CFC Youth for Christ

I. INTRODUCTION

Start the session with just a simple prayer after practicing some songs.

Choose a slow worshipful song for this activity. Make sure its a song that people
know well enough or is easy enough for people to sing without looking at the words. ( Note:
Slow songs make it easier for people to feel the presence of God more and as such are more
effective for this activity).

Explain the words of the song / Help people understand what it means and encourage
them to pray the song as they sing it. In order to help participants focus even more, ask that
they close their eyes. Worship in a sense, transports people into Gods presence into his
courts if we may refer it in that way encourage people to take note of how they perceive
that in the vision that they will see in their minds.

Sing the song (For the speaker, make sure that you yourself are praying the song)

Get feedback. Find out what images they saw in their minds. Was the Lord present in the
picture of their minds eye? Where were they? Were they standing, seated, kneeling, hands
outstretched or clasped?

Sing the song one more time, this time challenging the participants to allow their physical
bodies to express what they see themselves doing in their minds. Help them realize that their
whole bodies want to pray also, and that if they intend to give their lives to the Lord, at the
very least, it begins with surrendering our bodies as expressed by a raised hand, outstretched
arms or bended knees.

Feel free to sing in the spirit or in tongues or sing a second song, as the Spirit leads.

Get feedback on what they experienced. Find out if some may have received prophecies
or visions.

I. UNDERSTANDING WORSHIP

A. Worship is the central point of our gatherings

1. Its supposed to be inspired and should build up the body. Worship should be
nourishing and spirit-filled.

2. Recently however, much of our worship has been dry and sometimes
perceived as a waste of time. This is so because many times, our worship
leaders are unable to lead people to worship. Many times our worship is not
worship at all.
B. Worship is being able to honestly say You are God and I am not, and THAT IS
GREAT!!!

NJB Psalms 150:1-6

1. Alleluia! Praise God in his holy place, praise him in the heavenly vault of his power, 2. praise
him for his mighty deeds, praise him for all his greatness. 3. Praise him with fanfare of trumpet,
praise him with harp and lyre, 4. praise him with tambourines and dancing, praise him with
strings and pipes, 5. praise him with the clamour of cymbals, praise him with triumphant
cymbals, 6. Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh. Alleluia!

1. Just as we just experienced at the start of this talk, worship is being able to
come into that loving, healing and mighty presence of God and being able to
acknowledge that HE ALONE IS GOD loving, healing and mighty!

At the same time, we are blessed by the healing grace of His presence and by the
mere fact that this same GOD holds us as special and in spite of our sin and
imperfection sees us as the gem of His creation.

2. Worship is paying homage to our true king and captain. In the same way
that subjects in ancient times had to regular visit their ruler and pay tribute or
homage or tax (in more modern terms) we come a pay homage admitting
that everything we have is His. At the same time, we are grateful that HE gives
all of these our bodies, our minds, our money, our property for us to freely
use, and that he never punishes us as we deserve whenever we misuse these
things which are rightfully HIS.

3. Worship is one of the very few times when we are able to have a taste of how
it was and a foretaste of how it will. Its the time when we in our fallen sinful
- human natures are able to connect to God in spirit the way it was meant to be
before our sin made it impossible for us to continually be in Gods presence (as
Adam and Eve were). It allows us a foretaste of the kind of relationship we will
have with God when we are made perfect in heaven.

4. There are three levels that we usually go through when we really worship:
a. The first is when we start speaking words of PRAISE or what we might be
liken to as introductions in any audience. This is where we honor God and
acknowledge His greatness.

b. The second is WORSHIP this is when we start saying how we feel and when
we begin to truly realize Gods greatness. In this level, people start to offer
themselves to God saying I belong to youmy life is yours.

c. The third is GLORY this is when we actually come into the holy presence of
God. It is at this level that God speaks, we listen then we respond. This is
where we receive prophecies, visions, where we cry at the realization of
Gods love and mercy, where emotional and physical healing takes place.
 Sadly, most worship leaders are not aware of this nor do they strive to reach
these levels of worship. We sing a lot of songs, we say a lot of words that
include the word Lord and Amen but few of these are able to make actual
worship take place. Maybe, this is why there are less and less of the spiritual gifts
(tongues, prophecies, visions etc.) during our worships and activities.

Every worship, whether it is alone in your own prayer time, a household

meeting, a teaching, assembly or Praisefest should reach this third level.
Any worship leader who does not have this as their goal for worship misses the
whole point, and may have not actually led people to worship.

Before we start to think that leading worship is next to impossible, we need to

realize that the effort is almost totally out of our hands and in the very capable
hands of God Himself. God wants us to connect to Him much more than we
want for ourselves and for our members. This takes a huge pressure off our
shoulders because worship then does not depend on our eloquence or on the
dynamics or tone of our voices but rather depends on and simply begins with an
honest desire to be in Gods presence.

II. SOME IMPORTANT ATTITUDES REGARDING WORSHIP

A. Every worship should start with an exhortation.

Exhortation is giving people reason to worship. It should be able to inspire them to

come before the Lord in jubilant praise. It can either be a personal sharing, a story or
a bible verse. An exhortation need not be long but should be encouraging and
acknowledges Gods greatness in our lives.

B. You need to worship in order to lead worship

Avoid just singing songs. Enter into Gods Holy presence, raise your hands and
mean it. Pray in tongues. Listen to God.

Dont be too conscious of the words you will use, just speak exactly what is in your
heart. Talk to the Lord as if He were in front of you, because He is. Avoid making
your prayer a well-rehearsed speech with words Lord at the beginning and
Amen at the end.

C. Worship is an expression of your life

Worship is very important, but is only an expression of the even more important
reality you are living. Be careful in saying words like Lord Jesus We Enthrone You
or Refiners fire, my hearts one desire is to be holy if its not true in your life, if you do
only what you want in your life in other words you are calling the shots.

Worship - especially leading worship is difficult if there is serious

unrighteousness in your life (e.g. premarital sex, cheating, gambling, stealing etc.)
 This doesnt mean that you should choose not to worship or decline from leading
worship since after all, none of us are worthy because all of us are sinful. Rather,
its in always having a genuine repentant attitude. Come before Gods presence and
humbly ask for His mercy.

Be Real and Honest. Come before God in total humility. Surrender and allow Gods
spirit to flow through you. Never fake it.

Be knowledgeable. Know the songs by heart. Know their meaning, the right tune
and know how to lead people into singing in the spirit.

D. Avoid anything that distracts

Avoid anything that distracts you or the people you are leading from focusing on
God who after all is the object of our worship.

Dont use action songs during the worship proper.

Try to make everything clear announce song titles and numbers. Announce where
the song is headed (next line or verse).

III. CONCLUSION

NJB Exodus 34:29-33

29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, as he
was coming down the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant because he had
been talking to him 33. Once Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.

NJB 2 Corinthians 3:18

18. And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord
who is the Spirit.

Like Moses, when people are brought into Gods presence, they are changed from one
degree of glory to the next. This is the privilege we have - to help people experience the
pure joy and ecstasy of Gods presence in worship. It should be our intention to always
bring people into this level of communion and reconciliation with Jesus in spirit and our
own joy to see them somehow changed.

Note: End the session by leading the whole group into worship. Encourage them to express themselves
freely as they worship in spirit and truth. Encourage them to raise their hands, to kneel down, to
clap, to pray in tongues and any other means they feel they will be able to truly worship and enter in
the presence of God.