Do you have a kitchen, a garage, or simply a drawer packed with a mess of random tools? Do you ever stumble across a gadget and wonder, “How did this get here and what’s it for?” In contrast, maybe your workbench and tools are perfectly organized by purpose and color. Or maybe you are indifferent about organizing your gadgets and tools. You’re a minimalist. You are the embodiment of MacGyver, who was known on his 80’s television show for skillfully engineering a prison break, building a satellite, or diffusing a bomb simply with a roll of duct tape, strike-anywhere matches, a few paper clips, and chewing gum.
Our church’s mission statement – Faith Baptist Church glorifies God by making disciples through biblical transformation – is based on Jesus’ commission to the church found in Matthew 28:18-20. He tells His followers that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Several important purposes may be gleaned from Jesus’ task given to His followers. Among them are evangelism, edification, and equipping. They are familiar tools in the church’s workbench for fulfilling the Great Commission.
One purpose that is often buried and overlooked at the bottom of the tool box is worship. Maybe this surprises you. We rarely consider worship essential to the great commission. But isn’t worship the ultimate aim of our discipleship efforts? In Revelation 7:9-10 we read of a breathtaking future worship event that will take place in the very presence of God:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
In response, John Piper wrote, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t… Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions” (Let the Nations Be Glad). Also, singer-songwriter Stuart Townend penned,
I long to be where the praise is never-ending, Yearn to dwell where the glory never fades; Where countless worshippers will share one song, And cries of ‘worthy’ will honor the Lamb! – “All My Days (Beautiful Savior)”
It is undeniable that worship must be at the heart of who we are as people of God. We must understand that worship is more than simply what occurs on Sunday morning. It should not be undervalued and relegated to a particular place, time, or action. Such a limited view of worship is akin to thinking that duct tape is the answer to a flooded basement or fixing a bad alternator. Rather, worship is a surrender of our entire life to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. It is a daily, moment-by-moment abiding that brings joy and gives Him glory.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV) – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”