Value 1: A Worshipping Community

[vc_row el_class="blog-body"][vc_column][vc_column_text]You know what it's like when you go to a concert and before long you're singing at the top of your voice, dancing like a crazy thing or maybe you're at a football stadium cheering on your team with all your heart?Keep that in your mind, because today we start our ten-part series on the values of Hope Community Church with our first value: a "Worshipping Community".Humans are by nature people of worship. Whether that's outworked at a local church, a football stadium or our favourite restaurant, we are, at the core of our being, designed to worship.The Westminister shorter catechism (a statement of faith written in 1646 & 1647) puts it like this: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."To glorify God is why we were created. Isaiah 43:7 says "everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made" and again in verse 21  God speaks of "the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise."We see this theme continued in Revelation 4:11 where the 24 elders around God's throne declare: "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."We are not called to simply glorify God in some dutiful way but rather we are called to enjoy Him, to delight in Him.Psalm 32:11 says "Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!" and in Psalm 16:11 we read "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. "So throughout the Bible we see this call to worship God and enjoy Him, it is why we have been made, and so we make it our chief aim at Hope Community Church.But have you ever wondered: "If we have been created for God's glory doesn't this make God incredibly egotistical?" I mean, if I were to make something purely to highlight myself and focus the limelight on me then that would be pretty arrogant.I think it's a fair question to ask. For us flawed, weak and frail created brings, to seek ourselves above all else would be hugely egotistical - because there is someone far more worthy of praise than ourselves.However for God there is no one more worthy, there is nothing more pure or perfect than Himself. So just as us seeing anything other than God as more important than Him would be wrong, so too is it for God. Were He to seek anything else more than His own glory He would be sinning. Instead, it is righteousness for Him and the purest of joys for us.It has been said that our joy in something is only truly complete when we praise it. The act of praise itself brings the greatest depths of joy.This is amazing! God calls us to worship Him as anything less would be sin for Him and for us, and in worshipping Him we can find our greatest joy.So what does this mean in practice?At Hope Community Church this means we aim to live Christ-honouring lives through all we do and in all our dealings with those around us.This value extends into how we do work, friendships, marriage and every other aspect of our lives. It also affects how we do church.Our commitment to being a worshipping community extends beyond simply musical worship. However, the Bible is packed all the way through with musical expressions of worship to God. The Psalms are full of commands for us to sing our praise to him. It would appear that God loves it when we praise Him through song and music.Therefore we prize corporate sung worship when we gather as a community, we encourage those who serve us musically to  play skilfully (Psalm 33:3) whilst at the same time acknowledging that God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16).We are expectant that when we gather corporately to worship God, He will reveal himself to us through spiritual gifts as described in the Bible. (We'll spend some more time looking at this when we come to our fourth value "A Spirit-filled community".)In conclusion then, the honour and worth of our great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to be our chief preoccupation as a church, with everything we do stemming from this passion for His glory. He alone is worthy of all praise, all adoration, all love and all affection and thus at Hope Community Church we are committed to worshipping him with our whole beings, all our heart, all our soul and all our might. (Deuteronomy 6:5). Roll over the concert, there's something far greater worth singing and dancing about!"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!  Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100:1-5[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]