The Full Purpose of Congregational Worship

30 May 2014 by Natasha Kim CM-

“If your worship has the right essence, the essence stays on you. God wants you to become the carriers and the bearers of His presence. The glory of God will not come to you if you cannot carry that glory,” shared Rev Samuel Lye who shared on the topic of ‘The Full Purpose of Congregational Worship’ at Soaring Eagle Global Ministries (SEGM) located at Sunwaymas Commercial Centre, on the 10^th of May 2014.

With a deeper connection with God, that glory inside you grows. And that is why your personal worship is very important and so is your congregational worship. In fact, our whole responsibility of worship is very important!

“We don’t just depend on leaders. However, leaders are very important. They can either be a link or a stumbling block to the worship anointing. To get this anointing, you must submit and obey,” he shared.

Even the little details such as the instruments used in the Church need to be anointed and consecrated to God.

“Everything that talks about worship is set apart for God,” he said.

The word congregation refers to the Body of Christ and Christ who is the head of the body. In the body of Christ, there are multi-cultural believers of all ages coming together, tribes from every tongue and nation, lifting God in praise and adoration.

Looking at ourselves as the Body of Christ does not degrade personal worship or our personal experience, but instead it helps us to guard against allowing our focus to shift to “our” personal experience and only thinking about “me” or “mine”.

The focus always needs to be on Christ and what He has done for us. Our personal preference is to be subjugated for the good of the whole body.

Through congregational worship, we expect to accomplish three aspects of worship namely the vertical, horizontal and inward aspect of worship.

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:2)

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; ⁷for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice. (Psalm 95:6-7)

In the vertical aspect of worship, the worshipper communicates with the Lord.

“It is important that we are ministering to the Lord and not just go to Him with a “bless me” attitude,” shared Samuel.

Focus on this aspect allows us to experience the manifestation of the presence of God and to be a seedbed for the gifts of the Spirit that are manifested in the ministry. Praise is the vehicle into God’s presence.

Horizontally, praise serves to bind and unify us as a congregation.

In this case, many of the songs we sing are sung as much as to one another, to ourselves, or God; we unite ourselves in thought and purpose. This aspect increases the quality of the relationship with one another, teaches and reinforces spiritual truth, and provides a platform for the Word.

Inwardly, praise and thanksgiving work in us and help us to focus our attention on God.

The inward ramification of worship helps us release our inner selves to God without barriers and without holding back. The focus of inward worship increases our faith and maturity in Holiness. It is our commitment to a life of worship.

Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. (Psalm 24:7)

Praise and Worship sets you and others free!

¹⁶Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spiritby which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

¹⁹When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silasand dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. ²⁰They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar ²¹by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

²²The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. ²³After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. ²⁷The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” ³²Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ³³At that hour of the nightthe jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. ³⁴The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. (Acts 16:16-34)

Remember that:

Praise and worship is an act of faith and not an emotion.
Praise and worship is a choice to choose.
Spiritual explosion leads to physical explosion.
Signs and wonders happen for the sake of salvation to the lost.
Praise and worship is ploughing hard grown before the word can be imparted.
Praise and worship is an act of Love from within the heart and the right intention of coming together.