Where Worship Starts

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? - Romans 10:14, ESV

We can define worship as loving God back and giving Him the glory He deserves. We often think that corporate worship only involves the singing. But it also includes—and in fact even starts—with preaching the Word. Let’s look at why preaching the Word is vital to corporate worship.

Part of worship is knowing God; we cannot love Him and give Him glory if we do not know Him. We come to know Him by being under a pastor’s preaching and teaching. Yes, we need to have time in the Word every day, but reading and studying on our own does not replace being under a pastor. Romans 10:14 lays out the steps. In our corporate worship services, we hear the preaching and we come to know Him so that we can love Him back and give Him the glory that He deserves.

Another aspect of worship is delighting in God. Again, we cannot give love back to Him if we do not delight in Him. We cannot give Him the glory that He deserves if we do not delight in Him. We learn to delight in Him by hearing His Word preached in corporate worship. In 2 Timothy, Paul encouraged Timothy to preach the Word (2 Timothy 2:4). The Greek word used means to preach, to herald, to proclaim. We come into corporate worship and sit under a pastor’s preaching so that he can herald to us, “Come and hear what it says about the Lord.” It is proclaiming to us truths about God so that our hearts will then delight in Him.

We were made to worship God. We were made to love Him back and to give Him the glory that He deserves. We must not neglect the start of worship—the preaching of the Word.