Wouldn't Rather Be Anywhere Else

You are gathered here now in the presence of God to worship the God of heaven and earth. You are gathered with your families, with your children in obedience to this God who spoke the stars and trees and oceans into existence. You are here to bow before the King of the universe, to confess that there is no other god in heaven or on earth or under the earth. You are here to confess that you are fallen, that you have sinned and not followed your King faithfully, and you are in this place to hear Him tell you that your sins are forgiven. For in the fullness of time, this God burst into our world in human flesh. This God walked among us the Lord of all and yet as the servant of all. This God came to His own, for His own, and was rejected by His own. But this was all in the plan, the plan from before the world’s foundation, the plan to seek and to save the lost. And so in God’s infinite wisdom, He came and suffered in human flesh for the sins of the world. And when Jesus was stapled to that Roman cross, the sins of the world were laid upon Him, the old world of death and sin and misery was laid upon Him, and when Jesus cried out in anguish, He cried out with your sins, your failures, your hurts, your pain upon Him, and when Jesus was forsaken by the Father, He was forsaken for you. And when Jesus died, your sins and the whole world of sin and death all died with Him. And in that instant, the old world came crashing down, and a new world began to be born as the Spirit rushed out with creative power once again. And in that moment the whole world began to see with that first centurion that ‘truly, this was the Son of God.’ And that is why we are here. We with countless millions of others who have been cleansed by the blood of the lamb, with countless millions down through the ages, with all the angels in heaven, are here to proclaim that God is all wise, that He is all Good, that He is King, the crucified King and worthy of all praise, all honor, all glory. And that is why we come, week after week, to hail our King, to bow before our King, to worship our King. And for us and for our children, we would not rather be anywhere else.