Mission of Worship: Part II: Worship Through Communion

I realize it has been some time since I posted last, but I want to pick up where I left off; The Mission of Worship. This has been an ongoing quest of mine; to discover what God’s mission of worship is. God charged me with it almost two years ago and I am determined to complete this work He has set before me. There have been many distractions through the last year, but all that tells me is that satan does not want me complete my work… so I must be on the right track.

and when He had given thanks, He broke [it] and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner [He] also [took] the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink [it], in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. -1Corinthians 11:24-26 (NKJV)

This is a well known verse to most of us; it is the story of the last supper, and the first communion. When we think of communion, we most likely think of the traditional taking of the bread and drinking of the cup to remember the sacrifice Christ made at the cross for the atonement of our sins. And this is exactly what we are told to do in scripture. Yet, why is it something we only do during corporate worship? Communion with our Heavenly Father is something we should be doing daily. Not necessarily the bread and the cup, but the spiritual act of communion with our Lord is necessary to truly worship Him.

In Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth he tells us that every time we partake in communion we are proclaiming Christ’s death until His return. Here are some verses about what and how we are to proclaim;

So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. -1Cor 9:14

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. –Col 1:28

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; -1 Pet 2:9

Proclaiming Christ’s death and resurrection is one of our Primary Objectives as followers of the Way. Scripture says that we are to “get our living from the gospel.” To me, that means that every moment of our existence should be spent living the proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ. To do that, we need to be in daily communion with the Master.

Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians 11:28 that we must examine ourselves as we take communion. It is through daily examination of ourselves, that God brings to the forefront of our minds the areas of our lives that are hindering our growth in Him. Then we can lay these hindrances at the foot of the cross and move forward in our walk with God. This is what communion is all about; trading the burdens of our heart for the burdens of Christ’s, so His Will may be accomplished through us.

I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. –Psalms 16:8

Worship means setting the Lord continually before us. We do this by communing with Him daily. I’m not just talking about our quiet time or, our prayer time or on Sunday at church. I mean that every moment of every day we should strive to encompass our every thought, word and action with the presence of God. Communion is so much more than something we do in remembrance. It is aligning the course of our lives with the will of God. More than that it is the continual death of our flesh; the sacrifice of all that we are, to all that God calls us to be. Allowing God’s Holy Spirit to saturate our spirit with the truth of His call to worship.

MISSION OF WORSHIP: Part 1

23But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth
~ John 4:23-24 (NASB) ~

This verse has become my personal conviction. God has burdened my heart to understand what true worship is. I call it my “Mission of Worship”. A mission to discover what it really means to worship God in spirit and truth, and what roll worship plays, not only in corporate Sunday worship, but in our personal walk with God. Along with this burden comes the conviction to share my revelations with others. To try and impress it upon the hearts of other Christians as it has been pressed on mine. To challenge my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to be the light God calls us to be. And I believe it all starts with worship.

Let me assure you that it is only through the revelation of God in His Word that we are able to learn the things we need to know about ourselves.
~ A.W. Tozer ~

I think we need to look at this set of verses in John, particularly the last part of verse 23. It says that the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. Right now God is seeking you… are you seeking Him? God longs for us to give Him the worship He created us to give. Do you see where I’m going with this? God created us to worship Him. Since He breathed life into Adam our primary purpose has been to worship Him. When Adam and Eve fell, that purpose of worshiping God began to fade away as sin became more prominent. The desire to worship never changed, just the gods we worshiped. With so many different “gods” out there today it’s easy to find one that fits your personality. If you don’t like what this “god” says, there will be another one who has everything you want. Christians, God is, and was, and always will be and for that fact alone He is worthy of our devoted worship.

4For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. 5For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. 6Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
~ Psalms 96:4-6 ~

So how do we worship the Lord in spirit and truth? When we accept Christ as our Savior, he bestows upon us His Holy Spirit. It is God’s spirit that dwells in us, and it is that spirit which enables us to worship God. Tozer describes worship as originating from God and reflecting off of us as a mirror back to God. Now, to worship in spirit alone is futile. We must add the truth that God is, and that this is what He created us for, to be able to bring a sacrifice of acceptable worship to the Lord. Worship is God’s way of maintaining a relationship with us. It is also a way for us to maintain a steady course in God’s Will. Worship isn’t just what we do on Sunday morning in Church. Not to say that worshiping in song isn’t an acceptable way to worship. The point I mean to make is worship must be a part of our daily pursuit of God. We worship God by our good works, our dedication to His Will, and our devotion to a deeper relationship with the truth of His Word.

To be a true worshiper, we must be servants of worship. In fact one of the translations of worshiper in Greek is Latreuõ, which means a servant. As a servant of worship we must be continually and humbly aware of God’s presence; always acknowledging His dominion over our lives. By worshiping in spirit and truth we become examples of what Christianity is suppose to be. The way we worship God personally will carry over to our public lives. Our life should reflect a reverence for the Lord that others see and want. The simple truth that Jesus died on the cross to bridge the gap of sin that separated us from Him should be a continual praise on the hearts and lips of every worshiper.

It is a full time life, the life of a Christian. Paul chose to refer to Christians as “In Christ”. The Bible tells us that all of us who desire to live Godly, in Christ will be persecuted(1). Worship is a vital part of our walk with God; it is our direct connection to Him. It is how we enter His presence and how we can begin to understand His plan for our lives. How can we be an effective witness of The Gospel if we don’t have a working knowledge of what it means to truly worship God? We need to be properly representing the truth of our faith. We are put into positions every day, by God, to proclaim the truth of The Gospel and if our connection to God is severed, how can we ever be able to effectively witness?

14Take pains with these things; be {absorbed} in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
15Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
~ 1 Timothy 4:14-15 ~

1) 2 Timothy 3:12

Don't Neglect The Fellowship

I made it to church today for the first time since I broke my ankle. I was only able to sit through Sunday school before my ankle began acting up, causing me to leave. Even though I was only able to stay for a little more than an hour, what a refreshing hour it was. There are very few joys in life that compare to spending good fellowship with your church family. As a christian, fellowship is not only needed it is biblical. The act of fellowship and communion was a regular practice in the early church.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
-Acts 2:42 (NASB)

Sadly though my Brothers and Sisters, it seem that our pews are becoming a bit empty. Many Christians are of the mind that they don't need church to worship God. And in a way they are right, personal worship is just that, personal. But there are more and more "lone Christians", as I like to call them, coming onto the scene. The "lone christian" is made up many different types of believers. Some of them are long time Christians who have decided for whatever reason to stop going to church. They believe in God and that Jesus died, they've accepted him as their savior but somewhere down the line they were soured on church. Others are Christians who get saved and for whatever reason won't find a fellowship. They are content to take their "ticket to heaven" put it in their pocket and be done with the whole "christian thing".

No matter the background, the fact remains that these brothers and sisters in Christ are not actively involved with a body of believers. This is a dangerous place for any of us to be, friends. Without a body of believers a christian is vulnerable to attack. 1 Peter 5:8 says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And like a lion, the devil isn't as likely to go for the christian surrounded by a body of believers, as he is to attack one on his or her own. We, as Christians are must constantly be aware of the battle continually raging around us. Make no mistake about it christian, WE ARE AT WAR, and the only way we can stand is as one unified body... the body of Christ.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual {forces} of wickedness in the heavenly {places.}
-Ephesians 6:12

One of the primary misconceptions I hear from these "lone Christians" is that "church is just a building, I can have church in my living room." And their right. Church can be held in living rooms and is fairly regularly around the world. The point is, the church is not just a building. The church is the unity of the Body of Christ. It is the way we as Christians live one another and hold one another accountable. Church is family; we help each other in times of need, cry with one another in times of sadness, laugh together in times of joy, and most importantly, love one another all the time.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging {one another;} and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
-Hebrews 10:23-25

Pressing on Through The Distractions

As of late I've been laid up on my couch with a broken ankle. I go in for surgery this Friday so they can screw a plate into my bone. I can't wait... really. When I broke my ankle I asked God how this fit into His Will. I asked what He would teach me through this trial. I figured that I would have plenty of time to study God's word being off my feet for a few weeks. The sad thing is, I broke my ankle ten days ago and today is the first day I've opened my bible to actually spend quality time with my God. Sure I've done a couple topical studies on worship, which is what I've heard God calling me to devote my study time to. In fact the name of this blog translated means true heart worship. But what I realized is, without an active daily seeking of God, my studies are fruitless.

In today's world it is so easy to become distracted from actively seeking God. Satan's influence is so ingrained into our social structure we hardly notice anymore. His lies and deceptions have managed to saturate the very core of our society. You can see his influences in our media, our government, our schools and unfortunately, The Church. With each passing generation, truth, morals, and values become more relative to each individual than to the Will of God.

This should come as no surprise, Christian. How much easier is it to pick up the remote rather than your Bible? Why are we so easily caught up in the politics of our government instead of an intimate relationship with God? Why are we more concerned with foreign affairs and the involvement of our nation than we are the spiritual well being of our families and Church? I could ask these questions all day and we would continue to sit here and nod our heads in agreement that a change needs to be made. Then we'd get all fired up and vow to make a difference only to watch our fire dwindle because we refuse to feed it with a daily relationship with God? I would, that's been my SOP (standard operating procedure) for as long as I can remember.
When we get on fire for God and begin actively seeking Him, satan pulls out all the stops. He uses his distractions to pull our focus away from God for a moment so he can step up and plant condemnation in our heart. He slithers up behind us and says,
"You've failed your God! You can't make a difference, why even try?"
Christian, you have a counter to this lie. It's found in Romans;

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

- Romans 8:1

This is a great truth to pick yourself up after that nasty stumble or fall, dust yourself off and press on.

Every day we must get up and decide to put on our running shoes instead of our lounge slippers and run that race God has set us apart for. We cannot let ourselves become distracted by the temporary trophies of this world. Our prize is eternity with God the Father and Jesus.

1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

-Hebrews 12:1-2

The secret is to never be content with where we are in Christ. Never be satisfied, always desire to go deeper. I like the way Tozer put best;

They are athirst for God, and

they will not be satisfied till they have

drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.

A.W. Tozer

The Pursuit of God