Corporate Worship

Welcome:

Welcome to Hype Student Ministries! I’m glad that you have decided to spend your evening here with us.

Who can tell me what spiritual discipline we talked about two weeks ago?- Fasting

Introduction-

I want to start off by sharing a story about a US jet fighter pilot in Vietnam – Charles Plumb. He had completed 75 combat missions when he was shot down. Plumb was ejected and parachuted into enemy hands, where he spent six years in a Vietnamese prison.

One day, a man came up to him and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

Plumb was confused and asked how the man knew about that. “I packed your parachute,” the man replied.

The man then shook his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him it had and said, “If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb thought a lot about that man who held the fate of someone he did not even know, in his hands. He kept pondering how many times he might have seen the guy, and not even said anything because he was a fighter pilot and the stranger was just a sailor.”

Charles Plumb is now a motivational speaker telling this story to hundreds. After telling it, he always asks his audiences, “Who’s packing your parachute?” I would also add the question of whose parachute are you packing?

In our life, be it personal or work related, many people have a hand in our parachutes. Are you taking the time to acknowledge, thank, and reward them? It is very easy to overlook the work of many. It takes a lot of people to create a team.

Transition Statement: Wether you acknowledge it or not, there are people around you who have helped you and who are currently helping you in your life. Wether you’re aware of it or not, it would be very difficult to live a life alone, not receiving any help from others. We need to have other people in our life. We are also called to help other people. We need other people helping pack our proverbial “parachute”.

This idea of needing others in our life brings us to the spiritual discipline that we will be talking about the evening and that is the discipline of “Corporate Worship”.

What is Corporate Worship?

Acts 2:41-42 .

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

From this passage we see the early church engaging in corporate worship.

There was 3 thousand people! That’s like a megachurch big! What were they doing?

They were

Devoting themselves to teaching of God’s word

Prayer

Fellowship

Sacraments of baptism and communion

Another passage that talks about corporate worship is found in the letter of Colossians.

Col. 3:15-17.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

From here we see that another aspect of corporate worship is that of musical worship. Singing songs to God, about God, and for the glory of God.

From these two passages we see 5 main elements of Corporate Worship.

The main 5 Elements of Corporate Worship

Reading/Teaching of God’s Word

Prayer

Fellowship

Musical Worship

Sacraments of Baptism and Communion

Each of these elements of corporate worship has a purpose; that purpose is to unify believers.

Reading/Teaching of God’s Word unifies believers in that it teaches us that each of us are sinful and all are in need of a savior in Jesus Christ.

Praying unifies believers in that it shows that we are all dependent on God and we all submit to God as Lord of our lives.

Fellowship unifies believers in that when fellowship happens, we are encouraging one another and listening to how God is working in other people’s lives.

Musical Worship unifies believers as we sing together and proclaim the praises that God is worthy of.

The sacraments of baptism and communion unifies believers as we confess Jesus as our savior and as we remember as body of believers of the sacrifice that Jesus gave so that we could be forgiven.

Transition Statement: It’s because each main section of corporate worship unifies believers that shows the importance of why we engage in corporate worship. Which this brings us to the second point of tonight’s lesson.

Why is Corporate Worship Important?

Eph. 4:1-6.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

From this passage we see why corporate worship is important.

It’s because believers are unified in Christ. Paul uses the illustration one body in Ephesians.

Raise your hand if you have ever been on a team. Could be a sports team. Could be a part of a play. Could be a band. Any kind of team or group where you have to practice before preforming or playing a game. Raise your hand.

So when Paul uses the term on body. It shows unity. If you’re on a sports team. You hope to be unified as a team to win games. If you’re part of band or a play, hopefully your group is unified to perform well.

If you’re on a sports team, can you skip all the practices and just show up to games?

No, if you’re on a team and someone you’ve never met shows up to a game to play with your team, you’re going to be kinda confused right?

You’re going to look at that person and be like, you haven’t put in the practice with our team, you haven’t trained with us, how can we trust you? We don’t even know who you are?

If you’re part of band or a play, can you skip all the practices and expect the director to let you participate in the concert or performance?

No, it takes time to how your part in a performance fits in with the other parts of other people whom you’ve been practicing with.

I want to compare being part of a sports team, band or play to being part of a local church.

Corporate Worship is like practice for a local church.

Corporate Worship is a place where you are reminded of why you are unified. It’s designed to be a place to encourage believers to continue to be unified in glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

For believers the game, the concert, or performance is not what happens at church but how you live your entire lives. For the believer the game is really how you live your life when you are not gathered together as a local church.

Just like how practice is crucial for teams, bands, and plays, corporate worship is important for believers.

Corporate Worship is more than just a “good idea” for believers to gather but Corporate Worship is a mark of a true follower of Jesus.

We see this in two passages.

Heb. 10:24-25.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 10

24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Matthew 12:30.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

30 Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.

What these passages mean is that gathering together or corporate worship is something that true believers do.

Don’t get it wrong, just attending church or corporate worship does not make you a Christian, only confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life makes you a Christian.

In other words, you don’t attend church in order to gain salvation but rather you should want to attend church because you already have a relationship with Jesus.

How do You Practice Corporate Worship?

Regularly attend and engage in a church worship service.

Now there is a lot to unpack in this one point.

What does it mean to regularly attend? What if my schedule doesn’t allow me to.

What does it mean to engage? What is the difference from just attending and engaging?

Why is it specific to a church worship service?

Hype Student Ministries is not a church by itself. We are a student ministry that is part of a local church but we ourselves are not our own church.