I appreciated the conclusion of a sermon Donavon Riley posted yesterday:
God’s Word both kills and makes alive. It tears down the religion of the old Adam. The religion of the self that would have us to be gods in place of God. It reconstructs true worshipers who worship the Father in Spirit and in the Truth. The Word upends every attempt on our part to co-opt God to our agenda or to bribe Him with our good behavior. God sets the agenda in worship. “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand.” The God who has spoken is the God who speaks, and we are given ears to hear. The sinner, paralyzed and helpless in sin and death, hears the one needful Word that will raise him from his mat. “Your sins are forgiven you.”
The worship of the Church doesn’t begin with you but with the One who is worshiped. Not with your faith, but with the Object of faith—the crucified, risen, and reigning Christ. A people that begins worship with, “We make our beginning in the Name of the Father…” miss the point completely. Just as Simeon does, the Church begins her praise and thanks, not with herself, but with God, who has caused His Salvation to dwell among us in Jesus. Who wishes to serve you with the gifts of His salvation, word, water, bread, and wine, both today and forever because His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. Amen.
God’s Word both kills and makes alive. It tears down the religion of the old Adam. The religion of the self that would have us to be gods in place of God. It reconstructs true worshipers who worship the Father in Spirit and in the Truth. The Word upends every attempt on our part to co-opt God to our agenda or to bribe Him with our good behavior. God sets the agenda in worship. “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand.” The God who has spoken is the God who speaks, and we are given ears to hear. The sinner, paralyzed and helpless in sin and death, hears the one needful Word that will raise him from his mat. “Your sins are forgiven you.”
The worship of the Church doesn’t begin with you but with the One who is worshiped. Not with your faith, but with the Object of faith—the crucified, risen, and reigning Christ. A people that begins worship with, “We make our beginning in the Name of the Father…” miss the point completely. Just as Simeon does, the Church begins her praise and thanks, not with herself, but with God, who has caused His Salvation to dwell among us in Jesus. Who wishes to serve you with the gifts of His salvation, word, water, bread, and wine, both today and forever because His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. Amen.
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