I remember back in senior year of college having a pretty easy class scheduled for Friday mornings. Early Friday mornings, that is, and I was not and am not a morning person. I would set the alarm for about ten minutes before the start of class, roll out of bed, brush my teeth, hop on my bike, and be sitting in the back row on time. And I wasn’t just there on time; I was able to participate in class and do well with my grades. Like I said, it was a fairly easy course. It took almost no preparation whatsoever.
Worship isn’t like that.
Worship is not the kind of thing that you can just roll out of bed and be ready for. Meeting with God is such a momentous event that it takes careful and sincere preparation. God himself tells us that he expects us to prepare to meet with him. If we think back to Mount Sinai, right before God made his first sustained appearance to old covenant worshipers, he instructed the people to come near the mountain but not to enter his presence until they were prepared: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people’” (Ex. 19:10–11).
Israel was to prepare for three days before they met with their Maker and Redeemer! What kind of preparation do we afford God? Maybe we give him only three minutes while the prelude is playing on Sunday morning. That is certainly important to do. Many churches helpfully remind people to “prepare their hearts” during a time of meditative music or silence before worship properly begins, perhaps additionally providing a pertinent verse of Scripture to reflect on. But if that is the extent of our preparation, then we will not be fully ready to meet with God. We can—and should—do more.
The Westminster Confession says that properly keeping the Sabbath entails, in part, the preparation of our hearts and the ordering of our common affairs beforehand (WCF 21.8). So what kinds of things can we do beforehand to ready our souls to meet with our great God and Savior? Since we have established that worship is comprised of both the ordinary and the extraordinary, it follows that our preparation will involve both simple, ordinary practices as well as challenging, soul-stretching, extraordinary ones.
“Ordinary” Preparation
There are a number of simple things we can do in the days and moments leading up to worship to best prepare us to meet with God. There are even things we can be doing during and after the service to ensure a richer experience in worship. Preparing will lead to richer participation during and fruitful, spiritual profiting afterwards.1 I list below some that have benefitted me and my family over the years. These are practices
we aim to keep. We sometimes fail, and you will too. But I can promise this: all the suggested practices for Lord’s Day preparation are simple and achievable. And I think you’ll find your soul enriched as you seek to implement them.
Don’t Stay Out or Up Late on Saturday Night
Start here: on Saturday night, be a boring homebody. My suggestion is to stay in and go to bed early. I know that may sound difficult for some people, as many fun things happen on Saturday night. To your non- Christian friends, however, declining invitations to late-night get-togethers because you have church the next day will be a peculiar and therefore powerful witness. I recognize that “early” will mean different things for different people, and the amount of sleep we need to feel well-rested varies from person to person, so use your best judgment in applying this principle.
We want to be wary of droopy eyelids in the worship service. A late night with friends does not aid in waking up on time the next day, ready and alert for what God has in store for you. Puritan Thomas Watson urged worshipers centuries ago to “take heed of drowsiness in hearing; drowsiness shows much irreverence. How lively are many when they are about the world, but in the worship of God how drowsy. . . . In the preaching of the Word, is not the bread of life broken to you; and will a man fall asleep at his food?”2 Get a good night’s rest before the Lord’s Day. Our weak flesh doesn’t need many excuses to catch some extra z’s during worship. Coming into the Lord’s house alert and well-rested will allow no foothold for the devil.
Don’t Be Rushed Sunday Morning
We’ve all been there. Maybe something unexpected happened, like the new puppy went to the bathroom on the carpet right before you stepped out the door, or you get the whole family in the vehicle only to learn that the subzero overnight temperatures have killed the battery. Some things we can’t avoid, but others we can. For instance, save needless hemming and hawing in front of the closet mirror on Sunday by deciding what to wear Saturday. Lay out your clothes the night before. That’s all my wife and I do, and we leave the rest of our wardrobe preparation for the morning. But if you know you need to iron a shirt or dress, you could do that Saturday night as well. My grandfather would shine all his children’s shoes Saturday night and meticulously line them up for ready use the next morning. If you have a lot of kids and mornings are inevitably hectic (okay, even one kid can do that), go the extra mile by setting up breakfast the night before. Seriously. Place the bowls and spoons around the respective seats at the table and set the boxes of cereal in the center for the family to swoop in and choose from.
Also, if you are serving in a particular way on Sunday (such as bringing snacks or teaching Sunday school), make sure you give yourself extra time for the preparation needed for that responsibility. We have a dear congregant who readies the coffee for our church practically every Sunday, and in order both to prepare for this service and for her own soul on a given Sunday morning, she comes in each Saturday to get things set up beforehand. That is quite a commitment not only to serve each Sunday but also sacrifice a portion of her Saturday to do so. But the lesson we can learn is the importance of preparedness. Anything you can do to avoid the pressure, panic, and frustration of a rushed commute to church should be done.
Cultivate a Good Attitude
If hustle and bustle is our norm on Sundays, then short tempers and emotional outbursts of some kind or another are almost inevitable. Hopefully following the aforementioned steps will help prevent that. But more than prevent a bad attitude on Sundays, we want to combat a bad attitude. That is, we should go on the offensive by intentionally striving to have a good, even joyful demeanor as we get ready and head off to church. We are going to do the most important thing on earth. How could we not be filled with anything but eager anticipation? To this end, Pastor Jason Helopoulos writes, “Cultivate a spirit of joy on Sunday mornings in your home. If this is the highlight of our week, then let’s act like it. Talk about how wonderful the day is going to be, wake the kids up with excitement, turn on good Christian music for the whole family to listen to, and put a smile on your face.”3
I have fond memories of the way my dad did exactly this when we were growing up. Every Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of Christian music playing from the living room entertainment center or sometimes from his upstairs office computer. He played songs we loved as a family and immediately brought a joyful spirit to our home. The standard weekday “just five more minutes!” for more sleep was cut off at the pass. For your home it might not be music, but consider what practices you might be able to implement that remind you and your family that this day is not only unique but also wonderful. The psalmist cries out, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’” (122:1). Does that ring true for you?
Review for Sunday
Many churches provide their order of worship online in the days leading up to the service or perhaps email a copy of the bulletin to the members of the church. On Saturday, why not review what will be coming up the next day? Read through the passage that will be preached and familiarize yourself with the text—even do some background reading if you wish!4 Also, see what hymns and psalms are being sung on Sunday. If you don’t know one of them, read through it at home and practice singing it. Sadly—especially with music—sometimes we can be distracted by the “newness” of things. This is one way of preventing that kind of distraction on Sunday when our focus should be on God. So if at all possible, do some review before you get to church and don’t be caught off guard by what goes on in the service. Unfamiliarity is quite good at breeding contempt.
Learn to Linger
We have seen from Acts 2:42 that the early church not only devoted themselves to preaching, praying, and the sacraments but also to the fellowship of the saints. Sunday is a day for community: the community of faith. It can be easy to attend church much like one might attend the movies. We grab our seats and scroll through our phones or chat with our buddies while we wait for the service to begin and sit dutifully during the “show,” but then once we hear the benediction (the cinematic equivalent of rolling credits), we gather our things and head straight for the car.
If this looks something like your average Sunday, then, dear friend, your experience of the blessing of God’s day and God’s people is lamentably incomplete. We have already talked about the importance of getting to church on time. In addition to that, staying just a few minutes late could be the simple change that will revolutionize your churchgoing experience, says Pastor Whitney Clayton. In his experience, the people who regularly put this into practice make stronger friendships and inevitably find ways to serve.5 So don’t zip on home immediately after the service. Stick around and love your neighbors by asking about their lives. Get to know the community of faith in which God has placed you. Look outside of yourself and your situation by finding ways to serve. Prepare for Sunday by readying yourself, your family, and your schedule to hang around a few minutes afterward.
“Extraordinary” Preparation
Some aspects of preparing for worship are more spiritually weighty than those mentioned above. This does not mean they are any less achievable, but they are practices that recognize the extraordinary and supernatural exercise you are about to undertake. With the Spirit’s help, you can implement these as well for the good of you and your family and especially for the glory of the God you worship.
Honor the Sabbath
It has been called the forgotten commandment of today (it’s the fourth of ten, by the way). “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you” (Deut. 5:12). Debates continue to rage over what it means to properly observe the Sabbath day, and we will not be entering into them in this book.6 Suffice it to say that we have certainly failed at preparing to meet with God if we have not even carved out the time to meet with him. He has hallowed this one day in seven, and he desires that we hallow it in our lives as well.
In my observation, work and youth sports are two of the most common threats to sanctifying Sunday and the time we have to worship God.7 We try to make church meet our needs and fit our schedule. If we have to drive our kids to a soccer tournament, then we go to the early service or listen to a sermon on the way there, or, more often than not, we miss worship entirely. When we miss out on worship, we miss the banquet that God has set for our starving and thirsting souls. We don’t want that for ourselves, and certainly not for our families. So we see that worship and Sabbath observance go hand in hand. Let us not neglect to meet together on God’s day to do his bidding, as sadly is the habit of some (Heb. 10:25).
But it’s hard. There are so many things that compete and clamor for our attention and time, and many of them seem like good things. It can be really difficult to say no. The sooner we cultivate this biblically mandated practice of keeping the Lord’s Day holy, the better it will be. In my estimation, the fact that God has set aside every Sunday in its entirety makes it easier to say no to certain things and guard my schedule. I never need to question what I might be doing that particular Sunday or not since God has told me in his Word what to do: I am to worship and rest. It’s the idea of freedom within limitations. I have freedom to worship God and say no to other activities because this is the limitation that he has placed on his creatures—and what a grand limitation it is!
We need to recognize we’re not being rude to those around us when we decline to participate in worldly activities for the sake of heavenly ones. Why not? In one sense, it’s as simple as the truth that God made the appointment with us first. You’ve certainly had that frustration of trying to schedule a lunch with a friend. Perhaps the two of you have pulled out your phones and are comparing schedules:
“How about Wednesday lunch?”
“Sorry. Can’t. I have a doctor’s appointment. But Friday works.”
“Nope. No good for me. The in-laws are in town.”
It’s not considered rude when you can’t make something work because of a prior engagement. Likewise, our response to the world regarding Sunday activities that draw us away from concerted, uninterrupted worship is that we have a scheduling conflict. “No,” we must say. “I can’t make that work. I have an appointment with God.”
Properly preparing for the Sabbath will mean properly thinking about the Sabbath. It is not a burden or a chore. It something that we are to call a delight (Isa. 58:13)! It is a gift; hence, God says we were not made for the Sabbath, to bow down to it in slavish dread and exasperation, but it was made for us. The Sabbath is a wonderful provision from God to remind us every week that the way to him is through the gospel and rest, not through the law and works. [Michael] Horton explains, “It is the opportunity to receive a kingdom rather than to build one; to be beneficiaries rather than benefactors; to be heirs rather than employees.”8
I certainly want that. In fact, I need that, and so do you. In knowing we need it, we will be more likely to apprehend it. So seek to have a proper, biblical conception of what the Sabbath is. The Sabbath reminds us we belong to God and not this passing world. It reminds us we are more than conquerors and cannot be defeated. It reminds us that Christ is king, and he has secured eternal peace for his people. It’s not about sitting quietly in a dim living room, going mad with boredom. And while it is about saying no to certain things that we might like, it is also about saying yes to things that are far better: “Setting aside the ordinary callings and pastimes of the week, our calling on the Lord’s Day is to share, together with our coheirs, in the powers of the age to come. It is not by simply emptying the day with a list of rules, but by filling it with treasure hunting, that the Christian Sabbath orients us, our families, and our fellow saints to our heavenly citizenship.”
Pray
We should always be in prayer, but Saturday evening and Sunday morning would be particularly good times to spend in earnest prayer before our Lord. The world, the flesh, and the devil are always clamoring for our affections and attention, and perhaps never more viciously than on the Lord’s Day. According to C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape, a primary task of devils is to distract people from the present and from eternity. In Christian worship, eternity enters into the present, so you can be sure devils will be at work with distraction. There will be innumerable excuses popping into our heads to keep us from church. We are too tired, too busy, too introverted, too whatever. Then when we are there we will also face an onslaught of distractions. Funny how carpet patterns never seem so interesting as when an earnest preacher sets out to exposit a perceived tedious passage of Scripture. Drifting eyes are a sign of a restless and wandering heart and are equivalent to sleeping with the eyes open.
So what is a person to do? Pray. And pray for what exactly? Here are just a few suggestions. Pray that God would give you the proper desire to worship him and serve him with his people. Pray that the Spirit would open your heart to be challenged and changed by the preached word. Ask that your thoughts would be kept captive to Christ and the cares of the week past or the worries of the week ahead would not distract you (or things like carpet patterns, either!). Pray for those who will be leading the service in music, prayers, and Scripture reading. Pray for your pastor and for his sermon preparation and delivery. Pray that unbelievers would enter through the doors and come to saving faith. Above all, pray that Christ would be exalted, magnified, and glorified among his people.
Get Right with Your Fellow Worshipers
Did you know that at one point in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus takes up the topic of worship? It’s actually tucked into his teaching on anger. He says, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23–24).
The language of bringing an offering to an altar places us in the setting of worship, as Jesus drew on the practice of temple worship that was still in effect during his lifetime. Jesus offered this as an example and practical application of the principles he had just set forth regarding anger. The illustration includes two believers (hence, the use of “brother”) who are at odds with one another. According to the teaching of our Savior, this kind of anger, conflict, and division among believers is not acceptable in the place of worship. The command is to make things right with the offended brother and then come to worship, the implication being that the “gift”—the worship—would otherwise be sullied and not acceptable before God.
Why is this? Why is reconciliation between fellow worshipers such an important part of preparation for worship? It’s because worship is all about reconciliation. As we have seen throughout this book, corporate worship is when Christians can experience the reconciliatory heart of God and the reconciliatory power of the gospel. Sin alienates us from God—it got us kicked out of the garden and cast away from God’s presence. And yet God sent his Son to bring us back home to him. Though we will experience that fellowship with God perfectly and everlastingly in heaven, we get a taste of it now. We get a picture of what it looks like to be reconciled to God every Sunday: we are invited to his house, we are encouraged to come before his feet for prayer and instruction, and we are seated around his table to feast on his grace.
Paul tells us that a major reason we have been reconciled to God is so that we would be reconciled to one another (2 Cor. 5:18). Since God has forgiven us our many sins, we can forgive others for whatever sins they may commit against us, and we can have the humility to ask for forgiveness whenever we have done wrong against them. And perhaps we would do better if we realized that this issue cannot be separated from worship. We prove that we really have not understood the reconciliation we have received from God if we refuse to be reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is hypocritical to enter church on Sunday, into the very house of reconciliation, if we are harboring anger or resentment or bitterness toward others who have been welcomed to that house.
As we touched on in a previous chapter, properly participating in the Lord’s Supper will entail this outward-facing, horizontal love and reconciliation with our fellow worshipers. Acts tells us that the early church grew and flourished as the saints met for worship and the sacrament “with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people” (Acts 2:46–47, King James Version). Paul condemns those Corinthians who came to the table while there was division in the church (1 Cor. 11:18). It is fitting, then, that the Westminster divines instruct us to prepare for the Lord’s Supper by examining our “love to God and the brethren” and by “forgiving those that have done [us] wrong” (WLC 171). This is the necessary way to approach not only the Supper but also all of worship.
Get Right with God
The most important aspect of preparing for worship is also the most obvious, but it must be stated nonetheless: we need to have a proper relationship with the One we worship. If we are coming as enemies of God, as slaves to sin and not as servants of the Most High, the whole endeavor is in vain. You can be a churchgoer your whole life, but if you have not received Jesus Christ in faith then it will be for nothing. Undoubtedly on the last day there will be many who will fall before the judgment throne of Christ crying out, “Lord, Lord, did we not regularly attend your worship services? Did we not often come early to set up and stay late to tear down? Did we not sing in the choir and serve in the kitchen and help in the nursery? Did we not labor in your church as elders, deacons, trustees, accountants, secretaries, custodians? Did we not bow our heads when we were told to pray and stand when we were told to sing and listen when the pastor preached?” And to this Jesus will reply, “I did not know you” (see Matt. 7:21–23).
You need to know God—or rather be known by God (as Paul says [Gal. 2:20])—to really worship in spirit and in truth. You need to know yourself as a sinner in need of saving and believe the good news of a substitute Savior who came into the world for sinners just like you and me. We need to be right with God by having the righteousness of Christ covering our sin as we enter his holy presence. Receiving that message in faith and repentance prepares us to meet with God each Lord’s Day not as a judge but as a loving Father.
Of course, the elements of the worship service that we have studied are the very things often used by the Spirit to bring about that faith and repentance. In worship we learn of our sinful condition and of our spiritual plight. But in worship the gospel is also proclaimed, and the saving power, mercy, and love of Jesus Christ are offered freely to all who will take of them. In other words, God uses worship to make worshipers. Hearts of stone are melted under the simple ordinary means of preaching, sacraments, and prayer, and new hearts that beat for God are formed in their place. This is the Spirit’s doing. For our part, though, we must come ready to receive what God has for us. If you do not know Christ in a saving way, when you enter into a church service be ready to receive what is offered to you there—it could just be that the Holy Spirit will change your heart.
Once God becomes your God you will truly worship him. Knowing him through faith in Jesus Christ is the preparation needed for right and reverent worship. That’s where it begins. That is the start of it all—and it’s the end of it all as well, which is why I conclude with this exhortation. Your love for worship will grow in proportion to your love for your God and Savior; once you see all that he has done for you, all that he has given to you, all that he has lavished on you, you are his and he is yours. My prayer is that the words of Isaiah 25:1 would capture what it is you do on Sundays—and why you do it:
Is God your God? Have you come to know and believe and experience the things he has done in the gospel? If so, exaltation and praise are the only fitting response. The “wonderful things” of God demand a life—and even more specifically a worship— that is full of wonder, love, and praise.
Conclusion
In many respects, the entire aim of this book has been to prepare you for worship. It is my conviction that the best way to prepare for worship is identical to the best way to participate in and profit from worship, and that is to know what is happening.
When we worship God, we are drawn by his Holy Spirit into his very presence to have a personal encounter with him. What would otherwise be a terrifying thought becomes a joyful experience as we learn that we are covered in the perfection of Jesus Christ and fully accepted in the Beloved. We come before God not on our own but with the body of believers that we have been spiritually united to. There is strength in numbers, and these numbers are ultimately not seen by how many bodies are in the pews but by the innumerable multitude around the world and in the heavenly places that we join with in worship.
In worship God confirms to us that we are doing the most important thing, and this gives us joy and purpose. It begins fittingly with a call from God since we are most satisfied when we are submitting to our Maker and doing his bidding. Throughout the service, as we are reminded of and reprimanded for our sins, we are also offered gospel hope. We learn that we do not belong to our sin, but to God’s Son. This is further confirmed as God consecrates us as his own through the preaching of his sacred and sanctifying Word and then communes with us as his dear children around his Table.
From start to finish the service impresses on us our true identity. We receive the indelible name that God gives us, not the false and fragile names that the world has offered in the preceding week. And now, confident of our status before him, emboldened through the justification we have in the Son, and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we go. We are equipped to face the hardships of a world of sin because of the superabundant grace that God has poured out on us. We go out with a mission: to be God’s emissaries and shine light in a dark world. Empowered by God’s Spirit, we are called to find more worshipers.
Don’t forget to bring them with you next week.
This article is excerpted from Jonathan Landry Cruse, What Happens When We Worship (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020).
1 For an extended resource on how to best participate in a worship service, Joel Beeke’s The Family at Church (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008) is commended.
2 As quoted in I. D. E. Thomas, ed., A Puritan Golden Treasury (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977), 315.
3 Jason Helopoulos, “Preparing for Sunday Worship,” Kevin DeYoung (blog), October 30, 2014, The Gospel Coalition, https://www. thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/ preparing-for-sunday-worship/.
4 Even if you are unable to access your church’s order of worship before Sunday morning, you should at least have some idea what the sermon will be on if the pastor is preaching through a book of the Bible.
5 Whitney Clayton, “The Small Change That Can Radically Improve Your Church Experience,” Facts & Trends, July 18, 2018, https://factsandtrends.net/2018/07/18/thesmall-change-that-can-radically-improveyour-church-experience/?fbclid=IwAR3wk_ KpojQPxCG17vycBrUifU7N32sLkekmpylE8a9P-JdYXXNnnGDp7s.
6 I recommend Joseph A. Pipa Jr., The Lord’s Day (Fearn, Rosshire: Christian Focus, 2013) or Walter Chantry, Call the Sabbath a Delight (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2000) for further study. The latter has a bibliography of other helpful titles on this important topic.
7 A few friends suggest other common threats: fishing or hunting, golf, extra sleep, and “family time”—apparently for some worship isn’t considered quality time with family.
8 Michael Horton, Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical ,Restless World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 199.
9 Horton, Ordinary, 176, emphasis original.
Jonathan Landry Cruse pastors Community Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Kalamazoo, MI.