Sermon preview, week of July 30, 2024
Our Watchword: Worship
This Sunday’s order
- Sunday
- Reading
- Acts 2:37-47
- Preaching
- Jonathan Balmer
This is a sermon preview for the first week of our Watchword series.
The readingActs 2:37-47
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“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” - from Acts 2:37-47
Read Acts 2:37-47
37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.” 41Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need. 46With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Berean Standard Bible, public domain
“The church's defining characteristic is its worshipful response to the call of God to be his people."
- Simon Chan in Liturgical Theology.
Worship isn’t a genre of music. It isn’t a feeling, or a program that can happen whether (or not) anyone attends. Worship is the main reason we gather, and everything else the church does flows out of this indispensable act.
We’re beginning a series on our Watchword: a portion of scripture that serves as our congregation’s guiding light or north star. Our Watchword for this season comes from Mark 10:45: “Not to be served, but to serve.” Those are Jesus’ words about himself, and Jesus’ call to his disciples.
In Worship, we recognize the main point is God’s glory, God’s goodness, and God’s calling on our lives. And that may lead us into uncomfortable territory.
In response to God’s self-revelation and the things he has done, we seek to honor and glorify God.
Because worship is God-centered, the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, may sometimes be something with which we find immediate connection and speaks to us in a special way, but, other times, we might be called to lay down our preferences, to serve others, and to be part of worship which honors Christ but does not immediately speak to our desires and preferences.
As part of worship, perhaps you enjoy classic hymns (like Pastor Jonathan) or are up-to-date with all the latest Worship music (like Pastor Kendall). Maybe you’re comfortable with either. Or maybe you wonder why we worship at all. Whatever the case might be, I hope this Sunday’s message might help expand and deepen our understanding of Worship to be something greater than those preferences.
This series is focused on the book of Acts. The book of Acts is about the Holy Spirit at work in the early church, after Jesus’ Ascension, We’ll take a look at the early church’s response to the word of God and the life saturated with worship that they live. We’ll see how they are a model for us to recognize worship spans all generations, ethnicities, and involves the full diversity of Christ’s church.
We are worshiping creatures. If we do not worship the true God, we will end up worshiping something else. And when we worship something else, that danger is called idolatry: a danger the Bible warns about again and again. An idol can be any number of things, so long as they’re not God. And our preferences, even for good things, can quickly become an idol if we put them first.
But if we do worship the true God, we’ll find that in giving up our priority for our preferences encourages the faith of others, but also does so much more. We’ll find that God is glorified, magnified, and at work when his people say along with our Lord: “Not my will, but yours be done.”
