Dear Congregation,
In the Call to Worship we are informed that we have come into the majestic presence of the exalted and enthroned Lord of Glory. God has called us to come and worship Him. The way is opened. He has assured the worshipper that they may come.
To the Call to Worship there must be a proper response of pure worship. We respond in prayer, and encouraged by an assurance of His grace, we continue in a hymn of praise.
As we think of the propriety of a response, we begin to also see that worship involves a dialogue between God and the congregation. In that the minister must see that in the first prayer he is providing words for the congregation to use as they respond with him to the Lord’s call to worship. That is, the congregation are not mere listeners, let alone passive ones. As they hear they take up these words in the stirring of their own hearts before God.
And what words are they? Our words of approach reflect our sense of who God is, and who we are, focusing on His glory and expressing our humility before Him. The first prayer is one of adoration and confession.
In a prayer of adoration due recognition is given to the glory of the one true and living God; to His majestic being as one God in three persons, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; and to the wonder of His redeeming grace. (Robert Rayburn) A sense of awe and reverence should permeate this prayer – even as it should in our hearts as we come before Him, recognizing His worth and giving Him appropriate honour. In this we follow the example of Jesus’ model prayer in Matt 6:9
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”
God is addressed as He has revealed Himself in the gospel of Christ, and with the recognition that His people should honour Him as holy.
That impresses on us the sense of our own unworthiness as we declare the glory of our God, and especially in terms of His gospel. How can we speak of the holiness of God and not like Isaiah declared (in 6:5) as he looked inside himself to see his own uncleanness and unworthiness:
“Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Sin makes us unfit to worship in God’s presence, for holiness is utterly incompatible with uncleanness. But as Isaiah discovered He is also the God of all grace who is rich in mercy. So as we come we know that we must honestly and reverently deal with our sin in our daily life. Before we presume to worship God we must remember the clear teaching of Psalm 66:18,
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.”
If we ignore the reality of our sin before the Lord and seek His forgiveness, our worship will not be acceptable in His sight.
The great joy we know is that God has provided for us in Christ. That even as Isaiah’s lips were touched by coals form the alter of burnt sacrifice where the priest made sacrifices for atonement form sin (Isa 6:6), so also we are assured of our forgiveness and cleansing in Christ. That is why I seek to bring a word of grace from God’s Word to assure and encourage us in the reality of the gracious mercy of God to us in Christ as we proceed in worship.
It is a great tragedy that many of God’s people are tormented inwardly by their sense of guilt, and are in need of being reminded that they have a gracious God who has provided full atonement for the sins of His believing children. And this is a reminder which all of us need daily as we sin in thought word and deed – -of God’s full pardon to the genuinely repentant. As a result, our gathering in public worship becomes a rich place of blessing with the corporate celebration of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Together in Christ’s love and service,
John
Your Pastor