Part III: On Gathered Worship

in our culture. Basically, we denigrate what is not a word. authentic or spontaneous by calling it formal or liturgical. But I hope that we as a people actually end up cherishing these kinds of words and have these words invoke in us a sense of awe and majesty and seriousness and joy as they are filled up over time with the glorious patterns of a distinctly Christian liturgy, a liturgy by which God draws us into his glorious presence week after week together. And that is what we're doing in worship. We're being drawn into the presence of God. I was reading a book on liturgies this week because I am a nerd. Yes, I know. I know. And the pastor that wrote the book, he was relaying various criticisms that he had heard about their liturgy is very similar to the one that we practice and just a, you know, reform Protestant liturgy. And he was, he's been through all the different responses like, well, isn't this Roman Catholic? He said, no, we're Protestants. This is Protestant worship. No, no, no Hopish woo-woo or mumbo-jumbo or anything like that, no magical infusions happening through human ceremonies. But another person complained, hey, isn't this just worship by recipe? Isn't that what we're doing? Worship by recipe? And I thought his response was helpful. He basically just said, hey, well, what's wrong with recipes? Recipes are a wonderful gift. Have you ever seen a master

what we're doing? Worship by recipe? And I thought his response was helpful. He basically just said, hey, well, what's wrong with recipes? Recipes are a wonderful gift. Have you ever seen a master chef that despised recipes? Recipes can be helpful. And I think there's a fundamental point in that conversation that, you know, cuts to the heart of what many of us can tend to miss when thinking these things through and miss because of the culture that we live in and the culture we've been raised in, which is a culture that generally is steeped in an attitude that elevates the casual and the informal and spontaneous, sorry, over the planned, the formal, and the elevated, right? But no builder ever despised carefully ordered plans. And some of you are builders in this room. Some of you are contractors. Some of you build structures. And the people that use those structures day to day, let me, you know, say to you, none of them are sad that you used plans when you built the building. We're all fairly, you know, pleased with that. No master chef ever despised precisely measured ingredients. And no seasoned carpenter ever mocked, carefully measured cuts, though they have mocked the opposite, I'm sure, with the beginner woodworker. So at the end of the day, the issue of liturgy is one of those not whether but which issues. It's not whether or not

cuts, though they have mocked the opposite, I'm sure, with the beginner woodworker. So at the end of the day, the issue of liturgy is one of those not whether but which issues. It's not whether or not your worship liturgy will have a set shape, more or less. But basically, it's just which set shape will it have? And will you be able to give a good reason and explanation for the shape of your liturgy? Like, you could go to the hippest, most casual megachurchurch down the street. What with the smoke machines and the electric guitar solos and all of that. And you would find that they have no less of a set liturgy than the highest ceremonial church, the highest church Anglicans that you could find. Forms, liturgy's repetition, these things are essentially inescapable. Hughes-A-Fond old is a theologian. He pointed out that these forms, in just about everything we do, can either be helpful, like the way an athlete, who is an elite athlete, is helped. and served by practicing perfect form time and time and time again in his running or jumping or fighting in order to compete at the highest level. Or a form can be unhelpful as when an amateur athlete does the same workout 50 times the wrong way with bad form and gets injured. And I will not make a crossfit joke here, though I am sore tempted.

amateur athlete does the same workout 50 times the wrong way with bad form and gets injured. And I will not make a crossfit joke here, though I am sore tempted. teaches, right? Form teaches. Content is not the only thing that matters. The form in which a content and the format and the media through which a content is presented matters. It communicates. Form teaches just as surely as content teaches. So the question we should be asking with something like liturgy is, is what form does our worship take and what is that form teaching us? What is that form teaching us? That's what we'll be examining in our time together this morning. So we're going to begin by reading this small snippet. In Matthew 4, verses 8 through 10, in which Jesus is gone into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and we'll see the way that the Lord rejects the temptation of the devil is instructive for us as he boils down all of our life, really to one fundamental principle that should master our worship. This is the word of the living God. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written. You shall worship the Lord your God. In

the fitting sacrifice do his name in worship. And what is the sacrifice? What do we bring to present to the Lord according to Paul in a place like Romans 12? It's ourselves. It's ourselves. He urges you to present yourself as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him, which is your spiritual worship. That's what Paul tells us and tells the Romans in chapter 12 of his book. Our service to the Lord isn't us coming and giving God parts of all of the different activities that we do. Like we shouldn't just think about even something like tithing where we give the Lord a tent off the top of the produce of our hands. Well, we don't give him a tenth because that's the only part that belongs to him. We give a tithe because all of it belongs to him. In our worship, we come to present our whole selves as offerings to the Lord. And we say to the Lord, we are your people. You have purchased us by the blood of Christ. We belong to you. And so this encounter between Jesus and the accuser in the wilderness in Matthew 4 reminds us that the worship of the living God is a serious, serious thing. The giving of ourselves to the Lord in worship is a serious thing. You shall worship the Lord your God. alone shall you serve. This is one of the reasons why God has given us the Lord's day to embed this pattern of worship into the very rhythms of our week and that he's given us this day

alone shall you serve. This is one of the reasons why God has given us the Lord's day to embed this pattern of worship into the very rhythms of our week and that he's given us this day at the beginning of our week. Sunday, maybe you think of it as the last day, the last day of the weekend. No, Sunday is the first day of the week, biblically speaking. Saturday, the last day of the week. And the pattern is to be that we come on the very beginning of the week and we offer ourselves to the Lord. And we consecrate our week to Him. And we begin our week in worship in the Lord's service to the God who's worthy of our whole selves. And the shape of our liturgy is all aimed at reminding us of this and doing this in us. You remember the liturgical outline I gave you last week and where it comes from. You see it in the bulletin here. There's basically five movements that we follow week to week and you can summarize them with five Cs. There's the call to worship. This is a confession and forgiveness. Assurance of pardon. There's the consecration of the people through the word. There's the communion feast, the sign of the covenant. And then there's the commissioning wherein God sends us out into his fields to work. And maybe you might not recall where these come from, but none of this is newfangled liturgical innovation. But each of these elements, even though maybe five Cs and some modern ways of thinking about how to order them and communicate them, But these are just straightforwardly, the classic elements of reformed and Protestant worship for centuries.

five Cs and some modern ways of thinking about how to order them and communicate them, But these are just straightforwardly, the classic elements of reformed and Protestant worship for centuries. We stand in a long stream of Christian brothers and sisters worshiping in these things. This specific ordering follows the logic, as we saw last week, of God's covenantal working with humanity. The way that he worked in all of his covenants with Adam, Abraham, David, et cetera. And so it also follows the logical ordering of the old covenant worship, the covenant worship of the covenant worship of the people. people in the temple, which we saw in Leviticus chapter 1, that each of these five sees corresponds to a movement in that worship. You know, for example, first, God calls the worship to draw near with his sacrifice, the call to worship. Then the animal is sacrificed in the place of the sinful worship, substitution, sin is being dealt with. This is akin to the confession. Then the animal is sacrificed in place of the sinful worship, and the priestly sword cuts up the animal. and puts it on the altar to be burned and rise up in consecration to the Lord. And the worshipper is identified with the sacrifice, identified with the priestly sword of the word, cutting us up as it does and presenting us holy to God. Fourth, God receives the sacrifice, which in Leviticus 1-9 is compared to a meal that God is eating, a food offering, it's called.

Fourth, God receives the sacrifice, which in Leviticus 1-9 is compared to a meal that God is eating, a food offering, it's called. And so there is communion between God and His people. across sin through this holy meal because of the shedding of blood, the cleansing of sin and a feast. And then fifth and finally, the sacrifices are now complete, and God through his priest, sends the worshiper out into the kingdom, renewed and empowered to serve God in all of the works that He's called them to. And so, of course, each of these elements in the old covenant were shadows that are ultimately perfectly fulfilled in Christ. And so when we worship the Lord, we now have the benefit of worshiping no longer through shadows, but through the substance. And we know who the true sacrifice is. We know whose blood was shed so that we could be clean. We know that the kingdom is no parochial kingdom in the Middle East, but will be global into all tribes and tongues and nations. We know that the shadows have given way before the substance of Christ, the rising sun, and all his work that was represented in the Old Covenant worship. So this morning, we're going to walk through the order of service, starting with the first movement, the call to worship, and examine each element in why we worship as we do.

were gathered up to the holy mountain of God. Remember, what began the whole exodus of God's people from Egypt, from slavery? It wasn't while I'm going to free my people. God said, let my people go out into the wilderness to what? To worship me? God began the freedom of his people from slavery by calling them to worship. What kind of seeing? What kind of seeing? and attitudes do you find in the presence of God in the scriptures when people are brought into his presence. They're pretty casual. I mean, people kind of have a cup of coffee. They're sort of like, you know, you know, chatting. There's someone on a stool giving a kind of TED talk about it. No, there are angels that are terrifying with wings covering their eyes and their feet and they're crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And often, what happened? I fell out his feet as though dead drawn in Revelation. Isaiah, I am unethical. Undone. I woe is me. When people are ushered into the presence of God, Moses hidden in the cleft of the rock as God's glory passed over. It's a serious, serious thing to come into the presence of God. His presence is not something that we ought to merely wander into without invitation. It's not a thing that ought to be taken lightly or to trifle with. This is why the attitude of casual flippancy that permeates our culture is not just a matter of preference, but it's actually a massive disservice to the people of God

is not just a matter of preference, but it's actually a massive disservice to the people of God in teaching them how to think about the nature of the acts that they are engaged in when they come before God to worship. I would put it so far as to say, how dare we make light of the call to enter God's glorious presence with emoji-themed sermon series, with trite, sappy, thoughtless songs, songs that often seem mainly concerned with ourselves in the kind of casual boredom with God that leads many churches to add more and more attractions and lights and shiny objects and pop culture references in order to trick people into coming into God's presence and worship Him. How dare we come before this God, less we're called? How dare we come before this God in any attitude other than reverent joy? And I don't mean a funeral kind of sadness all the time. No, I don't mean ashes on your forehead all the time, but I do mean a serious kind of and a wadiness to reckon with the fact that we are being invited to stand before the glorious throne and so we dare not come before this God without being called. But here's the glorious part is that saints, you are called, you have been called. God has called you into his presence.

is that saints, you are called, you have been called. God has called you into his presence. Since then we have a great high priest, Hebrews writes, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. He's not waiting for us to become strong enough in our own flesh to come before him, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and help and find grace to help in our time of need. And Hebrews 10 says, verse 19, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places, how? By the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with true heart in full assurance of faith. We are called. We are called. See, the door into God's presence, His holiness is astonishingly narrow. It's Christ alone. It's His flesh alone. It's His flesh alone. his blood alone, and yet he has been given. The door has been given, a way has been made through Christ to come into his presence. And so we come near to God, as he calls us to, just as the saints in the old covenant did, bearing the sacrifice we bring to the Lord. Theirs was an animal.

through Christ to come into his presence. And so we come near to God, as he calls us to, just as the saints in the old covenant did, bearing the sacrifice we bring to the Lord. Theirs was an animal. Our sacrifice, the thing we offer is ourselves, because the lamb of God has already been given. And we have already been purchased. And so now we belong to the Lord. And when he calls us into his presence, that is what he's calling us to bring, ourselves, that which he has purchased. And so as the call is given, we then respond as a people by reading from God's word, usually one of the Psalms. And this rhythm continues in the liturgy of God's invitation and our response. Of God's invitation to his people. Again, not a minister doing spiritual things while an audience watches, but a minister serving as the voice by which God calls us into his presence. And then we respond as his people. I'm getting excited and knocking things over. Getting a little charismatic up here. Woof. Calm down. Wow. Don't ever call us the Frozen Chosen. At the conclusion of the call to worship, we'll sing the call to worship Psalm or him. This morning, for example, we sing Psalm 98. Oh, sing a new song to the Lord. Think about the nature of that song. What are we doing? We're singing the call to worship to one another.

Well after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. He fell on his face and so dead. God said, behold, I'm the living one, the first and the last. That was John's response to the Lord when he saw his glory and his wonder. We're saints, and yet we are still in the flesh in many ways. We still battle the flesh. We still daily have to fight against the sinful nature that slings. And so as we come into his present singing Psalms, we may even sing a Psalm like Psalm 6618. If I regard in my heart, the Lord will not hear me unless you say, well, that's just an Old Testament reading. It's not relevant to Christians anymore. Why then does Peter employ the same logic to Christians in 1 Peter 3, verse 7 when he tells husbands, you had better treat your wives gently as the weaker vessel, lest your prayers be hindered? He says, Christian men, God might not listen to you. God might not listen to you if you harbor a certain kind of sin, in this case, being short and ungentle with our wives. Already not yet. We are saints, and we still battle with sin. We're saints, and yet we still are graciously called by God to have our conscience cleansed anew, to have our sin brought before him, to live continually in the light. And this is why we have invitations like James 516 to confess our sins to one another, the New Testament Church, why we have the promise of 1 John 1, that if we confess our sins,

continually in the light. And this is why we have invitations like James 516 to confess our sins to one another, the New Testament Church, why we have the promise of 1 John 1, that if we confess our sins, He's faithful in just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so one of the means by which we fight sin is by heeding the regular call to keep short accounts to be a people who live in the light and confess our sins freely rather than concealing them. This portion of the service stands as an open invitation for the people of God to be found out so that we shouldn't be able to go through even one week in our lives without God through His Word and by his people calling us, hey, are you embracing folly anywhere? Is there sin you're harboring? Are you stuck in the dark? Are you trying to hide? Are you trying to put up new fig leaves? Don't you know you're a Christian? You're a saint. You're washed. You're cleansed. Come into the light. Don't live in sin. None of this is contrary then to the solid reality of our righteousness in Christ. We come before the Lord, justified by His grace, declared righteous, because he who knew no sin became sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So we are saved, and we are being saved, and we will be saved. And one of the means that God has appointed to complete his work in us

sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So we are saved, and we are being saved, and we will be saved. And one of the means that God has appointed to complete his work in us is by the invitation of His word to freely confess our sin, to search and be searched and known by God and to forsake our sin in holy living, empowered by the Spirit working in new hearts. And so every week we're called to confess our sin silently before the Lord. We're invited to Neal. This is a common, one of the most commonly described postures of prayer, adoration, and worship before God, the king in the scriptures. It was the most common practice in at least the first generation or two of the reformed churches. In last week, as I showed you from, you know, in Calvin's Institute, in book 10 and in book 20, and in his commentary on Acts, he prescribes it in the, you know, the book of worship for the French churches in 1559. This was the most commonly prescribed attitude both in private and in public worship of God was to have a time of kneeling in prayer before God. Following this private prayer of confession, the minister offers a prayer of corporate confession, again, along with a plea to God to remember his covenant, you know, as we sing in before the throne, to look on him and pardon me. And this again follows the example and logic we see in the scriptures over and over where God appoints representatives for his people.

before the throne, to look on him and pardon me. And this again follows the example and logic we see in the scriptures over and over where God appoints representatives for his people. to cry out to God on behalf of his people, as with Moses, Isaiah, the Psalmist, and the Lord. Jesus. And so we confess together that we are sinners before the Lord and that we yet need his mercy to sustain us and keep us in his grace. The minister then brings the congregation to the point in the confession that makes this the opposite of a funereal right. The confession of sin is not merely a descent into the grave. That's not what it's supposed to be in its feeling. It's actually, out of the grave in forgiveness. We come to confess our sin that we can remember the good news of what God has done for us as the minister declares the forgiveness of sin through the work of Christ to the people of God. In doing this, the minister exercises the authority given to the church and to those who rule in the church, which we might call from Jesus' words in John the keys of the kingdom. I think about the spheres of of authority that God has implemented in the world and what he's given each to wield. You can think of the family government, a mother, a father and children. And to the authority, the mother and the father are given what? The rod of discipline. The rod of discipline. Think about the civil government,

The keys of the kingdom. When the elder declares the absolution of sins is effective for all who confess their sins and shelter in Christ alone, they're doing the inverse of that. They're not saying, I'm forgiving you on the basis of me or my authority. What are they doing? They're pronouncing the truth, the good news of the gospel of what the Lord Jesus has said to his people. He said, you're forgiven. And so if you've confessed your sin, stop wallowing in it. Every week as we confess our sin, it's to be a reminder that we are not to continue to live under heaps of guilt, that we're not to continue to walk around thinking, man, I did that thing 25 years ago. I'm so ashamed of myself, and I'm so disgusted with myself, and I am a worm and not a man, and I am so depraved. And the Lord Jesus says, no, you are holy and you are righteous, and you are my child. Why? Because I have paid for your sin. I've cleared it. It's why we pronounce this to you each week. Your sins are forgiven you if you're in Christ, so that you would not continue to walk around, bearing them, and attempting to carry the load that the Lord Jesus has taken upon himself. and done away with. This corresponds to the place in the Old Testament liturgy where the worshipper is identified with the sacrifice and is killed. We look to Christ together who was killed. We were identified with

This corresponds to the place in the Old Testament liturgy where the worshipper is identified with the sacrifice and is killed. We look to Christ together who was killed. We were identified with him. Our sin was identified with him on the cross. He became our sin and he died so that we could become the righteousness of God by faith. We look to the cross each week where our sin was put away from us. And having confessed our sins, And having remembered and received the pardoning grace of God, we move into the consecration portion of the service. With the reading of the Old and New Testament, the pastoral prayer, that's the prayer where each week I or another elder prays for the sick and the flock, praise for the needs of the church, praise for our community, sometimes pray for other churches in our area. We call this the pastoral prayer. And we might pray for all sorts of needs within the church. Why? Because in the ministry of the Word and in prayer, God is sanctifying his people, He is conforming us as we look to Christ in his word to his image through the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And in this portion of the service, the word of God is primal. The word of God is central. So even though the whole service is saturated with the scriptures, it should be ringing with the voice of God and his word. This is the point of the service where the minister is to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and wield it in the preaching of the word.

and his word. This is the point of the service where the minister is to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and wield it in the preaching of the word. Which is what? Hebrews 412. Well, the Word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two-ed sword, it piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. In the old covenant liturgy, the priest would cut up the sacrificial animals so that it could be burned before God as a food offering, a meal of peace and communion between the people and their God. In this portion of the service, the sword of the spirit cuts us up and rearranges us through the word of God. This is exactly the language that Paul uses in Romans 12-1. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We're transformed by the renewal of our minds through the ministry of the Word, which teaches us His will, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And this is our spiritual worship. No longer do we offer dead sacrifices, but rather we ourselves are offered as living sacrifices to God. And this is why the sermon is, again, not a mere exercise in

And this is our spiritual worship. No longer do we offer dead sacrifices, but rather we ourselves are offered as living sacrifices to God. And this is why the sermon is, again, not a mere exercise in education. It's to be the wielding of a sword that cuts us, pierces us, and presents us to God as a holy people. And as the word of God cuts us up and through Christ, the Lord receives us as living sacrifices, we're being brought into the presence of God, the smoke of the offering rising before him as a pleasing aroma. Again, we see this language not just in Romans 12, but all over the New Testament, like in Ephesians 5, where Paul says that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. And so as Hebrews 1315 urges us, through him, through that place, pleasing sacrifice, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Because Christ has been sacrificed and we with him, because we're found in him, we are now called to offer ourselves in Christ to God continually as a people for his own possession. The word of God conforms us to the image of God, the Son of God through the Spirit of God. And this brings us to the meal of the covenant. Communion. So if you remember,

consecrated and cut up by the priestly sword, burned on the altar, and brought in holy assent before God is a pleasing aroma to God and a meal that he symbolically eats. And so in our offered worship, we essentially present ourselves to God as a consuming fire to be consumed. And in our worship, we consume, we eat of and with God. We eat the bread of Christ's body given for us, the wine of his blood spilled for us. Don't get bogged down in different Protestant theories of what the bread is and what the wine actually is, but just think simply about what the Lord says to us. He says, here's a meal to eat and drink in remembrance of me, and this bread is my body, and this wine is my blood. And so what are we feasting on? We're feasting on Christ, the true bread from heaven. And yes, I'd make all kinds of, you know, asterisks about, you know, the human nature of God and, you know, rejecting transubstantiation and, again, Roman Catholic superstition, and understanding how it is that we feast on Christ, which is spiritually in his presence with us in this meal. But the Lord commands us in this meal to eat with him, to remember him, and even to feed on and be strengthened by him. And he invites us to examine ourselves before we eat this meal. Remember, 1 Corinthians 1128. Let a person examine himself then and still eat of the bread and drink of a cup. We don't come to this meal lightly, but as a confessing people, a repentant people. This is yet another

Let a person examine himself then and still eat of the bread and drink of a cup. We don't come to this meal lightly, but as a confessing people, a repentant people. This is yet another reason for this meal to sit where it does in the service. Not just after we confess our sins, but after we confess our sins, receive the assurance of his pardon, hear from the Lord in his word as it cuts us up and convicts us and brings us further to repentance and consecrates us before the Lord. and then we come as a confessing, holy, sanctified people to sit at his table, to sit in his table and eat with him. We're ready to eat with him. We've been searched and known. We've been sifted and tried, and we're prepared to commune with our Lord. But this meal is not a funeral meal. The abiding note of this meal is not sadness, but a deep abiding and serious kind of joy. Why? Well, A, because the Lord has risen. He's risen. He didn't just die. He died in rows, and he has risen now. But also because of what it is that we're being invited to do. Have you thought about that recently? The Lord is inviting you to eat with him every week. He's brought us to his own table. In the presence of our enemies, he has set a table, and there he is with us. He invites us to feed on himself by faith, the true manna, the true bread from heaven.

enemies, he has set a table, and there he is with us. He invites us to feed on himself by faith, the true manna, the true bread from heaven. If you were invited to the table of a great and high and noble king, what attitude would you have when you receive the invitation? You'd probably be astonished. You'd say, who am I? The Queen of England invited you to high tea? Would you be like, yeah, I expected this. I've been waiting for this. I can't believe it took her this long. You'd say, how does she even know who I am? Who am I? What is man that you're mindful of him? We're invited to feast with the king of ages. Who is this king of glory? This is the psalma's things. What is man that you are mindful of him? When we think about the Psalms and the kingship of Christ, what is it to be invited to his table to eat with him? It is a glory. What if you received an invitation from a king? And he said, come eat with me because I am pleased with you. What about that? Be even more glorious. And yet that's what we do every week. Saints, come eat with me, the Lord Jesus says, because I am pleased in you. The father says, come to my table, because through the son, pleased with you. You belong to me. I call you son. I put a ring on your finger. I put a robe of his righteousness to cover you. I kill the fatted calf. I say come. Eat and drink, wine, milk without

pleased with you. You belong to me. I call you son. I put a ring on your finger. I put a robe of his righteousness to cover you. I kill the fatted calf. I say come. Eat and drink, wine, milk without price. The price has been paid. Joy, gladness. That's what this table is each week. And then, as we stand up from the table, come to the final movement of the service, where God commissions us to the work of his kingdom. He sends us out in his fields to labor with joy. Think about this. Now we're cleansed from sin. Our conscience is cleared. And the vigor that comes with a clear conscience before God and men is ours. Now we're revived by the singing of Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another. We're strengthened by the hearty food of the word of God and also heartened by the strong food of his table, the bread and wine, with our Lord and his communion meal. We know that he's pleased with us. We know that he invites us to sit with him. We know that he loves us. And so now we're ready to lift up the sword ourselves to take up the shield of faith, to put on the shoes of the gospel of peace, to put on the helmet of salvation, to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to gird about our waist, the belt of truth. And we're ready to go out and follow the Lord, our better David, who's cut down the serpent, Goliath, and calls us to go slay our Philistines. That's what we're ready to do. And he says, now follow me. There's work to be done. And he says, now follow me. There's work to be

consecrated, equipped, blessed, and sent. Number two, come prepared. Don't just come, come prepared. Look in the bulletin this morning. You'll see some numbers in there for next week's songs. Sing them around your dinner table. Come to psalm sing. Use the tools that we have. And come ask me how, if you're looking to learn how to sing those songs. Sing them. Be prepared. The night before, pray as a family. Get up early. Have your things laid out. Come here ready. Be eager. Don't wander in flippantly, casually, five minutes late each week as if you're going to watch a show of Netflix on your couch. Because that's not what we're doing. No, be here, prepared, heart and soul, to worship the living God. If you have reconciliation to do and to see through, do it. Leave your gift at whatever altar, whatever day. Go be reconciled. Be at peace in so far as it's up to you. with all men. But then come. Come with an offering ready to give to the Lord. Come ready to give him yourself. And finally, when you're here, put your back into it. Like, stop yelling at me. I'm going to keep yelling at you just a little bit longer. Put your back in it. Put your shoulder to the plow. Throw your weight behind this thing. Sing loud. Confess with sincerity. Lift your hands. Kneel before the Lord. We are his. He did us make. The sheep of pastor.

Throw your weight behind this thing. Sing loud. Confess with sincerity. Lift your hands. Kneel before the Lord. We are his. He did us make. The sheep of pastor. is his. Don't mutter a few verses under your breath. Check your phone through the sermon and participate half-heartedly wondering when he will stop. Put your shoulder to the plow. Push. Go for it. Why? Because of what it is that we're doing. Not because of the greatness of the song or the greatness of whoever's doing the ministry and whatever part of the service, but because of the greatness of the Lord and the greatness of the task that he's put before us. The greatness of his mercy and grace to us, we ought to come and put our shoulder to the the plow and push with all that we have. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that you who are worthy of all worship, set aside, set aside what was rightfully yours and sent your son to die in our place. Father, that you would give the most precious gift to save us. Lord, let that astonish us afresh each week. astonish us that you would invite us to your table. That you would be pleased in us through Christ. And we ask, Father, that you would be pleased in us, that you would grant us faith and joy and hope and repentance and steadfastness in our faith. That you would keep us and

through Christ. And we ask, Father, that you would be pleased in us, that you would grant us faith and joy and hope and repentance and steadfastness in our faith. That you would keep us and protect us through your word. And that each week as we gather here in your name, Lord, you would be glorified and honored that your people who are called by your name would be filled with a zeal for your worship. Lord, crucify in us half-heartedness. in us lackadaisical, casual worship. Give us zeal for your throne and your holiness. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.