Kingwood United: The Gathering

Why do we gather together and what is important about our gathering? <side note: largely I will be speaking about our corporate worship gathering....but you can see where these elements apply to our smaller gatherings. To our small groups and the place where teaching of scripture and worship takes place and should take place.

House of Prayer

Remember, from last week. This is the tent of meeting. We gather together, because we are the place where God is faithful in his presence.

pillar of cloud falling on this place

prayer is of the utmost important: Luther, “prayer is by which we take a hold of God’s willingness.”

2. Peace

We gather together so that the peace of Christ my rule in our hearts. From our text:

Colossians 3:15 NIV

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

This word peace, eirene, draws the readers attention to the Hebrew understanding of shalom. Shalom meant peace but not just in a cease fire like in war, or not just an absence of chaos, but also order. Things as they should be. A restoration word of action here....a rebuilding word. The peace of Christ is that which makes us as we should be. And when we gather together we are as we should be. We were made for this. Not just individually, but collectively....one body.

“It just feels right.” I just love this comment because this person is tapping into what Paul is talking about here in Colossians.

There is another thing going on here that I dont want you to miss....Paul is saying that when we gather together in one place, as one body, that is how we allow the peace of Christ to rule our hearts. Nice sentiment on the surface but think of it this way:

According to Jewish psychology, the heart is the location of volition; one’s entire life is guided by what takes place in the heart. If the peace of Christ rules the heart, then every decision made and every action taken will have the quality of peace. Yet Paul expresses this prayer for peace as a corporate prospect: as members of one body you were called to peace. So love characterizes the community’s public life, and peace characterizes its internal life. This being so, every collective decision and action that comes from the community will have the character of peace.

Wall, R. W. (1993). Colossians & Philemon (). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

3. The message of Christ

We gather together so that the message of Christ might dwell among us. Look verse 16

Colossians 3:16 NIV

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Earlier in the letter Paul said that he chief calling was to teach and admonish and now he extends that to the body, the gathering of God’s people, as their chief calling.

Teach the word of Christ:

Paul is telling this church that the good news of Jesus must literally live with them. They did not have the benefit of a proper bound easily attainable bible app, haha. The message, the good news is the word that shared all the time. Made alive in Christ

We at KUMC are committed to teaching the word of Christ. We are committed to God’s holy word and believe in its veracity and its role in transforming our community as it reveals to us the living God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this good news of Jesus is not only teaching....it is for admonishing. Don’t miss this!

When we preach the word of God, when you engage with the word of God, it is not just a work of information download. The word of God and the people of God through the word are called to admonish. To correct, to encourage, to hold each other accountable.

The message of Christ will not only always pat you on the back and send you home feeling great about yourself.

If you do not walk away sometimes rocked to your core then you are not listening…or you are not being honest about yourself

I think sometimes we choose friends, sunday school, small groups, churches this way. We do not want to be too uncomfortable. We want to be in a place that makes us feel good.

Listen, the word of God and the people of God are not called to make you “feel good,” we are called to help each other live life to the full—that life was paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ.

4. Worship

Why do we gather? We gather together to worship. I hope you see how interconnected these all are. And out of and in response to the message of Christ living among us comes our response. Worship is not simply some emotional roller coaster that we try to jump on every week, though many treat it that way and this emotive energy is short lived.

Look at verse 16 again:

Colossians 3:16 NIV

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Worship is a natural response that springs from a community filled to the brim with its actual experience of God’s peacemaking love. Thus, the effective purpose of worship is not experiential but rather the interpretation of and response to our heartfelt experience of divine love. In this sense, the phrase that the NIV translates with gratitude (en chariti) reflects the community’s only response to the grace (charis) of God, which is proclaimed in their teaching and admonishment (compare 1:6) and celebrated in their singing.

Wall, R. W. (1993). Colossians & Philemon (). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

“A Gospel of grace must be echoed by songs of gratitude for grace.”

Word and praise, instruction and celebration. they go hand in hand.

In Vine specifically, song choice is carefully selected and built around the preaching. Not because of some production quality, but because our singing is built around what God is doing around us.

And please see how important it is to link the word of God to our song....if we are not preaching and teaching the word of God. If we are not allowing ourselves to be challenged and corrected....then our worship is meaningless. It is group sing. And that’s weird. Let’s get a camp fire going and roast some marshmellows instead.

“Put it this way: if your idea of God, if your idea of the salvation offered in Christ, is vague or remote, your idea of worship will be fuzzy and ill-formed. The closer you get to the truth, the clearer becomes the beauty, and the more you will find worship welling up within you. That’s why theology and worship belong together. The one isn’t just a headtrip; the other isn’t just emotion.”—N.T. Wright

Two things about worship:

Worship is an interpretation of and response to our heartfelt experience of divine love.

Worship is a witness to the world and to each other.

“God directs his people not simply to worship but to sing his praises ‘before the nations.’ We are called not simply to communicate the gospel to nonbelievers; we must also intentionally celebrate the gospel before them.”—Timothy J. Keller

Kingwood United

A few things here in closing here about the gathering:

We participate in Holy Communion every week. They are the visible and living words of Christ’s presence here with us.

Strong Ecclesiology: God works through visible Church in world to redeem the world, membership indispensible for Christian life

(weak ecclesiology denotes a belief largely in the invisible nature of the church and membership to a community is not as important)

Invitation to membership.

Send us out. Teaser for next week:

TO WORSHIP IS TO CHANGE (Richard Foster) Just as worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be held with the same tenacity when we enter his gracious light. As Jesus says, we need to leave our gift at the altar and go set the matter straight (, ). In worship, an increased power steals its way into the heart sanctuary, an increased compassion grows in the soul. To worship is to change.

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