\u201cFear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water\u201d (Revelation 14:7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too often we\u2019ve been told that God doesn\u2019t want respect in worship. We\u2019ve been told to treat him more like a drinking buddy in our imaginations than to fear him. From a careless attitude toward worship come all kinds of strange practices that make our sanctuaries look more suited to rock concerts and circuses than to prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Churches used to be quiet, sober refuges of preaching and devotion in past generations. Why was that so wrong? By trying to make church relevant and exciting to an unsatisfiable world, we\u2019ve lost what the Christians used to call reverence<\/em>. We\u2019ve forgotten the fear of God because we no longer think that God is holy and set apart from a corrupt and dying world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God saved us, not through making himself attractive according to the standards of the entertainment industry, but by suffering the penalty of our sins on the cross. Remember Jesus\u2019 passion, trust in his sacrifice which reconciled you to God, and you\u2019ll begin to understand the right attitude to adopt in worship. Being mindful of Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2) is how we can start to reclaim our heritage and recapture the authentic mystery of worshiping the Almighty God of heaven and earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did Jesus\u2019 worshipers approach him in the Gospel? Of course, there were plenty of curious onlookers and scornful enemies. But what about those who believed in Jesus? They fell at Jesus feet, bending their knees in supplication to their Lord (Matthew 2:11; 9:18; 15:25). Jesus never told them to stop. He didn\u2019t tell them to get up and to think of him as their buddy instead. He received their prayers. He received their worship. He blessed their humble posture of reverence by answering their prayers and blessing them. This doesn\u2019t change after the resurrection. He humbled Saul before he exulted him with faith. Indeed, the same man would later insist, \u201cAt the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth\u201d (Philippians 2:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s good to be humbled and subdued in worship. When we\u2019ve been humbled by the knowledge of our unworthiness and God\u2019s holiness, the Lord exults us with the joy of knowing that Jesus has saved us from death and the devil. There is exuberance in church. We would never deny it. But this joy is expressed in a way that shows the world what we think about God; that he is holy and that as long as struggle against sin on this earth, we should always adopt a posture of humility before him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Immanuel Lutheran Church and School you\u2019ll find a gathering of gospel-hearers who are unashamed of showing reverence toward their merciful God. The way they pray, sing, and receive God\u2019s gifts shows that their sanctuary is different from the world. It\u2019s sacred. Because they are devoted to the \u201capostle\u2019s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers\u201d (Acts 2:42) they are also certain of God\u2019s kindness. They are forgiven. Therefore, they bow their heads, fold their hands, and bend their knees. As the Psalmist says, \u201cWith you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared\u201d (Psalm 130:4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water\u201d (Revelation 14:7). Too often we\u2019ve been told that God doesn\u2019t want respect in worship. We\u2019ve been told to treat him more like a drinking buddy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}