So many times throughout my life I’ve bought the lie that once (xyz..) happens, then I will be ready to be missional. First, I need to get myself ready financially, make sure I have enough scripture memorized, learn a skill, stop sinning so much… and then I will go… then I will have something to offer. But what if we’ve got it all mixed up? What if we’re doing it in reverse?
In 1 Thessalonians, we see Paul giving direction to the local church through what we’ve come to call a Benediction. He says, “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for us all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
As we approach our third Worship Night, our desire as a worship team is that we would collectively receive and live out this specific benediction in three ways:
Ask God to direct our steps: Step one is the going. It’s not the fixing or the perfecting. What we are being called to do is to ask God to direct us and then to follow Him when He does.
Increase and about in love: we see it every day, scrolling past images on our facebook walls of the realities of this world. Maybe we feel compassion.. Maybe we don’t. Our second step is petitioning God to increase our compassion for His world! For his people!
Establish our hearts as blameless before God: It’s interesting that this comes after the going isn’t it? Like I mentioned before, I often get stuck in the “needing to be perfect” and never get around to the going. But what if we stepped out in faith, trusting that God will cleanse and prepare us as we are going?
Throughout Scripture, we see Jesus telling people to go and be made clean. Go. Be made clean. In that order! THAT is the benediction! The “evlogía.” A benediction is both a blessing and call. As we worship our God, we receive this benediction to trust in Him as we are going, to find out confidence in him, and to remember that the belief that we have nothing to offer from ourselves is completely right! What we have to offer is Him. And he is far more than enough.
John Piper once said, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”
Join us this Sunday, October 9, from 7-9 p.m. as we combine missions and worship by acting out our worship through mission, receiving this benediction, lacing up our boots for battle, and knowing that the Victory is already promised!
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