Before we go into the role of God’s Word in the Sunday service, it’s important to note that there are a myriad of views of the main purpose of the Sunday service. Here are brief explanations of why three of the most common views are NOT true:
- The church service is not primarily a place to bring your friends to hear about the Gospel. You should be doing that regularly.
- The service is not primarily a place for you to be “fed”. You should be in communion with God through prayer and reading scripture regularly. The Holy Spirit lives within us, and is not asleep until He hears the music start on Sunday morning. We should listen, pray, repent and read the bible always. You will be fed, but don’t make that your goal, or else Sundays become your primary means of growth. God calls us to respond more than an hour on Sundays, and he desires to sanctify us more than an hour on Sundays.
- The service is not an obligation you fulfill in order to appease God. You’ve been made right through the blood of Jesus Christ, and you attending a service doesn’t add to that. It’s preposterous when you think about it.
The main goal of gathering on Sundays is to respond together in worship. As Pastor @TaylorRobertsOK and Pastor @Nate_Williams explain each week after the sermon, we do this in three ways: singing, celebrating communion, and giving tithes and offerings. The key word in our gatherings is respond. What are we responding to? God, who specifically reveals Himself through His word. This is why we preach exegetically at @V21Church. Because God primarily reveals himself through His word, we center our lives around that, and place ourselves under the authority of scripture. Sundays consist of God revealing Himself to us through His word, brought by the pastor preaching from scripture, and our response through repentance, singing, observing communion and giving tithes.
How do we prepare for Sunday in this regard? We study scripture regularly. We read commentary, books and seek to gain a better understanding of scripture. We pray that God softens and prepares our hearts, and reveals His Word to us. We submit our lives to scripture during the week, instead of that one hour on Sundays. For Sunday, January 24th, the scripture we’re studying together is Mark 8:22-30.
The final song we’ll sing this Sunday is “When You Are Not Enough”. This is not the typical big ending, climaxing in “hallelujah!” over and over. My prayer each week is the same as we end: “May our response to you continue, may our singing continue throughout the week”. The song is one of repentance and ends with us petitioning God to “Grant us mercy, grant us grace, grant us wisdom, grant us faith”. My hope is that we’ll leave the service humble, repentant, and listening to God. Please pray these lyrics, listen to the song and sing along, and ask God to break your heart if you have any other loves that are in His place. I’m looking forward to this Sunday and can’t wait to worship with you, my family. I love you and am praying for you.
- Matt Stevens
Listen to or download “When You Are Not Enough” here.
Words And Music By @ThadCockrell and @MattStevensNC
My hope is lost
Matt Stevens is the Worship Pastor for Vintage21 Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. Contact him via Twitter: @MattStevensNC
This song was a stake through my heart this morning. My big concern was some shoulder pain from a long motorcycle ride I took yesterday, because I want different handlebars. I wasn’t halfway through the first verse before I was a chastened and convicted person. Over and over again I seek fulfillment through the material world and have to be dragged back to the cross, kicking and screaming, to be reminded where true fulfillment comes from.