We come to worship in order to give praise and glory to God and to receive back from Him His grace. In His grace, God forgives our sins (on account of His Son) and gives us more grace to praise Him and to live lives that are pleasing to Him.
In many modern churches, worship services begin with “praise and worship.” We believe this is backwards. Here’s why…
When we come to the assembly of worship, as Hebrews 12 shows us, we come into the very heavenly thrown room of God, whom the author of Hebrews says, “is a consuming fire” Which is why we must approach Him with “reverence and awe.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
The only way we can come to God and not be consumed, is to come through the work of Jesus’ death on our behalf.
This means that there ought to be a “proper order” to our worship service. When we come to God, we ought to first come in “reverence and awe,” confessing our sin, and looking to Christ who is the only means by which our sins are forgiven.
After confessing our sin and pleading the blood of Christ, it is then (and only then – with good reason) that we can sing joyously, with great jubilee, because we have been set free from sin and death.
In this, we follow our fathers of the Protestant Reformation, who taught rightly from Scripture that the entire structure of our worship should follow the pattern of “Law and Gospel.”
The Law is proclaimed so that we are convicted of our sin.
The Gospel is proclaimed, so that we may rest in Christ alone from all of our works.
It is also our conviction that in every worship service, we ought to have both the Word (in reading, prayer, singing and preaching) and Sacrament.
The two Sacraments (mysterious signs) given to us by Christ are baptism and the Lord’s Supper (communion).