Praise (Worship Goal 2025-2026)

This is a sermon preview for the first week of our "Get Loud" series on our goals and watchword for 2025-2026 .

Visit FBCM’s Church Center Channel to view video live stream (live) or audio version of sermon (published week after).

"[M]y house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The Sovereign Lord declares—

    he who gathers the exiles of Israel:

“I will gather still others to them

    besides those already gathered.”

-from Isaiah 56:1-8

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The first thing that God calls his people to do is worship. God does not desire our worship because he has a big ego. Quite the opposite!

In his "Reflections on the Psalms," C.S. Lewis describes praising God with an attention to its affect on us. He likens it to something like tuning an instrument.

“The duty exists for the delight,” Lewis says. “When we carry out our ‘religious duties’ we are like people digging channels in a waterless land, in order that when at last the water comes, it may find them ready. I mean, for the most part. There are happy moments, even now, when a trickle creeps along the dry beds; and happy souls to whom this happens often.”

God calls us to worship, not because he is sad, or lacking, or vain, but because his salvation is always at hand and the Sabbath is a blessing to those who keep it. As we gather to worship each week, we do so not only for our individual faith. Worship in the Bible is an intentionally communal act.

Here in Isaiah, we see that as God brings more people to himself, he also brings those people to join the church.

Whether they are have been here for a lifetime or are new to town, whether we old or young, FBCM is called to be a house of prayer for all people as we proclaim and make known Christ's name.

In 2025-26, FBCM's worship goal is to "give praise to the Lord by gathering to worship as the full, intergenerational body of Christ." This means we will follow God's Word, enjoy fellowship, and participate in the practices that Christ gives us.

When we do this, we'll find worship is not merely an obligation but a joy - a joy which shapes our joys. It also shapes us as a people. For our community does not exist for the sake of community. Community for its own sake will quickly turn a community into an idol or a mob. But we are a community gathered for worship, Christ's body, the church.

James K.A. Smith put it this way:

“Worship works from the top down, you might say. In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.”

― James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

Join us this Sunday as we explore how we give praise to the Lord by gathering as the full, intergenerational body of Christ.