The worship of God is not just for me. I am, of course, to be worshiping God at every turn and bringing glory to Him. And that I am pretty sure there is little to any dispute. I also have to remember that I am to make sure that everyone around me has the opportunity to worship Him as well. I am to be in the world doing His work and bring the gospel to those around me. I am to visible for others to see and be ready to lead them to God so that they will have the opportunity to find Him and accept the gift of salvation that He has for them. I am to be the conduit for them to see and want to worship God.
“27All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you..” — Psalm 22:27 (ESV)
Notice who “shall worship”. It is “all the families of the nations” and “all the ends of the earth”, not just me and my immediate family. Everyone is extended the opportunity to worship God and praise Him.
The question that should be asked is, if everyone is extended the opportunity to worship God and praise Him, how are they going to hear? How is it that the invitation is extended to everyone? Well the answer is that someone has to take the invitation to them, and that someone is me. I have to take and place the invitation at their feet, delivery to their hand, drop it in their minds. It is up to me to ensure that they have received the invitation. I cannot force them to take it, but that is not my purpose. I am to ensure that they have access to it so that they are able to accept. I cannot expect that someone else will do the work, God has tasked me with the work and therefore I have to do that work, and extend the invitation.
I am only responsible for that which God places before me. I am to extend invitations where He has asked me to and focus there. Even in our church, our vision is as follows: “We want to see A gospel movement that reaches every person of the Hill Country and is carried to the ends of the earth.” and out Mission is: “To make disciples of Jesus that celebrate the gospel in worship, apply the gospel in community, and extend the gospel in mission.” Notice that neither of them start globally and work toward the near. I am to work from close to me and extend outward. In some, and frankly most, instances, my invitations will be locally and in my own community, and that is all God is asking of me. Extend worship of God to all that are in my circle and once that has been done, I am to continuing extending to all.
When you think about your outreach and worship, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you simply trying it on for yourself? What if we took the approach God set out for us and extended the invitation of worship to all we come in contact with?
Trevor's Thoughts 