Come to Give, Not to Get

When the first television remote control came out in the 1950s, the creators branded it with a revealing name: the Lazy Bones. It catered to something we fundamentally crave. We love control. We love the ability to fast forward, to pause, and to mute what we do not want to hear. But this lazy-bones mentality easily bleeds into our spiritual lives, driving what we call consumer Christianity.

We live in a world obsessed with a return on investment. We expect proper pay when we go to work. We demand a victory when we watch our sports teams. We look for mutual benefit in our relationships.

But the gathering of the church operates on an entirely upside-down economy.

We are called to come to the church building not to get, but to expect to give. Are you a consumer Christian? Consider a quick self-diagnosis. Do you get upset when your favorite preacher is not speaking? Do you complain about the song selection; do you grumble when the volume is too loud? Are you frustrated when a crying baby interrupts the service, treating the gathering like a theater performance rather than a participatory body?

But this is not a theater.

Because Jesus Christ has redeemed our souls, we are all made into priests. We do not need to go to a specific man to confess our sins, nor do we need a specific building to praise our God. We are the priesthood of the believer. Imagine the gravity of this for the early church. Only one man could enter the presence of God with a sacrifice, but Christ changed everything.

This changes how we operate when we gather. We don't spectate; we participate.

Give your ears

The very first thing we must surrender when walking into corporate worship is our mind and our attention. It is tempting to act as an Olympic judge, mentally scoring the songs or tuning out halfway through a message if it isn't captivating. We must resist the urge to evaluate the service like a movie we just spent money to see. Instead, we submit to the word, confess our sins, and cultivate a soft heart.

We gather to hear the word read, preached, prayed, sung, and visualized through baptism and communion. The Corinthian church struggled with chaos, bringing individual revelations and hymns completely out of order. To avoid this, we organize our gatherings around what God has explicitly asked us to do in Scripture. We do not ask what feels exciting. We ask what builds up the body.

We bring our focus onto Christ precisely in the way the Bible has laid out for us.

Give your prayers

Sunday mornings are often the most tumultuous hours of the week. By the time families pile out of the car and walk through the doors, there has likely been plenty of drama and stress. This leads us to a deeper calling. We need to intercede for the body. The scriptures command us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed. (James 5:16)

Instead of being frustrated by the crying baby or the tired mother who just changed a dirty diaper, we are called to pray for them. We pray for the person sitting next to us who might be carrying the weight of regret or a difficult trial. We pray for the preacher to have boldness and clarity, and we pray through the inevitable interruptions.

We come together to actively participate in the vital work of intercession.

Give your encouragement

When the author of Hebrews commanded believers to stir one another up to love and good works, and to not neglect meeting together, those early Christians were risking their lives to gather. They desperately needed each other. Let's reframe that for a second. We live in a massive metropolitan area, constantly bombarded by cultural messages and media telling us that our faith is wrong. We fight battles in our homes. We guard our families from the wrong influences on screens, and we navigate the dramatic tensions of everyday life.

It is profoundly different to come together with people who think the same way. Just like seeing a familiar United States passport in a foreign airport brings comfort, seeing our brothers and sisters should strengthen us. We are called to come alongside, to console, and to exhort.

We desperately need the consolation and strength that comes from gathering with people who share our hope.

Give your resources

This is often the moment people want to hit the mute button. But consider the reality of our existence. We freely receive 22,000 breaths every single day. We are constant recipients of God's abundant mercy. When a friend steps in and sacrificially covers a profound financial need, our natural response is a joyful readiness to help them in return. If we truly grasp the depths of our own sin and the magnitude of what Christ has done for us, giving becomes an eager sacrifice rather than a reluctant compulsion.

The scriptures teach that each one must give as he has decided in his heart, cheerfully and without compulsion (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). When we realize we are entirely dependent on a Savior who gave everything, our grip on our wallets loosens.

The simplest rule for biblical generosity is just to give more.

Give your praise

Singing and raising our hands might not feel natural to everyone. We do not spontaneously break into song when our favorite baseball team wins in the tenth inning, or when we experience a major victory at work. But the Psalms command us to sing a new song to the Lord in the assembly of the godly. When we lift our hands, we are demonstrating a universal sign of surrender. We are offering our very lives back to the God who saved us.

Before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were alienated from God. A dead man cannot save himself. But our Lord threw us a rope. He pulled us out and gave us life.

We sing because the King of Kings threw us a lifeline when we were entirely incapable of saving ourselves.