Hey Church!

I have the privilege of leading the “Gather” module of our Discover Rio course during the 9:00 AM service this coming Sunday. We will spend our time thinking about how worshiping together each week is a fundamental support to a healthy and growing relationship with Jesus. So, I figured this is as good a time as any to review some of those same basic principles with you all. 

Most Christians have at least a vague idea that worshiping together is important. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? Looking at God’s spiritual fitness program and seeing “Gather Weekly” on His agenda, what would you say are His intended outcomes? What does worshiping together actually do for Him, or for us? 

Why is gathering together for worship on Sundays such a necessary part of a growing relationship with Jesus? 

The goal and singular reason is for the praise of God’s glory (Eph. 1:6). And the three dimensions of our worship by which He is praised and glorified are 1) personal conformity to Christ, 2) the edification of the Body, and 3) our witness to the watching world. Without all three of these aspects working together in harmony, our corporate worship gatherings will fall short of the goal. 

1. PERSONAL CONFORMITY TO CHRIST. When we worship by faith, we put our flesh to death and rise unto new life in the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus died and rose again in the body, so we come to resemble Him when we (spiritually and continuously) die and rise again. It is precisely this act of worship that God uses us to conform us to the image of His Son. (Matt. 16:24-25; Rom. 6:4-6; 8:10-17, 28-29; 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 2:19-21; Gal. 3; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 3:3-21)
2. EDIFICATION OF THE BODY. Our conformity to Christ takes on a vertical dimension between the worshiper and God. So the one thing that makes together-worship unique from all-of-life worship is what Paul calls “edification.” Edification represents a horizontal dimension of gathered worship by which believers sharpen, encourage, and build up one another like many living stones being constructed into one Temple-house. There is a sense in which we sing to God… to one another. (Rom. 12:3-13; 1 Cor. 12:20-21; Eph. 2:19-22; Eph. 4:12-16; Eph. 5:18-19; 1 Pet. 2:1-5)
3. WITNESS TO THE WATCHING WORLD. Evangelism is the natural consequence of true worship. Unbelievers that visit on a Sunday morning should hear and see the manifest presence of God, be called to faith by the whole assembly, and so fall on his face and confess that Jesus is Lord. (see 2 Cor. 14:23-25; cf. Jn. 4:1-26; Rom. 10:17; Heb. 10:23-25)

God is most glorified in our worship when it calls us to die and rise with Him, to strengthen the Body, and to shine like a beacon of light on a hill. What a privilege it is to be counted among the living stones in His Temple! We are the dwelling place of the Most High and a stumbling stone of witness to the unbelieving world. (1 Pet. 2:8; 1 Cor. 1:21-24) So, let us not give up the habit of meeting together for worship, but encourage each other all the more fervently as we see the Day of the Lord approaching. (Heb. 10:25