"Why We Gather to Worship"

"Christians do not gather in corporate meetings so that each of us can behave based on how we feel or what we like. Nor do we gather for the primary purpose of experiencing emotion. We gather to worship God by acknowledging truth about him, but locating our faith in the historical, achieved realities of the person and work of Jesus Christ. We gather to locate our faith in him.

A good worship song, like a good sermon, directs my attention outward and upward, away from my subjective impressions and toward objective truth. As I then acknowledge objective realities, as I approach the Father through the person and finished work of his Son, my heart is freshly filled with affection.

But I do not approach God on the basis of that affection. It is not because of my affections for God, or my feelings of wonder or gratitude, that I draw near to God. I only draw near through the one Mediator he has provided. I approach the Father only, ever, and always through Christ’s finished work."