Why Worship?

Why Worship?

• Sit at the foot of the Cross to begin your day; join us again for Lenten Prayers tomorrow morning at 6:30 in the sanctuary. We’ve had small turnouts, but be encouraged: the group at the foot of the original Cross was also small.

• Nothing encourages the deacons so much as co-laborers on a workday: please join us THIS Saturday beginning at 9:00 a.m. Food, fellowship, dirt under your fingernails. Joy.

• Enjoyed a week off from preaching, getting to sit with my family and take part in the singing. I thought I’d encourage us along these lines with several reasons why it matters that we worship weekly on principle.

1. Many of the “scenes” depicted in John’s Revelation are expressions of worship — and no mistake. The Lord shows us the future in order to shape the way we live in the present, a pattern we could loosely categorize as “realized eschatology.” To know that worship is the essence of your future, is to know what matters in the present. Like television before it, the internet leads some people to think they can worship alone at home. This would be true if worship were something to be consumed by individuals. But it is, everywhere in Scripture, the offering of the gathered people of God, and He is the consumer.

2. I’ve noticed over the years how relative indifference to worship breeds an indifferent church culture (because of how communities naturally interrelate). Our conduct, positive or negative, is always influencing the conduct of others. Likewise, to offer someone encouragement is to “lend them your strength.” You can hear all this in the discussion of worship in Hebrews 10, which concludes with: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another— and all the more as you see the Day approaching” [more “realized eschatology” ].

3. I’ve always felt the strongest expression of the importance of worship is that of the persecuted church. To continue to worship when the cost is so high becomes an expression of value and significance. I’ve argued in the past that what the persecuted church is saying is, “when we cease worshiping, we will cease being the Church.” This is just as true now as it was under the Romans.

4. Your employer may not care about worship, at least not at an institutional level. But the Washington State Supreme Court has decided in the past in favor of Christians who intend to keep both Sunday worship and their jobs. So, if you have to stand your ground here, the state supreme court is behind you.

5. Finally, your own soul needs to worship, needs to hear the Gospel, again; needs to remember Who alone rules heaven and earth; needs to be reminded that ultimate reality will one day soon be the ONLY reality. God is the Redeemer and the Comforter of his people, but worship, if it’s done rightly, takes us a step further: it proclaims him as Lord and King.

So pray, if you would, for this Sunday. Use Owen’s four requests: 1) pray for the success of the preached and taught word; 2) pray for Christ’s presence [by his Spirit] at all gatherings; 3) pray for the Lord’s sustaining grace through all special trials; 4) pray for faith and love among the members.

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