Our Purpose: To Magnify God In Worship Series

But there are also two secondary reasons for our worship. When we worship God we are strengthened. Truth, the contemporary singing group, sang “We get lifted up when we praise His name.” When we just lift ourselves up we aren’t strengthened, when we are just entertained that soon fades, but when we exalt God and sense His presence then we made stronger. God ordained worship, not because He needs it but because He’s made us in such a way that we need it. There’s something inspirational about singing the words of Scripture, of voicing our praise and adoration with others. There’s something cleansing about taking communion together, there’s something reinforcing about hearing God’s truth proclaimed clearly in an assembly. There’s something moving about seeing people respond and make decisions for Christ. Heb. 10:25- “Do not give up meeting together as some are doing but let us encourage one another..” Our worshiping together encourages us, strengthens us.

There’s another secondary purpose to our worship and that is that our worship is a testimony to the unsaved/unchurched person that comes to our services. In Acts 2:47 we see that the people were praising God and enjoying each other and the last of that verse says, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” When people on the outside come inside and see people genuinely worshiping I think the Holy Spirit works through that to draw people to Christ. When they see us praising, adoring, listening, responding to Jesus as He’s lifted up they are drawn to Him. There are some every week who, for the first time, are trying church or trying church again, and our worship needs to be a testimony to them. That’s important because there are a lot of churches today emphasizing what’s called “Seeker Sensitive Services.” Now, I want our church services to be “seeker sensitive” that is a service where seekers can feel warmly welcomed, physically comfortable and spiritually fed. Who amongst doesn’t want guests to be glad they came? But many churches are going past being “seeker-sensitive services” and instituting what I call “seeker-driven services.” It’s important to know the difference because our goal is to be seeker-sensitive services but not seeker driven. A seeker driven service is one where the worship is adjusted to make it more palatable to the unbeliever or unchurched. In fact, I went to one last week. It was an independent Christian Church like ours, but it was seeker-driven. There was no congregational singing, just specials because seekers don’t want to sing. There was no communion offered because the seeker might be offended by talking about death or blood. There was no invitation because they don’t want to put the seeker on the spot, and the sermons are not expository because they don’t want to gag the seeker with too much scripture. I understand the philosophy but I want you to also understand that I do not want to be the preacher of that kind of church. Now, don’t misunderstand, I want to be sensitive to those seeking God, for the church is the only institution that primarily exists for those outside of it. But I don’t want to become seeker-driven compromising things like strong Biblical preaching or communion. I do think we can become a little more seeker sensitive. That’s why Tim Sutton is heading up an A.M. Service ministry where we are working at greeting our guests with a little more warmth, where we offer clearer information on where child care is, where they can go to wash their hands (among other things), & where they can gain additional information about our church. It’s why we work hard at planning our services so they run smoothly and are attractive. It’s why we instituted decision counselors to help those who want to make decisions be more comfortable, it’s why we are even now, re-doing our welcome packets so seekers can be informed. All these and more so we can be sensitive to those who are unsaved or unchurched. But.. Please hear me.. we will NOT stop singing God’s praises and we will NOT stop preaching God’s Word.