Worshiping Over the Word
You are seated on Sunday morning. The music has ended. After a long prayer, one of our pastors opens a book written thousands of years ago and begins to speak.
What exactly are we doing in that moment? And how do we fully engage as church members?
Sermons are not intended to be transfers of information - like a thirty-minute lecture or an intellectually stimulating TED Talk. Preaching is not intended to merely explain a text. It is, as John Piper puts it, intended to be expository exultation. The aim of preaching is, in a sense, to pray and worship over God's Word together. We do come to God's Word to learn, but we come to learn for the sake of worship. We come to learn for the sake of growing in love for Christ and to be transformed into His image.
Jesus gave His disciples a warning in Luke 8:18: "Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
Scripture warns not only the teacher, but the listener: Take heed how you hear the Word of God. Hearing God's Word proclaimed is as much a spiritual discipline as prayer, the Lord's Supper, Scripture reading or fasting.
So, how do we best show up on Sunday morning to practice this spiritual discipline together? Here are three encouragements:
1. Come Hungry for God's Word
It is far more difficult to savor God’s Word on Sunday morning if you spent Saturday night feasting on spiritual "junk food."
If you stayed up until midnight doom-scrolling, watching trivial entertainment and starving your soul of quiet, don't be surprised when you show up on Sunday morning with a foggy mind, a cold heart and a sense of spiritual apathy. Hearing God's Word well begins on Saturday night.
We want to say with the psalmist, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103).
2. Pray Without Ceasing - Before, During, and After
Read the text ahead of time and pray: pray for insight and wisdom to understand, pray for the preacher, and ask God for grace to obey and apply what you are seeing in His Word.
Pray while you sing! Don't let congregational singing be a soulless recitation of lyrics. When you lift your voice in worship, pray the lyrics. Say, "Lord, would You help me and my neighbor in the pews to know and believe these great truths? Come and work among us even now."
Pray while you listen! Do not be a passive spectator. Engage in ongoing dialogue with God while you are listening to His Word proclaimed. If the preacher says, "God alone can empower us to turn from idols" - don't just nod! Take a moment, right then and there in your heart, to pray: "O God, give me the grace, even now, to turn from idols." When a truth about God’s beauty and majesty is proclaimed, pray: "Lord, You are good. You are beautiful!" Let exposition serve its proper end: exultation.
Finally, pray that this active, prayer-filled engagement with God's Word would inform your Christian living, prayer and worship throughout the week.
3. Jot Down Your Reflections and Questions
Bring a pen. Bring a notebook. And don't just take notes on what is being said - write down what God is doing in you as you hear and respond to His Word. Record your questions, realizations, uncertainties, moments of conviction, or promptings of the Holy Spirit.
