Church is a place to worship.
Whenever believers gather together — whether it’s in a church building or in a park — one of the central reasons they come together is to worship God.
You may ask, “What does it really mean to worship? And what is the church’s role in worshiping God?” Worship starts in heaven. God is awesome and holy, and He alone deserves worship and praise. The Bible says that angels worship God at all times, crying out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory,” (Isaiah 6.3 NIV); also (Revelation 4.8-11, 11.17-18 ESV).
Worshipers on Earth
God also is looking for worshipers on Earth who will exalt His name and praise Him. Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth,” (John 4.23-24 NIV).
God is actively looking for worshipers whose hearts are fully devoted to Him, (2 Chronicles 16.9 ESV), and who will worship Him in light of the truth revealed in Jesus Christ, (John 14.6 ESV).
Followers of Jesus Christ have every reason to worship God. He has saved us, adopted us, forgiven us and redeemed us — we have every reason to praise Him. In fact, everyone is wired for worship. We were created to give our praise, admiration, affection and attention to something.
We will either give our worship to temporal things like idols, cash, possessions, sports and people, or we will give our hearts in worship to the God who created us and loves us. When believers gather together, they gather to worship. While God desires that we also worship Him privately, there is something special that happens when believers come together in community to worship God.
What does “gathered” worship look like?
We worship through music. “Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods,” (Psalm 95.1-3 NLT).
We worship through giving. “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver,” (2 Corinthians 9.7 NIV).
We worship through serving God and giving him our whole lives. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship,” (Romans 12.1).
We worship through prayer. “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people,” (1 Timothy 2.1 NIV).
We worship through reading and teaching the Bible. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” (Colossians 3.16 ESV).
We worship through Communion. “He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me’,” (Luke 22.19 NLT). Communion is a remembrance of the death of Jesus. As we eat the bread and drink from the cup, we remember His sacrifice on the cross and His great love for us.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, Walk With God.
