Dec 17, 2021
Imagine for one moment that a VIP is coming to visit you, in
your home! You have one day to prepare, what do you do?
Cleaning, organizing, and maybe even some redecorating. Why
all the effort? Simply put, when someone of worth stops for a
visit, we want to honor them.
For almost as long as the Church has been around, it has been
celebrating advent. Advent comes from the Latin
word, adventus and it simply
means coming. In the weeks leading up to
Christmas, Christians would focus on different spiritual
disciplines to prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus.
One of the disciplines they would practice is that of
worship. For most Christians in the United States, worship
has a very narrow definition; a song we sing during a corporate
worship service. The experience of worship is then usually
connected to how the song service makes us feel.
Unfortunately, this is a very narrow understanding of
worship.
Worship as described in Scripture has a much broader
definition. For example, one of the most frequent
descriptions for worship is to bow down. If something is
worthy of worship, we bow down or prostrate ourselves in humility
and reverence to it. We don't see that very often during our
worship services!
So what's the point? If we want to experience our best
Christmas ever, it's going to start with a broader practice of
worship.
In this sermon we will study a beautiful worship song written by Jesus' mother Mary. We can learn a lot from her example. She's preparing for the arrival of Jesus, and to get ready, she worships! If you are want to have the best Christmas ever, it's time to prepare...it's time to worship. Do you want to learn more about how to broaden your spiritual discipline of worship? Don't miss out on part one of Advent ~ Preparing for Christmas.