Sunday Matters #15
There are 3 ways I’ve been encouraging us to consider as we prepare each week this season - cultivating a Worship Moment, Worship Thought, and a Worship Prayer. Last week, I emphasized the Worship Prayer, but this week I want to remind us what I mean by the Worship Moment.
It’s easy for us to forget the way in which gathered worship intersects with our home, work, families, routines. The scripture actually teaches us that the weekly gathering is essential for the church. In fact, the word church in scripture actually means “the assembly”. We can’t be the church if we don’t assemble. So, yes, Sunday matters for the church. It’s not the only thing we do, but it is certainly essential and it is accomplishing something significant each Lord’s Day. So, how can we let God grip our hearts in doing something so regular each week?
Worship Moment: I want to encourage us to not only prepare musically/technically, but also to prepare our minds and hearts spiritually as worshipers ourselves. Did you know that preparing to serve on Sunday is also part of your ministry as well? This is a different preparation than simply preparing for a gig. The moments of preparation alone is actually worship! Our team does a great job preparing musically, but I don’t want us to miss the heart preparation too. So, Saturday night (or whatever time before Sunday that works for you), take just a moment to read the brief devotional thought for that week (it’s only a couple pages!). If you want, you can grab your Bible and read the verses listed in the Scripture section too. Reflect on your thoughts and pray for God to move our hearts toward him as worshipers. (It doesn’t need to be long and you don’t need to worry if you miss a week. That’s NOT the focus at all.)
My prayer is that this moment is NOT just another thing to add to your already busy schedule, but that you can pause for just a moment before you go to bed on Saturday night to engage in this material at whatever level of time you have. So, if you miss a week (or even a few!), only have time to read the cliff notes version here online, or if you just simply read the 3 page devotional from the book, I pray it serves to give our hearts purpose, preparation, and gospel motivation for how we approach the Lord’s Day.
Green Room Prayer - Let’s pray this for our church as we gather THIS Sunday:
God, we are gathering in this room this morning as your children,
so help us to experience you in worship as our perfect Father.
We also want to celebrate the perfect Son who stands in our place.
Sin has ravaged our world, our families, our hearts,
so help us to confess our sin and to see our true need of you again today.
Help us to see that we are the wandering children,
but assure us that we find covering under your perfect Son as we trust in him.
Let our worship be pure today because Jesus, the Son, came and was born as our Messiah. Amen
For a quick refresher on WHY and HOW we’re using this resource as a team for this season, click on this previous blog post: “New Resource for 2024”.