Are you new to the Celebration of God? Click here for your first steps.TranscriptIntroduction
On our last episode I mentioned that today we’d be finishing up our “What is Worship?” series, but I decided to postpone that one more episode so that we wouldn’t miss the perfect chance to get a big picture of the rest of September.
I’m sorry if you were really looking forward to part 4 of our series, but I’m going to ask you to wait just a little bit longer. But — before we talk about worshipping God in September — please take a moment to rate and review the show. It only takes a second or two to give us a 5-star rating in Apple Podcasts and only a minute or two to leave a review. And if you can’t give us a 5-star review, I’d invite you to send an email to team@CelebrationOfGod.com and let us know why. Maybe you’re upset that we’re not finishing the “What is Worship?” Series . . . or, you know, something like that. Seriously, though, since our mission is to better worship God, if there’s any way that we can better help you do that, we’d love to hear about it. Lastly, due to the nature of today’s show, there won’t be any episode notes at CelebrationOfGod.com, but there are tons and tons of resources that deal with our discussion today, so be sure to check those out. Okay, now let’s talk about some ways to better worship God in September. Topic
First, I pray your Creation Week has been awesome. Today we’re observing the creation of all living creatures (including man and woman) and celebrating the mercy and power of God in the process.
And tomorrow we’re going to memorialize the first Day of Rest. I really wish we could have already started that discussion, but I’m really looking forward to studying the biblical ideas of rest in the future because, though we may celebrate the First Day of Rest on the Saturday of Creation Week, God has given us the opportunity to observe a day of rest every week of the year. So, Lord Willing, we’ll have plenty more opportunities to grow in our worship of God through our rest this year. I also hope you had a great Labor Day celebration, and I pray it was even better than last time. Since our goal is to worship God better this year than we did last year, we should always be reflecting on how we can become better disciples of Christ, and I know — for me — there’s a lot of room for growth in that area. If you think it might help you do a better job next year, don’t forget that we have a Creation Week checkup. Some time next week you can go back and critique how you may be able to improve your celebration for next year. The reality is the we always need to be growing in our sanctification, so the process of personal introspection should be a joyous one as we consider how we can be better conformed to the image of Christ. But even though Labor Day is gone and Creation Week is almost over, September is far from being done. We still have four High Days and countless Low Moments in which we owe our great God all the adoration and praise and submission and honor we can give Him. So, let’s talk about the remaining September Feast Days in The Celebration of God and end by discussing how to approach the non-feast days in September. 1. The September Holidays Last year we talked about worshipping God on Grandparent’s Day, which is the first Sunday after Creation Week. You can learn more about preparing for, celebrating, and discipling during Grandparent’s Day by visiting CelebrationOfGod.com. What I like most about the placement of Grandparent’s Day is how well it flows from Creation Week. I believe it can easily draw our minds to all of our ancestors all the way back to Noah and Naamah and Adam and Eve and how God used them to perfectly place us into His story. We’re not here by accident, and God used each of the choices our ancestors made to bring us into this world. But there are two other Family Days in September that I didn’t mention last year. If you look up Son’s Day and Daughter’s Day, you will find a lot of conflicting information. For example, supposedly (in America) National Son’s Day is observed on both March 4th and September 28th . . . and no one knows why. Here’s the thing, at this point in The Celebration of God, we’ve chosen to observe Daughter’s Day on September 26th and Son’s Day on September 28th. And — honestly — it doesn’t really matter when you celebrate God’s gift of children, the point is that God is to be praised for the glorious blessing that is our kids. And I specifically like the September dates for these two minor holidays because they too go together really well with Creation Week. The Creation Mandate includes our responsibility to steward the world, but it also includes the command to procreate as we are able. Son’s Day and Daughter’s Day can be a wonderful way to extend our celebration of Creation Week. Take time each day to thank the Lord for the miracle of birth, the significance of parenting, the blessing of being a child, and the joy of family. But there’s one more major holiday in September we need to discuss. On the tenth day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, the Jews celebrate what they consider to be the holiest day of the year. I would tend to agree with them, but most Jews don’t recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. If they did, the would realize that Eastertide is the best holiday of the year. However, Yom Kippur, or — as we know it — the Day of Atonement, is a significant holiday worth observing. Within the Celebration of God, we use the Day of Atonement as a solemnity. Following the Creation, we observe the Fall of Man as a tragic day in history that plummeted all mankind into sin and death. Without sin, no one would need an atonement. To atone is to make amends, and the Jews recognized that something had to die in order to cover their sins. In Leviticus 16:9 we read, “For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” All they had was the blood of bulls and goats, but that blood was a symbol of the shed blood of the spotless Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. Hebrews 10:4 tells us that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when [the Messiah] comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But A body You have prepared for ME; 6 IN whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. 7 ‘Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come . . . TO do Your will, O God.’” And verse 10 clarifies that the Messiah completed the will of God by offering His body once for all. Remember, the holidays within The Celebration of God are all connected and related because they celebrate the character and deeds of God. We start with Creation and all the accompanying blessings like the earth and our families, but then we have to grapple with the reality of sin introduced at the Fall. But even that solemn occasion gives us reason to worship God. He had a plan for our atonement! The Day of Atonement is a solemn observation, but it’s also lined with joy because though our sins be as scarlet, He makes them white as snow through His perfect atonement on the cross. If you’d like to learn more about how Christians can celebrate the mercy and awesomeness of God on the Day of Atonement, please check out CelebrationOfGod.com, click on “Holidays,” and select “Day of Atonement.” Creation Week, Labor Day, Grandparent’s Day, the Day of Atonement, Daughter’s Day, and Son’s Day are the major and minor holidays in September. Each of them presents us a fantastic opportunity to pause and reflect on the glorious character and deeds of our great God. But what about the other nineteen days of September? How can we give God the worship He deserves on those days? 2. The September EveryDays First, let me remind you how important it is to listen to the introductory episodes of The Celebration of God podcast. It’s very important for us to realize what the Celebration of God is and what it’s not. This is not a legalistic program whereby we gain favor with God by doing things. This is an opportunity for God’s people to better know, understand, and love Him as we take the time to meditate on Who He is and what He’s done. But The Celebration of God isn’t just about big holiday events. We believe that we can worship God just as easily on a mundane, average, Thursday afternoon as we can on Christmas and Easter. So, though — yes — most of our episodes to date have been about the holidays, we have a growing collection of content about the “everydays" as well. For example, we did an episode called "Celebrating God When the Holiday is Over." You can find a quick link to this episode in the description of today’s episode. But we also have a series called Celebrating God at Church which will help you give God the glory that’s due Him every Sunday of the year. In addition, we’re almost done with our What is Worship? series which lays an absolutely vital groundwork for understanding worship, growing in it, and helping others to do the same. We also have a growing collection of episodes on Biblical Discipelship. Whether it’s a holiday or not, disciples of Christ should be making and maturing disciples of Christ. We can always do a better job of one-anothering. I’m also looking forward to an upcoming series I’m thinking about calling “Deepen Your Worship.” It’s one thing to know what worship is, but it’s desperately important that we grow in our sanctification by worshipping God better and better. That’s the entire purpose of The Celebration of God. So, this upcoming series — whatever I end up calling it — is going to be about the nature of spiritual growth and how it affects our worship of God. It will help us better understand how God created us to grow and should, therefore, equip us to take the next steps in our sanctification. I’ve very much looking forward to that as well as discussing all of the vital facets of the Christian experience we’ll be studying this year. Conclusion
Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so other disciples of Christ can be introduced to The Year Long Celebration of God, join us next time as we — hopefully — discuss part four of the “What Is Worship” Series, and do your best to give God the worship He deserves every day this week.
I’ll see you next time.
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The Year Long Celebration of God is a dynamic, holistic resource that utilizes the Bible, our holiday calendars, and even the most average moments of the most normal days to equip Christians to worship God all year long
and disciple others to do the same. AMBrewster is the creator and host of the Celebration of God. He originally designed the COG to be a discipleship tool for Christian parents to train their children to know and love God, but he quickly realized how valuable it is for all Christians. Whether it's a small group, church, classroom, one-on-one, or community relationship, this resource is guaranteed to draw people closer together as they draw closer to God. Aaron is the President of Truth.Love.Parent. and host of its podcast. Archives
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