Savor Each Sunday Service
Attending Sunday service can become very mundane very quickly. Oftentimes, it seems like something to check off your list before getting back to your normal life. Sure, some worship services move you or cause you to examine your life in light of Scripture. But more often then not, there is a profound sense of “normal” when you attend your Church’s Sunday service.
Now, you could find text after text in the New Testament which shows you why that should not be the case. The gathering of the redeemed people of God is objectively presented in Scripture as beautiful, miraculous, and necessary. So how can you change your mindset as your approach weekly corporate worship? For me personally, one of the most helpful things to remember is every time your local Church gathers, it is an unrepeatable, unique day God sovereignly ordained for the praise of His glory and for your good.
Each Sunday service has a different spiritual and emotional emphasis
If you just look at the surface level, each Sunday service is similar. You gather. Sing songs. Listen to the word preach. But within every Church’s liturgy, I guarantee there is variety. The songs you might sing this week are centered around a certain topic, like Christ’s kingship. Perhaps there is a new song the worship leader will introduce to the congregation. The sermon text is different than last weeks or you reach a transition point in your Pastor’s sermon series.
Different songs and sermon texts change the spiritual and emotional emphasis in your worship. Maybe one week is a joy-filled service which focuses on the victory Christ has won on your behalf. But perhaps the very next week will emphasize the deceitfulness of sin and the need for you to examine your own heart. My point here is there is variety in each aspect of your Church’s typical order of service. And this variety allows your worship to change each Sunday service.
When you look at your Church bulletin, think about what unique songs and sermon God has prepared for you to sing and hear. See the differences between this week and previous weeks.
Personally, I find it helpful to read through my Church bulletin before it starts and see what songs I will be singing. Doing so helps me to quickly see what kind of service the Lord has prepared for me. My Church preaches verse by verse through books of the Bible, so I can generally expect what the sermon will be each week. However, reading the text before service gets me in the mindset of the text and helps me think about what unique features it has.
Your life circumstances change week-to-week
The songs and sermon don’t just change each week. You change too. Every single week you have gone through unique days with events and circumstances which have not occurred before. Maybe it was an encouraging, easy week full of spiritual victories, peace within your home, and success at work. The attitude you bring to Sunday service after such a week will be vastly different than if you had a week where the car broke down, you missed out on a promotion, and your kids would not listen to you.
The person you are grows and changes and falls under different influences each and every week. You bring this “new you” to every single new worship service. So as you are thinking through and participating in Sunday worship, be aware of what God is showing you about your particular, present life situation. Don’t settle for general feelings and vague applications. Pray that God would show you specifically what He is teaching you in each week’s worship service.
A good practice is to reflect on where you are at in your life and where God is growing you both before and after corporate worship.
For me personally, I like asking myself “why did God want me to hear this sermon this Sunday? What is going on in my life currently that He wanted me to hear that text?” after hearing my Church’s morning sermon. These questions help focus my mind on specifics in my life that God might be using the Church to address. An added benefit is I focus on the uniqueness of each Sunday’s worship rather than just listening to a sermon, checking the box, and moving on with my week.
The people you worship with change week-to-week
But corporate worship is not merely about you and your personal worship of Christ. It is more than that. Corporate worship is about the body of Christ coming together. And once you have this perspective, you realize the people you worship with change week-to-week. That might literally mean the specific people who attend your Church change. Perhaps a long-time faithful family leaves, creating a void. Or maybe a visitor comes who is eager to get connected.
But even if you don’t lose or gain any people in your congregation, I guarantee each and every member of your congregation has had a different week than the previous one. Just like you as an individual come to worship different each week based on your life circumstances, so too does all your fellow Church members. Having this knowledge adds an element of newness every single Sunday.
When you interact with Church members on a Sunday, approach your interactions with the same interest and excitement as if you are meeting a completely new person.
Every single individual in your Church is a “different person” than the one you worshiped with last week. Some have grown more Christlike. Others perhaps have been battling besetting sin every day this week. Don’t let a Sunday service pass by without getting to know fellow Church members anew. If you come to Church thinking no one has changed or grown, you will naturally assume talking with them will be boring or “same-old, same-old.” Remind yourself that every interaction with Church members around you has the potential for mutual encouragement and spiritual growth.
Conclusion: treat each Sunday service as unique
You cannot reconstruct a specific Sunday’s worship service. The songs and sermon are different. You as an individual are different. And each fellow Church member is different. So savor every time you get to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ. The day God has given you to worship Him together is entirely unique and you will not be able to replicate it once it is past.
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24 ESV
Remind yourself how special each Sunday service is. Remind yourself God, who rules all things, has ordained the day and all that goes one in it. Then, when you are tempted to see corporate worship as a chore or a box to check, you can remind yourself that God is the one who made the day. Notice this. And then rejoice and be glad each Sunday together with your fellow Church members.
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