Sunday Matters #16
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. The last two weeks, I’ve emphasized the Worship Prayer and the Worship Moment, but this week I want to remind us what I mean by the Worship Thought.
Worship Thought: If you’ve served on our worship team for any amount of time, you’ve seen my weekly team emails and probably skimmed through my very wordy band notes with all the song/service details for Sunday! But one thing I’ve done weekly through the years, in some form or fashion, is to try to keep bringing us back to thinking deeply about “worship”. So the whole purpose of reading Sunday Matters this season is to keep us considering over and over the many shining facets of what we are seeking to accomplish as we approach corporate worship. So my prayer is that we would not just “do” worship, but that we would “be” worshipers as we lead and serve in this way.
This week’s chapter reminds us that “being” a worshiper is so much more than just “doing” it on Sunday. It’s certainly not less than Sunday, but it’s so much more than Sunday too! Yes, we are gathering on the Lord’s day, but we are also called to smash idols all week too. Sunday matters, but it doesn’t end there - that’s just the beginning of the week! So as we worship the Lord this weekend, let’s ask God to transform our eyes from a short-sighted thinking of our worship contained on one day and replace it with a bird’s-eye-view of worship that sees how the God’s Spirit will empower us to worship all week long. What does it mean for you to worship all week long? What idols need to be smashed that are stealing your joy and causing you to redirect your worship toward lesser things?
The purpose of the gathering of God’s people is not just to be the place where we worship; it is also to be the place where our everyday worship is reclaimed and redirected, so that everything we do and say is an expression of hearts held by the Creator and lives shaped by a joyful surrender to him. (pg. 84)
Green Room Prayer - Let’s pray this for our church as we gather THIS Sunday:
God, we’re asking your gentle hand to lay hold of our hearts again this Sunday.
We confess that we are blind and needy children who have so easily strayed this week.
We need your Word today to expose the idols of our hearts
so that we can experience the satisfaction, peace, hope, joy and freedom
that you sent your Son Jesus to provide for us through the Gospel that we celebrate.
Teach us what it means to worship you more than just today, but in every moment, all week.
Amen.
Enjoy this song we led a few weeks ago:
