1 Corinthians 14:24-25

December 31, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 18:35 in the audio file.

Or, What Happens When God Is Really Among Us

We are not the same. We who assemble together to worship the Lord week by week are being changed. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our thoughts about God are different, our thoughts about His world are different, our expectations for and experience of relationships are different, even our understanding of gathering on the Lord’s Day for corporate worship is different.

Almost a month ago at a Men to Men meeting we talked about a chapter on preaching. The author of the book we’re reading wrote that the most important thing that happens during worship is the preaching of the Bible. Multiple guys wanted to talk about this. Multiple guys challenged, if not denied this. While all of those guys are guys who love the truth of the Word, the discussion itself gave evidence that we’re thinking differently about how truth comes to us than we did not that long ago.

Trinity Evangel Church has not existed that long. Our seventh anniversary as a church is just a couple weeks away, but we are different. Not everyone who started with us stayed, but everyone who stayed is no doubt very different, and I think you’d say that you are different for the better, not aged like a compost pile but like good wine in a whiskey barrel. There are a variety of agents and instruments that the Lord, by His Spirit and grace, has used to grow us. But one of the most potent ingredients, if not the one that affects all the others, is our worship together on the Lord’s Day.

Inescapable Imaging

I believe this, and I believe that it is no accident. I believe that it is inevitable, and I believe that it is biblical. We become like who we behold. This is true positively, as I quoted from Paul a few minutes ago in 2 Corinthians 3. This is true negatively, as we heard in the call to worship from Psalm 115. Mute, deaf, senseless, idols cause those who worship them to have useless mouths, useless ears, useless hands.

Worshippers do more than, though not less than, gather truth. I have referred to this state as being a truth-tube. For those who love the Bible–may the Lord increase their tribe–but who relate to this principle impersonally, they also become what they worship. They become professional religious note-takers, worshipping the God of the Answer Key. They become professional religious lawyers, worshipping the God of Argument and Order. They become professional religious editors, worshipping the God of grammatically and theologically correct sentences.

But, while our God is truth, He is also the way Who shows where to go not just what to think. While He is righteousness, He is also grace that floods all our stuff. While He is the God who never lies, He is also the God who always loves, as the Father and Son and Spirit in eternal relationship created in an overflow of joyful fellowship so that mankind could know joyful fellowship with God and with other persons. This is our God and He is not bound in two-dimensions. Nor is He the ultimate taxidermist who lets us keep three dimensions but pins us to the wall. He is the living God! He makes men alive!

We are not the same. And as we worship the God of truth and holiness and justice and mercy and love and joy we are becoming more like Him. It may be slow; it is slow, but it is inevitable. It is happening whether we are aware of it or not, whether we see it week to week or not, whether it is stated explicitly on any given Sunday or during the service.

Annual Liturgy

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