Creating a Sense of Worship - Part Four

In the last few posts we have been discussing how to create a sense of worship. In today’s post I want to discuss preaching. We often think of preaching as educational, or motivational, and it should be those things. But Christ-centered, Bible based preaching can create a sense of worship in the hearts of the hearers.

Worshipful preaching is delivered passionately and uses applications that are relevant to daily life. Some churches think they can grow by watering down the sermon. While that may be true, such growth is at the expense of God-honoring worship. Other churches have attempted to force the gospel message on those who attend through emotionally manipulative methods. This rarely works in our postmodern era because people do not simply accept what they are told any longer.

Many churches have discovered several keys to worshipful preaching. One of those keys is to base the sermon on a single passage of Scripture. This helps the sermon be more than just the pastor’s opinion supported by proof texts. Using a large number of additional verses that are not part of the main text is often counterproductive because most so many people are biblically illiterate. Jumping around from passage to passage is very confusing to them.

As the sermon draws to a close, it is important for worshipful sermons to challenge the listeners to consider how the truth of the Scriptures just taught can be applied to their daily lives. This might also include inviting them to a prayer room to talk with someone further about the implications of the sermon or giving them an email address or phone number they can text with questions about the sermon may be more effective. This allows the message just heard to continue to speak to the heart of the hearer even after the sermon is done. This helps create a sense of the awe of God in our lives, which helps us be in a more worshipful frame of mind.