Is the “assembly of God” in my living room? s30e48 Ps 149

We are supposed to be praising the attributes of God.  But WHERE exactly does He request these songs to be emanating from?  What is the LOCATION of our praise? 

He calls for praise from the "assembly of the godly." Join me for 7 minutes to see if I can do that from my kitchen table on a sleepy Sunday morning. 

https://youtu.be/Rj6sxPInfGQ

Transcript

Is the “assembly of God” in my living room? s30e48 Ps 149

We will leave David asking the Lord for one thing in ps27.  That he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life; to gaze up the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. It is a nice sequay into Ps 149. It also talks about the assembly of God.

Psalm 149 is a small but mighty psalm.  9 verses. Two sections:

Praise and a punch. 

Singing and Swords. 

Worship and wallop

Let’s talk about praises today. Specifically, the LOCATION of the praises.

Praise the Lord!

       Sing to the Lord a new song, 

his praise in the assembly of the godly! *******

2    Let Israel be glad in his Maker; 

let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! 

3    Let them praise his name with dancing, ******

making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! 

4    For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; *******

he adorns the humble with salvation.

5    Let the godly exult in glory; 

let them sing for joy on their beds. 

6    Let the high praises of God be in their throats

and two-edged swords in their hands, 

The Praise: Sing to the Lord a new song.

         His praise in the assembly of the godly.

The assembly: Why the assembly.

         WHERE should you present your body as a living sacrifice

         One might ask: where is the assembly of God? Now if there is a pandemic, or you are in prison, or you are a shut in or you are a soldier on deployment certainmodifcations must be made.

         Here is the discerning question: do you long for the assembly of God? 

The 60 shut-ins at my church want nothing more than to be able to gather. They’d love to have their infirmities and disabilities not prevent them from gathering. 

         Or, do you strategize to be away from it?

         Do you make excuses to justify your absence from the place that God commands.

         “I’ve stopped attending church.”Why cannot you do this online in your living room. WHERE is the correct place to gather and WHY is it this way? Where gather? Geography question:

1.   A: where ever God tells you would be a good place to start. God commands the body whole, intact, undivided gather.  Held together in Him with Him as the head. You cannot gather in your living room because God commands your attendance, and He deserves your worship in the way He desires. Here it is in Ps 149. IN THE ASSEMBLY

2.   Why not at your kitchen table? Well, the living sacrifices of God do not gather there. Sacrifice

         Romans 12 I appeal to you 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.

                  Where does the Lord tell us to praise Him? Surely there is an individualpart. We should be admiring God for every sunset and heartbeat and ecery wake up: Sing for joy in your beds v.5.. We all come with the right individual, prepared attitude/ heart to contribute toward the collective.

But where are the living sacrifices, coming together to offer the sacrifices of praise? The ASSEMBLY v. 1 of Psalm 149 Praise the Lord! 

       Sing to the Lord a new song, 

his praise in the assembly of the godly! 

When the BODY of Christ gathers, it pleases the Lord if the leg and the arm and theear and the pinkie of the Body show up. Absent the whole body, we gather to worship without the full complement of the specifically gifted, specificially located body of Christ. With out the whole we are dislocated and amputatied

3.   Corporate, assembled worship; the gathering of the rescued, appreciative and humble leads seamlessly to the other genius ideas God has for His church.  Two that come to mind are fellowship and service: there is nothing that binds people together than the trauma of being out in the freezing cold north Atlantic ocean and then being rescued by the spiritual life-boat that is Jesus.  We have a lot in common, and He asks us in Acts 2:42 to live a collective, caring, life of fellowshipand all that means.

when we get our arms around what He’s done for us we then gratefully turn our gaze to our brother and sisers, or not yet br. And sis. To stoop to serve them and evangelize and teach. The church is empowered and active in the enactment of service. 

4.   You receive a local word, discerned and prepared by your local pastor, just for you and your congregation. All of America should NOT be listening to a famous, national, preacher of probably high quality. For their main teaching.  The point is, and God’s point is, His Word is designed to be expressed locally.

So, if you have wrecked yourself, or are wrecking yourself by non-faithful assembly in the house of God…Come back. Every firs tday of the week.If your attendance is less than God -honoring, repent and return.

You cannot worship corporately if you have dislocated yourself or worse, amputatedyourself from the Body of Christ.