Welcomed to Your Father's House

Everything about our worship of God finds its center in Jesus Christ.  We are not allowed to come to God the Father and call Him Father because we are His children.  We are summoned to come to Him as our Father because He is the Father of His Son.  We are only coming to Him as Father because we are found in His Son, we are in Christ.  And we are only in Christ if we have died with Him and have been raised to new life in Him.  And we are only in that new life if we have faith – and that faith is His gift to us – His grace.

 

We declare this relationship as we confess the Creed – I believe in one God, the Father…  And this is true for us even though we are Gentiles.  Isaiah had promised salvation for the gentiles when He wrote, “Even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name – Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off (Isaiah 56:5).”  God has not brought you into His house, into His family, and sort of allowed you to be a part of all that is going on.  You are not simply a beggar who has been brought in for a meal; you are not simply a guest who has been invited to stay for a while.  You are family – you are kin – you are the sons and daughters of God – no – you are better than that of sons and daughters – you have been given an everlasting name and you shall not be cut off.

 

How is it that you cannot be cut off?  Are you in Christ?  Have you died with Christ?  Do you believe in Christ?  Have you risen with Christ?  Then, you will be kept in Christ and Christ does not lose those who are His.  And this means that you may come and worship God as Father and not as some distant deity, some powerful but impersonal ruler.  It means you come as a beloved son or daughter, known and well-known by the perfect Father, the Almighty Father, the personal Father.  To come and worship is to come to Your Father’s house and to know and be known again, to relive through remembering and to rekindle hope through hearing of His promises again.  Come and worship Your heavenly Father.