Sunday Matters #3
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! For years as a kid, I heard this phrase touted from my TV during commercial breaks and I knew exactly what it was talking about whether I was in front of the screen or heard it from the other room. This was the voice of Jan C. Gabriel promoting another Monster Truck Rally at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI. It was unmistakable and became something we repeated to each other as kids all the time. We never had to explain it, but we all knew what it meant.
As we approach another Sunday, I wonder how often my own heart forgets the impact of our corporate gathering. It’s easy to let another Sunday come and go. I wonder if the thought of Sunday approaching could be an unmistakable call to our hearts. Paul Tripp uses the illustration that Sunday is a mirror for our hearts. It’s not always the kind of reflection we want to see, but it is the kind that we desperately need. If we hold up God’s Word as the main voice that structures what we do when we gather, then it’s true what Tripp says in this weeks chapter (Sunday #3):
“The Scripture read, sung, and expounded functions, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, as a mirror, enabling us to see ourselves as we really are, so that we will seek the grace that we deeply need. Because of remaining sin, we need this heart-exposing ministry again and again. I am thankful that week after week, God has used the corporate gathering for worship as an instrument of accurate spiritual sightedness in my life.”
It is good for us to receive the “bad news” of our souls together because we can all rejoice together when we drink in the “good news” of the gospel together as well. So let’s let our hearts grow softer and more repentant as we gather so that we might worship in the assembly with loud shouts of joy (Is. 12:6).
So when Sunday comes around again this week, let’s let our hearts understand the unmistakable response to our God – needed repentance from our sin and a renewed heart of restoration provided for us in Jesus. This is the gospel rhythm of our worship…Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
Let’s pray this for our church this week:
Father, give us the gift of gathering by helping us to see ourselves, first, as those who are desperately in need of forgiveness. Deliver us from our blindness that would keep our hearts hard toward you. Revive us again this Sunday with the joy of the gospel. Let us remember that we are not alone, but we gather as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, of our King.
