Welcome to this week's ToGather.church. Our focus comes from Psalm 19. At the end of David's powerful psalm focusing on the heavens declaring God's glory and the commands of the LORD being perfect, refreshing our souls, David asks:
But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression (Psalm 19:12-13).
David moves from praise for God's greatness known through creation to God's goodness shown in his commands. David then voices his personal and reverent concern that he does not sin in his thoughts or daily life. Our journey with him through this psalm helps us appreciate why God identified David as "a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22). David faithfully concludes this psalm with a prayer that God help him align his interior and exterior worlds with the character of God and bring the LORD pleasure:
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14, which is from our Verse of the Day)
Of course, aligning our interior and exterior worlds with the character of God means that they must align with each other.
Both Phil's video message and our full worship video focus on these themes of David's powerful closing prayer in Psalm 19.
God's message for us in the Scriptures is consistent: Our love for God, our worship offered to God, and our daily behaviors as we live for God must align. The person inside must align with the person we present to those around us. We are to love God with all we are, and that love must express itself by loving actions toward our neighbors, friends, family, fellow believers, those around us who need to know Jesus, and even our enemies (Matthew 22:36-40; 1 John 3:16-18, 4:7-21; Luke 6:27). Understanding this unifying commitment to love God and others means that our outward behaviors must align with our interior feelings of love for God. Worship isn't just what we do in church on Sunday or in private in our quiet times with God; it is also how we live and treat people every day of the week (Hebrews 12:28-13:16; Romans 12:1-2). Join us in committing to align our interior and exterior worlds as Phil teaches us about this important spiritual principle:
The full worship video invites us to honor God with the praise of our lips as we offer all of ourselves to the LORD. As we worship, we call on each other to commit to loving the LORD our God with all we are, think, say, and do. We pledge to align our outward behaviors and expressions of faith with our interior thoughts and feelings for God. As we worship through song, Communion, Scripture, and prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to fill, empower, and transform us!
Special thanks for the use of images related to Jesus' ministry from The Lumo Project and Free Bible Images for use in both ToGather videos.
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