Notes of Faith November 3, 2024
Come to Church to Get
Article by Marshall Segal
President & CEO, Desiring God
How many people do you know who have left a church for bad reasons?
The music wasn’t their kind of music. The sermons weren’t short or engaging enough. The children’s programming lacked the entertainment factor of other churches. The church was a little too big (for those looking for more attention) or a little too small (for those wanting less). In short, the church wasn’t all I wanted, and so I moved on. You could safely call us the “move on” generation, so it’s no surprise we’ve seen those same impulses in our pews.
Many have heard the bad reasons and taken aim at this Sunday-morning commercialism. Some have said (and you can find plenty of these sermons online), “Don’t come to worship to get but to give.” The charge gets something right — and something horribly wrong. Otherness is, of course, vital to any healthy life of worship and any healthy family of faith. Of all people in the world, Christians should count others more significant than ourselves and consider their interests and needs before our own. Sadly, that kind of Godward otherness is scarce in some churches.
That being said (and this is what the well-meaning admonitions get horribly wrong), the first and greatest business of corporate worship will always be about what we get, not what we give.
Come to Be Satisfied in God
As you arrive to worship again this Sunday, it’s deeply healthy to remember that God does not need anything from you — and that you still need absolutely everything from him.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24–25)
If you want to orient yourself on who’s really getting and giving when your church gathers, remember that God gives you each of the thousands of breaths you will take that morning.
Even when it comes to the needs of others, God doesn’t need you to meet them. He can feed five thousand with a few loaves and a couple of fish. He’s not looking for help; he’s looking for worship (John 4:23). Acts 17 continues, “[This God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God” (Acts 17:26–27). We live to seek, find, and have God, the only one who can satisfy all the empty and aching parts of us.
And, in God’s wisdom and love, the people in our churches who come first and foremost to get from God will consistently have the most to give to others. Those who provide the most help, ironically, will be those who know that their sovereign and satisfying God doesn’t need it.
How to Help Your Local Church
This month, our team of teachers is tackling the theme “How to Help Your Local Church.” This article may seem like a strange place to start, but it’s fundamental to how we think about corporate worship. We were made to know, enjoy, and reflect the glory of God. That can certainly happen when we sing a hymn together or serve in childcare or drop a meal off to a hurting family, but it doesn’t happen unless those are acts of worship and not mere service or duty. Christian help comes from a certain kind of heart. That means the first step to being helpful to your church is being as happy as possible in God.
This theme was inspired by one of our eleven core values as a ministry — “Love for the Local Church.”
Jesus came to earth to win for himself a bride, redeem for himself a body, ransom for himself a holy nation, raise for himself a holy temple, and build for himself a church. Jesus loves his universal church, each faithful local church, and each individual member of his true church. He determined that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10). Therefore, we too love the church. We aim to pursue ministry strategies that encourage, equip, support, and strengthen local churches. We do not support any attempt to replace personal involvement in the life of faithful local churches with online content or communication.
As we pour ourselves into helping millions of people glorify God by being satisfied in him, we never want to undermine or pretend to replace the local church. No, we explicitly want to strengthen and serve local churches. And so, we are devoting our theme this month to all the ways we can bless and build up the bride of Christ.
“The first and greatest business of corporate worship will always be about what we get, not what we give.”
Prayer for Sunday Morning
But, again, we’re not starting with what you give because, as Christians, we come to corporate worship to get more of God. If you wanted a text to pray before you get in the car on Sunday morning, you might let the first verses of Isaiah 55 lead you into worship:
Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1)
Spiritually speaking, this is who we are before God apart from Christ. We’re not a little short on cash. We’re bankrupt. We have no money. We’re actually less than broke; we’re dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). And yet God invites us — lifeless, penniless, and guilty — to his table. And notice that he doesn’t just set the table with what we need (water and bread), but he pours wine and milk for us to enjoy — both of which tell us that the saving God is a satisfying God.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live. (Isaiah 55:2–3)
Come to eat. Come to have your thirst quenched. Come to have your heart filled to overflowing, thrilled and satisfied. Come to me. Before you come to church with your hands, come with your ears, ready to hear the all-powerful God of the universe breathe life, direction, and joy into your needy soul.
First Business of Worship
What George Müller (1805–1898) said about his daily communion with Christ is a wonderful banner to hang over our gatherings in our churches:
According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. (A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings, 2:392–93)
If you want to be more helpful to your local church (and I really hope you do), seek first to have your soul happy in God. Come to worship to get and get and get him, and he will show you how to help and give to others.
Heb 10:23-25
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful (WORSHIP); 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Love God! Love Others!
Pastor Dale