Awaken: Community

Balancing Worship...

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to open with me to the Old Testament, the book of Nehemiah 12. We will be talking for the next few weeks about corporate worship.

Worship is a good thing. The only thing we have to make sure of is that sometimes we are tempted to get a skewed view of worship. Culture and contemporary fads can cause us to miss out on what Scripture teaches about worship. We are going to revisit what the Word teaches us about worship to make sure that we are truly worshipping God. That is going to be the foundation of who we are as God’s people.

What I want to do from the very beginning before we even dive into Nehemiah 12 is lay out some foundations, set the stage for this series. We will revisit some of these foundations later on. I want us to think about these foundations in terms of balancing worship. There are different sides, so to speak, of the biblical picture of worship and we need to keep in balance in order to maintain any kind of healthy perspective of biblical worship. I want us to lay out these foundations and then we will dive into Nehemiah 12.

Worship is an honor but also a command

We need to remember this morning as we begin talking about worship that it is only because of the grace and mercy of God that we have the privilege of calling ourselves worshipers of His name. It is only by the Cross of Jesus Christ that we are even at the point where we are in our lives. That is the only way we can be worshipers. As a result worship is an intense and incredible privilege and an honor.

At the same time, all throughout Scripture we see imperatives, commands in the Old Testament and New Testament for God’s people to worship His name. It is something we are commanded to do. It is not an optional thing, a take it or leave it kind of deal. This is something we are commanded to do in Scripture. This is important. It's an honor, but it's also a command.

Worship is biblically prescribed but also culturally flexible

What I mean by that is the first half—worship is Biblically prescribed—if God commands us to worship then it would make sense that He tells us how to do that through His word. That is the whole basis for this series. We are going to dive into God’s word to see what He says about worship because what He says is very important.

Just like in the Old Testament there were times when they would get away from the whole point of worship in God’s word. God would come down and basically say to them, you can have a worship service that looks really good in your eyes but it can be utterly detestable in mine. So we’ve got to be careful to make sure that we are worshipping in a way that lines up with God’s Word. The determinant of how we worship is not cultural style or contemporary trend. The determinant of how we worship is God’s Word. God is much more concerned with our faithfulness to His Word than He is with our creativity and ways we can think of to do worship.

It is Biblically prescribed, but then second, it is culturally flexible. Now here is what I mean by that. When you get to the New Testament, I am convinced that the picture of worship is not quite as explicit or specific. You see the church gathering together but they don’t even call those times necessarily in Scripture worship services like we might even call them today. So it looks a lot different in different places.

I think there is more flexibility in any kind of prescription for corporate worship in the New Testament is because the church was advancing in new places and new cultures and new people. As a result there was a lot of flexibility for how that corporate worship looked. Instead of the New Testament being a book of prescriptive forms that every culture must follow, it is much more flexible. It is a missions book. As the gospel goes to different cultures corporate worship may look different in different places and different ways. It is biblically prescribed; yet there are some non-negotiables at the center. That is going to be the highlight in this series. But it is also culturally flexible.

You do realize that most of what we picture when we think of worship today is more on the cultural side than the biblical side. When we think of worship, the first image that probably comes into our mind is this room and these seats and these screens and these speakers and this particular setup for worship. You realize that all of those things that I just listed are not Biblically necessary for worship. If they were that would be bad news for our brothers and sisters in underground churches in China or the deep jungles of Sudan, or persecuted areas of Saudi Arabia.

So what we need to make sure we do is focus on what is biblically necessary. That doesn’t mean all of these other things are wrong. But if we focus on those things when we think of worship and we ignore what God says is most important in worship we will miss the whole point of what He desires in our worship. It is biblically prescribed but culturally flexible.

Worship is the fuel but also the goal of our mission

I want you to see from the very start of this series how it is intricately linked with everything we have done this year: walking through disciple-making in the life of Christ. Worship is not over here and disciple-making over here. Worship is the fuel for why we make disciples of all nations.

Why do we go out and sacrifice our lives and sacrifice this church to making disciples of all nations? We do that because we are fueled by the glory of God. We are so captivated by His wonder and His greatness that we are compelled to go and make disciples of all nations. It fuels us. But it is also the goal.

There is going to be a day in the future where we won’t be making disciples any more. On that day we will just be worshipping. The whole goal of us giving ourselves to making disciples of all nations is looking forward to the day where people from everywhere and every tribe and every people in every language in every nation will bow around the throne and enjoy His worship forever. That is the goal. That is what we are living for. Worship is the fuel and the goal of this mission.

Worship involves those inside the church but also affects those outside the church

What we are going to see over the next five weeks is that worship in Scripture primarily involves the church, believers, those who have trusted in Christ.

Now that doesn’t mean unbelievers are out of this thing. Worship involves those inside the church but affects those outside the church. What that means is that the primary purpose of us gathering together in this room is to encourage the body. First Corinthians 14 makes that very clear, so that the rest of this week we would be compelled to go out through this community and proclaim the greatness of God. We see how worship affects those outside the church but involves those inside the church. And there is also biblical precedent, 1 Corinthians 14, a passage we will look at later in this series, where Paul talks about how unbelievers sometimes come into our worship services, people who may not have faith in God. They observe the worship of God, Christ being exalted and that in and of itself may bring people to faith in Christ. Worship involves those inside the church but affects those outside the church.

Worship is personal but also corporate

There is definitely a picture in Scripture of how worship involves everything we do, our thoughts, our actions, our words as day by day we are living in constant worship personally.

At the same time there is also an emphasis in the Old Testament and the New Testament on the church, people of God gathering together for worship. That is going to be the focus of this series. Not to exclude personal worship as unimportant but the goal in this series is for us to look at what happens when we gather together for worship. It is that question that is going to drive us in to the first nonnegotiable of corporate worship which is community. We are going to see that unfold in Nehemiah 12.

We’re going to start in verse 27. I want you to get a context before we even start reading this passage. We are going to read from verse 27 all the way to the end. I want you to see a picture. The context is God’s people in Jerusalem. At one point, 597 to 586 B.C. Jerusalem had been attacked by the Babylonians. The Babylonians had destroyed the temple of Jerusalem and the walls around the city. They had taken the people of God into exile. It is a very dark time in their history.

Then years later they were brought back together. As soon as they get back together there in Jerusalem, the first thing they do is to rebuild the temple. That is the book of Ezra. Then you get to the book of Nehemiah and they are rebuilding the walls. The first seven chapters of this book, they are rebuilding the walls. Then from chapter 8 on, we see a picture of the people of God being rebuilt in the middle of those walls. This is the climax here in Nehemiah 12 where they praise and worship God for what He has done among them. Look at Nehemiah 12:27. Picture this scene:

Nehemiah 12:27–47 NKJV

Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites, from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves villages all around Jerusalem. Then the priests and Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, the gates, and the wall. So I brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two large thanksgiving choirs. One went to the right hand on the wall toward the Refuse Gate. After them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, and some of the priests’ sons with trumpets—Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph, and his brethren, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. By the Fountain Gate, in front of them, they went up the stairs of the City of David, on the stairway of the wall, beyond the house of David, as far as the Water Gate eastward. The other thanksgiving choir went the opposite way, and I was behind them with half of the people on the wall, going past the Tower of the Ovens as far as the Broad Wall, and above the Gate of Ephraim, above the Old Gate, above the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate; and they stopped by the Gate of the Prison. So the two thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God, likewise I and the half of the rulers with me; and the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Minjamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; also Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loudly with Jezrahiah the director. Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered. Both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification, according to the command of David and Solomon his son. For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, a portion for each day. They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron.

I’m guessing that maybe one or two paragraphs in, some of you just tuned out and just enjoyed listening to me try and read some of those names. So, let me recap what we just saw just in case you missed it.

What happens is that this is the dedication of the wall that had been built around Jerusalem. What happens is that Nehemiah and the other officials get together and two choirs, basically set out from one place. They go out on top of the walls and they march around the city on top of the wall singing the praises of God. Then at one point, they are going in different directions, at one point they come down and they come into the middle of the city to where the temple is and that is where they complete their service of worship and praise. That is the picture we have just seen.

So what does this text have to teach us today about what it means when we gather together for corporate worship?

We celebrate the glory of God

First of all, I want you to see the purpose of our gathering together is to celebrate the glory of God. This is what happens when the church gathers together for worship. This is the nonnegotiable. We celebrate the glory of God.

Now in order to get this picture we have to put ourselves in their shoes in the book of Nehemiah, the Old Testament. We have to remember that in that day the temple was not just one place where you might go to worship and you go to another church the next week and you go to another church the next week. The temple was the place where the glory of God dwelled. That is where His name dwelled among His people. So if you were going to worship and encounter the glory of God, the primary place you come is the temple. That is why it is the first thing they rebuilt. They rebuilt this temple that was a picture of the glory of God in the Old Testament.

Now in that day when the walls around the temple were in shambles all around the city and you had all of these pagan nations outside of Jerusalem that worshipped all kind of different gods, polytheistic people. You see the people of God, they are claiming there is only one God, they have this temple that is dedicated to His worship, but all these pagan nations look inside that city, see the temple and then see the walls in shambles all around the temple. What do you think the pagan nations thought about that people’s god?

They thought, that god is weak, that god doesn’t take care of his people. What happened is the pagan nations around Jerusalem were ridiculing them. They were in much disgrace, Nehemiah 1 says. Not only the people of God, being ridiculed, but the glory of God being ridiculed. That is why God raises up Nehemiah to come over and lead the rebuilding of these walls. Let me show you this.

Turn back to Nehemiah 4. Look at the very beginning of Nehemiah 4. You have to see this. We are going to picture the ridicule that was going on there. It says in Nehemiah 4:1—this is talking about some of the opposition they faced. It goes over three chapters, them facing opposition. It says,

Nehemiah 4:1–3 NKJV

But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”

Trash talking in the Old Testament. They are getting mocked. Tobiah says they can try and build up those walls but if they build them up, you put a fox on top and they all come crumbling down. And so they give their hearts and their lives to rebuilding these walls.

And then when it comes time to celebrate what God has done, what do they do? They don’t just come inside the city, they take the choirs and say, you up on that wall and you up on that wall and what they do is they march around on top of the walls. The Bible says three different times in Nehemiah 12 the sound of their rejoicing could be heard far away; all the pagan nations around seeing the people of God celebrating the glory of God. They were declaring what only God could have done among them.

Why do we gather together for corporate worship? The fundamental reason why we gather together for corporate worship is because our God’s glory is worth celebrating. His glory is great and it is worth our celebrations. We celebrate the glory of God. See how that happens in a couple of different ways in this text.

Corporate worship is public enjoyment of who God is

When you go to verse 27 you see Nehemiah begin emphasizing the joy that was all over this picture. You might circle it every time you see “joy” mentioned. Look in verse 27 it says they brought the “Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs” (Neh. 12:27). Not just to celebrate but to celebrate joyfully these songs of dedication. You get down to verse 31 where he is talking about the choirs and says, “I assigned”, not just two choirs, but two “large choirs”. He is going out of his way to talk about what an incredible celebration this is. It is climaxed in verse 43. Look at the intensity of this verse. “On that day they offered”—not just sacrifices—“they offered great sacrifices” (Neh. 12:43). Here it is, “Rejoicing because God had given them,” not just joy, “God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away” (Neh. 12:43). Every phrase in that verse talks about the joy they were experiencing in this picture. It is public enjoyment of who God is.

Worship is not about us, but it should not be boring.

Corporate worship is public thanksgiving for all God has done

We publicly thank God for what He has done in our lives. You see thanksgiving mentioned over and over. You might circle or underline these instances in verse 27 right after it says they celebrated joyfully the dedication with songs, it says, “They celebrated those songs of thanksgiving”—there is the first time. You get down to verse 31 and it says, “I assigned two large choirs” to do what? “To give thanks.” Look down at verse 40, the two choirs, “they gave thanks”—emphasis on thanksgiving. You go over to verse 46 at the very end it says long ago in the days of David and Asaph there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

So why all the mention of this gate and that gate? You know, the stuff that cause our eyes to glaze over when it's read? Well, you have to go back to chapter 2.

Imagine the scene. Late at night; you are Nehemiah and you are scouting out these walls. Every place you go you see the walls are down. You see the walls in shambles. So then 10 chapters later you get to the time where you celebrate the rebuilding of those walls then you go specifically to this wall and this wall and this wall. You think about what it looked like before and you look at what it looks like now and you thank God for what He has done.

We participate as the people of God

As you read over this text you see there are all kinds of people involved in this thing—huge gathering of people. Everybody gathered together. Before we dive in though and see some of the specifics there, I want us to take the picture we have seen here in Nehemiah 12 and compare it to contemporary forms of corporate worship. Specifically to notice some dangers, traps, problems that we may fall in to that we don’t see in Nehemiah 12. I want you to think about two problems/dangers in contemporary worship. Nothing wrong in it. Just things to beware of.

Two problems in contemporary worship. Number one is...

The individualistic attitude

Are there individuals mentioned in Nehemiah 12? Absolutely and we can’t pronounce half of their names, but they are there. There are individuals there but we see how they all come together and this picture of community in Nehemiah 12. They are involved in one unified celebration. We miss this, especially in our individualistic culture but even in the church.

We should not allow others to determine how we worship, but at the same time we are worshiping together. We see here in this passage not thousands of individuals, but one group worshiping together. Enjoying and offering up the same experience.

We are here together for a reason. We don’t ignore each other. We value each other. This is big. It's easy to ignore everyone else around us. If that is the case in our worship then we are missing out on what corporate worship biblically is all about. We are ignoring each other. We must beware of the individualistic attitude.

The spectator approach

Obviously in Nehemiah 12 worship is a participant’s activity not a spectator sport. There is a word here for us. Again, even in this room, that is designed to all be focused on the stage and the people up here, that we vicariously may worship through. That is not the picture of Biblical worship us sitting back and watching just like we watch a football game. That is not what corporate worship is about. We don’t gather together to observe worship. We gather together to engage in worship, to participate together. That is why we sing together and we study together. We read the Word together and we pray together. We participate in the Lord’s Supper together. We do these things together because we are a community of faith. There are no spectators. The only spectators in Nehemiah 12 are the pagan nations that are surrounding Jerusalem. That is the only spectators here. All of the people of God are involved in this thing. Verse 43, women and children, everybody, they are all in this thing together.

So we have to avoid those two things. How do we do that in light of our individualistic culture and even the spectator approach, which this room is maybe even set up for? How do we avoid that? We need to be reminded of the point of corporate worship in a few different ways.

The point of corporate worship...

We encourage each other

This is where I want us to really begin to see the parallels between Old Testament and New Testament pictures of worship. We encourage each other. Obviously Nehemiah 12 is a celebration of the glory of God. We have seen that. It is all aimed towards Him. We will talk about that more next week.

But, can you imagine being part of this thing? Do you think it would strengthen and encourage your faith to be a part of this thing? No question. They walked away encouraged by each other, by the celebration that they had participate in. This is exactly what the New Testament emphasizes in worship.

Let me show you an example. Hold your place here in Nehemiah 12 and go with me over to Ephesians 5. I want you to look with me at verse 19. Paul is talking here—the Bible tells us about being filled with the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit does in our lives and look at what verse 19 says. I think this is one of the clearest mandates for some form of corporate worship, not necessarily a certain number of people or a certain building, but some form of corporate worship. Listen to this.

Ephesians 5:19–20 NKJV

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

You cannot do that in solitude. You cannot do that by yourself. You can sing by yourself, in fact, it is the safest place for me to sing, however, I cannot obey Ephesians 5:18–19 by myself in solitude. We speak to one another this is why we sing together in our worship services. This is why whether we are led by people singing solos or praise teams or choirs or just one person leading us in song that is the purpose we sing to each other to encourage each other.

Even many of our traditional hymns that many of you may be familiar with. They are actually songs that are sung to each other as opposed to God. That is a biblical picture here in Ephesians 5. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”—that is telling each other to worship Christ for the power of His name. “Crown Him with Many Crowns”—that is something we sing to each other. Even a song like “Orphans of God,” it is not a song directly to God, it is a song to encourage each other about God and His glory. That is a Biblical thing to do. It think it's good to have a mix of songs encouraging each other as well as songs sung to God alone.

Second, in corporate worship...

We express our unity

When you come back to Nehemiah 12 there is variation all over this thing. Different people, different choirs, different instruments that are used, all kinds of different stuff—variation—but they all come together in unity. The key word here is we express our unity in corporate worship. That is the key word because I think we have missed this, especially over the last 20 or so years in many churches in the United States.

Instead of looking to worship to express our unity somewhere along the way we have gotten the idea that the design of worship is to create our unity, especially the design of musical worship. So what we have done is that we have looked to our music and worship to be what unites us. The problem when you do that is you have this preference and you have this style, and you come together and the music ends up not uniting you, it ends up dividing you. People start complaining about this style or that style, or this song or that song. You look over the last 20 years and there are so many churches that have argued then divided, even split over this very issue, musical worship. That is dangerous.

Take a step back with me for a second. What unites us? The work of Christ on the cross unites all of us. It is a picture here in Nehemiah 8 even before Christ. You go to Nehemiah 8:1 and they united together in the Word. Chapter 12 is then an expression of their unity around God’s Word. What unites us in this place is the salvation God has brought us through His Word. If we are trying to let music do what only the gospel was intended to do then we will miss the whole point of corporate worship. We can spend endless hours debating this preference or that style but we have got to realize that as soon as we start arguing about those kinds of issues then we are undercutting the very purpose of why God brings us together for worship, to express the unity that Christ died to bring us. This is huge.

I’m not saying there are not differences in preferences or styles. But I am saying this—let’s let Christ be the unifying factor and let any worship we do be an expression of our unity. I am convinced that if we were as passionate about impacting the world with the glory of Christ as we have been about what song or style that is represented on the stage in front of us then there would be no unreached people groups in the world today. Let’s put our focus on what does unite us in His word and let our worship express our unity. Does that make sense?

And third, this is where it gets really interesting,

We establish continuity with the church

I want you to notice at three different times in this passage where there is reference to David and the past. Look in verse 36. It lists some of these guys names then it says, “With musical instruments prescribed by David, the man of God” (Neh. 12:36). Then you get to verse 45 it says, “They performed the service of their God and the service of the purification, as did also the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commands of David and his son Solomon” (Neh. 12:45). The third time is in verse 46, “For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers” (Neh. 12:46).

Now don’t miss this. Three different times in Nehemiah 12 they make reference to how their worship was informed and affected by what David had done 500 years before. First Chronicles 15, 1 Chronicles 25—500 years before that—David did this and it’s affecting the way they are worshipping now. These people realize that they were in a long line, a history, of worshippers of God Most High. There was a lot of respect and value and honor for the way God had been worshipped all throughout that time.

I’m not saying that we need to go back to exactly the form of worship that they used 500 years ago, but I am saying this, we need to respect and honor the way our forefathers … Students, the way senior adults have worshipped in the past, and have glorified God in the past. Honor that. Respect that. And to remember—don’t miss this—and to remember that how we worship today will affect generations to come. You do realize that the way we are worshipping today is teaching generations who come after us what it means to worship God. God, may it be said when they look back at the worship at this church that they see a reverence for God and an awe for His Word and a joy, a deep abiding joy, in him that causes them to say that is how we want to worship. That is the picture here. We establish continuity with the church throughout history.

We dedicate ourselves to the service of God

From the very beginning of this story it is a picture of dedication. They dedicated the walls. Literally, they put the walls into God’s hands. “It is yours, God. You own this.”

Now I want us to draw the line here from the Old Testament to the New Testament in two ways when we think about dedicating ourselves to God in corporate worship today. First of all...

We sacrifice our resources for ministry

When you come to the end of Nehemiah 12:44 starts talking about the contributions, first fruits and tithes and then you get down to verse 47 and it says:

Nehemiah 12:47 NKJV

In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, a portion for each day. They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron.

Now at this point we don’t have time to necessarily dive in to the whole picture of tithe throughout Scripture but suffice to say, especially in the New Testament, the picture is even clearer. In the Old Testament you gave a tenth to support the work of ministry. That was what God commanded to do. In the New Testament we definitely see the people of God, even the poorest of churches, giving to support the work of God among His servants, the work of God in His church.

Even deeper than that, 2 Corinthians, chapters 8 and 9 you see the people not commanded to give 10% but to give abundantly, to give generously, to give cheerfully, to give sacrificially. Why? Because you are so captivated by the glory of God and you want His glory to be made in the church. It only made sense that you sacrifice your resources for ministry through the church. That is the picture of worship. That is why the offering is a very important, very significant part of our corporate worship. Second...

We surrender our lives for mission

Here is where we must look at Nehemiah 12 through the lens of the New Testament. We come here to this dedication of these walls but if we walk away from Nehemiah 12 and we use this text to lead us to dedicate buildings then we will have missed the whole point of what Scripture is trying to teach us here.

In the Old Testament system God’s glory was dwelling in the temple, in that building, in the holy city of Jerusalem. You get to the New Testament and you see Jesus claiming to be the temple, claiming to be the city where you encounter the glory of God. Here is where you encounter His glory. I am the temple. Then He dies on the cross, rises from the grave, ascends into heaven. He sends His Holy Spirit and now who is the temple? We’re the temple, the Holy Spirit, the glory of God dwelling in each one of us.

So if we take Nehemiah 12 and we build a building and we dedicate it and we say use this for your glory we will have missed the whole point, we are the buildings. We are the places in this community, not this structure. We, our lives, are the places this week where people will encounter the glory of God and encounter the goodness of God and encounter the mercy and the grace and the majesty of God. That is why we surrender ourselves to this mission in corporate worship. Because all week long God wants to take His glory to the people in your workplace, in your community, in your home and He wants to do it through us. Corporate worship propels us to do that. That is the picture here we are seeing. So don’t just think of this as a building. If all we do is dedicate buildings then all we will get is a skewed picture of worship because that is not the New Testament picture of worship. I’m not saying buildings are bad but we are the visible representation of the glory of Christ in the world and we have got to get our arms around that. We surrender ourselves to His mission.

God desires to awaken the body of Christ in worship so that together we might proclaim the glory of Christ to the world

That is the picture of Nehemiah 12 and that is why community is a nonnegotiable in corporate worship.

As believers spend time reflecting on the reason why we worship. Spend time in confession, having God’s forgiveness applied to your life surrendering yourself to the mission He has placed in front of you.

Prayer...

God, we praise you for the opportunity to worship, for the honor and privilege that you have given us as your community of faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.