Once again, we have stated that the purpose of corporate worship is . . .
"to remember what God has done to bring us into relationship with Himself through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, to celebrate the communion that is now possible with God, to give attention to His word and to recommit to living within the grace of this covenantal relationship with God and each other."We want to spend the next few posts exploring the last section of this purpose statement. The response to what takes place as we remember, celebrate and give attention is that we recommit to living within the grace of this covenantal relationship with God and each other. The worship gathering should prepare us and motivatate us to go out and live lives of worship. As has often been said at FBC at the end of our services, "Now the worship service truly begins!" One of the clearest calls to this is found in Romans 12:1. Here Paul urges us, because of the mercies of God, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Our lives ought to be an offering of worship to God! It's as if we are adding a huge AMEN! to the end of the worship gathering. Because of what we have seen, heard, celebrated, we are proclaiming that we desire to live out the calling that God has called us to - to bring Him glory with all of our lives. Worship gatherings that don't lead us to this place fall short. No one in scripture every had an encounter with the living God and went away unaffected.
"Father, may our worship gatherings this weekend lead us to the place where we desire to offer our lives to You. May they be lived out for Your glory and used to bless those we come in contact with this week. Give us the grace to live this out. Amen!"
Songs for Our Gathering this Week:
Rejoice
Great are You Lord
by David Leonard | Jason Ingram | Leslie Jordan
Strong to Save
by Eddie Hoagland | Tyler Miller
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
by Charles Wesley | Samuel Arnold | Kurtis Parks
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