Sunday One: The Importance of Corporate Worship
On Sunday, November 22nd, Hill Country UT will gather together for one service in the Jester Auditorium. It will be a great day to celebrate all that God has done this semester. I am very excited because our whole church will be able to be together as one – thus the name “Sunday One”. I am hopeful that all of you will make a point to gather with us for a morning of worship.
Now, just in case you are wondering if corporate worship or gathering on Sundays with the church family is actually important– I have a few brief thoughts for you.
God Delights in His Gathered Church
Most of us start with the concept, “what will I get or receive when I go to church?” WRONG! If you start with this perspective you have already missed God’s desire for corporate worship. Worship is not about you – it’s about Him – Period. Any benefits we receive from corporate worship (and there are many) are not the purpose of corporate worship but rather they are graces that God decides to give us. But corporate worship is all about God, His glory, His renown!
So many Christ-followers view corporate worship as a consumer and an audience member rather than an active participant. We much rather sit, observe and critique the worship band and even the preaching. Somehow we have taken upon ourselves to give subjective opinions and evaluations of “our” experience. It’s quite amusing actually. I like it when after a sermon someone can come up to me and say, “that sermon was crap” -- while another person will follow with tears and say, “Thank you so much, I needed to hear that today.” Or someone might say, “The worship today was so bad.” While another might say, “That was the greatest moment I have ever had with God.”
You see those who sit in church to critique as an audience member are missing the great spiritual exchange that God desires to take place between Him and our hearts. The reason why people have different impressions about a particular worship song or sermon is because of the motive of their hearts. If the motive is entertain me, let me hear the best sermon ever, or even I could do better – your heart is not ready for worship and surely your heart is not ready to hear the Holy Spirit speak specifically to you. This motive and perspective has placed you –the created – above God – the Creator.
The very heart of corporate worship is to bring glory to God. Our hearts should be so focused on what God has done for us through His son, Jesus Christ, that we don’t see ourselves as an audience member but an active participant - a participant who is there to join with others in giving glory to God. When we worship in song, our focus is Christ. When we hear the preaching of His word we are asking the Holy Spirit to transform us for the glory of Christ. When we take communion, we remember His accomplished works and we give Him glory. This is the type of worshipper that God delights in and gives grace to.
God delights in corporate worship. In the Old Testament the people of God spared no expense to worship God. They would give special tithes and offerings just so they could gather and have worship festivals for God. Yes, they would actually pay to worship God!
Throughout the Old Testament, God commands his people to observe special holidays for worship. Chief among them are three fall and three spring festivals. The fall festivals were all celebrated in the same Jewish month of Tishri:
Rosh Hashanah—the Feast of Trumpets (New Year’s Day)
Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement
Sukkot—the Feast of Booths
The three spring festivals are:
Purim—the celebration of deliverance from Haman’s plot to kill the Jews
Passover—the celebration of the deliverance from Egypt
Shavuot—the Feast of Weeks
God found great delight in His people coming together and observing Him. By observing them, God’s people physically, mentally and emotionally experienced the spiritual reality God wanted them to remember (see Exodus 13:9).
God Gives Grace When We Gather
Though the purpose of Worship is God, as a worshipper we receive many benefits. When the church gathers together every Sunday – we find benefits. The writer of Hebrews reminds us: (Hebrews 10:24-25)
“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.”
The writer of Hebrews is reminding us that when we gather not only do we give glory to God, but God is glorified when we spur one another on. Our time of worship should characteristically move our hearts toward living lives that glorify Him.
So many college students put little value on the corporate gathering. However, we are reminded that we do so to our own detriment. When we fail to value the coming together with God’s people it will hinder our walk with Christ. We miss out on God working in our hearts. We miss out on the encouragement we receive from living in community with other Christ-followers. We miss out on God’s exchange with our hearts. We miss out on celebrating and remembering all that God has done for us. We miss out on living in the virtue of gratitude and when we live without gratitude we will never recognize the complete miracle of the gospel.
When we gather, God gives us grace. He gives us a grace that your pillow and warm bed cannot. He lavishly blesses us by allowing us to be in His presence and anticipating His power working greatly in our lives.
As the Westminster Shorter Catechism prompts - What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever - our corporate meeting together at church, like our worship in all parts of our life, needs to glorify God and demonstrate our thankfulness and praise of him. As in the rest of life, the focus is on glorifying God, not the wooing of seekers or our own needs. Such meetings together should be inspired by, shaped and based on God's truth taught in the Scriptures, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and centered on the possibility of salvation through faith in Christ and by God's grace.
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