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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Today's Worship

What is worship? Besides that wonderful origin -- "worth-ship" -- Christian worship is a rather large concept. Some of it is familiar to us. Some isn't quite as clear.

We all know that Christian worship includes singing songs to God. Everyone knows that. Unfortunately, most people think that the aim of these songs is to encourage warm feelings towards God, while the truth is that the real purpose of worship singing is to ascribe to God the worth He has. The confusion lies in the fact that when we rightly ascribe to God His worth, we generally feel good toward God. So sometimes we reverse it. That's a mistake.

Most people know that there is more to worship than a songfest. Worship is part of the gathering of the saints. It includes prayer. Prayer includes such things as adoration and confession, which are worship in and of themselves. We also assign worth-ship to God when we confess our sins to Him and even when we present our supplications to Him. It's all worship.

Many people know that the sacraments entail worship as well. Baptism and, particularly, Communion are acts of worship. They remind us of His grace and mercy. They point us to Him. Pointing us to Him is a good thing. Anything you can do to move your attention from you to Him is a good thing. So the sacraments definitely are part of worship.

A good number of people know that worship also includes the preaching of the Word. For some reason, some people aren't aware of this. It is, in fact, a major portion of worship. Preaching the Word (please note that I didn't just say "preaching" -- it must be the Word) again turns our attention to God. It serves as a Mt. Sinai moment for Christians. It lets us hear God speak. It tells us what God wants us to hear. We all know that when we listen to someone, we attribute a great deal of worth to them. The preaching of the Word is exactly that. It begs the question, of course. What about those churches that don't preach the Word? What about those preachers who preach the topic? Well, I'll let you decide on that. More importantly, however, is the corollary question. What about those congregations that cannot bear the preaching of the Word? What about those who complain, "The sermons are too long"? What does it say about us when we cannot stand more than 20 minutes of listening to God?

Fewer still recognize that all of Christian living is worship. We die daily as an act of worship. We surrender our lives because of His unending worth. We lay down our bodies as living sacrifices because it is reasonable worship. Every day is worship to the true believer, and every godly act or thought is worship to the true believer.

Sunday is our "day of worship". That is good and fitting. It gives us a chance to celebrate weekly the Resurrection of our Savior. It gives us a day to gather with all the saints to turn our uninterrupted attention to God. Every day is worship, but Sunday is special. As we sing and we pray and we share in Communion and listen to God's Word, let's celebrate with all the saints the magnificent worth of our Savior.

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