Tried With Fire

(I have a very special guest blogger today, my daughter.  This short essay was a school assignment which s he graciously allowed me to share with you. ) Christians need to be joined to a local church in order to obey many Scriptural commands, build up one another in the Lord, and be fed by the preaching of the Word. First of all, many commands and instructions in Scripture require that believers be church members. In Hebrews 10, we are told not to neglect to meet together (Heb. 10:25). Matthew 18 gives instructions regarding church discipline, an act which cannot be executed without church membership. For example, Paul told the Corinthian church to exclude someone who was unrepentant in immorality. Logically, the church could only exclude him if he had first been included, and therefore inclusion in the church must have had a concrete definition. Hebrews 13:17 tells us to submit to our leaders in the church, because they will have to...

Many see preaching and worship as two distinct aspects of the church service, as if preaching has nothing to do with worship and vice versa. But that is an erroneous concept. The ministry of the Word is the platform on which all genuine worship is built. In Between Two Worlds , John Stott says it well: "Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the Name of the Lord, and worship is praising the Name of the Lord made known. Far from being an alien intrusion into worship, the reading and preaching of the word and actually indispensable to it. The two cannot by divorced."   (Eerdmans, 1982, pg. 82.) Preaching is an irreplaceable aspect of all corporate worship. In fact, the whole church service should revolve around the ministry of the Word. Everything else is...

In preparation for the Lord's day, here is some advice from Thomas Watson on how to listen to a sermon: 1. Prepare to hear the Word by bathing your soul in prayer. 2. Come to the Word with a holy appetite and a tender, teachable heart. 3. Be attentive to the preached Word. 4. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word (James 1:21) 5. Mingle the preached Word with faith. 6. Strive to retain what has been preached and pray about the Word proclaimed. 7. Put the Word into practice; be doers of it. 8. Beg the Spirit to accompany the Word with effectual blessing. 9. Familiarize yourself with the Word by sharing it with others. From Living for God's Glory , Joel R. Beeke, Reformation Trust, pages 208-209.