DayOne incorporating the Lord's Day Observance Society

Jesus said

"The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath"

Mark 2 v 27

Practical preparations for Sunday worship

Dr Paul Tautges writes:

If God, who is ‘a consuming fire’, receives worship from sinners like you and me (indeed he seeks it!—see John 4:23), should we not be intentional in how we approach him? If worship demands reverence and awe, should we not prepare to meet our God?

It is questions like these that have spurred me to develop the following practical suggestions in preparing for Sunday worship. I have included practical, mundane preparations that free up more time for personal, heart and soul preparation. As you prepare for Sunday, may the application of this counsel lead you into a deeper, more God-centred, and heartfelt worship experience.

1. SATURDAY EVENING
   1. Practical Preparations
      1. Prepare Sunday’s meals. Have breakfast already made and the table set. Perhaps choose simply self-serve breakfasts such as fruit bread, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, etc. Avoid a high sugar, high carbohydrate meal that may lead to drowsiness. Prepare the noon meal as well.
      2. Be sure your car has adequate fuel in it (this was important when we lived in Missouri and had a 40-minute drive to church)
      3. Pick out clothes and take care of needed ironing
      4. Find Bibles (and shoes!) and lay them out
      5. Set aside your offering (2 Corinthians 9:7)
      6. If you wear hearing aids, put in fresh batteries.
      7. Teachers: make final lesson preparations
      8. Be sure your children have bathed or showered.
      9. Get to bed early. Avoid late-night Saturday activities as much as possible. Avoid television, video games, and books on trivial topics.  In face, avoid anything that trivializes, or tends to put your mind in neutral. God’s thoughts are deep (Psalm 92:5).
      10. The purpose of the above practical preparations is to limit distraction and decrease tension in the home, which often results in irritations and conflicts.

Personal/Heart Preparations

1. Delight in the Word.
2. Read Psalm 32 or 51 and spend time in confession.
3. Read some Scripture about worship (e.g. Hebrews 12:18-29; Psalms 95-100).
4. For communion Sundays: read a Gospel account of the crucifixion.
5. For communion Sundays, especially, resolve interpersonal conflicts and seek forgiveness where needed (Matthew 5:23-24).
6. Read a chapter from a solid devotional-style book such as The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer.
7. Devote yourself to prayer for tomorrow’s worship service and all participants: ushers and greeters, Scripture readers, musicians, choir, and song-leader, preacher, nursery workers, Bible class teachers, visitors, unbelievers who may be present.
8. Bible teachers: pray for your students, other classes and fellow teachers.
9. Discipline your mind with song. Fill your home with worshipful music. Sing some hymns.
10. The purpose of these personal preparations is to sensitize your heart and mind to meet the Lord in corporate worship. The goal is to go to bed with the Lord on your mind.

    SUNDAY MORNING

    1. Practical Preparations
       1. Get up early
       2. Keep the television off (the latest news can wait).
    2. Personal/Heart Preparations
       1. The Word—read a Psalm or two
       2. Prayer—Pray for yourself and your family, your pastor, the worship service and all who will be present.
       3. Song—Play psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as background music in your house. Listen to hymns and praise songs in the car on the way to church.
       4. Get to church at least 15 minutes before the service begins so that you may take care of miscellaneous details, give a word of encouragement to at least one other person, take babies to the nursery and take other children to use the toilet. Remember to silence pagers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. (You might even consider leaving them at home.)
       5. Be seated in the sanctuary. Spend time looking up songs and Scripture and/or pray.
       6. Worship the Lord with all your heart in the company of the redeemed (Psalm 107:1-2).

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute, and with the harp; with resounding music upon the lyre.  For Thou, O LORD, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done, I will sing for joy at the works of Thy hands.  How great are Thy works, O LORD! Thy thoughts are very deep (Psalm 92:1-5).

Reproduced, with slight changes, from his blog, Counsel One Another, http://counselingoneanother.com/2011/11/25/preparing-for-sunday/

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