Thursday, July 8, 2010

A Nice Thing to Do on Sunday Morning?


Worship on the Lord’s Day is the most important activity that we can do, not only because it shapes or defines us as the people of God, but because God calls us to obey His summons to the sacred assembly.

Psalm 95:1-7
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

This is not simply a suggestion for a nice thing to do on a Sunday morning! It is not just another addition to our weekly calendar...let’s see on Monday I go to the gym, Tuesday I have my hair done, Wednesday I’ll pick up the kids at school and go shopping, Thursday is catch up on email, Facebook, and the afternoon Soaps, Friday is family night out, and Saturday do all the yard-work, clean the house....oh yeah, if the weather is nice Sunday we’ll go to the beach...if it’s raining, we can sleep in...or maybe go to church. You know that Americans are pretty nonchalant about church attendance. After all it would be legalistic to require it. Of course that might be true if someone with no authority were commanding you to do something you didn’t want to do. Such is not the case with divine worship. It is Almighty God Who calls you and to stay away from worship on the Lord’s Day is disobedience. To ignore His command to worship is to show your Lord, your Creator, your Redeemer contempt. You cannot consider yourself a faithful Christian without worshiping the Lord in the assembly of the saints on the Lord’s Day! Praying at home is not covenant renewal worship, having father-led family devotions is not covenant renewal worship. This is why the Hebrews writer says that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some.

Brothers, sisters, and covenant children, worship of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the most important thing we do in life. And since it is so important, we should make sure we get it biblically right. If the goal is to honor Almighty God, then we need to know what He desires in worship.