In Colossians 3:16, Paul tells us to let the word of Christ richly dwell within us. This passage in context is about the new life in Christ. Now that you know Christ, let the word of Christ richly dwell in you. And as a result, we have this expression of singing coming out, which is very interesting.
Corporate worship is not the warmup before the long, boring sermon. Corporate worship is a response of the word of Christ richly dwelling in us. We align ourselves with lyrics, with the benefit of music so that it’s easy to remember. The point is, there’ll be an expression of songs, hymns, and spiritual things that come out of us. It is a choice to worship. We do this thing because it’s the right and proper response as the word of Christ richly dwells in.
2 Corinthians 1:11 shows us that prayer is part of communal life. It’s harder for a church service to pray corporately because we are trying to worship and teach in a fixed time frame. We hope you pray on your own. Paul is saying, “Your prayers help me.” Technology is great, but the experience you have inside the church is so different from the instant satisfaction of the outside world. So when you come to church, you have to remind yourself how to listen. We have lost the discipline of listening.
We’ve mostly lost the discipline of reading. Not only are we easily bored, we’re easily distracted. Jesus said many times, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. Do we listen to the word of God? Do you listen past the personal preferences of a preacher and a personality? And do you hear God’s word or is this technological culture distracting us so much?
Voltar wrote, “The human brain is a complex organ with a wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons, to continue to believe whatever he wants to believe.” We make churches in our own image.
What does the passage tell us about God’s character? What does it reveal about our character? You are the people of God. He died for you and forgives all your sins. He is not mad at you. He’s not disgusted with you because you sin again and again.
Jesus loves you more than you can comprehend and you’re never going to hear this out there. That’s why the assembly is so important. It’s the one place you will hear it. It comes from His word, not the opinion of a clever communicator or a great performer.
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I get it. I can get bored listening to myself! From where I stand and teach I can see everything that happens out in the congregation. The men distracted with their gadgets. The mom distracted with a child. The teenager that fell asleep. Many of us think we know how to listen to the teacher in church because we listened to a teacher in school for 13 years, but do you REALLY know how to listen? This two part series will guide you through “Listening in Church”.
