The Most Important Thing

Following a conference I attended last week, I began to think about the question, "What is the most important thing we do as a church?" Of course, most people would answer that question with, "Whatever I'm involved in." And there are lots of important things that we do: witness, teach, fellowship, minister, etc. But as I thought of all these things, I came to the conclusion that the most important thing we do as a church or as a Christian is worship. Now immediately, someone will come up with the question, "Corporate or private?" You know as well as I do that there are those amongst us who believe that they don't need the church to worship. I can do it all by myself, thank you very much. In my opinion, asking that particular question is like asking, "Which is more important: oxygen, water, or food?" Well, they say you can go without oxygen for a matter of minutes, water for a matter of days, and food for a matter of weeks, but the end result is that without them you die. The same thing is true about BOTH corporate and private worship -- without them, you die. No, you don't die physically and you don't lose your salvation. But it is a lot like this plant we bought for our back yard. It is a beautiful plant with green and yellow leaves and pink flowers. At least, it's beautiful as long as we don't forget to water it every day. Sure as we do, we walk outside and it is limp, lifeless, and ugly. But add a generous helping of water, and in a matter of minutes it stands up straight and tall and beautiful again. Without both corporate and private worship, Christians become limp, lifeless, and ugly. Without worship, we cannot witness, teach, fellowship, or minister because worship is where we connect with God and with each other. In John 15:5 Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If any man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing." Remaining/abiding in Him is the definition of true worship.