When Ye Come Together - Delbert Birky

I would like to greet you this morning in the

name of Jesus, our Savior. It's a blessing to be

in the House of God and to worship together. Sorry

that Brother Leland couldn't be here this morning. Trust that

the Lord will bless our time together as we continue

to worship the Lord. There were some things that were

stated and mentioned they're ready this morning in our service

that didn't really have anything to do with what I

had to say or what I prepared this morning. So

I want you to know that I have no issue.

It's just that i'd like to give some encouragement. And

Brother Gerald's prayer was quite interesting. I don't know if

you pay attention to when people pray. Not growing up,

I listened to people pray and they stuck their head

in the bench and they said the words, and I

listened for the words in the beginning, and if they

said my name in the prayer, well then it was

like okay, But then you listen for amen, so you

get up. Well. Prayers became very interesting to me, and

I found prayers very encouraging through my growing up years.

Then later on and this morning, in the prayer that

Brother Gerald offered, he mentioned some things about the Kingdom

of God and churches and other places that people in

other places, and those are all important. And then he

prayed for us individually, and he asked for the spirit

of God to rest on each one of us to

be here with us. And those things are important this morning,

as we consider some things, it's very important that we

know God, we know Jesus Christ in our hearts, but

there's many things that influence that. There are many things

that come into focus in our lives as we work together,

and so it's important that you know Jesus as your savior.

That's all important. But there are some other things that

we'd like to talk about as well. This morning, I'd

like to turn to the Book of First Corinthians and

read some verses from this passage, and then I'll give

you the main thought or the title of my message

this Mornington's eleven. What are your thoughts when you go

to first Crinton's eleven. Well, I go to the first

part and I say, oh, yeah, that's the one about

the ladies wearing something on their head, the veiled woman,

veiled head. Well what else is in there? And you say, oh, yeah,

we read that one at communion time. And Paul writes

about the Lord's supper in first Crinton's eleven. And those

are very important what we call doctrines. I'd like to

read from verse seventeen to verse thirty four. Now in

this that I declare unto you, I praise you not

that you come together not for the better, but for

the worse. For first of all, when ye come together

in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you,

and I partly believe it, for there must be also

heresies among you, that they which are approved may be

manifest among you when you come together. Therefore, in one place,

this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For an

eating everyone taketh before other his own supper. And one

is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not

houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye

the Church of God, and shame them that have not?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?

In this? I praise you not, for I have received

of the Lord that which I have delivered unto you.

That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he

was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks,

he break it and said, take eat. This is my

body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance

of me, after the same manner. And also he took

the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is

the new Testament in my blood. This do ye, as

oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For

as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup,

ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore,

whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of

the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and

blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself,

and so let him eat of that bread and drink

of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily

eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause, many are we con sickly among you,

and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we

should not be judged. But when we are judged, we

are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be

condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come

together to eat tivery one for another. And if any

man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come

not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set

in order when I come. Paul was very interested in

the hearts and souls of men, and if you read

his writings, he has many books that are recorded in

the King James Bible. Whether or not other people take

him out, We're going to go by the King James

this morning. That Paul wrote most of those books in

the middle part there n the epistles. He was very concerned

about what a man was like in his heart. He said,

examine yourselves. But in this particular passage he says, a

number of times, when you have come together, when you

have come together. Paul was a man and a man

of God, a preacher of truth that was interested in

congregational life. It wasn't just about individual life. He was

interested in what's going to happen when you meet together?

What did you come to church for? What did I

come to church for? Now? In this that I declare

to you, I praise you not that you come together,

not for the better, but for the worse. Why did

Paul's talk like that to them? He said, it sounds

like you come together. When you get together, only things

that make it worse, not better? What does our Christian life?

My Christian life contribute to the life of the church

and to the congregational life as we know it now?

In One Trintance fourteen twenty six, this is the chapter

we know about tongues, and Paul talks about there when

you come together verse twenty six, Matthew eighteen and verse twenty.

The teaching there is about coming together, is about being

together working together. I'd like to look at the verse

in the chapter of Psalm one thirty three and look

at the three verses that we have there. Many times

we almost get a smile out of it. I'm not

sure what all it meant. When I read that chapter,

I begin to wonder how long Aaron's beard was make

any difference. I don't think so. Behold how good and

how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

How beautiful is that? It is like the precious ointment

upon the head. An ointment was put on the top

of the head that ran down upon the beard, even

Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garment.

I'm not sure if the beard went to the skirts

of the oil went to the skirts as the dew

upon herman, and as the dew that descended on the

mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing

even life for evermore, do all over the mountain, down

into the valleys, on the gardens, and made it beautiful

Aaron's beard, beautiful gardens. What's he talking about? He's talking

about unity. But we can lose it so so quick,

and say, I wonder what about all these other things.

But look at the beauty of unity. It is like

the oil the blessing that was ONI's head and it

flowed down over his garments. It is like the do

And that's what congregational life is supposed to be, working together,

serving one another. In collective worship. Collective worship, your worship,

my worship to God is very important. Personal worship is

very important, but collective worship is also important. In collective worship,

you have commitment, you have accountability, you have expression, you

have commands in the scripture that deal with collective worship

that can only be done with collective worship. Greet one

another with a holy kiss. There's got to be at

least two. Wash one another's feet, serve one another. You see,

it takes collective worship. Those are things we can't do

by ourselves. Confess your faults one to another. Yeah, I know,

it'd be a lot easier to confess your faults in

the closet with the door shut. Like Matthew says, No, James,

he says, confess your faults one to another. Let this

be a part of your life. Brotherhood needs to be

a part of your life. There are things within scripture,

there are things within our walk in the Christian life

that are only fulfilled by brotherhood, by sharing together in

collective worship. Collective worship comes through a personal worship experience.

That's true. It must be. The inspiration for collective worship

must come through individual worship. So what did I do

this morning? Or what did you do as you thought

about worship this morning? What was it that you were

looking for? What did you prepare for elements of collective worship? Preparation, unity, participation, organization, order,

Those things become important. What did you determine this morning

that you were going to do in preparation for the day. Well,

I hope that the Sunday school teacher is interesting. Otherwise

it's easy for me to fall asleep, So I would

like to prepare the Sunday school teacher. That's his Okay,

what am I supposed to do? Didn't you know that

the Sunday school lesson was in Matthew six? Well, if

you're a visitor, maybe you didn't know. That's all right.

But do we prepare for these things? I know we

have our differences, and I hope brother so and so

just does and talk too much today? Are you preparing

for a unity? Are you already in your mind saying

I hope we don't have conflict? Do you come together

for worser, for better? How do we make these things work? Participation?

Did you have something to do this morning as you

came to the service? Thank you for bringing a book

for your little one to look at? Yeah, see they prepared.

I didn't call them up and ask them, did you

bring a book for your little guy? No? What do

you prepare for? Prepared heart, prepared to sit, prepared to listen.

We make preparation. It's important for organization. What does that

have to do with a salvation of the little boy's

soul that you brought a book to church? Some of

those issues have to be settled elsewhere. What we want

to do is have the little one content so the

rest of them can listen. Okay. I worked at smith

Seed years ago, and when you punched the button on

and you turned the elevator on before you turned the

auger on, do you know what happened? You had seed

running down all over because it wasn't run properly, and

you plugged it, and so you had to clean it out.

Do you know what the biggest problem is? It's not

cleaning up. Go talk to that hefe Go to the

owner and he says, did you keep that seed clean?

He starts talking about contamination. I was, and I was

talking about sweat and cleaning up the mess. Those things

all have importance. These little things of your preparation when

you come to church have importance because of the central

theme of clean seed. Okay, yeah, the central theme of

hearts right with God right. That's our central theme. But

there's other things that come in and affect that. And

that's why congregational life is so important. I still haven't

figured out who is responsible to unlock the doors in

church when I get here. I'm not an old timer here,

you know why it doesn't bother me. I don't get

here early enough to see okay, but there's someone that

pays attention to it. If they don't, you know what happens.

And so we start talking about organization, and we talk

about the ushers, and we talk about the ones that

take up the offering. Just have them not do it

once and see what happens. All of a sudden, you

have this chain of events down here, and somebody gets angry,

and we say, oh, you're a Christian. You know what happened.

Organization fell apart, and we have people that suffer. So

these little things, as small as they may seem, are

important in our lives. But you know, if the offering

basket doesn't get passed exactly right, don't lose your cool.

Paul said, do you come together for better or for worse?

What is it that rocks your boat? What is it

that destroys There are some people that are so fine

tuned that any little crumb on the floor causes them

to bad mouth the janitor. Let's not do that. Let's

keep some central principles and central thoughts in mind. Were

interested in worshiping God, that's true, but let's pay attention

to some of these little things that help one Corinthians

fourteen forty says, and you know it because you'll use

it every once in a while, and sometimes mothers they

use it. Maybe doesn't pertain. Let all things be done

decently and in order go clean your room. Okay. Sure,

it's a principle of truth. And so Paul said, when

it comes to the church, there were people and he

wrote about the Corinthians, and he said, there's people that

come here and they think they've got a song or

they got a testimony, and they think the other one

ought to be quiet while he gives his, And so

there was contentions. So you said this, let things be

done decently and in order keep that in mind. Is

it okay if you don't give your testimony? He talks along.

He didn't have time, so I just didn't say anything. Okay,

Was your testimony so important that it had to be said?

Take a look at first Printing's fourteen and read through

it in our worship service as we have, as you

have in your congregation, developed a culture, you have developed

a way of worship. Let it be who said there

has to be three songs in the beginning. No, I

go some places and they have five songs. To make

any difference in this congregation. The normal practices three songs

and we have singing. Do you understand some of you

are not song leaders. I realize that the church would

really suffer if you were the song leader. There's work

that goes into that. Do you ever think about the

choice of songs? You don't think about it so much

until you go to church service on Sunday morning and

the song leader gets up and we sing the song

day is dying in the West. Is there's thought put

behind this? You take a look at the songs that

were sung this morning as well as other times, the

appreciation for work given to leading singing and getting the

singing started. When would you suggest it's a good time

to lead saying to learn a new song? First thing

Sunday morning. It's like this morning I was thinking about

a song and lo and behold, somebody gives out the number.

This morning we're marching design say the first words, Come

we that love the Lord? Come who me? No, we

collective congregational singing, Come, we that love the Lord? And

you all stand up and just punch it. Okay, you

understand the benefit of someone who is leading songs and

paying attention and giving their heart to leading the congregation.

In singing, there needs to be variation. It's the type

of singing. I don't know exactly how you feel about.

We've got a new term. I didn't know this when

I was growing up, but I've got it a little

bit later on. Now we have praisan worship time. A

number of years ago I heard a man say this

in a public, non church setting. And the young man says,

we had singing when we started. And the older man

who answered that, he said, what seven eleven, seven eleven songs?

You know what seven eleven songs are? I didn't know either,

And the guy says, what's that? Boy? He said, the

same seven words eleven times. They call it praise and worship.

There is a place for praisan worship songs. Hallelujah, hallelujah.

You look in the Bible and they said, amen, Amen.

They repeated it in the book of Psalms. You have

songs with choruses. You have a psalm that goes through

and then they repeat some things, Oh that men would

praise the Lord for his goodness, where his wonderful words

children man. Then we have some more verses, and then

it says, oh, that men would praise the Lord. They

had the choruses, and that's fine, but when all of

our songs are praising worship, just kind of a repetitive time,

where's the hymn? I always would like to know what Him,

Jesus and the disciples sang before they went to get

seventy who picked a song? What did they sing? And

when they had sung a hymn they went out Singing

is with emotion, with feeling, and people have different feelings

when they sing a song, and that's fine, and that's

why I appreciate someone saying, does someone have a selection,

would you like to express yourself in a song this morning?

And there are times that I'd like to see him say,

the first two or three benches over here, let's have

a song from there. They are afraid to give a song,

some of them. You want to give them opportunity. Sure,

that can be in a congregational time, but when it's

loose ended, nobody has a song, nobody knows who's going

to start it. That's why I think it's good to

choose a chorister to have order in the service. Let's

move on. Let's take a little look at devotional time.

What's the devotional time, or well, sermon number one, sermon

number two, good job. They don't always have to be

the same. A devotional is a devotional. It doesn't necessarily

carry the weight of a complete sermon. In noticing the scripture,

there was introduction made. At times there was introduction made,

and then they would move into the message. That's generally

what a devotional time is. We come here, our thoughts

are somewhat scattered, you might say, even going to things

that have happened in the week, things that are work

and so on. A devotional pulls it together, concentration, thoughts

upon the Lord. Sometimes there are places where they have

the first sermon and the second sermon. First sermon is

not quite as long as the other one. That's fine.

That's their culture, that's their way of doing things, and

that's just buy devotional. Meditation doesn't have to be long.

At times, it can be longer. Sometimes it's a reading

without much extra thoughts. Sometimes it's wond verse with extra thoughts.

It should be introductory to worship. It should be encouragement

to worship. Your Sunday school lessons we need to bring them.

Now we've already started the service. Now i'd like to

move to another point that I think is very important.

As we have gotten started many times, as you begin,

as we begin in our services, we have a degree

of reverence. The longer a service goes, many times reverence

may deteriorate. Sometimes it's because we're tired, Sometimes it's because monotony.

So on, take a look at reverence. What is the

basis of reverence? Consider about coming in and worshiping God.

I realize that in our world today we're moving away

from respect, even from reverence. Sometime back, it's been a

number of years, but it was in a court setting.

A young man came in and he sat down toward

the front with a bill cap on. He came all

the way in and he sat down and he built

cap on. Sergeant at the door started taking a look.

His eyes followed him up there and watched him sit down.

And he sat there just for a little bit, and

sergeant came up. Take your hat off. Oh okay, what'd

I tell you? This? Just a casual saying. I'll wear

my hip waiters if I want to. I'll wear my

boots if I want to, I'll wear my camel hat

if I want to. I'll tell you one thing. You

weren't going to do it in that man's courtroom. He

was demanding some respect and some I'm going to say,

a debrie of reverence. There was. The demeanor in that

place was to be different than casual wear. Okay, how

do we prepare as we come to worship? Come with

expectation to come into the presence of God and worship

God in his presence. Come with a feeling of hunger

and thirst. And sometimes if we come with that, we

lay down some of the feelings that we control the atmosphere.

I can control the atmosphere. Excuse me, coming into the

presence of God, do you wear a hat? Men's heads

are not to be covered in worship. Hats should be removed. Well,

we shouldn't have to worry about that. Respectful in our dress.

It used to be that someone who performed a marriage,

you would very seldom see a man perform a marriage

without a clerical collar, if you call it that, such

as a judge, such as a magistrate. They were careful

to be dressed decently in our church services. We used

to think that usually they wore suit coats. But now

in order to be in you wear a suit coat.

That's like that but then a friend of mine who

I've known for years, in order to perform a marriage,

now he puts a neck tie on. Okay, well that's

one reason why I wear this one. It's not very

conducive to an act. Tis all continue wearing this way.

What I'm saying is they look at marriage as something

that demanded a special respect and reverence. I think those

things are important to us. I'm not saying everybody stands

behind the pulp and he's worse to understand me. I'm

not there. But I think our demeanor when we come

to worship, let it be conducive to worship. If you're

going to come with some idea that people will notice me,

you don't want to be noticed like that. Come with

a respect and an honor of God. And now, man

who came to Belief into church service one time, he

had the pair of the most yellow pants that I

have ever seen. And bless his heart because he put

on the best that he had. Okay, that's what he

was doing. He was trying to put on his best

to come to worship. They happened to be the most

yellow ones that there were. Well, in our day and age,

we have the ability to buy the color and the

kind that we need. So let's just follow through those things.

Be careful how we present ourselves. Be careful how you

present yourself to the judge, to the town office. And

when we do that, you'll find it much easier to

present yourself before God, present yourself before God. It'll be

much easier to present yourself before the neighbor in a

respectful way. It works together. That's what life is all about.

What is so important is how you come to church. No,

the most important is how your heart is. And Jesus

tells a story, and he said there was a wedding

and there was a man sitting there without a wedding

garment on. He said, throw him out. Why was it

the garment? He said, this man's heart is over there.

This man is not prepared. Didn't make a difference. No,

it was identity. They could see something was going on.

I was standing in a row waiting at the cash register.

We were standing in a line, and a young girl

came through. I have no idea the way she was

dressed was different, but her hairstyle and the hair color

I had never seen before. It was brilliant. And the

man in front of me He just turns around. He

looks at me. He says, well, there was a mystery person.

What do they represent? All of a sudden, this man's

telling me there's some identity here. They're representing something, but

mystery person that I don't know. You understand how people

present themselves, how you present yourself before the Lord is important.

It's not all important, but it's important. Let's move on.

How about prayers? Do you practice to pray in public? No,

you might, it's all right if you do, But pray

in private, and you will pray in public the prayers.

To make your prayers according to the needs that lay

before us. That's fine. We pray for the Sunday school teachers,

the ones who have devotions, the listeners. We pray for

each one. That's good. Prayers should meet needs and touch hearts.

We and our services have sermons. I don't know. Is

the sermon the thing that you don't like? What is

it about church that you don't like? I don't know.

Sermons are so so different. If we invited you over

for a meal, I'm not sure what would you'd like

to eat? That's how I feel want to go to church.

I don't know what you would like to hear, and

so we say, well, we'll prepare something. And as a minister,

we ask the Lord to give us direction, give us understanding.

We try to think about what needs might lay out here.

We don't necessarily think about brother so on, so he

ought to hear this one, and sister so on, and

so ought to hear this one. That's not how we

map things out. But you know, sometimes the needs are

so varied that a message you might pick up on

one thing, another one picks up on another thing. And

so when there's collective worship, God wants to speak to you,

He wants to speak to me through collective worship. And

these things piece by piece, individually. After the service. One day,

in a particular service, I heard a young man say,

I'll tell you one thing. That message was not directed

by the spirit of God. You know what My question was,

same thing when one of the prophets slapped the other

and said, which way did the Spirit of God go

when he went from you to him? How do we

determine that so quickly? A message needs to bear weight,

a message needs to meet needs, the blessings of fellowship

and worship to be refreshed. Paul wrote these words, and

I just love them. But he talks about people that

came to see him, and he said, he said, he

just refreshed me. It was such a blessing to have

him here. It was a blessing to see you here

this morning. Yeah, you too. It's a blessing to be

together in collective worship. Can you shake hands with everybody

after church this morning? No, don't attempt it, you'll wear

yourself out. But by all means, meet someone this morning

on a very personal level. When you shake hands with them,

you let them know that it was a pleasure to

be here. I shake hands, We all shake hands, we

go home. No, it's more of a blessing. I'm just

going to read a couple verses here as Paul reflects

on some of the blessings that he did enjoy. We then,

that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the week,

and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us

please his neighbor for his good to edification. Paul said,

I'll do that for you. Now, you do it for me,

You do it for the other one. You do it

for the other brother, you do it for the other

clist here that you're here for the edification, First Thessalonians

five and the Book of Thessalonians. If you read Paul's

words to them, sometimes it was a little strong in

some things. First Thessalonians five, verse eleven. Whether wherefore, comfort

yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do.

You've been doing it. That's fine, But Paul says, just

keep on. It's been such a blessing to see you

work together and serve each other, work together in collective worship.

Romans chapter one. If you can remember that Paul was

a man who wrote some very stern things, and he

wrote some very loving things. That was Paul, Romans one,

eleven and twelve. For I long to see you, that

I may imparton to use some spiritual gift to the

end you may be established. That is that I may

be comforted together with you by the mutual faith, both

of you and me. Okay, here we are back to it,

you and me, Paul said, I'd just love to be

there and share with you. But the whole thing is,

when we're done, you're comforted, I'm comforted. It's a mutual

blessing one to another. Again, I refer to First Corinthians,

chapter fourteen. Let all things be done decently and in order.

Do it for the sake of the brotherhood. If you

have a song, fine, if you have a testimony, fine,

But if you think you've got a special one, that

is just kind of knocked people out. You know, speak

in tongues, Paul said, I speak in tongues more than

any of you. But just do it at home. Here

is to be the benefit of someone else, not for you. Yeah.

Then he comes around and says, and do it for

your own benefit. Also, let it be a blessing that

you serve the Lord in your closet, but right now

serve the Lord in a collective way. Be a blessing

to your brother and sister this morning. May the Lord

bless you. M