There are common things I hear from my preaching friends about the gathered saints on the Lord’s Day.
For me…
- I especially like the sound of children among the people; mostly because they are part of the people. I know there has been a move among many over the years to remove children from part or all of the weekly gatherings of the Lord’s people for various reasons. Maybe because the secular world has convinced some in the church that children aren’t really getting anything from a sermon or some make an argument that children disrupt adults and just make too much noise or move around too much. There may be truth in some of the argument, but aren’t the church meetings unlike any other gathering in our culture because it is actually a multi-generational gathering of a people intentionally wanting to worship God and hear from him concerning their lives? If so, and I strongly believe so, why not intentionally include the children of all ages so they can witness this most amazing, unique moment? Is there any damage being done to a child to witness a parent moved by the spirit of God? Is there any damage being done to a child to witness an elderly person worship the God of all creation? Is there any damage at all being done when an infant is passed from mom to aunt to grandpa while the word of God is being read to all ears in the room? Is there any damage being done when a child watches the redeemed of the Lord take the bread and the cup declaring the death of Christ? Let the redeemed of the Lord be heard by the children.
- Like many other preachers, I like the sound of pages being turned in the bible while the entire congregation follows the path of the preached word of God. It makes me ‘old school’ I know, but there is something to hear as the Lord’s people open this treasured word of God, together. I get that a phone or tablet contains the very word, and I appreciate the use in my own life, but The sound of pages being turned is a sound I never grow tired of hearing.
- I like the sound of the Lord’s people talking to one another before and after the gathering, especially mixed with the sound of plates and chairs being moved in and out as they sit down at the table, face to face, eyeball to eyeball, laughing, talking, listening, crying, rejoicing, deciding together. O that is a growing favorite of mine at the church house.
- The prayers of God’s people are as unique as any heard in the gathered meetings of the Lord’s. A prayer of repentance, a plea for help, a shout of joy, an expression of gratitude for the blessed. Prayer, in the house of prayer, is as natural of a sound as any.
- But this sound, the sound of the saints singing together. This is as sweet of a sound as can land on the ears of men. I’m sure I can’t comprehend the weight of what it must sound like to our Redeemer, but to this fellow redeemed, it is a sound unmatched by any other in any given day of the week.
Yesterday I forgot to turn my recorder off after preaching and caught the sound or the sweet people I pastor declaring the holiness of God in unison.
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