Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

Am I ready for worship?

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It’s Friday, and my eyes are turned toward this Sunday’s worship service.  I am putting the final touches on my sermon (which will be revised again on Saturday night, and probably re-revised on Sunday morning).  I’ve given thought and prayer to the service, planning which scriptures to read, the themes of certain prayers for the service, and writing out my invitation to the Lord’s Supper.  I’ve got the details ready for worship, but I am still left with the question, “Am I ready for worship?”

bw-praying

I’ll be perfectly honest: There have been Sundays when, even as the Pastor and worship leader, my heart is not ready for worship. I might have every word written, every movement planned, I might even know it all from memory, yet worship seems cold, powerless, unmoving.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that worship must involve some emotionally overwhelming ecstatic experience every Sunday morning. Quite the contrary. I believe God uses ordinary means, ordinary things, to transform us by his grace: sound biblical teaching, heartfelt prayer, honest worship. And, amazingly, even on those days when I feel distant, God still works through this “earthen vessel” to reveal His glory.

Still, what can I do to prepare my heart for worship so that my experience on a Sunday morning can genuinely be an honest encounter with the living and true God?  Here are a few thoughts I’ve put together, perhaps they will help you as much as they have helped me.

Worship Every Day

I’ve started running in earnest again, and for a while I’ve only been running a couple of days a week.  I had an ache in the knee I was trying to nurse, but really the pain had gone away a long time ago.  I was barely running, and never could find my rhythm.

Then I started running every day. It was immediately easier to get up and get going in the morning. I felt I was running better by the end of the first week, and my long slow run on Saturday morning improved.

Lesson learned: the weekend warrior routine doesn’t cut it.

Not in running.

Not in worship.

If you want to really be ready for worship on Sunday morning, then bring your heart to worship the Lord on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and so on. The regular practice of communing with God through the study of His word, through prayer, and even in song in private greatly advances the hearts readiness for the corporate act of worship when you come together as the Church.

The next time you find yourself saying, “My heart really wasn’t in worship this morning,” ask yourself, “Where has my heart been all week?”  Have you been in regular worship before the face of God, or are you just stopping by once a week?

Prepare for Sunday morning on Saturday night

The worst thing about Sunday morning worship is Saturday night.  Saturday’s, for most, are fun days. We chase our kids to their sports, we go on dates, we have movie night. The problem is, we have so much fun, its really hard to get up and get going on Sunday morning.  We get so caught up on our Saturday fun that the importance of Sunday is lost, and worship becomes an afterthought to our work and play.

Boy, our priorities are upside down. Charles Swindoll once wrote, “We are often so caught up in our activities that we tend to worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.”

What would it look like if you made the conscious decision to call it quits early on a Saturday.  Get the kids to bed at a decent time – maybe even read to them the Scripture that will be preached in worship the next day. Spend some time in the evening by yourself, studying scripture and praying that your heart would be ready for corporate worship the next day. Turn off SNL, get a good night’s sleep, and get up in the morning ready and willing for worship.

Just maybe that will keep you from nodding off like this poor fella…

Come ready to Give

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you walk out of worship saying you didn’t get anything out of the service, you walked in to worship for the wrong reason. The purpose of Christian worship is to give glory to God, to honor and magnify the name of Jesus, to praise the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Worship is our service to God.

This flies in the face of what most people think of today.  We describe worship as “seeker sensitive,” so that it would seem that the congregation (or audience) is the object of the worship.  Indeed, I hope that all feel welcomed in worship, that those who are seeking the truth will hear and know of Christ, and that all who worship God in Spirit and in Truth come away from that experience having been blessed by the presence of God. I pray that my preaching and teaching in worship edifies the congregation, rebuking and correcting sin, and encouraging and equipping maturity in Christ. All that being said, my greatest desire is that our worship – my preaching, our singing and praying –  brings glory and honor to God alone.

When we gather in the house of God for worship, our primary goal is to glorify His holy name.  We give to God, not just at the offering, but we give our service of worship, our submission to His Word, our renewed commitment to the work of the Gospel.  Come to worship with generous hearts, ready to give more than you receive, and you fill find that your cup overflows.

Practice Genuine Christian Fellowship

The fellowship of other Christians is one of the greatest gifts of grace we could ever know. But what do we do with fellowship?  We serve coffee and donuts in the fellowship hall, shake hands and say “‘morning,” and then we go our separate ways. How is this fellowship any different than that which takes place at the coffee klatch on Monday morning?

Genuine Christian fellowship gives and receives grace. As you worship, you hear the words of pardon and grace, and are invited to be at peace with God.  The fellowship that flows from our worship extends that same grace to one another: forgive one another as God has forgiven you in Jesus Christ (Eph 4:32).

Our reluctance (or refusal) to extend to one another the forgiveness we have found in Christ will quench the spirit of worship.  What if our fellowship, in addition to the coffee and donuts, had a greater emphasis on the reconciliation and grace of the Gospel? What if you walked out of worship and fellowship having finally put to rest the animosity and division that had come up between you and a brother or sister in Christ?  Would you not think then that you had really worshipped before the face of God?

I’m sure I could go on – and I’m not certain these were all on point – but I hope and pray that this will help you to prepare you heart for worship. And remember, even if your hearts not in it, go to worship. I’ve found that when my heart isn’t really “in” something, simply showing up with the rest of my body gets my heart there eventually.

May you be blessed by the regular and heartfelt worship of the Lord!

SDG

Facing the Reality of Evil

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“Then the dragon became furious with the woman
and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring,
on those who keep the commandments of God
and hold to the testimony of Jesus”
(Revelation 12:17)

October 1, 2015 brought us another school shooting; this time, at a community college in Oregon.  The shooter in this horrific tragedy reportedly asked his victims if they were Christian, and shot those who answered “Yes.” In all, 9 were killed, and 9 others wounded.

Setting aside all the political debate that has arisen from this, what we can say for certain is this: we are witnessing evil in this world, and our hearts are crying out for an answer. Politicians will debate this to try to find the best policy (either to fix the problem or get them re-elected); that’s what politicians do.  As I wrote in my previous post, it is the role of the pastor to stand in the middle of such senselessness and point to the end of the story, and the One who has written it.

I’m currently in the middle of reading a rather long commentary on Revelation. I realize that doesn’t sound like the most exciting reading. In the light of recent events, however, Revelation and the commentary speak powerfully to our lives today.  Consider this:

The victory won through Christ’s blood must be the basis, not only for the saints’ earthly victory, but also for Michael’s triumph in heaven. V 11 summarizes the purpose of the whole chapter and especially of vv 7-12. The single intent… is to assure those who meet satanic evil on earth that it is really a defeated power, however contrary it might seem to human experience. Christians can be assured that the serpent begins to battle against their bodies only after he has lost the battle over their souls. This expresses one of the major themes of the book: the suffering of Christians is a sign, not of Satan’s victory, but of the saints’ victory over Satan because of their belief in the triumph of the cross, with which their suffering identifies them.

If the devil’s accusations had been effective with God, then all of God’s people would have been cast from his presence and would have begun to experience the anguish of the final judgment, which would be consummated at the Last Day. Instead, the devil was cast out from heaven, because his charges had become groundless. The saints’ status in heaven has been legitimized finally by Christ’s suffering on the cross. All believers, past, present, and future, have overcome the devil because of the blood of the Lamb.

How have they overcome the devil? Through Christ’s death they have been declared not guilty of the accusations launched against them. Therefore they are exempt from the ultimate punishment. Satan’s accusations are unable to unleash the infliction of the “second death.”

Beale, G.K., The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Book of Revelation. (Eerdmans Pub Co, Grand Rapids MI, 1999) Pg663-4.

What you’ll hear from the politician is this shooting is evidence that we need better gun-control, better health-care, better control of such “toxic-masculinity” (whatever that is).  What we need, they’ll tell you, is for the government to fix this; we need a stronger, more powerful, state.

The reality is, Satan has been cast down, and he is raging against the church until he is finally conquered by Christ (Revelation 12). As the old hymn goes:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure…

This is the reality of the evil we face today, but is also the reality of our conquering King Jesus the Christ.  This evil will continue to rage against His rule until the very end, and our only hope in the face of such evil is found in Christ our King, the one who died and is alive forevermore.  You won’t hear that from your politicians.