Last week we had a worship service in our group. We went through the tabernacle/temple model of worship and went beyond just music and immersed ourselves in the worship of God. It was a great renewal for me personally. It was truly a time to experience God and not just talk about Him. Here was the idea:
We all had journals and wrote down some of the things that God was telling us.
We started with prayer and a song of preparation (“Sanctuary”) and then continued by entering His gates with thanksgiving:
We wrote down what we were thankful for and also gave testimony.
We then entered his courts with praise:
We watched some clips from planet earth and basked in the beauty of God. We also had corporate adoration.
Then, as they would have done in the tabernacle setting we moved on to sacrifice and surrender:
We sang the song “Lord, I Give You My Heart” and then we had communion and made a list of things we need to sacrifice to God.
We then made our way to the Holy of Holies. Part of this was interactive as we tore a veil in reference to Matthew 27:51 in which God made the way for us to be in his presence without a barrier.
We then spent time in solitude and silence and sate in the presence of God. We finished our time by singing “I Love You Lord”
The beauty of the tabernacle is that there was no back door. So people did not just go through these steps and continue on to leave. They had to go back through. So as we left we entered into these times once more.
We asked as we made our way through sacrifice, “What is one thing God wants me to surrender to Him this week?”
We gave praise by singing “How Great is Our God”
And we gave thanks to God once more.
This week we will be diving back into “Renew Your Worship” with a look at session 6: Worship Tells the Story.
