1/29/2024 0 Comments Prayer for finances read aloud![]() In scripture, there are several responses that happen when one is drawn near to God. Though you can’t see them there are angels in the architecture. We gather with God’s people in a building on Sunday and yet are spiritually united with the saints all throughout history and the world. In public worship therefore, we are called out of the world and into the presence of God. That is when we worship with God’s people in Christ Jesus, we are spiritually brought into the throne room of heaven and are spiritually united with the worship that continues eternally there. As we speak together, we are reminded that the Lord calls us and we through Christ are drawn up together in worship to the heavenlies. This is why we often have times when we speak prayers together or say scriptural phrases together like when the pastor says, “lift up your heart” and we respond together “we lift up our hearts to the Lord.” These words come from Ps. Public worship is not you as an individual coming before God but rather you as a part of God’s people coming before him. This reminds us that we have been called to worship together with the church. This is why most weeks the call to worship includes the congregation speaking together. God calls his people before him and we respond to that call. ![]() Therefore, the time of worship formally begins with a Call to Worship from scripture. Worship thankfully is a command of God and a gift from God. We do not get to come into his presence on our own volition. And no one may come before God without his invitation. Up until this point, we have only been in preparation for worship because no one walks into the throne room of a king without first being invited. As you meditate and as you follow together the liturgy, think about the words you say and sing and do not say or sing them unless you believe and delight in Christ and his blessed salvation. It is each individual’s responsibility to come before God out of love rather than duty. Yet we must do so not only in truth but in Spirit. We approach God on his terms, not our own. We seek to include the simple few acts that the first Christians in Acts 2:42 followed as put into a logical and orderly progression. ![]() We do it because God has told us this is how he wants us to approach him. We do not recite scripture, confess sin, and sing simply out of tradition. This transcendent worship is culture-changing, and therefore always relevant to any age or time. We worship together with the saints and angels in heaven around the throne of God. we are by faith in the finished work of Christ and obedience to God’s command spiritually raised into the heavens to join in the praise of that heavenly sanctuary. This is because, rather than seeking to be trendy or culturally driven, we see worship as transcending time and space. We do not believe that one must follow our exact liturgy to be a church, but we do believe it is a better way than many have tasted in our day. We have done our best to follow this in establishing our order of worship. The Bible does not have a chapter with an order of worship printed on it, but it does give us principles, patterns, examples, and commands that we are to follow. We at Sovereign King Church want to honor both our reformed fathers and the traditions of the church while attempting to pattern our liturgy (order of worship) from the word of God. Within the reformed church there has been a lot of debate on the specific application of this principle, often called the regulative principle. Some came to the conclusion that God gives us what we are to do in worship and thus if God has not told us to do something in worship, we should not do it. The Protestant reformers wanted a return to scripture God determines how he is to be worshipped. During the reformation, the reformed church saw abuses going on the Roman churches such as bowing to statues, prayers to saints and Mary, and many other inventions of man, and therefore sought a change. This view often called the normative principle of worship is the view of the Roman Catholic church, the Lutheran and Anglican Church, and many modern evangelical and Baptist churches. Some churches have argued that Christians are free to include in their worship anything that is not strictly forbidden by God in the Bible but must include what God has commanded. ![]() Believe it or not, there has been a lot of thought in church history to what worship should look like. ![]()
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