How Does the Church Worship?

This sermon explores the nature of Christian worship through the lens of Ephesians, emphasizing that true worship is a Spirit-filled, communal act rather than a private experience. The preacher highlights the dual direction of congregational singing, which simultaneously addresses God vertically and edifies fellow believers horizontally. By integrating Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, the church expresses a full range of biblical emotion and theological truth while remaining alive to the Holy Spirit's movement. The message strongly advocates for physical gathering over digital consumption, arguing that mutual edification requires the presence of the body of Christ. Ultimately, worship is defined as dependence on God through song and intercessory prayer, reflecting the church's identity as the habitation of the Spirit.

Bible Insights with  Wayne Conrad
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Transcript

Worship in the Church (Podcast WC)

Host: Wayne Conrad 

Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad. God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. 

This is my third and final episode in a series on the church and Ephesians. As we have been studying the letter to the Ephesians, we have asked three questions: 

1. What is the church? 
2. How does the church minister? 
3. How does the church worship? 

Today, we come to that third great question: How does the church worship?

I want to remind you that I am only answering these questions based on the letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. There are many other passages of Scripture from other parts of the Bible that could also be included. 

The Call to Worship and Its Context

First, let us consider the call or command to worship that Paul presents. A central passage for this episode is found in Ephesians 5:18–19. But before we read these verses, let us reflect on the context in which Paul is writing. He is describing the contrast between the old way of life and the new way of life—the life of walking in darkness versus the life of walking in the light. He calls the believers in Ephesus to live as children of light, to make the most of every opportunity, and to understand what the will of the Lord is. 

Then comes this instruction from Paul’s pen: 

"Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart." 

Paul begins with a contrast that may seem unusual to us: "Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." Why this contrast? 

We often think of drunkenness simply as a sin. In the first century, however, many pagan religious practices involved the use of intoxicants as part of ecstatic experiences. In other words, in the worship of idols, excessive drinking was believed to lead to a state of religious ecstasy where individuals would lose themselves in a spiritual experience. Perhaps Paul is referencing that. Or, he is simply referencing the fact that giving your body over to an intoxicating beverage or drug—which diminishes your ability to freely exercise your faculties—is not the way we should worship God. 

Paul is saying, "Be filled with the Spirit." Do not be filled with spirits. The filling you seek is the overflow of joy, life, and power. That is not found in liquor; it is found in the Spirit of God. 

Continuous Filling

This commandment is written in the present tense. This means it is not something that happened once and for all in the past, having some minor bearing on you now. No, it means it is an ongoing, present reality. We could even translate it as: "Be being filled with the Spirit." In other words, it is a continuous activity, an ongoing reality. Keep on being filled with the Spirit. Keep on living under the Spirit’s control. Keep on being renewed in your inner being by the Spirit of God. 

The Expressive Direction of Worship

Notice the immediate, natural expression of being filled with the Spirit: song and singing. 

Paul does not say that those who are filled with the Spirit will immediately speak in tongues. They might, according to 1 Corinthians, or perform miracles, or have visions—but those are not the baseline, universal evidence of being filled with the Spirit emphasized here. He addresses spiritual gifts elsewhere. Here, the first and most prominent expression of the filling of the Spirit is congregational singing. 

Because he writes, "addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs," there is something remarkable about the direction of the singing. Paul says we are addressing one another, and then immediately says we are singing and making melody to the Lord. 

We must understand that there are two directions in congregational worship: 

1. The Horizontal Dimension (To One Another)

Face-to-face, we speak to one another. We speak about the Lord, we speak about what God is doing in our lives, and we sing about these things. When you sing in the congregation on Sunday, Saturday, or whenever the church gathers, you are not merely performing a private act of devotion while sitting near others. It is not only something between you and God; you are actively addressing your brothers and sisters. You are ministering to them. 

The truth in the hymn, the praise in the psalm, and the spiritual encouragement in the song are gifts you are giving to the person beside you and to the entire congregation. Your voice, your faith, and your engagement in the singing are forms of ministry. This is why half-hearted, distracted, or disengaged congregational singing is not merely a personal loss—it is an affront to God. It is a failure to minister to the body of Christ. When you choose not to sing, when you stand in the pew with your arms folded and your lips closed, you are withholding something from the congregation that God intended you to give. 

2. The Vertical Dimension (To the Lord)

Making melody to the Lord with your heart is adoration. It is an inner activity. It is worship in the fullest sense, directed upward to God Himself. The singing of the congregation is not simply a communal bonding exercise; it is an act of address to the living God who hears and receives the praise of His people. You are making melody from the depths of your inner being, not merely with your lips. 

True congregational worship is therefore both outward and upward, edifying the neighbor and glorifying the Lord simultaneously. 

Three Categories of Christian Song

Paul writes that there are three categories of songs we utilize in the worship of God: 

• Psalms: This is the clearest category—the 150 inspired Psalms of the Old Testament. This was the poetry and songbook of the people of God across the centuries, especially in the early church and the synagogues before that. The Psalms were sung, chanted, read, and prayed. They cover the entire range of human experience: praise and lament, confidence and confusion, joy and anguish, penitence and thanksgiving. A church that sings the Psalms is a church that expresses the full range of biblical emotion before God. It is regrettable that in many evangelical churches today, the Psalms are largely absent. 
• Hymns: In the New Testament context, hymns appear to be composed songs of praise specifically about God and Christ. They are structured, theological, and educational. We find fragments of such hymns embedded in the Epistles themselves—such as in Philippians 2, Colossians 1, and 1 Timothy 3. These are songs rich in doctrine that teach us who Christ is as we sing. It is entirely legitimate to take these words of Scripture and either paraphrase or adapt them so that we can sing rich theological truths. 
• Spiritual Songs: This primarily refers to songs that are animated and made alive by the Spirit of God. They may be spontaneous, Spirit-inspired expressions of praise that arise from the heart in the moment of worship. They can also be compositions that believers have received outside the worshiping congregation, which they bring to share and contribute to the assembly. 

Together, these three categories suggest a balanced worship diet that is scripturally rooted in the Psalms, theologically grounded in sound hymns, and alive to the Spirit’s present movement. A church that cultivates all three is a church whose worship is both anchored and alive. 

The Corporate Necessity vs. Individual Consumption

We should never think that the only time we are worshiping God is when we are singing. We worship God in prayer, when we listen to His word as it is read and taught, and when we engage in exhortation with one another. 

However, I want to make a point that is becoming increasingly important in our modern age of streaming services, podcasts (such as this one), and individualized spiritual consumption: Congregational worship cannot be replicated privately.

Congregational worship requires meeting physically with other people before the Lord to engage in the scriptural activities prescribed by Him. The command Paul gives—"addressing one another"—is by definition communal and assembly-oriented. You cannot address one another when you are alone. The ministry of mutual edification through song requires the physical presence of others. 

This is not a criticism of online resources; they have their place and can be a great blessing, especially during seasons of failing health, advanced age, or limited mobility. But they are supplements, not substitutes. 

If you are a Christian who has fallen into the habit of watching online services from your home, perhaps even in your pajamas, rather than gathering with a local church, this is inferior to what the Bible commands. In fact, you may be sinning by absenting yourself from the assembly of believers when there is no legitimate reason preventing you from being there. You are missing something that the Spirit intends to give you, and you are failing to provide what the Spirit wants to give to others through you. The body needs you, and you need the body. 

A Life of Intercessory Prayer

The church also has a corporate life of prayer. Paul closes this letter to the Ephesians with a call to a life of prayer that is woven through the fabric of the church's existence: 

Ephesians 6:18: "...making supplication for all the saints." 

These words are added right next to Paul's famous passage on the armor of God. Prayer is not just another piece of armor; it is the atmosphere in which the armor is put on and worn. You put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit—but you do all of this while praying always. 

We need to pray specifically, not only for ourselves or our immediate families, but for the wider body of Christ beyond our personal knowledge. Prayer is worship expressed in total dependence. When we bring the needs of the global body before the throne of God, we acknowledge that He is the sovereign source of all health, strength, and provision. 

Conclusion and Benediction

Paul closes his grand letter with a word of blessing over the family of God: 

"Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 

The church is not a perfect community. Your local assembly is not 100% perfect, though it should strive to be. This side of glory, every church will have its struggles, just as the Ephesians, Corinthians, and Galatians did. But God's church is a community gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ—the very church He loved and laid down His life for. If you neglect the church, what are you saying to the One who gave Himself up for it? 

Summary of Ephesians

Through this podcast series, we have worked through three foundational questions: 

1. What is the church? It is the body of Christ under His headship, displaying His fullness, marked by faith and love, and united by the Spirit with a cosmic significance spanning heaven and earth. 
2. How does the church minister? Every saint is equipped by pastors and teachers to do the work of ministry—speaking the truth in love, bearing with one another, and building up the body into the fullness of Christ. 
3. How does the church worship? Worship must be done in the Spirit through congregational songs (Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs) that simultaneously edify the body and glorify God, coupled with a life of dedicated prayer. 

The church is the arena of God's eternal glory and the habitation of His Spirit on earth. May God grant us the grace to be the church that Ephesians describes: fully committed, faithfully ministering, and worshiping together in the Holy Spirit. 

To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. 

This is Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights, where God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path.