Day 20- PREPARE TO WORSHIP

PRAYER DEVOTIONAL

Lord, I desire to worship You. You are my strength and my song. You have become my salvation. God, I desire to prepare myself as a place for You to dwell (Exodus 15:2). I crave the assembling of Your people so we can encourage one another (Hebrews 10:25). Lord, I want to worship not just in form and ceremony, but from my innermost being - from heart and soul (John 4:24) I know You have promised to be there if even two or three are gathered to worship and study (Matthew 18:20). So, Lord, regardless of what happens this Sabbath I know You will be there, so I can worship no matter what else takes place.

Lord, in years gone by, worshippers brought You offerings as part of worship. Today Lord, I want to prepare myself to be ready to worship, I want to bring You the offering of my myself.

First Lord, before I take up the offering, I realize I must make things right with my brothers and sisters (Matthew 5:23-24). Help me to put my relationships right. Whom have I offended? Toward whom do I have hard feelings? Show me how to go to them and make things right.

Lord, also, let me prepare ahead of time all that I can. Fix the clothes, clean the house, cook the food, gas the car (Exodus 16:5, 23). I want to be free so that I can be preoccupied with You. Remove in me any distractions of sin. Cleanse me so I can worship. I lay aside the cares of the world.

Lord, let me hear Your voice in the lesson study. I know it is Your Word. Christ, let me see You leading out on the platform, I bow in prayer and worship naturally. I will hear Your voice leading the hymns and I will join with enthusiasm. My offering is given from the heart to say thank You. I've thought about what I will give because I knew we would meet. I set it aside at the beginning of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2).

I open my heart, Lord, to Your Word. Sometimes the speaker makes it hard to hear Your Words. So Lord, I’ll listen all the harder to catch those precious truths that are Your ministry to me. The words that You speak, they are Spirit and they are Life (John 6:63b). I want the worship to continue in my everyday life. I want to do Your will.

A sermon sheet is included to take to worship the worship service.

Sermon Title___________________________________________________ Date________________

Speaker__________________________________________________________

Introduction: Where do I connect with the sermon introduction?  Is there a problem to be solved? What is the problem? Is it an issue that is currently in my life? Do I know people who struggling with the issue?

Point Of Sermon: (I may not know this until the end if the speaker is using a narrative or inductive style that leads me with him to the conclusion.) By the title what would I guess is the general topic discuss?  Is the theme being carried by the other elements in the service, ie. the hymns, scriptures, prayer?  Can I state the sermon concept in one sentence?

Illustrations & Quotations: (What examples strike me? What quotes would I like to remember? What ways of saying things impress me?)

Scriptural Basis: What is the text or texts that this sermon is being drawn from? Have I learned anything new about the text? Are there other texts that the sermon brings to mind?

Application:  Where am I in the story? What is God asking me to do?  Where could I put this message in to action?  What would be the specific steps?  Who else might I share these insights with?

Response: What can I agree with?  What areas do I want to study? Where do I differ?