Worship Around The Cross : Worship Is Intimacy

This is our Sunday teaching from Senior Pastor, Tom Thompson. Recorded live at our Sunday Service in Harris Academy Purley, Croydon on Sunday 30th March, 2025. Below you can find the full talk audio, and a summary article.

Want to lead a connect group session on this teaching? The notes are here!

A Beautiful Thing: Worship That Moves the Heart of God

This Sunday, we continued our series exploring images of worship in the Gospel of Matthew, focusing on a deeply intimate and powerful moment in Matthew 26:6–13: a woman anointing Jesus with costly perfume.

The central message? Your worship matters. What you say, do, sing, and give in worship can stir the emotions of God Himself. We challenged two of the most persistent lies we believe: that God is distant and that our lives are insignificant. In contrast, this passage reveals a God who sees, feels, and is moved by the love His people show Him—even in the smallest acts.

We saw how this woman’s decision to pour out her most valuable possession wasn’t just an emotional outburst—it was a deliberate, sacrificial act of love. Jesus didn't dismiss it; He celebrated it. He called it a beautiful thing and declared that her action would be remembered wherever the gospel is preached. Why? Because it wasn’t worship for her sake—it was for His.

This second image of worship builds on last week’s: the triumphal entry, with its public declarations and joyful celebration. But here we’re invited into something more personal—a shift from crowd-based praise to a quiet, sacrificial moment of devotion. Both are needed. But in this story, we’re reminded that the heart of worship is not productivity, performance, or even spiritual formation—it’s intimacy with God. It’s doing something not because we get something from it, but because we love Him.

Just like a child who buys a simple gift with their own money out of love for their mum, our acts of worship—however small—delight the heart of God. Whether a whispered prayer, a song sung in private, or a choice to give sacrificially, these moments can move heaven.

Let’s be a church that believes this. A church that defies the lie of insignificance. A church that regularly offers beautiful things to God—not to get something, but simply to bless Him. Because when we do, He notices. And He is moved.