Years ago, on a Sunday morning, as our church body came together for worship and edification, our choir sang this beautiful but challenging song praising the Lord Jesus.  The music that morning that moved my heart was “Come People of the Risen King.” [1]  The first stanza describes believers tuning their hearts to sing to the Lord Jesus.

“Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.”

The second verse reminds all believers, those joyful and those weeping – those victorious and those struggling to come and praise Him.  All believers come and worship Him!  Those dealing with painful issues, those grieving, and the struggling ones need to remember that Jesus’ love and mercy are there for us constantly.

“Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.”

The final verse invites all believers to come together to praise our Lord, for “Our God is all in all!”

“Come, young and old from every land –
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands –
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing –
Shore to shore, we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
‘Our God is all in all.”

What wonderful words of truth and comfort!  But that morning, the words that caught my attention and stung my soul were the words from the simple refrain –

“Rejoice, Rejoice!  Let every tongue rejoice!
ONE HEART, ONE VOICE; O Church of Christ, rejoice!”

Everyone there heard the choir’s beautiful performance, but I felt alone and like they were singing directly to me.  The words would not leave me alone.  They set me thinking…  And I must confess, I don’t remember what our Pastor preached to us that morning, for God began tuning up my heart even before he stood up to feed us.  Repeatedly in my mind, I played those words —

ONE HEART, ONE VOICE; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

These words troubled me because the Lord showed me that my heart isn’t always in my worship.  “One heart!” I had to admit to myself that not all the hearts present were “one” that day.  I was the odd man out.  My heart was bent out of shape and unprepared to worship with my brothers and sisters.

And the words “one voice” also shook me out of my lethargy.  It is easy for me to just go along for the ride during a worship service and for my voice to be hypocritical when I sing words like these.  I smiled and nodded as the choir sang because I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t in tune with what I was hearing.  Hypocrisy is so easy.  I can just go with the flow and pretend I have everything together.  To justify myself, I could have said, “I’m only human,” and salved my conscience – but not that day.  God was working on me.  He would not let me use that old worn-out excuse.

After the service, I went home like everyone else, but the words in that song pushed me into a time of personal Bible study.  I needed to look into the truth of these words further.  Looking through the scriptures, I concluded that the songwriter must have borrowed these words from the Apostle Paul.  He wrote –

“That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6).

The Bible is saying that we believers need to have –

One mind = unanimous thought.  Our thinking is to be “unanimous” in our worship.
One mouth = unanimous talk.  And our mouths are speaking the same thing to glorify God.

We are to be of one mind and heart, especially when we worship so that our mouths say the same thing about our dear Lord Jesus!  That day in church, I was the one out of tune with my Lord and His local body.  Mia culpa!  I had to change my heart and my sinful way.  The Lord graciously helped me with this.

 

“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5).
God says we need “to be likeminded,” literally, “of the same mind” with each other.  The ESV says it like this,

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus.” (Romans 15:5).

Before we come to worship, we must be sure we are right with our brethren.  Ask the Lord to show you if there is anyone to who you need to speak and make things right.  Then come and offer your gifts of worship to the Lord (Matthew 5:23-24).

 

“Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God” (Romans 15:7).
Paul also said it’s not just about thinking together but about being receptive to each other.  We are to “receive” [2] one another in the same manner that Jesus Christ has received us.  He is our model, our example – for God’s glory.  Paul has already said to the “strong, …bear the infirmities of the weak” (Romans 15:1).  Now he is encouraging each believer to keep on accepting each other.

“If Christ received us, and bears with all our weaknesses, well may we receive and [be] compassionate one with another, and by so doing, God will be glorified” [3] (JFB).

 

What should be our goal in all of this?

“That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6).

We must remember that our church, worship, and attendance aren’t about us!  Believers, we exist to love and worship God – our lives are about His glory, not our own.

 

Question:
How do you come to worship?  How do your heart and mindset agree with your local church body about our Lord?  Can you speak with one mouth as you worship?

Dear believers, I’m not here to beat you up over this but to put my arm around your shoulder and say, “let’s learn Jesus’ way of dealing with our sin.  Let’s do things His way.”  Our preparation for worship begins long before the service gets underway.  Our ability to worship in the way God prescribes must start with our relationship with God, our Lord, and Savior, and then with each other.  Before we worship, let’s prepare our hearts so that we might say in unity with our brothers and sisters —

“Rejoice, Rejoice!  Let every tongue rejoice!
ONE HEART, ONE VOICE; O Church of Christ, rejoice!”

 

Quote: “To gather with God’s people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer” [4] (Martin Luther).

 

 

 

[1] The words to “Come People of the Risen King” were downloaded: on Thursday, November 16, 2017.  From: https://store.gettymusic.com/uk/song/come-people-of-the-risen-king/.
[2] To “receive” or “accept one another” in the ancient text is a present imperative, and it means that we are to “keep on accepting or receiving one another.” Accepting others is not a one-time deal but is to continue on and on.  See BKC.
[3] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 257.
[4] Luther’s quote was borrowed from “Christian Quotes,” downloaded: June 28, 2022.  From: https://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-topic/quotes-about-unity/.