What is Christian Worship?

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN WORSHIP?

If we understood worship and loved to truly worship God, we'd not come to gather for an entertaining time of music, sights and sounds, smells and bells, etc. Rather, we'd come in faith, believing what God says truly happens in worship, and coming to worship Him how He wants us to do so, for His glory and our good. Worship transcends this realm in a way invisible to the flesh, but tangible only to the eyes and heart of faith. It transcends stupid and unhelpful fog machines or light shows or guitar solos or orchestras or candles and images and icons that turn God's people into passive watchers rather than active worshipers.

Whether contemporary pop Christian "worship" that is focused on stage performers rather than corporately worshiping God, or high church liturgy, it's all a dazzling of the eyes, one to entertain and draw seekers, the other to vainly attempt to draw near to God through temples and things crafted with hands, that appeal to the smells and sights and senses, but distracting from heart worship in Spirit and in Truth.

Worship is simple, pure, and glorious. This is printed in our bulletins every Sunday, so that our members can be reminded from God's Word of the invisible, glorious realities of entering heaven itself by the Spirit to worship God, on the Lord's Day/Sunday as Christ commanded. It is also printed for visitors and any unbelievers who attend to understand what God and His people are doing together in worship. That is both true, Spiritual worship that will actually draw sinners to something higher as the Lord works in the hearts of sinners. It is seen by the eyes of faith, faith in God's Word and what God tells us worship is. It is not by and large externalized beyond the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, symbolizing Christ's work for His people in washing them of their sins, pouring out His Spirit upon them, and feeding them of His life-giving sacrifice for them at His table in heaven above, as a glorious foretaste of the wedding supper of the Lamb that God's people will partake of in the flesh in heaven above, when Christ returns.

Come and worship Jesus Christ, according to God's Word, in Spirit and in Truth. Leave these false churches with their false worship that God hates and condemns and kills for because of its vain worship, as if we can approach God how we want, not how He has prescribed. As if we can improve upon what God has arranged, or as if we can make worship to be about those who do not know Him, rather than a communion of the bride/body of Christ with the Triune God.

WORSHIP AT HERITAGE:

In worship, God’s people enter Heaven though Christ’s blood (Heb. 10:19-20), approaching the thrice holy God’s throne of grace as His children, to be blessed by His presence & receive His Word (Heb. 12:22-25)! We come giving Him the glory due Him (Ps. 29:1-2) in word, prayer, & song, in the forms of confession, adoration, thanks-giving, etc., by His Spirit & Truth (John 4:24) according to His will in Scripture. So, our “Order of Worship” is a covenant/family dia-logue, initiated by God with His people, Christ’s body/church. We worship corporately, as God’s one temple & Christ’s one bride, with reverence & joy in the Lord that strengthens us week by week.

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