Why Church? To Glorify
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1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Good morning, Church!
I’m thankful for another Sunday morning here at CCR!
I want to start this morning with an announcement about our worship and tech teams.
Through prayer and discussion, we have invited Maggie to be our worship leader intern and she has accepted.
Her and I will be co-leading the worship team for a period of time that will be spent training and mentoring her to be our worship leader. She will be doing this with me and with the worship team at Wayne st. We are looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do in her life and in her leadership of this church!
This morning, we are entering into a 4-part discussion of answering the question why Church?
There are four reasons in Scripture that I see.
To glorify
To edify
To sanctify
To unify
I want to look at these over the next few weeks to uncover and understand what the Word says about why Church.
This morning, I want to look at the first reason why we meet, to Glorify God.
To Glorify God 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
To Glorify God 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
About a month ago, I taught a lesson about what I believe the Glory of God is. Why it shines as a bright light. What is His glory and how do we as the church reflect that light.
I would encourage you to go back and watch that message if you missed it because I’m about to tell you what we concluded that morning. But if you are interested in how we go there, go back and check it out.
Essentially, we talked about how scripture tells us that the glory of God is who HE is and it shines when who HE is is made known.
So, it can be said like this, the church exist to know who He is and to make Him known to others.
Let’s read our first passage together.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
In the 1 Corinthian passage, We see that Paul is settling an argument that the church is having about eating meat that was sacrificed to idols.
Paul tells them that all things are lawful but not all things are beneficial. He says that it doesn’t matter if you eat it or not, but if it hinders someone else from coming to Christ, then don’t do it.
He says that our top priority is to make God known to others, so that they may be saved.
He says whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. To make Him known either to Jew or Greek or to the church itself. The primary goal is not what YOU can or can not do, the primary goal is that others may be saved!
The primary goal is not about YOU! Its about doing everything that you do to know God and make Him known to other so that they can be saved!
So, as church, as individual members of the body of Christ, strive to know God with everything that you do and when you have interactions with others, attempt to lead them to know Him either for the first time or bringing them closer to Him.
This can be traced back to our mission statement as a church.
To connect people with Jesus for life!
To lead people to know who Jesus is better and deeper.
Now, there are a number of ways that the church does this specifically.
One of the ways that the body of Christ glorifies God is through worship and that’s not just singing!
This gathering, this worship service itself is a form of worship!
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
That word worshipping there is
3310 λειτουργέω (leitourgeō): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 6268, 9250; Str 3008; TDNT 4.215—1. LN 35.22 serve, minister by sharing or partaking (Ro 15:27+); 2. LN 53.13 perform religious duties, render a religious service (Ac 13:2; Heb 10:11+; Tit 1:9 v.r. NA26)
This is where we get our word liturgy.
To perform a religious duties, to render a religious service.
I’ve honestly gone back and forth about the phrase church service, but when you look at our gathering as a way for the body of Christ to serve the Lord and serve each other then I believe that reflects Scripture and is a form of worship! Our gathering and service is instructed by the example of the NT church!
And one of the things that they did in their worship services was sing worship songs together.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
That word addressing means to make sounds by both inanimate objects and by humans.
This verse is telling us that when we gather, we should play instruments, we should sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs together!
And we should sing them from the heart, meaning the words that we say. Its not about going through the motions its about meaning what you are saying!
Its about being thankful always and for everything!
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Our worship should be heartfelt, grateful and with reverence and awe of who He is and what He has done for us. Another way of saying that is with fear of the Lord.
Do you see how it doesn’t say how many band members?
Do you see that it doesn’t say with lyrics or with hymnals?
The absolutely most important thing about singing worship songs is the direction of your focus and attention. Its about whats going on in your mind and in your heart that matters most!
Are you meaning the words that you are saying with your heart?
Are you singing with a grateful mindset?
Are you filled with reverence and awe over the power, holiness, might and greatness of our God?
Do you see how none of that has to do with what happens on this stage? This is all a luxury. This is all unnecessary to Biblical worship. Its a luxury and a huge blessing!
However, more important that anything up here is to position of your heart before the Lord. Its about the focus of you mind while we are singing.
That is why I love worship songs that focus my eyes on Him and who He is!
Because my mind set on Him is better than my mind set on absolutely anything else.
So, if to glorify God is to know God and make Him known, shouldn’t our worship songs reflect that?
The church glorifies God through singing songs together that fix our focus on who He is. My singing about God, we are making Him known!
There is another way that the church glorifies God when we gather together and that is through acts of service to the Lord.
Spanning throughout Scripture are examples of man and angels serving or ministering to the Lord through acts of service.
In Deut, at Mt Sinai
At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
The tribe of Levi was given the best portion of the inheritance, to serve and minister to the presence of the Living God!
They were the one’s that got to go into the Holiest of Holies!
They were the ones that got a offer the sacrifices to the Lord!
They were the ones that burned incense and sacrifices to please the Lord!
Think about, they did things in the presence of the Lord to please the Lord!
Wow...
Another example is, In Daniel when we see the Ancient of Days.
Daniel 7:10 (ESV)
A stream of fire issued
and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
Here we see the Ancient of Days, our God taking His seat and thousands and thousands served Him.
Look, church, if you have a problem or flinch at the thought of being a servant, then you are going to have a hard time in eternity.
Eternity is heaven is not focused on you or your needs or what you get out of heaven. Eternity isn heaven is about serving and worshipping our Great and Powerful God!
Servant hood is an absolute staple in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I think its what floors me so much about struggling to get volunteers or people to serve the community.
Jesus taught servant hood through His actions and through His words.
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus worshiped and glorified God by taking the form of a servant to those who would shout crucify Him and let them do it!
His life and actions taught us to do the same.
He instructed us as much.
It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Being a servant is the example and command of Jesus Christ as a form of worshipping God!
The body of Christ should reflect the Head of the Body!
We, each one of us, should be marked by servanthood. It should be said about each one of us that we are servants to all and put others needs before ourselves.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Someone sent me a reel with a pastor talking about what if we took one week and had this mindset.
Every person that we interact with is Jesus in disguise. How would you react?
He said, if you get home and Jesus was doing the dishes, what would you do? Probably jump in and help do the dishes!
If you saw Jesus with a flat tire, would you stop and help him?
If there were one roll left a Thanksgiving, and Jesus was sitting next to you, would you offer it to Him?
This verse is telling us that everything that we do whether is word or deed, do it not as if we were doing it to that person but as if that person was Jesus!
Serving the church is literally serving Jesus because the church is the Body of Christ!
Jesus taught that when you feed the hungry, cloth the naked, give water to the thirsty, and visit those is jail, you are literally doing it unto Him!
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
If you are serving man, you will get tired of that. You can even do that with a bad attitude and not be found out.
But when you are serving the Lord, when you have the mindset of serving Jesus through our service, then I pray that we never get tired of that since we will be doing that throughout eternity!
Plus, He is obviously going to know if we are doing it with a praiseful, grateful heart!
Look, this is not meant to drum up people to serve. Though all of our ministries need help.
That’s not the point. The point is to step into the fullness of what the Lord has for us.
He desires for the church to glorify Him!
One of the ways that we do that is through worship.
I taught at the BG VBS this week. And I thought them that worship is WHOA...
Wonder and the Word
Heartfelt
Obedience
Admiration
I pray that we will be a church marked by making the name of Jesus known, through worship and servanthood.