Assembled & Ready
Beloved, I want to encourage you to give priority in your week to the Lord's Day by committing to being assembled and ready to worship on Sunday mornings before the service begins. Our church, as a whole, has been struggling with this. I don’t want to motivate you with shame or guilt or brow-beating or legalism. Nor do I want those for whom this is not a struggle to be proud. You could have an internal clock with the precision of a Swiss time piece and not have a changed heart. You could leap from bed with military prowess but not have love. Rather, I want the gospel of Christ to motivate us from the heart to see what is going on around us and in us, to make this adjustment of priority.
The very fact that Sundays are a priority in the Christian life makes it a priority for Satan’s attacks. We are more likely to sleep in or be discouraged or overtired or grumpy on this day. It is more tempting to lash out at loved ones or yell at the dog on our way out the door. Our ability to get in the car cleaned, clothed, and fed is harder on Sundays. The difficulty multiplies with kids. All this is the strategic sabotage of Satan, the captain of chaos.
Of course we cannot blame Satan for everything, but we are not to be ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor 2:11). Likewise, we cannot descend into judgmentalism, since each of us struggles as a Christian pilgrim. Rather, we are to encourage each other to press on in grace: "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord" (Rom 12:11). And we must do this all the more as Christ's coming draws nearer each day. For reasons other than ours, the Christians addressed in the letter of Hebrews were tempted to neglect corporate worship, too. The exhortation given to them applies equally to us:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:24-25).
The church is a relational organism. We naturally want to be together, greet one another in love, encourage one another, and fellowship together. This is a very good thing! Praise God this is happening! We have been praying for this! But the later we arrive on Sundays, the more time we spend choosing between engaging with one another one-on-one while the service is ongoing or joining in corporate worship. We need to set aside time to do both.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven (Eccl 3:1).
Brothers and sisters, I urge you to consider the vital role the gathered body plays every Sunday morning, the role you have in every service. It is not just those with more formally defined roles who are needed each Sunday (e.g. tech team, ushers, musicians, preacher, Scripture readers, etc.). A few feet, eyes, and noses do not make up the body! The gaping holes of a partial body weaken our ability to efficiently and effectively carry out our joint task of worship. The only remedy is for us all to assemble as a whole.
This in itself is, when you think about it, a particular reminder that the Lord's Day is unique. Sunday is the time when every other social, civil, and religious duty is subordinated in order for us to gather together. Christ does not expect us to always be together in one location. We have to disperse to do everything from making meals to making more disciples. But the Lord's Day demands priority for the exalted purpose of corporately displaying the visible, yet spiritual, portrait of Christ's body. The more robust the portrait of Christ's body, the easier it is for everyone to worship, resisting temptations of doubt and discouragement.
Please know that I am not frowning on the housebound or the sick. Nor am I proposing attendance charts, or shaming those struggling their way through the back doors. This is not a plea for numerical growth, as if smaller churches are less powerful, or a plea for dead formalism. This a plea for our whole church, no matter how large or small, to lock arm in arm in the phalanx of fighting the supernatural war for worship, and it’s a plea to take our stand in God's power through corporate prayer that the gospel be sung and preached with boldness (Eph 5:19; 6:1-20). To do this you must be assembled on the front lines and ready for battle.
We do not just go to church; we go to war. I know full well the snarl of Satan in my ears; he is louder on Sundays. As a pastor, one of my most daunting tasks is preaching the Bible. How can a man speak the words of God from his most holy Word? How can I sufficiently remove myself from the message so that you hear God and not me? How can I be sure I am saying what God says in the tone that he says it, illustrating it and applying it accurately for your benefit and for his glory?
Despite my study and labors in each text, I know that I am powerless to preach unless God carries me, and God carries me through his people. I cannot communicate the encouragement I receive from seeing you each Sunday, knowing you want Christ to be your priority in life, and hearing you sing songs of redemption. I can’t preach without your prayers, your presence, and your participation. Am I wrong to suppose that it is the same for you? Are you, too, supernaturally lifted up just by seeing your brothers and sisters assembled and ready to worship, and even more so when they open their mouths to sing to you a proclamation of the gospel? Are you not likewise encouraged to press on one more week because others have persevered in their faith? Are you not strengthened by the sight of the garrison of Christ's blood-bought saints standing ready to minister and be ministered to?
May I encourage you to commit to being at church at 10:00 so that we may all be assembled and ready for worship at 10:15? Furthermore, may some, if not all of you, be compelled by Christ to join us at 9:30 for desperately needed prayer!
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel (Eph 6:18b-19a).
