Dear Members and Friends of IBCZ,
For the past two weeks we have been focusing on the meaning, nature, and practice of worship. I’ve emphasized during these sermons the importance of the mind in worship. The more we understand about God and His ways, the more we will be led to praise Him for His greatness. Furthermore, we must engage our minds in the very act of worshiping. For instance, when we sing, we are thinking about the words and theme of the songs (God’s love or faithfulness or holiness or power or mercy) and in our minds we are praising God for these things.
So, we use our minds in worship, but the truth is there is more to worshiping God than that, for God’s wisdom, power, love, grace, faithfulness, splendor and majesty are so far beyond what we can know that worship must involve a sense of wonder. We approach God with a sense of astonishment, admiration, bewilderment, awe, and fascination. That is what I mean by wonder. There is more to God than can be put into words; there is so much of who God is that lies beyond what we can understand with our finite minds.
For example, consider the love of God. We talk about it all the time, but we will never fully comprehend it – that God should love us so much He would come to us – the ones He created but we have rebelled against Him – to die our death on the cross. That kind of love cannot be fully explained, but only marveled at and received with a deep sense of wonder and gratitude. And so, when we take the Lord’s Supper, we not only remember what Christ did for us, but our hearts should be filled with wonder at God’s love for us.
There is a splendor and majesty to God that we cannot comprehend but we can only adore with a deep sense of wonder and amazement. Paul put it like this in Rom. 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” There is so much to God that is beyond what we can grasp with our minds or discover with our understanding. So, let us use our minds in worship, but let us also worship God with a sense of wonder in light of His greatness, splendor, and majesty.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Bob