SPEAKER_00: This is a good day to preach on worship.
SPEAKER_00: That happens to be the topic.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter twelve, you'll find printed in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: You're the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.
SPEAKER_00: For they could not endure the order that was given.
SPEAKER_00: If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.
SPEAKER_00: But you have come to Mount Zion, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festival gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
SPEAKER_00: See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.
SPEAKER_00: For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, beautiful, powerful word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask the Spirit's help.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us this word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for giving us worship.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you said the only time in the Word of God that you say if something about your seeking, you're seeking true worshipers.
SPEAKER_00: Worship worshipers who worship you in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, would you open our minds and our hearts to receive your word and your truth, your grace this morning?
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that there is truth to be proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that there are promises to be believed.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, teach us now.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, we ask.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is the central activity of the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Worship is something that we're going to do throughout all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you get to heaven, there's no more evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: All the ones who have been called and saved are going to be there.
SPEAKER_00: What is the one central activity of the redeemed people of God?
SPEAKER_00: It's worship.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we need to start now here on earth as we learn and understand what worship is.
SPEAKER_00: And we respond.
SPEAKER_00: I remember years ago when I read this passage and it just reached out and kind of grabbed me, bit me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd read it before, but I never really understood it.
SPEAKER_00: It changed my understanding of worship, it changed my experience of worship, and it's never been the same since.
SPEAKER_00: That might be a new experience for some of you today.
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at this.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at the where we worship, the who who worship, and the what of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Where does worship take place?
SPEAKER_00: You might say, well, that's easy.
SPEAKER_00: I got that one.
SPEAKER_00: 1300 West Braddy Road.
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: But there's so much, so much more to that.
SPEAKER_00: So many more layers of beauty and depth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22 of the text.
SPEAKER_00: But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So where do we worship?
SPEAKER_00: Where are we worshiping right now?
SPEAKER_00: Not only here, but in heaven by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Is this an amazing truth?
SPEAKER_00: I suspect that many, many Christians have lived their whole lives and have not understood this.
SPEAKER_00: This will change your life.
SPEAKER_00: This will change your worship.
SPEAKER_00: If the Spirit opens this truth up to you today.
SPEAKER_00: When the word church, ekklesia, the Greek word, it's the gathering, the assembling, the assembling of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: When God's people come together for the purpose of worshiping God, we come not only to a place on earth, but we come to a place in the very heavens.
SPEAKER_00: And so we could say not only that maybe our worship is heavenly, and that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some Sundays you go home and you might think, well, that was heavenly worship, and that's a good thing, but that's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just saying that you had a heavenly experience of worship, but he's saying that you actually have come into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven's worship, not just heavenly worship.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_00: By faith, that's what we're doing right now.
SPEAKER_00: You have come by faith in the head of the church, Jesus Christ, as we see him, as we see his finished work, his perfect life, his sacrificial death, his powerful resurrection, his ascension into heaven, as we see his finished work on our behalf, and we believe it, and by faith we take that into our hearts, we thereby enter into heaven's worship when we come.
SPEAKER_00: No longer is there a place on earth like there was in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, there were places.
SPEAKER_00: Mount Sinai, the top of Mount Sinai, we're going to talk about that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: There was a tabernacle in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There was a temple in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There was a place where you went.
SPEAKER_00: No longer.
SPEAKER_00: You know today there are God's people meeting in huts in some lands, in caves in some land.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: The physical place doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is that you're coming to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And his spirit is present with his people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: No longer do God's people worship at Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: No, we come to Jerusalem, to the temple, the mountain that in the Old Testament, the mountain that could not be touched, or the penalty of death.
SPEAKER_00: Here today, he says, come on in.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come on in.
SPEAKER_00: I have a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you didn't have to kill a lamb before you came.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't have to go through an elaborate ritual process, ceremonial cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: You just come.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come as you are.
SPEAKER_00: But come.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a contrast between Mount Sinai in the Old Testament and Mount Zion in the New.
SPEAKER_00: Mount Sinai couldn't, don't, don't even touch.
SPEAKER_00: If an animal touched the base of the mountain, the animal would be killed.
SPEAKER_00: If a person did, likewise.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses, when he went up on the mountain for 40 days, 40 nights, when he's up there, he had a holy protection from God because God invited him to come up.
SPEAKER_00: But he was not to do it casually or take it lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Mount Sinai could not be touched.
SPEAKER_00: Here he says, Mount Zion worship, New Testament worship, come on in.
SPEAKER_00: With confidence, come near.
SPEAKER_00: Back then it was a blazing fire.
SPEAKER_00: They were scared when God showed up on the top of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: They trembled.
SPEAKER_00: Moses trembled.
SPEAKER_00: We don't tremble out of a dreadful fear today.
SPEAKER_00: There was darkness, there was gloom, there was fire.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he talks about in the New Jerusalem that there's no sun needed, that the glory of the Lord is the light that shines upon his people.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that one day.
SPEAKER_00: No one stayed on the top of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't belong there.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, you know in the Old Testament they didn't have pews.
SPEAKER_00: Or chairs.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, whether it was a tabernacle or the temple, there were no chairs, there were no pews.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: You didn't belong there.
SPEAKER_00: The priest came in, and the priest did what the priest had to do on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: But now we we have chairs.
SPEAKER_00: In New Testament worship, God says, come and sit.
SPEAKER_00: Come and take in.
SPEAKER_00: Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: You see, there are so many really important implications of this.
SPEAKER_00: One is it doesn't matter what size your church is.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a church of 30, which we were when I came here, if you're a church of 30, if you feel like you're really tiny, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're entering into heaven's worship.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a church of 300, if you're a church of 3,000, if you're a megachurch, get over yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It's all because you've got the perfect band or the perfect preacher.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This really has changed my perspective and enjoyment of worship over the years.
SPEAKER_00: Because whether you're small, medium size, or large, it really is about coming into heaven's worship.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened up for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing paragraph, chock full of truth for us in our enlightenment as we learn how to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' body was torn, the curtain was torn, open, and we saw that the other week in Good Friday.
SPEAKER_00: From top to bottom, that means Jesus says, Come in.
SPEAKER_00: Come in now as you are.
SPEAKER_00: Come.
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't have to worship anymore with an evil conscience.
SPEAKER_00: You can worship with a clear conscience, with a cleansed conscience.
SPEAKER_00: You can worship with confidence that you belong here, that God wants you here.
SPEAKER_00: That might be a different way to worship for some.
SPEAKER_00: But he does say come.
SPEAKER_00: Don't neglect coming.
SPEAKER_00: What keeps you away from worship?
SPEAKER_00: How little does it take you to keep you from coming here?
SPEAKER_00: The rain?
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, because you're here.
SPEAKER_00: A little rain doesn't stop you guys.
SPEAKER_00: But what does?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I feel like it today.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I had some really good questions after the first worship service.
SPEAKER_00: A man came up to me and he said, Pastor, what do I do when I don't feel like coming?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do if I wake up and I'm grumpy?
SPEAKER_00: That's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not in the mood.
SPEAKER_00: Should I not come?
SPEAKER_00: I said, nah, I think we can do better than that.
SPEAKER_00: Tell God you're grumpy.
SPEAKER_00: Be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Just tell God, I'm not sure, I'm not in the mood to worship.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to worship.
SPEAKER_00: I said, repent.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Prepare your heart before you come so that when you come, you're not coming with a grumpy, discouraged heart.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I know what I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: I need to do it seven days a week.
SPEAKER_00: I need to come into the Word of God and let the Word of God cleanse me.
SPEAKER_00: I need Sunday mornings, I need to get up early, and I just need to be in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Sunday mornings I need to listen to good Christian music.
SPEAKER_00: All that just helps me.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I have to repent.
SPEAKER_00: This is not automatic for any of us.
SPEAKER_00: The Father seeks true worshipers who worship him in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: The good news, friends, is we have the Holy Spirit who can show us where our hearts are.
SPEAKER_00: Help us prepare our hearts for what he wants to do and worship.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you a question right now.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you worshiping?
SPEAKER_00: Are you worshiping on Mount Sinai right now?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you worshiping on Mount Zion?
SPEAKER_00: Mount Sinai was the law.
SPEAKER_00: Is it still all about the law for you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you still trying to go through all these rituals and all these ceremonial things that you gotta do to come to God?
SPEAKER_00: I think there are contemporary versions of that.
SPEAKER_00: Where people are still trying to cleanse themselves.
SPEAKER_00: You can't cleanse yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You can receive Jesus' cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: But come.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, by faith, we are actually in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Our voices are joining in, blending in with the voices of the angels.
SPEAKER_00: My parents.
SPEAKER_00: So when my dad got behind the pulpit and they were singing, the mic was always off.
SPEAKER_00: True.
SPEAKER_00: My mom had a nice voice.
SPEAKER_00: My dad's no longer a monotone.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I better not think about that too long.
SPEAKER_00: He's not a monotone.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a beautiful voice.
SPEAKER_00: Your voice is blending in with the voice of the angels, innumerable angels, and you're the the saved who have gone before us.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that that's a beautiful truth.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, yeah, but my voice isn't so good.
SPEAKER_00: I may not be a monotone, but God loves to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_00: Your voice is your voice.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to hear your voice from your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That is beautiful praise to God.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't worry about the person sitting next to you.
SPEAKER_00: First service, I looked around, I saw a bunch of brothers doing this to each other.
SPEAKER_00: God loves your voice.
SPEAKER_00: He really does.
SPEAKER_00: And you know God has a voice.
SPEAKER_00: Zephaniah chapter 3 tells us that the Lord, our mighty God, our warrior, sings over us with much joy.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever hear him singing over you in worship?
SPEAKER_00: I do sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in worship I just have to stop singing because his voice is better than mine.
SPEAKER_00: But I hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: And when I do, I just sometimes I just have to stop and take in his voice.
SPEAKER_00: This might be a new experience for some of us.
SPEAKER_00: We're learning how to worship.
SPEAKER_00: Where we worship, secondly, who gathers to worship?
SPEAKER_00: The church of the firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: The firstborn in the Old Testament, the firstborn son, God, just about everything.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the firstborn, usually in Scripture, is referring to Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: He is the firstborn, begotten of God, only eternally existent with God, but he is the firstborn, the head of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, Moses recorded all the names of the firstborn sons, at least at one point in Numbers chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: The names are registered in God's book.
SPEAKER_00: One of my professors, Ed Clowney, used to say, why does the Old Testament in some places read like a telephone directory?
SPEAKER_00: You young guys don't know what that is, do you?
SPEAKER_00: There used to be a telephone book.
SPEAKER_00: And you'd open it up and there'd be all these names.
SPEAKER_00: Names matter.
SPEAKER_00: Because people matter.
SPEAKER_00: Why are all those names recorded in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Because they mattered to God.
SPEAKER_00: You might think, well, I don't really care about all those names.
SPEAKER_00: They're hard to pronounce, but it mattered to them.
SPEAKER_00: How about your name?
SPEAKER_00: There's another book, and it's not the membership book of APC.
SPEAKER_00: Your name may be registered in our membership roles.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for your names as members, but there's another book that's even more important.
SPEAKER_00: The Lamb's Book of Life.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 3, 5 talks about it.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3 talks about it.
SPEAKER_00: See, the thing that really matters most is your is your name in the book of the Lamb?
SPEAKER_00: Is your name?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been washed from your sin?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been adopted into God's family?
SPEAKER_00: If so, your your name has been written in the Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: Everything's okay.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what happens.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens to you, it's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: The Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, look, that's what matters most.
SPEAKER_00: You remember in Luke chapter 10, verse 20?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sent out his disciples to do ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And they all came back.
SPEAKER_00: They came back giddy.
SPEAKER_00: Oh boy, you should have seen what we did.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Jesus didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think you gave you gave you that power?
SPEAKER_00: They come back all giddy.
SPEAKER_00: They're really excited.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Jesus, you should have seen what happened.
SPEAKER_00: We were teaching and we were casting out demons, even.
SPEAKER_00: And we were clean, we were healing people, we were doing all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, What?
SPEAKER_00: Do not rejoice that the demons submit to you.
SPEAKER_00: But rejoice that your name is written in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get all giddy about your ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get all giddy about all the things you do for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But never get over what he's done for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to rejoice, if you want to find real joy, find your joy in the Savior who loves you, the Savior who suffered for you, the Savior who's waiting for you one day to be with him in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Every Lord's day we enter into the sanctuary to heaven's worship.
SPEAKER_00: Again, our praises join in and blend in with the songs and the praise of the angels and all the saints who have gone before us because we are God's ecclesia, the Greek word for the gathered, the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament prophets saw the nations streaming to Mount Zion to join their worship one day.
SPEAKER_00: I love pastoring this congregation because people from all over the world are here.
SPEAKER_00: We have people from far away, nearby.
SPEAKER_00: We're all part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We come together.
SPEAKER_00: The prophets in the Old Testament saw that day, the nations will stream to Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that includes people from the United States.
SPEAKER_00: We're a long way from Israel.
SPEAKER_00: We're a long way from where Jesus lived.
SPEAKER_00: We're the nations that came.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And beautiful things happen when God's people worship like this in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you are engaged in godly gospel, lively worship, unbelievers will come into your midst and they will say, Surely God is among these people.
SPEAKER_00: The secrets of their hearts will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: They will come to know Jesus Christ as Savior.
SPEAKER_00: As I said that, as I preached this in the first service, I just looked around.
SPEAKER_00: I saw so many people that have just come to Christ recently.
SPEAKER_00: I see people here who have just come to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I know through the preaching, through the worship.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we should expect to happen when the powerful word of God is preached and proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't be surprised.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus does in his church.
SPEAKER_00: It is a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, God is among these people.
SPEAKER_00: So that means hey, that means it really matters what you do in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Don't mumble your songs.
SPEAKER_00: No mumbling.
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: Mumbling comes from a kind of a soul that's asleep.
SPEAKER_00: A life that's kind of on an autopilot.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for you to be aware of what you're doing in this room, that you're actually offering your spiritual sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: That's what was read.
SPEAKER_00: That Peggy read that earlier in 1 Peter 2.
SPEAKER_00: You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that?
SPEAKER_00: We were on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: We were outsiders and Jesus brought us in.
SPEAKER_00: We were spiritually dead and Jesus raised us up from our death.
SPEAKER_00: When we remember that, we worship like that.
SPEAKER_00: No mumbling in this room, okay?
SPEAKER_00: No statues in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us could use it a little bit like just a little bit like you were at the football game.
SPEAKER_00: Like you were at the soccer game.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit of excitement, a little bit of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not going to hurt anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you engaged?
SPEAKER_00: Is your mind and your soul, your emotions, are you engaged in what we're doing here?
SPEAKER_00: That's what the point is.
SPEAKER_00: I have to remind myself of these things sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I have to ask God, am I, Lord, was I really engaged in our worship today?
SPEAKER_00: I said something else this morning that I got some comments about is don't worship the experiences.
SPEAKER_00: Worship the God who gives the experiences, but don't worship the experiences.
SPEAKER_00: Some people do that.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are just looking for a worship service that gives them the frills and thrills and makes them all electric inside.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worship and don't chase the experience.
SPEAKER_00: But chase the God who can make you come alive.
SPEAKER_00: Worship the God who can make you feel alive.
SPEAKER_00: That's what He wants.
SPEAKER_00: So where are we right now?
SPEAKER_00: We're in heaven by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, do you ever think, if I could just see that?
SPEAKER_00: If I could just get a glimpse right now what's going on in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I've wondered that sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for now.
SPEAKER_00: You might think, well, that would really change my worship.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God will change your worship.
SPEAKER_00: As the Spirit of God makes this truth come alive, the Spirit of God will change your worship.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to wait to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, as we close, what is worship?
SPEAKER_00: He says, you have come to a festal gathering.
SPEAKER_00: Some translations say a joyful assembly.
SPEAKER_00: An assembling to praise God is no casual thing, nor, as we've seen, is it optional.
SPEAKER_00: The church gathers before the Lord and he speaks to us from his word by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our worship leader.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 2, verse 12 tells us that Jesus is the choir master.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the worship leader.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is singing praises to his Father.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to hear that one day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: And my voice is going to blend in and join in with his and yours.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a good choir.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 4, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We who have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: A joyful assembly.
SPEAKER_00: We pour out what God pours in in worship.
SPEAKER_00: Our worship team talks about this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You can only pour out what the Holy Spirit pours in.
SPEAKER_00: Is the Holy Spirit pouring something into your heart this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Is there some attribute of God?
SPEAKER_00: Is there some part of God's character that is just becoming more beautiful to you?
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus becoming more beautiful to you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you realizing how much you've been saved from?
SPEAKER_00: Has it been a while since you've thought about what you've been saved from?
SPEAKER_00: What you've been saved for?
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: None of us can do that by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Some churches are all about the Word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all about the Word.
SPEAKER_00: They hardly know that there's a Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they know that the Holy Spirit inspired the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: They know that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's about all that it seems that they know.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Word and the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Word is inspired by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit was not content simply to give us the Word, a book to read.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit wants to give us Himself to point us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To give us real life, to give us real joy.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be people of joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: And I need the Holy Spirit to bring me that joy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put your joy in anything else.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us were talking about that in our Bible studies this week, write our covenant fellowship groups from the promise last week.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: And again I will say rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you putting your joy?
SPEAKER_00: What are you looking to for your joy?
SPEAKER_00: And when you lose that, you lose your joy.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to find your joy in anything other than Jesus, you're going to lose your joy when you lose that, whatever that is.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I will say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Produce the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit Himself.
SPEAKER_00: You can't work it up.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, I've tried.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit can produce that joy in you as he takes us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A joyful assembly, worshiping in spirit and in truth, pouring out what the Spirit pours in.
SPEAKER_00: Head and heart.
SPEAKER_00: Religious affections, as Jonathan Edwards referred to it.
SPEAKER_00: The heart in the Bible is not just your emotions.
SPEAKER_00: The heart in the Bible includes your mind.
SPEAKER_00: How you think, it includes your emotions, and it includes your choice, your volition, what you will, what you reach out for to take hold of.
SPEAKER_00: All these things.
SPEAKER_00: Head and heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards said, when you worship, let there be light in your mind and heat in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: But no more heat in your heart than justified by the light in the mind.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good advice.
SPEAKER_00: Our worship must be informed by the word of God, the character of God, the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And as that truth in the character of God is poured into us, we're going to pour out praise and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Another way to think about it is in worship, what he's saying here is God's transcendence and God's eminence.
SPEAKER_00: God's transcendence, worship him in reverence and awe.
SPEAKER_00: He's a consuming fire.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take his holiness lightly.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing casual about worship.
SPEAKER_00: If it is, you're missing something.
SPEAKER_00: Don't trifle with God.
SPEAKER_00: He won't accept that.
SPEAKER_00: He's holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect in might and power and majesty.
SPEAKER_00: And so worship services aren't entertainment.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're not here to be entertained.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually coming into the presence of this kind of holy God.
SPEAKER_00: But he also says it's a joyful assembly.
SPEAKER_00: So worship's not a funeral service, it ought to be a joyful assembly, but with a recognition that we're in the presence of this holy God.
SPEAKER_00: But we're welcome because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you here.
SPEAKER_00: But let's not take lightly what we're doing today.
SPEAKER_00: Or casually.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but for me, that just makes me more and more and more value and appreciate the work of Jesus Christ, what he's done for me.
SPEAKER_00: That I can be here.
SPEAKER_00: That I can be here because of what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: He is transcendent, he is imminent, his nearness, his intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: The front page of our bulletin, we long to taste the glory of God in such an astonishing way that the city will be drawn to the majesty and mercy of our great God.
SPEAKER_00: It is our desire that our worship will serve as an authentic model to our city of the possibilities for transformation of individuals, families in a city, encountering the glory and the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's our desire.
SPEAKER_00: God is blessing this.
SPEAKER_00: God is using this to save many.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: To bring about spiritual transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to do more in you.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to do more in me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we ask him.
SPEAKER_00: We pray.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me?
SPEAKER_00: Father, would you please now, by the work of your spirit, continue to open up our minds, open up our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Fill our minds with truth.
SPEAKER_00: Fill our hearts with grace and joy.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, we're asking our wills to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking that in such a way that this week the choices that we make, the things that where we spend our money, the things where we spend our time, we'll give you glory.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all that you have done so that we can have a seat in this room today.
SPEAKER_00: So that we can have our names registered in the book of life.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see your worship like never before one day.
SPEAKER_00: But today we're asking you by your spirit to bring us into Mount Zion.
SPEAKER_00: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.