be full of the Word of God and full of the Spirit. And so be ready, for there is a great move at hand even in our midst.” 

God is calling us to be ready. It starts with us. Let’s prepare our hearts; laying aside all of me and my desires and giving all to God!

By: Steven Overbaugh

Generation Outreach part 2

Reaching out to our generation with God’s love takes commitment. For various reasons, I think it can be easy to not have a lifestyle of evangelism. As I said in my last blog though, God needs all of us! I won’t be able to reach the people you can reach and you won’t have an impact on the people I know. When we come to realize God has a SPECIAL part for US ALL to play, then we can make an impact on our world for the Kingdom of God! This may surprise some people, but God WILL NOT be able to reach people without you. He has to use PEOPLE to reach PEOPLE. Sometimes we’re just waiting for God to make a move or to move us, when He is waiting for you to obey His Word and make a move! In Mark 16:20, Jesus inspired His disciples and then He said to GO! When you invited Jesus into you heart and received the free gift of salvation, that wasn’t just for you to keep to yourself. We are to tell what great things the Lord has done for us!  I like what my dad says, “God NEEDS all boots on the ground.” We are in the army of God. Our mission is to go into all the world; INTO OUR WORLD and tell the Good News of Jesus! I strongly believe there is a mighty move of God coming in these last days before the return of Christ. We need to prepare our ourselves for this. We need to keep the fire of God burning brighter and hotter than ever on the inside of us! I know there is a lot of pressure in our world today against all that is good. The world wants to keep us silent. However, this is not the time to be silent; this is the time to be bold! (Proverbs 28:1) Lets bring the light to a dark world. Just be open with the Lord today. Ask Him to give you a passion and a heart for lost people. Psalms 2:8 “Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

By: Steven Overbaugh

Generation Outreach

Have you noticed our world today? It’s plain to see that it’s in bad shape. People are living with fear and without hope. People need help – real genuine help. Thankfully help has come to man. God sent His Son to help and save us. The future can be bright for anyone who calls on Jesus.

So how will people hear of this hope that we as Christians enjoy. They have to be told, the gospel message has to go out. Our number one and most important mission is to spread the word – to tell of this good news. Mark 16:15 “And He (Jesus) said to them, Go into all the world and preach the Good News to EVERYONE!”  Everyone – every race, every generation, every where, all the time! God is reaching out to every generation. He wants His people to go out and bring in souls. I have come to realize this for myself. Instead of expecting people to come to my church, I need to go out of my way to go reach out to them and bring them in. We need to have evangelism on our minds and in our hearts 24/7! I like verse 20 of Mark 16, which says  “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” They went out and did something! They didn’t wait for people to come ask them about Jesus. No, Jesus inspired them and they went out! It’s like if you heard or saw something cool on T.V or over the internet, you would want to tell somebody. Well, the same is true here, we are telling people “Good News!” The world needs to hear the good news about Jesus today. You may never take a missions trip to Africa or China, but you have your world around you. Every where you go you can find someone who could use some help.

Now every generation matters to God, but not every generation hears or see’s things the same. We as Christians have to see this and recognize the importance of this in order to effectively reach out with “Good News” The Word of God NEVER CHANGES and can never be compromised, but the way it is presented can change to fit a generation. Change is not something we as humans want to embrace, but it is vital for everyone to see the truth of the Bible whether they be young or old. And God will use everyone who is willing! Let’s be Christians who are unashamed and unafraid. Let’s reach out to EVERY GENERATION! 

Written by: Steven Overbaugh