So last week we talked about Tithing. It was one of those nights that were full of distractions. For example the computer got stuck in a cycle that changed the slide on the screen every 10 seconds. Talk about distracting. Afterwards, I heard a student talk about it being boring. Those are the nights that get you down in youth ministry.

But on Sunday things changed because I had three students talk to me about how they were going to set up their tithe! Praise God that even teens can look at what they have and desire to give back to God!

This week we are talking about The Sunday Morning Thing. This week was originally about prayer but after thinking and praying I changed it up at the last minute. I have realized that a lot of people don't truly understand the purpose of Sunday Morning Worship.

For a number of people Sunday morning worship has become: 1.) Social Time 2.) An obligation to God. 3.)An obligation to others.

That's kinda sad. In this lesson we will look at why we come together to corporately worship God. We will look into the book of Acts for a look at the early church. 

46) Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47) praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The point of corporate worship is to bring people together under one common bond. That bond is Jesus Christ. We come to Sunday Morning Worship to worship God TOGETHER. 

But sadly I hear a lot of complaints about Sunday Morning Worship. "I don't get fed from this." "I think it's boring."  I want to stress this next point to the teenagers this week. Sunday Morning Worship is NOT about them. It's not about you, or me, or Bert. It's about God. Sure it's cool to have different preferences on how worship is done, but it's not cool to say that worshiping our God is not feeding you.

When we say things like this, we are making worship about us. In a sense, we are worshiping ourselves instead of God. Let me put it another way. When we make worship about ourselves, we are STEALING worship from God. That's kind of harsh. But it's true.  I will also probably talk a little about how when we are distracting in worship we are taking away from God as well. Unfortunately in the past two weeks I've had two different people complain about how teenagers were distracting them from being able to worship. I'll mention this to the students but I probably won't dwell on it too much. (although I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to have this conversation with your child.)

I really want to highlight the reason why we worship at the end of the talk. We worship God because He created us. He knows us and when we knowingly ran away from Him, He pursued us. God sent Christ to save us from our sins so that we can be close to Him for eternity. If that isn't reason enough to sing, dance, pray then I don't know what is!!

Discussion Questions (ask these of yourself and your child)

1. "On Sunday mornings do I think first about myself or about God?

2. Do you prepare yourselves and your family for Sunday Morning worship or are you in a rush just to get to church.

3. Where do you see God on Sunday Morning?

4. Is there anything about Sunday morning that keeps you from seeing God?

Jon