Does This Sound Familiar?

Dana and her team walk on stage to begin the music, I get excited because I love music, I love to worship, and the worship team do an excellent job. I stand to my feet and listen as an exhortation is made about worshipping the One True God. The first notes begin to be played or sung and my heart begins to rise as I recognize the song. I love this song I think to myself and lift my voice in worship, trying to get lost in His presence. Whoever is receiving the offering for the day comes up and encourages us to give. I am ready, my check has been written, envelop filled out, my offering descends into the soft velvet bag and will hopefully be used by God and I’ll get blessed because I obediently gave it…

I could go on but you get the idea. We all have our own things going on in our heads when we arrive on Sunday mornings. Mostly our thoughts are good. We want to worship, we want to give, and we want the word. We honestly want God to move and be glorified in our midst.

The problem is subtle. It creeps into our mind practically unbeknownst to us. This worship service has become about me. I want to be fed. I want to receive from the Lord. It is certainly not wrong to feel this way, in fact, we are encouraged to hunger after God. However, Luke records an interesting teaching by Jesus:

Luke 17:7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'? (8) "But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'?

The Master eats first. Who is the Master? Why Jesus, of course. The mindset of the believer coming into the service is so often centered on what they will get out of the service. Let me stress again that it is completely appropriate and critical that we do receive from the Lord in a worship service. The issue is etiquette. The Master is served first. Our worship and giving, our attitude in whatever we do shouldn’t be in what we expect or like, rather we should be focused on serving our Lord, pleasing Him. Once He has been served then we may eat.

-John Spraker
Rock Club Director