More than Worship

People are funny …  The smallest things drive us over the edge.  We place tremendous value on items that mean so little in God’s grand scheme.

I once heard a story about a very smart man.  He had heard all of his life (just as I have) the you cannot take your earthly riches with you to heaven.  Personally, I have never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer.  But, anyway …  This man somehow figured it out.  Just before his final step into eternity, he developed a special bag and filled it with gold bars.  He passed away and his family buried him with the bag.  When he opened his eyes for the first time after death, his bag was by his side!!  HE WAS THRILLED!!

As he walked with St Peter through the pearly gates, he found the bag was too heavy to lift.  He was dragging the bag along while he talked to St Peter.  Peter said nothing of the bag at first, but finally had to know.  The man described how he had figured this whole thing out.  Peter said “You, sir, are a brilliant man.  And I cannot wait to see what you brought over from the other side!”  The man opened the bag and Peter gazed in ..

“PAVEMENT???  YOU BROUGHT PAVEMENT????”  The bars of gold the man held so dear on earth were nothing more than pavement for the streets of heaven …

We miss the boat in so many ways when we choose to see life from our perspective instead of from God’s perspective.  We judge churches based on our preferences and what makes us feel good, and have forgotten that worship is all about God.  It is actually OUR response to Him.  It is for Him, meant to be burned as a fragrant offering to please Him.

We forget that a church, a local group of believers, have gathered to pursue all five functions of a New Testament church.  Worship is certainly the most important, but every local church should be engaged in EVANGELISM.  If we are not telling the lost about Jesus Christ, we are NOT functioning as a New Testament church  Every local church should be engaged in DISCIPLESHIP, teaching each other everything we have learned from our collective relationships with God.  Every local church should be engaged in MINISTRY, serving not only the needs within our church, but also the needs of our community and our world in EVERY WAY God has called us.  Every local church should be engaged in FELLOWSHIP.  We care about each other.  We are family.  We will hold each other to be accountable.

There are five functions of a New Testament church.  It really is about more than worship, and even when it comes to worship, it is all about HIM.  Not US.

IF Christ is your Savior, I pray for you today that you will live to fulfill these five functions.  Because, guess what?  The CHURCH is not an address or a set of buildings … The CHURCH is YOU.