Come To The Table Of Worship

Come to the table of worship. Acts 2:42-47

Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ

September 19, 2002

I can remember when I was in college I was on the school meal plan. Now great lakes tries very hard but I never was a big fan of the way that they would cook food. In fact I thought the 4 food groups were, Taco bell, Burger king, Pizza hut, and Arby’s.

We all know what happens when anyone is exposed to that kind of diet for a period of time. We lose our good vitamins and our body starts getting too much of one thing. And not enough of another. So we become chemically imbalanced. We get tired easier and we wear out faster when we don’t have a balanced diet.

There are many diet programs out right now. And a lot of them are designed to starve you from something that your system needs. For example you’ve heard of the low carb diet. Or the all protein diet.

What scientists have found is that if to go on one of these diets. Such as the all protein diet then your body can’t handle what’s happening so in order to get the nourishment it needs your body starts feeding off the muscle. So you end up losing more of your good stuff than your bad stuff.

Does this mean we shouldn’t diet? NO Rather it means that we need to find out how to balance our diet. We need to feel comfortable coming to the table and eating. But we also need to maintain balanced portions of what we eat.

Our spiritual life is no different when it comes to worship. And I would imagine that with this new format it would be incredible easy to worship in song and to pray as part of our worship but use the intermission to leave and miss the sermon all together. Or for some I imagine that it would be easy to come for the sermon and not participate in the part where we offer a blessing to God through song for his goodness.

All of these parts of worship help us to have a balanced walk when it comes to following Jesus. This morning I hope that the whole worship experience will come together for you and you will see just how these 4 spiritual food groups help you have a balanced spiritual life.

When you go to a restaurant let’s say you walk in and sit down and order a steak. You are then given a choice about what kind of vegetable you would like. Sunday morning has become something like that. Hopefully the communion, offering and message are the steak in your spiritual diet this morning. But you can begin to have your choice of different flavors of your vegetable. For some you will want a traditional setting and for others you will want a contemporary setting.

All we ask is that you leave here having feasted at the table of worship on Sunday morning. And if you want to stay for all 3 segments I think you fill find that something extra special comes through your worship.

This morning will you come to the table of worship. The Bible tells us that this table of worship gives us nourishment in 4 different ways but it also says that these four things are like the legs of the table and each leg holds up a different area of worship.

Our text today is Acts 2:42-47 and it describes how the early church met together and worshiped. But this is not the only text that describes the worship of Jesus followers. But this text is the text that puts it all in one place.

It’s interesting that we see a format for worshiping but as we read this it is also important to understand that this was not something that happened once a week. It was not just a Sunday occurrence but rather the scripture points out that they did this every day.

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This text says that there are 4 parts to worshiping God. I want you to note a couple of things this text is about the church not particularly about a the way they worshiped. Because it does not say that they sang. Yet in every other example of people praising God together in the New Testament the people were singing as a major part of the worship.