To be honest this isn’t something we consciously think about. Our aim is not first of all to produce an effect in the congregation. Our first aim is to worship God in a way that is biblical and pleasing to him. Of course, we do think through the flow of the service. We want the music and the technical aspects to be conducted with undistracting excellence. But those are things we can control.
The real work is the work we can’t control, the work only God can do. For real heart change, conversion, sanctification, and everything else that matters for eternity, we rely explicitly and wholly on the Word of God and prayer. This is what God promises to bless and promises to use to build up his people: the Word spoken in preaching and seen in the sacraments, and the prayers of his people to unleash the Spirit’s power.
Like the farmer who went to sleep and woke up to find a crop, we trust the Word of God to do the work of God.
—Kevin DeYoung University Reformed Church East Lansing, Michigan
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