The Heart of Hebron: Worship, Nurture, Serve

Morning, my friends. OK, how about this?

The Lord desires to speak with you this morning.

Think about that. The Lord desires to speak with

you this morning. So if I'm right, there's we get

the picture of God up in heaven at this point and he's sitting

there thinking, I know what Brad needs today.

I know what Kelly needs today. I know what Jill needs today.

I know what Henry needs today. Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to

the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness,

and come into His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord He is God. It is He who has made us, and we

are His. We are His people in the sheep

of His pasture. Enter His gates with

Thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good and

His steadfast love endorse forever and His faithfulness to

all generations. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. The grass Withers of flowers

fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever.

Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, grant to us a

wisdom and understanding to know this word and to live this word

now and forevermore. We pray through Christ our Lord.

We ask. Amen.

Please be seated and if you would grab your Bibles term to

Psalm 100 should be easy to find right smack in the middle of

your Bible across the board. Today, one of the things that I

want to do is I want to make sure that I recognize the

connection between what we are and what we do, what we are and

what we do. Pretty straightforward.

This is a screwdriver and it was created to drive screws.

It's fulfills its purpose when it drives screws.

Now it's nice and helpful to know that it's a screwdriver,

but that's of less importance then recognizing what it does,

that it drives screws. A hammer is created in order to

hammer nails, a razor is created to shave, etcetera, etcetera.

So it's always helpful to know not just what something is, but

remember that it's connected to what it does.

What it is is important, but what it does is also important

across the board. One of the great joys that I had

raising kids for so long was teaching them different things.

And we'd take them places. I'd show them certain things or

working around the house, demonstrate certain stuff, you

know, hey, these are brake pads. And but I just wouldn't say,

look, this is a dishwasher and say this is what it does.

These are what brake pads do. This is what a wrench is.

This is called a wrench. And this is what it does.

So there's always a connection. All right, So why am I

emphasizing this? I'm trying to avoid a problem

that the sermon series, our current sermon series could

potentially lead us to. And that is the idea that what

we're doing is we're talking about what Hebburn is.

We're, we're trying to describe what Heburn is or what Heburn

should be or what we aspire to be or, or, or our desire for

Hebron, etcetera, or something along those lines.

I'm trying to articulate what Hebron is, what we are as a

church. And I don't want there ever this

ever to become something that's intellectual or something that,

OK, now that we know what Hebron is and we're we've fulfilled the

task in which we're after. Because the point is to know

what we are so that it impacts what we do.

Just like there's a connection between this being a screwdriver

and its intended purpose to draw us drive screws.

So it is that there's a purpose between Hebron Church, what we

are, what we think of ourselves as being, and then what we are

intended to do. So when we talk about what we

are, a couple of weeks ago we started a sermon series.

And the emphasis is around characteristics or traits that

kind of describe who we are as a church or again, who we aspire

to be. And we've used the catch phrase

or a little descriptive force here.

Hebron is a biblically based, Christ centered community of

disciples, a Reformed classically evangelical church

in the Presbyterian tradition, worshipping, growing and serving

Christ in the East Hills of Pittsburgh.

OK, now it's easy from that description to see that we've

got a lot of identifications terminology in there.

And couple weeks ago we looked at what we mean when we say

we're biblically based. Last week we looked at what we

mean by the fact that we are Christ centered.

And if you were missing either of those weeks, we can easily

catch you up on what we mean by that and why those things are so

central to our self identification.

But they're important not simply for telling us who we are, but

leading us to an understanding of what we do.

What does the church do? Well, also in that statement you

might recognize that there's that phrase that we are

worshipping, growing and serving Christ, that we're worshipping,

that we are growing together and we are serving Christ.

This is the outcome of what it means that we are biblically

based, that we are Christ centered, and then as we look at

in future weeks, that we are classically Reformed and

evangelical and Presbyterian in our understanding.

These are not catch phrases. Rather they lead us to a self

description of what we do as a as an effect of all of those

characteristics. We worship, we grow, and we

serve. If you've been around our

fellowship for some period of time, you might recognize in

that catch phrase in which we've been using for a while here to

define these characteristics. Worship +2 and that worship +2,

Worship plus service plus nurture or growth, that worship

+2 is something that we've talked about for a lot of what

we want every member of the congregation to be involved in.

If you're heavily involved in heaven, what's it going to look

like for you? Well, you are going to be

involved in worship. You are going to be involved in

a growth activity and A and a growing in your knowledge and

understanding of the Lord and you're going to be involved in

service. And if you're not involved in

one of those 3 levels, then it's up to the rest of us to make

sure that we are encouraging you, that we are providing you

the opportunities, that we're doing all that we can to ensure

that that's a possibility. Because that is a natural

outgrowth. Just like the purpose of a

screwdriver is to drive screws. So the purpose of a biblically

based church, a Christ centered church, a Reformed classically

evangelical Presbyterian Church, is to lead its people in worship

and growth in our knowledge and understanding of the Lord and on

our service with one another. Now let me step back here for a

second and make an incredibly important point.

There is a lot that defines the role in the task and the purpose

of a church. If we were to ask that question,

that's not the question that we're asking in this sermon

series. But if we were to ask the

question, what is the purpose of a church, or what should a

church be or what's what should a church be doing, we come up

with some incredibly important points.

We are, by God's command, the light of this world.

God, Christ himself declares his followers are going to be the

light of the world. Well, what does that mean?

It certainly means, if nothing else, the proclamation of the

truth. It is the responsibility of the

Church of Jesus Christ to hold forth into the darkness of this

world the light of Jesus Christ, the truth of Jesus Christ.

We are failing our responsibilities if we do not do

that well, we are called the holy body of Christ, the holy,

the set apart body of Christ. That's what the church is called

and identified as well. What does that mean?

It certainly means that we have to model for the world a

holiness, that we have to model to the world a righteousness,

not just any righteousness, not any holiness, but Christ's own

holiness, Christ's own righteousness.

That means that we have to be men and women of character, that

this church has to be an institution of character that

reflects Christ's own righteousness.

We need to, and we have to above all else, be a body of Christ

that demonstrates to the world that core gospel message and

identity of forgiveness and grace.

How do we treat our enemies? How do we treat those whom we

disagree with? How do we treat those who wrong

us? If we are failing to identify

ourselves as a community, realize this, that there is

nowhere else in God's created design where there is an

institution that is designed basically around simply showing

the world forgiveness and grace. We've got that core gospel

message that out of His forgiveness and grace, you too

can live forever in His presence.

And yet how are they supposed to know what that forgiveness and

grace looks like if not for the purpose and the function of the

church? The church has that incredibly

important role of witnessing and testifying to the world about

the gospel message, communicating that gospel

message to all those who are come within its orbit.

All of these things are responsibilities of the church.

So when I highlight worship and all and and growth and service,

I'm not identifying them as the only in things that the church

is supposed to do. The church is greater and has

greater responsibilities than just worship, nurture, and

service. But it certainly can't have

less. It certainly can't have less

than that. We can't do less as a body of

Christ and worship, grow together and serve together.

And my intention is if we do those things well, they

encapsulate so much of the other responsibilities of the church

across the board. So what does it mean for us to

be a church that worships? What does it mean to be a church

that grows in our knowledge and our understanding of the Lord?

What does it mean for us to be a church that serves and ministers

to Jesus Christ? Well, let's take a look for a

second at worship. Worship is that central

characteristic, that central core that draws us together as a

people. Now it is popular and it has

been popular in days past to identify Christians that are

Christians outside of them, separated from a community of

faith that are separated from that worship experience.

And oh, they worship by golfing on a Sunday morning, or they

worship by walking through the woods, or they have an

experience with God's presence and, and while they're sleeping

or something along those lines, their eyes are closed.

And that's an worship experience.

And by God's grace in the Scriptures, we see that every

aspect of our life, everything we do is worship.

But when we talk about the purpose of the church, the

natural outcome of a church, if a church is biblically based, if

a church is Christ centered, if it is all these characteristics,

then it will be a community that worships.

We are highlighting an entirely different characteristic, a

character trait that the Scriptures make crystal clear

that if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you will be drawn

to corporate worship. You will be a part of corporate

worship. Corporate worship will be a

priority for you, not something that you do every once in a

while, not something that crops up, but it will be a priority

for you in all that you do. Take a look at our text here,

for example. But wait, before we look at

that, what does worship entail? Most of us have haven't thought

through worship. Well, worship is that thing

where you come and you sit and you get preached to and you hear

some songs. Perhaps you sing some of the

songs and perhaps you'll listen a little bit while Jerry prays.

But most of us haven't thought through the nature of worship.

Scripture is crystal clear about worship.

It identifies some positive character traits, but it also

highlights some negative things. One of the things that is not

worship in Scripture is a rote, mindless action that you do and

you claim it for God. It is not worship when you go

through the motions. It is not worship when you

simply are present but not participating.

Worship is a full body encompassing thing.

One of the things in which we're going to try to distinguish here

is, is the head, the heart and our hands, what we think, how we

feel and what we do. And worship is an

all-encompassing experience that grabs every part of who we are

and demands that we put that before the Lord and that that is

our connection before God himself.

I went to a Pirates game couple of months ago and the Pirates

were actually in a winning streak at that point in the game

and so the stadium was fuller than than what is possible.

And I'm watching the team and I'm slightly annoyed at how the

team is playing because they're playing like they play

sometimes. And so I'm slightly annoyed by

them, etcetera. And we have a couple of guys

that have had a little bit too much to drink.

And so they start the wave. You know, if you don't know what

the way, you know, everybody here stands up and everybody.

And so they all stand up and I am grumpy because I'm watching

the team and these guys are having all kinds of bear.

And so everybody around me is way, you know, whenever it comes

up and I'm going and I'm just and I'm not.

And here's the thing. That's not worship.

Worship is not being present. Worship is giving of yourself

completely and totally to that which is happening around you.

Take a look at the text for a second verse one, make a joyful

noise to the Lord all the earth. First off, make that's a

command. This is not a request from the

Lord. This is a command of the God.

This is a command that he communicates.

It's a plural command. And so this is not where he's

saying to each of you individually, hey, I want you to

make a joyful noise. I want you to make a joyful

noise. I want you to He's talking to

the community and he's saying make a joyful noise unto the

Lord. Now, what kind of a joyful noise

are we talking about? OK, we might naturally associate

this with singing, and sorry Brendan about this, but there's

nothing magical about singing. Singing is simply an opportunity

for us to make a joyful noise. It is an opportunity for us to

engage with the Lord, not through a ritual way, but

actually in a way that engages all that we have and all that we

are, every aspect of who we are. When we're saying a joyful

noise, we are talking about coming into the Lord.

And here's a picture. Imagine walking into a room and

there's your favorite select celebrity.

I don't know who that is. Imagine your favorite celebrity.

OK, now you want to be cool. So you don't want to drool.

You know, you don't want to, you want to be, you want to be cool

about it. So you kind of play it off a

little bit. But if you're not excited, if

you're not looking out of the side of your eye all the time at

your favorite celebrity, if you don't go up and say something to

them, if you don't cheer and clap when they walk in the room,

what are you doing? And our Lord is not a favorite

celebrity. Our Lord is everything your

favorite celebrity is. Time's the gazillion.

And the Lord is present in this place.

It is utterly impossible for you, by the scriptural

understanding, not to make a joyful noise.

Again, I don't know what that is.

And that doesn't invite all of us to, you know, scream or

holler or something like that. But it it's the screaming and

hollering. The imagery of the screaming in

the holler is an image of us being drawn into God's holy

presence and we see Him who He truly is and we then express

ourselves. This is something, if you have

your Bible open to you, you can look quickly through the Psalm.

There's 5 verses here. There's 6 exclamation points.

Those exclamation points are there for a reason.

It's so you don't read this as make a joyful noise to the Lord.

All the earth serve the Lord with gladness, coming to his

presence and saying, but so that you say it like the reality that

it is, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth.

Now you're making a joyful noise to the Lord.

The Lord is the object and the focus of that joyful noise.

That's what's so wonderful about how Brendan has brought us

through worship here this morning, focusing our attention.

The focus of our focus of our attention here in worship is not

in singing. It's not in the beat, it's not

in the music. It's upon the Lord.

All of those other things are intended to draw us into His

presence. Trust me on this, it is

consistently on the minds of the staff that you pay here at this

church to seek to guide you in a healthy, worth it worship that

we are not falling into some kind of a rote mundane process

that where you will get lost. But every week consistently in

our hearts is a desire to fashion a worship service that

is going to engage you fully and completely, every part of who

you are. Because worship is essential to

a biblically based Christ centered church.

And if that's what heaven desires to be, then every aspect

of our worship is going to be in such a way that draws you in to

fully engage you so that you're just can't.

So that you can't be a person that just sits there and

grumbles as the wave goes by, but that you're caught into it.

This is an essential part of what it means for us to be a

worship service together. Make a joyful noise to the Lord.

All the earth, all the earth, there is nothing in all of

creation that is separated from this come into his presence with

singing. Why are we supposed to come into

we are coming worship is coming into the very presence of God.

Now you have the unfortunate reality of looking most of the

of your worship time at me, or if not me at Brendan.

And so we take an outsized view in your mind, and we simply

don't have a better way, or we haven't come up with a better

way at this point to do this kind of thing.

But the idea is not to see me. Do you remember the old time

where they used to wear a robe? The preacher used to wear a

black robe, and the imagery of the black robe is so that it

would hide the man. Obviously there's a guy under,

you know, this isn't the Wizard of Oz who's behind the curtain,

but you know, you would hide the man.

And so that you wouldn't be focused on my shirt or my coat

or my tie. I don't have a tie today, those

kind of things. But that you would see through

the man and you would see the Lord that is behind.

That is the goal. That's the purpose.

That's why the choir wears robes up at the up at the big house.

That's why we try to do these kind of things so that we are

not the focus, but that you have an opportunity to focus here

completely and totally upon the Lord himself.

Worship should be a natural outcome, has to be a natural

outcome of a church that is committed to biblically based

Christ centered. Now what does this mean for each

of you? For each of you, What it does is

it causes you to be evaluative about this church community and

encouraging of this church community.

When we bring you into God's presence faithfully during

worship, tell somebody about that.

When we fail to do that, tell somebody about that.

What are you praying when you pray for Hebron Church?

What possibly could you pray more for us than the, the, the,

the worship here would be drawn into God's presence with a

joyful noise, whatever that looks like, whatever that

entails. And not just for us as a

community, but we are made-up of individuals.

How can you put yourself in the right position to come into his

presence? With six exclamation points.

And I know a number of you and I know how you don't come into

this worship service with a bunch of exclamation points

because you fought with your kids on the drive in.

Because you skipped lunch or breakfast.

Sorry. Because you've got other things

on your mind. Because of all these things.

Because you spent too long. Perhaps to come into the Lord's

presence with singing every Sunday means that you need to

change your Saturday night events.

Maybe Saturday night can't be your night out.

Friday night is your night out. Maybe Saturday you say to

yourself and to your family, I'm sorry we're all together at 9:00

because we have to go to bed. Because tomorrow morning is that

moment where we come into Lord's presence with joy, making a

joyful noise. The church is created to

worship. We are created to do it and to

do it well. But that's not all.

We're also created to grow and to in our knowledge and our

understanding of the Lord, in our knowledge and understanding

of God. It is inherent in the church or

built into the very essence of the church.

Just like a screwdriver who's got a purpose of driving a

screw, so a church has got a purpose of leading people into a

knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ.

It is why so much of the programs of our church are built

around not so much all of our programs over the church.

Everything we do, including worship, has this educational

component. Now let's stop for a second and

realize that there's no test to get into heaven.

Being a Christian is not a measure of our understanding.

It's not a measure of your knowledge.

You don't have to know certain doctrines.

You don't have to be able to articulate certain things.

None of that is true. But my friends, if you're in

love with Jesus, if you're in love with your God, how can you

not want to understand him more? How can you not want to know him

more clearly? He is he is this one that you

are Identify the most intimate part of your life with the most

important part of your life. Most of us will acknowledge

that. Then how can you not be driven

consistently to know him more and to understand him more?

Look at verse 3 for a second in our in our hymn, sorry, in our

Psalm, Psalm 100, verse 3, know that the Lord, he is God.

Psalms 100:3

It is he who made us and we are his.

We are his people in the sheep of his pasture.

Once again, that opening line. Know this, this is a communal

thing. This is knowledge given for the

group as a whole, a command given to the group as a whole,

and it is a command. Know this, know the Lord.

What are we supposed to know? That the Lord, he is God first.

Secondly, that he made us third. That we are his fourth, That we

are his people 5th. That we are his sheep.

As his pastor. Now, I maintain this.

I can't build this out right now, but think about how easy it

would be to have a sermon that would be predicated simply upon

this. What is the content of our

knowledge? What are what are we trying to

communicate to people? Of course, we want to

communicate the realities of the Trinity.

We want to communicate the beauty of the of the Scriptures.

We want to communicate the depth of our understanding of the

nature of God and all those kind of things.

Everything is subsumed under those five points.

Everything is covered under this idea.

Know the Lord that he's God. Know about Christ and who he is.

Be overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord in your life.

Know that he is God. Know that we are made by Him.

You can't. John Calvin, famous theologian

argued that you can't have knowledge of God that doesn't

arise equally out of knowledge of self, of the person.

Because the more we see God for who he is, the more clearly

we'll see ourselves. The more we understand about

ourselves, the more we clearly understand God.

Know that he made us. We.

He is the Creator and we are the creature, and that means

something and that we are His. We belong to Him.

Do you know what it's like living in this world of

brokenness and sorrow and sin and separation and loneliness

and despair? Know this, my friends, that you

are His. OK.

What does it mean that we are owned by Him?

I have coin collection and stuff like that and, you know, cars,

you know. No, we are His people, OK?

We're His people. It doesn't mean that we're

created to be humans. It means that we belong in a

family with Him. We are His family, and He cares

for us like the Good Shepherd cares for the sheep.

I can maintain that if all our programs ever did, if all of

every Bible study focused on nothing more than every sermon

focused nothing more on those five points, we would cover

exactly what the Lord desires for us.

What is it that this church is supposed to communicate?

That the Lord he is God, that we are his people, the sheep of his

pastor, That we are been made by him and that we are his and

belong to him. Now, if this is the message for

the church as a whole, this is the idea for every individual

here as well. Every individual has that

responsibility to seek an understanding of the Scriptures,

to seek in the greater understanding of the Lord.

It's why we emphasize and stress the idea of Bible studies, why

we encourage, why part of our worship service is a sermon, why

every program that I hope, every program we have here at the

church somehow or other, seeks to communicate the essence and

the reality of God himself. That's on the church's

standpoint. It's upon every individual who

claims the name of Jesus Christ to act upon that love that they

have in their hearts for who Jesus is, to seek to know Him

more. Nothing is more frustrating for

the church than hypocrisy. Let's face it, the church is a

hypocritical institution and the world knows it.

And they drag us on to the that they nail us on that

consistently. But what are we called to be?

We are called to be a community that worships God, that knows

God, and then that serves God, that serves him.

Our life, our actions, what we do with our hands is supposed to

be modeled after what we think with our minds and how we act

and worship with our hearts. Our actions are to be a

reflection of these kind of things.

And so in verse 2, we're told serve the Lord with gladness.

Once again, a corporate command that he gives serve the Lord.

And by the way, the word serve there is hard.

It's labor. It's it's hard work.

So often the church does everything they can to make sure

that that your job, if you volunteer at the church and you

get involved in something, we're going to try to make it as easy

as possible for you. That's going completely against

the grain of the nature of the command.

The command is labor hard for the Lord.

And you know what's hard work? Sitting with somebody who's just

suffered a loss, ministering to somebody who is hurting,

ministering to somebody who's annoying while they're lonely,

serving with the youth when they're being youth, serving

with the kids all the time, serving in a way.

All these things are hard and they're difficult.

And that's exactly what it means, that we are to serve the

Lord, but we're supposed to serve the Lord.

Look at the end of that sentence with gladness.

There's an exclamation point there.

We are to serve the Lord with gladness.

This church has to be an institution where we are

fostering worship, where we are encouraging knowledge and growth

and understanding, where we are giving opportunities for service

and worship service and ministry.

And you as an individual have to be a person that is fostering

your worship life, where you are developing an understanding of

knowledge of our Lord and where you are serving Him faithfully

and completely in all that you do.

Now, my guess is that you can look at Hebron Church and see a

little bits of all three of those things.

Yeah, we kind of serve well. Yeah, our worship is OK.

Yeah, our our knowledge, our Bible studies are fairly good.

Maybe you have a better opinion or a worse opinion of those kind

of three things. But if we're going to be what we

are into corporately, then you need to be that way

individually. And I would encourage you to go

into a time of reflection at this point as we I pray

seriously for the Lord's blessings.

I ask for a quiet time and a time of silence here. close your

eyes if you would, and ask the following questions of yourself.

Gracious Lord, hear us as we pray at this time.

Lord, teach us how can I become more faithful in my worship?

Oh Lord, hear your people as they pray.

Oh Lord, how can I become more faithful in my discipleship and

growth? Oh Lord, hear your people as we

pray. Lord, how can I become more

faithful in my service and my ministry?

Oh Lord, hear your people as we pray Now, at this time, I'd

encourage you to stand with me and let us proclaim that which

we affirm our faith. Together, my friends, let us

draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of

faith. Please join with me.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without

wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and

good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit

of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we

see the day of glory coming.