In college I accepted an invitation to attend a small church with some friends I had recently met. Everyone there was doing something I hadn’t seen before. They followed along with preacher’s sermon using their Bible. So as to not feel out of place I went out and bought my own Bible from a Book’s a Million in Mobile, Alabama. I was ready for the next time I went to that church.
My friends, that church, my campus minister helped give me an appetite for God’s word.
I was in Sunday school, evening worship, Wednesday night Bible class, Tuesday Inner City Ministry, and Thursday Men’s Bible study. I was immersing myself in the word of God with the people of God.
The word of God was where I discovered that God is true. It is where I discovered that Jesus is the truth. The word was where I discovered that God wants to bless me with salvation. It is where I discovered that God wants to pour his grace upon me and forgive me.
I began understanding God’s mercy, his justice
Maybe this is your truth as well. Many of you began your experience with God through the reading of and/or preaching of his word.
You discovered that God was true and Jesus is the truth. You read about the spiritual truths that God has for you. You made a confession. You turned from your sins and you submitted yourself to be baptized.
Through the word of God is how I discovered Jesus to be true, but it was through worship that I discovered Jesus to be real.
In worship is where I get to tell God that he is real and that I accept his “real reality” over
Worship is where I get to tell back to God what I have learned about him from his word. Through worship I get to testify with the church what God has been doing in my life. With the family of God I get to open my heart wide to receive his grace and encouragement both in my troubled times and times of peace.
Worship is an assault against the world’s assault against me. In worship, I make war with the Evil One and declare that God wins.
When I worship, I’m not solely talking about corporate worship. But I am describing the direction of my affections. What is it that my heart treasures? The world tugs at my heart. Greed tugs, lust pulls, and apathy attempts to snap the identity God has placed in me.
The book of Ephesians says that the Holy Spirit is a seal and a guarantee of my salvation. I worship from my place of identity. I am in Christ and I am God’s possession.
As Walter Wink says,
“To worship is to remember who owns the house.”
Growing up, after going to mass at St. Columba Catholic Church my mother would take me across the street to Bruno’s supermarket. My treat was getting a pint of chocolate milk from the dairy section.
A nice, smooth, delicious, cold chocolate milk in a carton. You know how you open those cartons, right? Well, I wasn’t really paying attention when I opened mine but I do remember that it opened fairly easy. What I failed to see was that it has already been opened.
It probably fell and burst open and was put back on the shelf. I took a big gulp. What was inside was not smooth and delicious. It was chunky and rancid!
That milk was not preserved. The seal was broken and it ruined.
With the Holy Spirit in your life you may be broken but you won’t be ruined. You may be broken but that is exactly how you need to be for God to use you. With the Holy Spirit you will be used. You will be preserved and you will persevere through life.
Unlike the milk carton, there is nothing in this world or outside of this world that will break that seal! God’s got you. So your heart sings to the lord I may be broken but the worlds will not break me. In worship, our lives sing out to God. You’ve got this!
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Jovan preaches for the Littleton Church of Christ near Denver, Colorado. Visit here to listen to sermons preached at the Littleton Church.