The Value of Wisdom
2:1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.(ESV)
The Value of Wisdom
2:1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden1 woman,
from the adulteress2 with her smooth words,
17 who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;3
19 none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.(ESV)
Spiritual Discipline of Corporate Worship 10.19.24
The gathering of the saints for corporate worship is one of the most precious practices of our faith. The visual and audible reminder that we are adopted into a big family of God is a treasured and needed thing as we struggle through this life. There are so many blessings we receive from fellowship, worship, communion, sitting under our pastor’s teaching, and praying for one another. Corporate worship points to the glory of our eternity with God. We get a picture of this in Revelation 4 and 5. Take a moment and turn there and read about the throne room of God and the choir of His redeemed exalting His holy name.
The Scriptures speak often about the value and importance of corporate worship. Today, I want us to read through some of these passages and look at how they apply to the importance of our corporate worship.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
All throughout God’s word we see testimony of the gathering of the saints to celebrate and honor the King. One of the most famous places is the collection of songs/poems called the Psalms. In chapter 150, we see this great crescendo of celebration for God.
Psalm 150 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
So one of the things we are to do is to gather and sing—to celebrate and play instruments and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. We are to lift our voices in unison and praise Him for all that He is and all that He has done. Let’s look at another passage about gathering corporately to study, praise, and pray.
Hebrews 10:25 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.
For many, it is all too tempting to satisfy the flesh and sleep in on Sundays because we are overworked, or because we stayed up too late on Saturday night. Or maybe we have a greater desire to stay home and watch the race or to make plans to be out of town too regularly. I encourage you to be attentive to the need to get away with your family on occasion, but I want to highlight this passage that calls for us not to neglect our meeting together. It needs to be a priority.
Also, watching a church service online, while helpful to grow in God’s word, is not the same as physically gathering with the saints to practice all the one another’s, to pray together, sing together, serve together, and take the Lord’s Supper together.
Corporate worship should be the peak of our week as blood bought believers in Jesus Christ. Everything builds towards and flows out of Sunday worship at your local church.
For too many, corporate Sunday worship is what you do when you have nothing else to do: when you don’t have to work, when you aren’t going out of town, when you don’t have a lot of household chores. The problem with this is what it says about your worship! What is most important to you? God has designed into the life of His people a local church, local church shepherds to lead and feed that local church, and a unity of people by which we are not meant to do life without.
I pray that instead of Sunday worship being the thing that you do when there is nothing else that it becomes the priority of your week. I pray that we teach our kids that Christians build their week in anticipation of the gathering of the saints to share testimony, sit under their shepherds’ teaching, and to rejoice together for all that God is and is doing in them. The true members of a local church are not haphazard participants; they are faithful, committed, plugged in, and excited to regularly meet and grow together.
Let’s look at another scripture regarding corporate worship:
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
In Acts chapter 2, we see another aspect for why we are to value or devote ourselves to regularly meeting corporately, and that is “to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching.” Here we see the local church thriving and growing in their early days. What was one of the big parts of their coming together? To sit under their shepherds’ teaching of the word. Sunday worship is the main vehicle in the modern church for our pastors to teach us. In John 21, Jesus commands Peter to “Feed my sheep.” At least 16 hours a week is invested into my Sunday sermon preparation. This is no small investment by the church to value what God’s word values, which is that God’s people are being rightly taught the word of God.
What this means is that you need to highly value this instruction. As a committed member of your home church, you should never miss a sermon that is taught. Now, I don’t mean that there are not some Sundays you will miss due to sickness or a needed family vacation, but with modern technology and online sermon podcast, you don’t have to miss a sermon, ever. At any point later that day, week, or month, you can listen to it from just about anywhere in the world.
Before we move on, don’t miss what else this verse in Acts 2:42 highlights: a devotion to fellowship, communion, and prayer. Read it with me again:
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The Lord’s Supper is the corporate testimony of the saved, pronouncing what Christ has done on the cross and that He will return again one day. I don’t know about you, but I love to see all my brothers and sisters visually feasting together—testifying about what God has done for them, testifying that they are His and that He is coming back for them.
Oh, how we need to fellowship, and we need to enjoy our time together. I want to ask you to make it a habit of showing up early and leaving late for Sunday church. Take time to get to know each other and visit and pray for each other. Make the most of this special, weekly corporate worship time.
One of the things you must consider is not just whether or not “you” need to go to church that day but the fact that you play an important role in your home church family, and your absence impacts others more than you know, even if you don’t have an on stage or central role you play on Sunday. Just your presence, your words of affirmation and encouragement, your hugs and presence are a God-ordained part of your home church family. Don’t undervalue what you bring to others.
Practical Things to consider for Corporate Worship
– Make it a priority every week to attend.
– Bring your Bible and take notes for further study.
– Be on time, come early.
– Never stop inviting, or even better, bringing those who don’t yet know Jesus as Lord and/or those needing a good church to be a part of.
– Get to bed early on Saturday night so you are rested and ready to worship Sunday morning.
– Start looking for ways to help make Sunday worship happen (volunteer in kids, tech, security, hosting, set up, etc.).
One of the critical aspects of our corporate worship is our financial giving. This should be looked at as financial worship. This is the giving of our first financial fruits. Everything your local church needs financially to run is within the resources that God has entrusted to its local members. The question is, are the people of that flock all being faithful with the first fruits of what God has entrusted to them? More specifically, are you joyfully, regularly, generously, and faithfully making it a priority to give what is God’s to the work of God by worshiping Him in the giving of your first fruits of your income to your local church? God gives us direction for how He wants this done. It is not simply a pragmatic issue; it is a spiritual issue.
We are to give joyfully:
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
We are to give regularly:
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 (NLT) Now about the money being collected for the Christians in Jerusalem: You should follow the same procedures I gave to the churches in Galatia. On every Lord’s Day, each of you should put aside some amount of money in relation to what you have earned and save it for this offering.
We are to give generously:
2 Corinthians 8:2-3 (NLT) Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will.
If you have not been obedient to Scripture and faithful in practicing financial worship, I plead with you to begin today. Prayerfully commit to God what you will give, and then set your lifestyle with what is left—not the other way around.
Each of us has a part to play in our local church body. Are you playing your part? Are you obedient to God in this area of your life? Is corporate worship a priority in your week? I pray it is like never before. May you not only be blessed, but may you be a blessing.
By His grace and for His glory
Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine
Soldiers For Jesus MC
Chaplain Council
SFJbible.com
11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them,1 so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Footnotes
[1] 4:15
Greek be in them (ESV)
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent1 have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Footnotes
[1] 13:10
Or tabernacle (ESV)