Worshiping in Unity

Study Notes

Worshiping in Unity Sermon Notes

Part of Something Bigger: Worshiping in Unity

Ephesians 5:14-21; Hebrews 10:19-25

     One of my deepest longings as your Sr. Pastor is that at Lake Avenue Church we will regularly worship God together – yes, together!  I’m sure you know this is quite different from what many churches in America have talked about over the past 40 years.  Back in the 1970s, I remember being told that, if you want a church to grow, you should figure out what people enjoy and then, create services that appeal to their preferences.  This marketing approach to church life was so deeply ingrained in our consumerist culture that few seemed to question the idea of, “Give people what they want and they will come.”  And you know what happened: local churches created traditional services for older people and contemporary services for younger people.  But then we found out that neither all older people nor all younger people liked the same kind of service so we considered adding options: liturgical services, post-modern services, gospel music services… It seemed there might be no end to how we would divide up and not have to worship our Lord together.

     Oh yes – we read the book of Revelation that tells us that throughout eternity all of God’s people will worship him unity – but, we seemed to think, “That’s heaven and not here.  We don’t want to do that here!”  But let me tell you something:  The church of Jesus Christ is not a consumer product.  The church of Jesus Christ is not a social club in which we gather with people we naturally feel comfortable with.  The church is the people of God saved by grace through faith in Jesus. And, I am convinced that the Lord who saved us and called us into his church wants us to gather together and worship him together.

     When I say this, my point is not that we should intentionally have services or programs or activities that people hate simply to show the world how different we are.  No, my point is that the church is not primarily about us!  It’s about Jesus! And, one of the things God Word calls us to do is to gather together regularly for the express purpose of worshiping him.

      Let’s be clear about this:  We need to have places in a church like ours in which you can gather with people of your same stage in life so that you can talk about issues of special concern to you at this time in your life.  But, without question, there also needs to be a regular time in your life in which you worship God together with all those in your church family.  When you do, i.e., when you see people among you and worshiping with you who are different from you in almost every possible way coming together for one reason and one reason alone, i.e., to worship God, you will find it life-transforming.  And the world will see it and believe that God is among us.

What Do We Mean By “Worshiping in Unity”?

     In our LAC Guiding Statement, the Ministry Council and pastors state that there are three essential connections to the life of our church that we want each one of us to be involved in.  The first of those, we call “worshiping in unity”.  I think I need to explain what we mean by that.  The word worship is a word used quite broadly both in the Bible and in church-life today.

     The biblical words translated worship usually refer to bowing before and surrendering everything to someone else, someone who is wor-thy of that kind of response.  And it is the consistent teaching of Scripture that God alone – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is worthy of that kind of whole-lived surrender and devotion. But in our LAC Guiding Statement, we are speaking about one particular kind of worship, i.e., worshiping together with your church family.  A church family like ours is made up of people of all ages and backgrounds and interests.  We’re not drawn to be together by shared human interests. What knits us together is that we’ve given our lives in faith to Jesus. 

     Your pastors and Ministry Council members are convinced that the God who has called us into this church family wants us to worship him in unity together. In high school or middle school ministries, you can do this with people of your own age and interests.  The same is true of our adult classes.  But, when we worship together, we give up personal preferences simply to thank the God who has rescued us.

What Do We Do When We Worship Together:

     I believe that we should do the things that the Bible calls us to do and that our brothers and sisters around the world have always done when they have come together to worship. When you visit churches around the world, you will certainly find a lot of differences due to culture and language.  However, in Bible and Gospel-centered churches, you will discover some things are shared:

1. Praise:  God’s people sing together, especially songs of praise to God together. 
2. Prayer:  God’s people pray together – taking time to confess sins, to thank God for his grace, and to bring to him the concerns that are on our hearts.
3. Ordinances:  God’s people celebrate the baptism of believers and then regularly remember the death of Jesus for our sins through communion – just as Jesus told us to do.
4. Giving:  God’s people bring our offerings as a visible sign that all we have and are has been give to us by our Father. 
5. Family Life:  God’s people take time when they gather together for issues affecting the whole church family.  Sometimes we hear the stories of our people and their walks with God.
6. Preaching:  God’s people take time to hear God’s Word together.  Hearing the Word of God together with the whole family is different from hearing it in your age-graded classes or small groups.  Hearing the Word together draw us all together closer to our Father. Preaching to the whole church is not easy because a church gathered worship service like ours will have jr. highers as well as Cal Tech professors.  It will have new believers as well as Fuller Seminary faculty.  But, we listen to the Word together and, in my experience, God speaks to us in fresh ways when we receive his Word together.
7. Response – God’s people take some time to respond to the Word and then to be sent to live in the light of that Word.  We know God’s Word commands us both to be hearers and doers of it.

     It is this kind of worship together that both knits us together as a family and that knits us together to like-minded churches throughout history and around the world. When the world sees this, they will find it almost incomprehensible.  They will say, “Did you see all those very, very different people singing joyfully with one another?  I know that one man in the band plays at the local jazz club.  And that young woman over there loves hip-hop.  And several of those people play in the local Symphony Orchestra.  How do they do that?  How can it be that they are singing together?  And, some of them have very short attention spans and yet they sit listening to the pastor together.  What’s happening? It has to be God.  God must be in that place!”

Why?

     So, we want to be a church in which God’s people actually gather regularly to worship in the ways I’ve just mentioned. Why? One reason is that, when we worship in unity, it is a witness to our divided world that God really does bring together what is broken.  Our worship in unity is evidence to the world of God’s reconciling power that we speak of in our statement of mission.  The world need to see tangible expressions of the unity that God’s brings about -- and one of the most important ways for that to happen is for us to worship God across those divisions of age, ethnicity, educational levels, political affiliation, etc. and income that so fragment our world.

     Why else should we worship together?  We’re convinced that worshiping in unity is essential to your own growth in Christ. Let’s remember that the main reason for us to worship together is that we need to set our hearts and minds on God, to place him at the center of our lives again after being tugged away from him all week by putting other things at the center of our lives like 1) our own selves or 2) the care and concerns of the world.  Last week, Pastor Jeff Liou reminded us powerfully that each of us and all of us in our church are to become complete in Christ.  That means that we all are to find freedom from our sin and a new life that is marked by loving God with our whole beings and loving people, as Jesus loves us.  How does that happen?  One essential part of your growth is that you worship together with your whole family. Heb 10:24-25 makes this so clear: Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 

     For church people to worship together forces each one of us to give up our preferences to serve others – to come together for a time of worship not because of any self-fulfilling reason but simply because we want to honor God.  If we keep looking for a church in which people like what we like, it will only reinforce the kind of self-interest that is at the heart of sin.  When we worship together, we give up our own preferences and offer praise to God with “one voice.”  This is what the Apostle Paul was getting at as he wrote to a much-divided church in Rome in Rom 15:5-6 -- May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How?

     Let's not be naive about this.  It’s not easy for us to get our minds and voices together to worship God.  But, I’ve also learned that when young and old, Spoken-Word artist and LA Phil harmonic orchestra devotee, people of lighter hue or darker hue and all in between come together to worship Jesus simply because we’re thankful God has saved us, we grow to find great joy in it!  We learn that God is glorified by it.

     We’re guided by God’s Word in this.  One of many texts that helps us is Eph 5:15-20.  As in Romans, Paul was writing in Ephesians to a group of Christians that were finding it hard to do life together. 

# 1:  Let God’s Spirit give you strength to enjoy singing all kinds of songs to the Lord. Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit (5:19a).” 

I smile when I see that Paul said that we need to be filled; which means to be controlled or empowered, by the Spirit in order to do this.  That would have also been true in the church in Ephesus to whom Paul was writing.  There was quite a division in that church among those who were of Jewish heritage and those who were not; those who had a long experience with the God of the Scriptures and those who were new in their faith.  According to Eph 1-3, they apparently didn’t want to worship in one church together.  What Paul said God is doing is creating a “new humanity”, i.e., a third kind of family in which Jew and Gentile are still those things but that they are now knit together through God’s Spirit into the family of God.

With that in mind, notice that Paul specifies “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” I’m quite sure that he mentions these three kinds of songs very intentionally.  He’s saying that in this new third kind of humanity made up both of Jew and Gentile, there is also a new kind of worship – a third space made up of all kinds of people giving up personal preferences when they worship together simply to worship God as one family.

So, Paul said, “When God’s Spirit fills you, sing Psalms” – that was the songbook of the Jewish people.  I can hear the Jewish believers saying, “Psalms are the true spiritual music.  That’s what speaks to our hearts!”  Paul says, “Yes, sing Psalms, but…

“Also sing hymns!”  I imagine that refers to the kinds of newer songs being written and sung in the NT church – like we find in 5:14.  “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” That was almost certainly a part of what Paul called a hymn.  The metropolitan Gentile business person who had come to faith in Jesus would have found the psalms strange – like many younger believers find our church hymns to be strange.  “Who likes that kind of music?” they must have said.  “But, these new hymns – like the ones sung we sometimes sing – that’s the kind of music that speaks to my heart.”  Paul said, “Come together and sing them too -- and we Jews will try to sing along.”

And then there were probably also the younger, more charismatic believers in the family too.  As the Spirit of God worked in their hearts, they would break out in a new song to the Lord – maybe unlike anything that had been sing in the church before.  “Sing those too!” says Paul.

You see, if we’re still thinking like the world thinks, we say, “I want a church family where I can get the kind of music I like.”  But, that’s not the family of God led by the Spirit.  Remember?  God is the one who calls this family together.  When we sing together to our Father, we are strengthened and guided by the Spirit.  If we just want to sing “our kind of music,” we only are seeking self-gratification. 

#2: Be sure to sing in our hearts to the Lord.  Make music from your heart to the Lord (5:19b).

Worship truly isn’t about us about us – it’s “to the Lord!”  When you’ve been living your normal life in school or work, you find your daily pressures and responsibilities pull you away from considering God.  Then, you come to church, into God’s unexpected family, and you see your brothers and sisters singing to your Father.  What happens to me is that I often will enter the worship time with a heavy heart.  Life has been hard.  Finances are tight.  There may have been a lot of failure.  But, then God’s Word is opened and you hear it. When you worship, you find yourself singing all kinds of songs to the Lord…  and hope is restored.  You get out of your self-focus and cast your eyes on the love and power of your risen Lord Jesus Christ.  You worship because you know that God loves you – and forgives you – and has given you a church family to worship him with.  You worship because the Father you worship is bigger than your problems.

     We must remember we are a family of rescued people.  So, our worship must be directed toward our Rescuer, our Savior.  And, we must remember that we are a part of a family who, by God’s declaration, will live and worship together eternally. The key to us worshiping in unity is that we all know we don’t deserve to be worshiping God at all.  We are mercy-needing people now adopted into God’s eternal family solely due to his grace.

#3: Do a heart check and make sure you are grateful for God’s grace -- Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (5:20).

     Here’s a Principle:  The people most enthused to worship God with his people are those most aware of his grace in their lives.  I’m quite sure Paul is not saying in this verse that we will be grateful for all that happens in our world but… we will know that all things are under God’s control.  God is greater than our troubles.  He grace is greater than our sin.  And we will know that there is nothing inside or outside this world that can separate us from what really matters, i.e., the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  And we will look around us and see others like us.  Others who are struggling.  Others who have failed.  Others who have discovered that the God of the universe loves them and is ready to bless them.

     If you don't really feel that you have been saved from much, you will not find much joy in worshiping God.  You’ll be bored.  You won't really have anything to sing about because you haven't experienced anything.   You can't really sing to God with joy unless you have something to sing about.

     Many people go to church to celebrate a non‑event in their experience.  They're not grateful for what God has done.  They're not excited to be a part of God’s family.  They're in church only for what they can get out of it ‑‑ not for an opportunity to add their praise and gratitude into the worship of God’s rescued people.

 When we know we have sinned but God loves us so much he came to rescue us, we have to worship him. The people most enthused to sing God's praise are always those who are the most aware of his saving work.  And one consequence of that is that if you want to improve the quality of your worship experience, you should take time before coming into the services to remember the grace God has shown you.

#4: Look around you, love your family, and submit your preferences so that we may worship in unity.   Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (5:21).

     We will remember what Jesus went through to bring us and everyone else into this family.  He gave his life.  We will remember that Christ gave us his Spirit – who dwells within each of us.  Out of our heartfelt desire to please our crucified Lord, we will submit to one another.

       So… how are we going to do this?  How will we, all of whom have distinct tastes in music – distinct styles that we enjoy and others we do not enjoy – get together week after week and worship in unity?  Well, it will be a work in process – as walking with God always is.  But, I’m so thankful for what our worship leaders are doing as they prayerfully listen to us – and seek God’s guidance to help us get our voices together in praise to God.  And, I’m so thankful for the wonderful spirit that is growing in our church.  I sense it deeply.  I’m sensing a humble spirit in our midst that leads us to be grateful to be in a family as diverse in many, many ways as LAC is becoming.  I know, deep down in my heart, that our gracious Heavenly Father is pleased when he sees and hears us worship him in unity.  

Chinese Translation

Worshiping in Unity Sermon Notes Chinese Translation

大使命的一部分：合一的敬拜

以弗所書5：14-21；希伯來書10：19-25

      作為湖邊教會的主任牧師，我最深切的盼望，就是我們可以定期在教會一同敬拜神，是的，一同敬拜神！我想你一定知道，我所說的敬拜，和過去四十年來美國許多教會所說的敬拜有很大的不同。我記得，在上個世紀七十年代，有人告訴我說，如果你想讓一個教會成長，那麽你就需要知道人們喜歡什麽，然後再設計出令他們喜歡的崇拜方式。這種對教會生活的市場經營方式根深蒂固地置於我們消費者至上的文化之中，很少有人會質疑“只要滿足人們的需要，他們就會來”這個觀點。這樣做的結果就是： 教會為年長信徒設計傳統敬拜，而為年輕人設計現代風格的敬拜。然而接著我們就會發現，年長信徒和年輕信徒都不喜歡同類的敬拜，於是我們就考慮添加一個選擇：禮儀性的敬拜，後現代的敬拜，福音音樂的敬拜等等。我們似乎永遠都有理由要分開、而不必在一起敬拜主。

      我們在啟示錄中讀到，在永恒裏，神的子民都會合一敬拜祂。然而我們可能會想，“那是天堂，不是這裏，我們不想在這裏那樣做!”但是讓我告訴你，耶穌基督的教會不是消費產品。耶穌基督的教會也不是社交俱樂部，使我們在其中只和那些我們感覺舒服的人交往。教會是由在耶穌的信心中被恩典所救贖的神的子民所組成的。我相信，那位拯救我們、並呼召我們進入教會的主，希望我們聚集在一起敬拜祂。

      我的意思不是說，我們應當故意設計大家不喜歡的敬拜、節目或是活動，只為向世人顯示我們有多麽不同。不是的，我的意思是說，教會的重點不在於我們！而在於耶穌！神的話語呼召我們所做的一件事，就是常常聚集在一起敬拜祂。

      我們應當清楚地知道這一點：我們需要有一個像我們教會一樣的地方，讓你在其中可以與那些和你處於同樣生命階段的人們相聚在一起，談論在這個生命階段所特別關心的問題。然而，即使沒有問題，你也需要與教會的人們一起敬拜神。當你這樣做的時候，你就會看到周圍與你一同敬拜的人們，都是各樣不同的人，都以各種方式，為著同一個理由來敬拜神，你會感受到，這樣的敬拜是改變生命的。世人看到了也會相信，神在我們中間。

什麽是“合一的敬拜”？

      在湖邊教會的綱領中，理事會和牧師群聲明，有三個與教會生活有關的重要連結，是我們希望教會每個人都能參與的。第一就是 “合一的敬拜”。我想我需要解釋一下。在聖經裏和今天的教會生活中，敬拜這個詞使用得很廣泛。

      在聖經中，這個詞通常翻譯為向某人下拜或是將一切都交托給某人，就是那些值得交托的人。聖經不斷地教導，惟有神 – 聖父、聖子和聖靈，才配得全人的交托和敬拜。然而在我們的教會綱領中，我們說的是一種特別的敬拜，就是與教會大家庭一同的敬拜。我們的教會由各種年齡、興趣及背景的人組成。我們不是靠人的興趣而聚集起來的。因著我們都將生命交托給耶穌，我們才得以聚集在一起。

      你們的牧師群和教會的理事會成員都相信，那位呼召我們進入這個教會大家庭的神，希望我們同心合一地敬拜祂。在初中和高中的事工中，孩子們可以和年齡、興趣相仿的人聚在一起，我們的成年人課程也是如此，但是，當我們一同敬拜的時候，我們就放棄個人喜好，單單感謝那位拯救我們的神。

我們應當如何一同敬拜:

      我相信，我們應當做聖經呼召我們做的事情，也就是全世界的弟兄姐妹在一同聚集敬拜之時所做的事。當你拜訪世界各地的教會的時候，你一定會發現很多因著不同的文化和語言而產生的不同之處。然而，在聖經中和以福音為中心的教會中，你將會找到一些共同點：

1）   贊美：神的子民一同歌唱，尤其是唱詩贊美神

2）   禱告：神的子民一同禱告，花時間認罪悔改，感謝神的恩典，將我們心中所願帶到祂面前

3）   儀式：神的子民慶賀信徒受洗，並常常藉著聖餐紀念耶穌為我們的罪而死，正如耶穌命令我們所行的那樣。

4）   奉獻：神的子民奉獻金錢，這標誌著我們所有的一切都是天父所賞賜的

5）   教會生活：當任何問題影響到整個教會的時候，神的子民都會聚集在一起商討。有的時候我們會聽到弟兄姐妹們與神同行的見證。

6）   講道：神的子民花時間一同聆聽神的話語。與教會眾弟兄姐妹一同聽道，和在小組內與你的同齡人一同聽道是不同的。與教會大家庭一同聽道，會使我們都更加親近天父。向整個教會講道不是一件容易的事，因為像我們這樣的敬拜之中，會有許多青少年，也會有加州理工學院的教授；會有新信徒，也會有福勒神學院的老師。然而我們都一同聆聽神的話語。以我的經驗，當我們一同聆聽祂的話語時，神就會以全新的方式對我們講話。

7）   回應：神的子民要對神的話語有所回應，然後就得蒙差遣在神道的光中生活。我們知道，神的道命令我們不單聽道，而且行道。

正是這樣共同的敬拜，能夠使我們歷代以來在世上像一個家庭一樣，能誌同道合地聚合在一起。當世人看到時，他們幾乎會覺得難以理解。他們會說：“你看到那些非常非常不同的人們一起歡樂地歌唱嗎？我認識樂隊裏的那個人，他是本地爵士樂團的。那個年輕女孩喜歡說唱藝術，還有那幾個人是本地交響樂團的。他們怎麽能做到在一起唱歌的？有一些人的註意力只能有很短的一段時間，他們卻一起坐在那兒聽牧師講道。到底是怎麽回事？肯定是神，神一定在那裏！”

為什麽要一同敬拜?

所以，我們希望成為這樣的一個教會：神的子民可以在其中常常聚集在一起，像我剛剛提到過的那樣敬拜神。為什麽？其中一個原因是，當我們合一敬拜時，我們就向這個破碎的世界做了見證，讓世人看到，神有能力將一切破碎的聚合起來。我們合一的敬拜向世人證明了我們在信仰宣言中所說的神和好的大能。世人需要看到我們清楚地表達出神所帶來的合一。實現此事的一個最重要的方法就是，我們這些年齡、種族、教育程度、政治立場和經濟能力等都不盡相同的人們一同敬拜神，然而這些正是造成世人之間分裂的因素。

還有什麽原因使我們一同敬拜呢？我們相信，對於你個人在基督裏的成長來說，合一的敬拜也是至關重要的。希望我們能記得，我們一同敬拜的主要原因是，我們需要將我們的心靈和頭腦都專註於神，我們可能曾經因著很多事情在我們的生命中居首位，從而使我們遠離了神，比如1）自我；2）對世上事物的關心。我們要再次使神在我們的生活中居首位。上周，劉傑夫牧師提醒我們，我們教會之中的每一個人，乃至所有人都要在基督裏成為完全人。意思就是，希望我們都會從自己的罪中得到自由，並且得到新的生命，使我們全心愛神和愛人，正如耶穌愛我們一樣。我們怎樣才能做到呢？你的成長的一個重要部分，就是要和你的整個教會一起敬拜。希伯來書10：24-25節說得很清楚：“又要彼此相顧，激發愛心，勉勵行善。你們不可停止聚會，好像那些停止慣了的人。倒要彼此勸勉。既知道那日子臨近，就更當如此。”

只有和教會的人們一同敬拜，我們每個人才會放棄自我喜好，而去彼此服事，我們同在一個時間敬拜，不是因為任何自我滿足的原因，而是因為我們都想要榮耀神。如果我們一直要尋找一個與自己喜好相同的教會，那麽就只會加強以罪為中心的自我興趣。當我們一同敬拜的時候，我們就放棄了自我的喜好，以“同一的聲音”向神發出贊美。這就是使徒保羅在羅馬書15：5-6為分裂的教會寫信時所談到的：但願賜忍耐安慰的神，叫你們彼此同心，效法基督耶穌。一心一口，榮耀神，我們主耶穌基督的父。

怎樣一同敬拜？

讓我們在這一點上不要太天真了，要使我們的意念和聲音完全一致地去敬拜神，不是一件容易的事。然而我也知道，當年輕人和老年人，說唱藝術家和洛杉磯菲爾諧波交響樂團愛好者們，各種膚色的人以及所有的人，能夠走到一起敬拜耶穌，原因非常簡單，因為我們感謝神拯救了我們，因此的我們願意在其中不斷的成長！我們也知道，這樣會使神的名得榮耀。

在這件事上，我們是有神的話語作為引導的。以弗所書5：15-20是一段能夠幫助我們的經文。保羅在以弗所書中寫信給一群難以相處的基督徒。

第一：讓聖靈賜給你力量，向主唱各樣的詩歌。被聖靈充滿，當用詩章、頌詞、靈歌彼此對說，口唱心和地贊美主。

看到保羅說，我們需要被聖靈充滿，我笑了。他的意思是，為了做到以上這些，我們需要被聖靈得著、並得著聖靈的能力。對於保羅曾寫信給他們的那些以弗所教會的人來說，這些都是事實。人們在那個教會中有著很大的分歧，他們之中有猶太人和非猶太的傳統，有長期經歷神的信徒，和一些新信徒。根據以弗所書1-3節，他們顯然不希望在同一個教堂裏一起崇拜。明白了這一點之後，請註意，保羅明確提到了“詩章，頌詞，靈歌，”我敢肯定，他是有意地提到這三件事。他的意思是，在這個由猶太人和外邦人組成的第三種新的族類中，也存在著一種新的敬拜 ---- 一個由所有族類組成的第三種空間，其中的人們放棄個人喜好，他們一同敬拜，只是為了要像一個家庭一樣敬拜神。

因此，保羅說，“當神的靈充滿你，請誦讀詩篇” - 這是猶太人的詩歌本。我能聽到的猶太信徒說：“詩篇是真正屬靈的音樂。它會對我們的心靈說話！”保羅說， “是的，唱‘詩篇’，然而...

 “也要唱聖詩！”我想，那是指寫給新約教會的那種比較新型的詩歌 - 就像我們在5:14中見到的。“你這睡著的人當醒過來，從死裏復活，基督就要光照你了。”我們幾乎可以肯定，這就是保羅所稱為贊美詩的一部分。一個大都市中信靠耶穌的外邦商人，會覺得這詩歌很陌生，就像許多年輕的信徒覺得我們教會的聖詩很陌生一樣。他們一定會說：“誰會喜歡那種音樂？”“但是這些新的贊美詩 - 像那些我們有時唱的詩歌，會對我們的心說話。”保羅說，“讓我們一同來唱這些詩歌，我們猶太人會盡量一同歌唱。”

在教會中會有更年輕，更有領袖魅力的信徒，當神的靈在他們心裏作工時，他們會向主高唱新歌，也許與之前教會唱過的任何詩歌都不同。保羅說，“也要唱這些詩歌！”。

如果我們仍然世人那樣去思考問題，我們會說，”我希望有一個能使我欣賞到我所喜歡的音樂的那種教會。”但是，這不是蒙聖靈引領的神的家。記得嗎？是神自己將教會的家庭成員們聚在一起。當我們一起歌唱天父的時候，我們就正在被聖靈堅固和帶領。如果我們只想唱“我們喜歡的音樂”，我們就只是在尋求自我滿足。

第二：一定要唱出我們心中的神。口唱心和地贊美主(5:19b)。

真正的崇拜不是關於我們的，而是關乎神的。當你在學校或工作之中進入正常生活時，你會發現，你的日常壓力和各種責任會使你遠離神。當你來教會，進入到神的家庭中，你看到你的兄弟姐妹們向天父親歌唱。我經常帶著沈重的心情進入崇拜。生活是艱難的，經濟狀況是緊張的，我們還可能會有很多的失敗。但是，神的話語是向你敞開的，你聽到了。當你崇拜時，你會發現你自己會對主唱各樣的詩歌......於是希望之火又重新點燃了。你從自我中心裏走了出來，並且你的眼目定睛在復活的主耶穌基督的愛與能力上。你敬拜神因為你知道神愛你，並赦免了你，賜給你教會，讓你可以與大家一同敬拜神。你敬拜天父，是因為祂遠比你的問題要強大。

我們必須要記住，我們是蒙神救贖的人們所組成的家庭。所以我們敬拜的對象，必須是我們的拯救者----我們的救主。而且我們必須要記得，神宣告說，我們是大家庭的一部分，就是永遠一同居住和敬拜的教會大家庭。對於我們來說，合一敬拜的關鍵是：我們都知道我們根本不配敬拜神，我們這些需要神憐憫的人，現在被接受進入神永恒的家，完全是因著祂的恩典。

第三：反省內心，確定你對神的恩典心存感激，凡事要奉我們主耶穌基督的名，常常感謝父神(5：20)。

這裏有一個原則：那些忠心於與眾人一同敬拜神的人，是那些最能夠在生活中感受到神恩典的人。我確信，保羅在這節經文中並不是在說，我們為了所有世上發生的事情感恩，但是……我們知道，一切都在神的掌控之中。神比我們的問題要強大。祂的恩典大過我們的罪。並且我們知道，這個世上沒有任何事情能夠使我們與真正重要的事情分開，比如在耶穌基督裏的神的愛。我們觀看周圍，會看到其他人與我們一樣。他們也在掙紮，他們也失敗，他們也發現，創造宇宙的神愛他們，並且預備好祝福他們。

如果你沒有確實地感到你被從很多罪重拯救出來，那麽你可能不會得到太多敬拜神的喜樂。你會覺得無聊。你不會發自內心地歌唱，因為你沒有經歷過任何事情。除非你有歌頌的內容，否則你無法帶著喜悅真正地對神歌唱。

很多人到教會為要慶賀在他們的經驗中不曾感受到的事，對於神的作為他們並沒有感恩的心。對於自己能成為神家庭的成員，他們並不感到興奮。他們來教會只為能得到他們想要的，而不是為了得到一個機會，將自己的贊美和感恩加入到蒙神拯救的人們的敬拜之。

      當我們知道，我們犯了罪，然而神卻如此地愛我們，以至來拯救我們，我們就必須敬崇拜祂。那些最熱心唱詩贊美神的人們，總是那些最了解祂救贖工作的人。其後果之一是：如果你想提高敬拜的質量，就需要在你進入服事前，花時間去思考神所賜給你的恩典。

第四: 環顧你的周圍，愛你的家人，並將你的喜好交托給神，使我們可以合一地敬拜神。又當存敬畏基督的心，彼此順服。（5：21）

我們應當記住,為要帶領我們以及每一個人進入這個家庭，耶穌所經歷的一切 ---- 祂獻出了自己的生命。我們應當記住，基督將聖靈賜給了我們，就是那內住在我們裏面的靈。我們衷心地希望，我們能討那釘十字架的主的喜悅。我們應當彼順服。

所以...我們當如何做到這一點？我們這些對音樂有不同口味、喜好不同風格的人，將如何做到周而復始地聚集在一起並一同敬拜？這將是一個漫長的過程，與神同行永遠都是這樣一個過程。但是，我很感恩教會帶領崇拜的負責同工們所做的一切，他們認真地傾聽我們的心聲- 並尋求神的指引，以幫助我們眾人的聲音能夠和諧美好共同贊美神。我也為聖靈在我們的教會中奇妙地同在而感恩。我深深的感覺到這一點，我感到在我們中間有謙卑的靈，祂引導我們充滿感恩地進入這個具有多樣化的大家庭中。在我內心的深處知道，當我們慈愛的天父看到和聽到我們同心合一地敬拜時，祂必定是非常喜悅的。

榮耀歸給神，

Greg Waybright 博士

主任牧師