Considering Worship

All right.

Well, let's go ahead and pray again before I start the message.

Father in heaven, thank you again for your word.

We do ask that you will give us guidance as we study together.

Again, you know all the things that we're dealing with, and we pray for your help on that, and just that you will be with each person here.

Father, help us to be encouraged through your word, and we thank you again that you're with us, and we ask for your guidance in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Alright, so as I've I've been, you know, requesting topics or specific scriptures to address on these additional Wednesday services.

And I have another one for this evening.

And I say additional Wednesday services intentionally as we had determined.

At times we may have Wednesday services in place of Sunday.

And when we do that, I reserve the right to continue on whatever we've been, um whatever passage or we're usually in a book of the Bible at that point, so I reserve the right to continue with that or if we are in a topic.

But it did come to me when we started meeting on Wednesday this year that it would be probably good in our extra time together if we can call it that.

If you have something that you wanted me to try to expound on, whether it's a topic or a particular passage.

And thankfully you've taken me up on it.

I appreciate that.

We've had one topical study on integrity, and then we had another scriptural study on John 2, where Jesus turned the water into wine.

And tonight we have another topical study, and that is the topic of worship.

Now, in saying that, some of you may sense, well, that could go off in any number of directions.

And that's true.

The the specific request was about restoring worship to a priority.

As with all topics, there could be different points of emphasis for anybody that's thinking about it.

And I'm not entirely sure what the requester was thinking.

I even thought about waiting and um asking for more clarification, but I eventually I decided, well, I'll I'll take a stab at it.

And I'll do that in part by explaining the different directions I decided not to take, and maybe still touch on a few of those anyway.

But if I miss it too bad, whoever had that request, if you're here, you could let me know.

And uh just well, you didn't really go where I was wanting you to go, and that's fine, I can try again.

Um in thinking about restoring worship to a priority, in my mind, anyway, the reference could be to a few different specifics based on two concepts.

One is the concept of worship itself, as you might expect.

What does it mean to worship?

What is worship?

In our modern day, there's been this increased association with the idea of singing praises to God as being what we refer to as worship.

And this is particularly true in charismatic circles.

Now, for some of you, when I say that, I realize you may say, well, restricting the concept of worship in that way seems a bit foreign.

And I would understand that.

I'd just say that I still bandy about with some people and with some charismatic folks, and it's not unusual for them to make statements like we're going to have worship at such and such a time and such and such a place.

And more often than not, what they're saying is we're going to have this meeting where we're going to be focused primarily on music.

And, you know, there's going to be a musical song service, that sort of thing.

And more often than not, um, even though they're saying that, I don't think they, I definitely don't think they restrict worship to singing praises to God.

They've just come to use that vernacular more commonly in that way.

And and frankly, it's spilled over into the church at large.

Um, and as I'm alluding to there, it would be incorrect to just think of worship as a music service.

We'll come back to the definition momentarily, but just thinking of worship as what we do in the singing of God, of course, is not nearly complete as far as thinking about worship.

In fact, that's why I guess a number of years ago now, uh, we changed uh how we refer to the singing of our hymns in our in our bulletin uh for the services.

Uh you may not even be aware of it, but we we once referred to the music portion of the service as worship services.

But I came to be convicted, I don't even remember when, but at some point that that's not the best terminology.

Because our whole meetings on Sunday, and really even tonight, can be considered a worship service.

Um, so we began referring to the musical part of the worship service as the song service.

So, in in essence, the song service is a is a part of the larger worship service, if you will.

So it may be that that the term worship for some people is evoking the more restricted idea of the song service.

On the other hand, it may be evoking the broadened idea of the corporate worship.

Uh, as we go, I think it'll make sense to you why my reasoning changed uh to move away from a restricted definition of a worship service.

But even in that, I just want to say this don't take what I'm saying now, even as some sort of rigid of this is how things must be referred to, you know, that sort of thing.

We only would want to do that with, you know, biblical admonitions about um foundational, you know, biblical doctrine, I think.

And and the term worship service itself, I think, is a more recent update to what in the past was just simply referred to as church services.

And um, and and a lot of people still refer to it in that way.

But anyway, that's one issue.

What is meant by worship?

And as you would expect, when when we're thinking about it, what we want to think of as far as worship is what is the biblical definition?

What does the Bible say about worship?

The other issue that isn't totally clear as far as the what was requested from the topical side of it is actually secondary in my estimation, but I'll go ahead and mention it.

When when we consider restoring worship to a priority, who are we saying that applies to?

Does it apply to the individual?

Does it apply to the local church like here?

Does it apply to the church at large, the universal church?

Does it even extend to the nation as a whole?

Uh to all of the above, maybe?

And if it was the latter, if if we're thinking in terms of the broader concept of the country and where the country is at as far as its worship or even the universal church, the topic would be more, I guess, perhaps in a general framework, maybe with thoughts of what's how do we prompt a revival, that sort of thing.

And you hear that from time to time as uh different pastors and other people be talking about, you know, let's pray for a revival, and and that's fine, and we should pray for that.

That is possible.

Just that said, whatever the intention, here's how I'm going to approach it.

I'm I'm going to approach it tonight more from the individual level.

Reason being, if you as an individual and your consideration of worship is if you have that coming from a biblical understanding, I think it would by extension then flow into the local church and then the broader church at large further beyond.

So we'll just call the message considering worship.

Hopefully, you have some of the ideas now of where I'm coming from and my approach to it.

So I think it will be good to go back to our original question and define the word worship as best we can.

What is worship, or again, more precisely, what is the biblical understanding or biblical definition of worship?

The main Hebrew and Greek words that are translated worship mean in essence the same thing.

They both mean to prostrate or bow low before a superior, and to do so in a way that shows complete submission and respect.

So we can say in the Bible that worship is describing both a way of life and also specific activities.

As far as the way of life, worship is the whole person, W-H-O-L-E, the entire response of a person in reverence and total surrender to God to do his will.

A person, of course, would do so because of a recognition of who God the Creator is and what God the Creator, the Redeemer, has done.

The etymology of the word itself, worship, means to ascribe worth.

It means we give God the supreme value, glory, and honor that only He as creator and redeemer deserves.

Now we'll consider some of the specific activity as we go, but the first passage that came to mind, to me anyway, that I wanted to look at to be considering the biblical definition of it, comes from John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

John chapter 4, and it's specifically verses 23 and 24.

John 4 · chapter mention

Now, of course, even though this is a topical sermon, as usual, we need to consider scripture in context.

And the context is this is the story, the familiar story, y'all are probably familiar with, of the woman at the well.

Okay.

This Samarian, Samaritan woman, whom, shall we say, had lived a less than stellar life, but she comes upon Jesus, and after the encounter with him, you may recall, she started an evangelistic movement in Samaria.

Now I'm going to start with her commenting about wanting the water that Jesus had just referred to.

And in the story, what he has said is, if you drink this water, because she's come to the well to get water, and he tells her, if you drink, I have water, and if you drink this water, you'll never thirst again.

And so we'll pick it up there.

John chapter 4, and beginning in verse 15.

John 4 · chapter mention

Sir, the woman said to him, Give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water.

Go call your husband, he told her, and come back here.

I don't have a husband, she answered.

You have correctly said I don't have a husband, Jesus said.

For you've had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.

Sir, the woman replied, I see that you are a prophet.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

Jesus told her, Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know.

We worship what we do know because salvation is from the Jews.

But an hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Jesus says, God is spirit, and the Father wants people to worship him in spirit and truth.

So now what does this tell us about worship?

In all ancient religions, including Judaism, worship was related to activity specifically to offer sacrifices on an altar wherever their designated place was.

They would go and offer sacrifices there in some way.

So that's what's on her mind when she's speaking here.

She's saying that our people say that we should worship, in effect, offer our sacrifices here on Mount Gerizim.

That's where they're at when this is taking place.

And she says, but you say this should be done in Jerusalem.

So what she's doing is asking Jesus for a decision about this.

She realizes he's he's already blown her mind by talking about her past.

And so she's asking him, help me out on this.

Where are we supposed to worship?

There's some debate.

I didn't realize this, but when I started studying a little bit, there's some debate about why she does this.

Some think that upon understanding that Jesus is a prophet, she wants to create a diversion.

In other words, she doesn't like the direction he's taking this conversation.

Um she wants to him to quit talking about herself and her failed relationships.

I I don't think that's what's happening because of her ultimate response and how she goes out and basically evangelizes the whole community.

Um I think what is happening is that she knows that she needs to connect with God.

She realizes that her past is messed up.

She realizes there's something lacking in her life.

And so when Jesus tells her about her marital past and her current lack thereof, she realizes he's something special.

And he's talking to me.

And so she says, again, I perceive you are a prophet.

She's likely thinking, based on how Jesus interacts with her, that okay, here is somebody that can answer my questions about God.

He can fill me in on what's going on here.

The rabbis, she's heard, from what I can gather, her whole life, she would have been hearing the rabbis in her area saying, we need to worship here on Mount Gerizim.

And then there'll be some arguing, no, it needs to be done in Jerusalem.

So she's heard these arguments, it'd be like denominations arguing back and forth.

She's heard these arguments, where are we supposed to worship?

And she may have come to suspect maybe the Jews are right.

Maybe that is where we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem.

At least it's, and it's even possible, so I got to thinking about it, maybe she's just intimating that she didn't really have any confidence that any sacrifice she offered anywhere would be any help.

She may have got to the point where she feels my life is just such a mess.

I don't know if there's any way I can connect with God.

But I would really like to know, is there somewhere I can go and offer sacrifice for this?

And she is probably saying, I'd worship on either mountain if I can get right with God.

You know, based based on my past trail of broken relationships, I want to be right with God.

I want to feel connected to God, but I don't know where to find it.

And and different religious leaders are telling her different things.

And so in effect, she's saying, What say you, man at the well?

We think of the woman at the well, so she would be asking him, What do you say?

Jesus, in effects, tells her, Look, you're really worried about something you don't need to be worried about.

You want to know where do you go to worship?

Is it here in Gerizim or is it Jerusalem?

Jesus says, the hour is coming when no one will worship on this mountain or in Jerusalem.

And I'll interject here.

This is prophetic.

We're not going to get into it today.

We will touch on it on Sunday, coincidentally or not, I thought as I was going through this, because I I didn't think about this when I went to this passage and what we're doing on Sunday, but I think it's not coincidental.

But this is a reference to 70 AD, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and not only that, the shrine in Gerizim region was also destroyed.

The Romans wiped out both of them at that time.

So at that point, there was no place to go for the Jews to worship.

Old Testament, the Old Covenant shut down at that point, for at least for the Jews, it was already shut down according to Christ, but it was shut down for the Jews at that point.

This happened some 40 odd years after the conversation that was taking place here between Jesus and this woman.

So worship on either mountain, Jesus is saying, is not going to be a concern.

By implication, God doesn't care about that type of worship.

The issue is not the where.

But in one sense, I was thinking, it's not the where, it's it's in all the other one-word questions we ask: the why, the what, the when, the how.

That's more the issue.

There's something that God cares more about than where you are when you are worshiping.

He's looking for people not who worship in a specific location, but rather people who worship in spirit and in truth, wherever they are.

So I'm going to take the second one first.

The the expression in truth in the Bible, as best I can tell, means sincerely and genuinely, as opposed to hypocritically.

You we easily recall that Jesus was constantly berating the Pharisees for their hypocritical, ritualistic forms of worship.

They were often pretending to be more righteous than they were.

But in their mind, it was more important to maintain an appearance.

That's what really mattered.

Not so much the intent, it was how they looked.

They'd blow a trumpet before giving a coin to a beggar.

That's just what they would actually do.

That they would make long prayers in the street.

I think you read that somewhere in scripture.

They'd make long prayers in the street so that everyone could see them.

I don't know why, but it made me think of look at me, look at me, it's Ernest T.

Well, you say it's me, it's me, it's Ernest T on Andy Griffith, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that was the point.

He wanted people to notice him.

That's what they wanted.

They wanted to be seen.

And Jesus said, when you worship, don't do it in that way, so that you'll be seen.

Rather, exhibit those acts of worship in truth.

Meaning, do it without anyone else having to know.

Because God knows.

He knows the truth of what you are doing, the sincerity of your heart.

God wants people who are worshiping him genuinely.

Genuinely.

People who are concerned about what he thinks, not what everyone else thinks.

And in spirit means, if you think about it, means inwardly, as exposed to externally.

Again, the religions of the day were mainly focused on activities of outward rituals.

Offer this sacrifice.

Don't eat this, don't touch that.

Make a journey at certain times for on a holy day or you know, for some other observance.

All that stuff's external.

That's not ultimately the worship God is looking for.

Now, we'll talk a little bit about this when we're in the prophetic side of it.

Of course, if God told Israel to do something, it was a moral issue to them because he told them specifically to do it.

But the point Jesus is making here, ultimately, it's not a moral issue.

Um because that's not ultimately what God is looking for.

He had his reasons in the old covenant, but it's not going to be part of the new.

God is looking for worship that's internal inside the heart.

Now, of course, that does, we understand, exhibit an outward activities, but it starts with the intent of the heart.

And I'll just note here in case anybody has a question or I don't know what your translations say.

I I thought of this more as little.

I I tried to look to see what this actually meant because sometimes you see the word spirit in scripture.

Honestly, it's not immediately obvious if it's.

Referring to our human spirit or the Holy Spirit.

And this one is one of those cases.

I was thinking of it more in terms of little S spirit, your human spirit.

Probably translations may more often have it with a capital S meaning the Holy Spirit.

My CSB actually does.

But really, it is tough to determine in context.

The good news is here, it does not matter at all as far as the point.

Whether he's referring to our human spirit or the Holy Spirit that indwells us.

The idea is the worship of God that God seeks is internal.

Actually, I think he's probably referring to the human spirit because we can turn to God even before the Holy Spirit indwells us.

But it could be that the fullness of the worship, he may be referring to the Holy Spirit.

I'm not sure.

But anyway, what God seeks is internal, not external and ritualistic behavior.

He's looking for something inside the heart.

He's looking for what's inside our heart.

So in essence, he's giving us the proper attitude and perspective here for making sure our worship is a priority.

Our worship should be oriented internally and it should be based in sincerity, the truth.

That precludes an outward show, just so the others can see.

It also precludes just doing something because you have to.

We want to do what God wants us to do.

And so in spirit and in truth means that the worship is coming from inside of us.

Love, there's a love for God deep down.

In truth means that we are sincere in that love, that we love him because we know he loves us.

We know we appreciate what he has done for us so much.

Now, Jesus here does say that the Jews had it over the Samaritans, and that the Jews at least knew who to worship.

He says the Samaritans didn't even know who they were worshiping.

In other words, they didn't even know who God was.

But the reality is both Jew, and he's making this point, both Jew and Samaritan were doing the wrong kind of worship.

Their acts of worship were reflecting motivations that were more to fulfill this preconceived external requirement they thought they needed to do.

And it would be ritualistic.

And at least, and as indicated already, at least for the Jews or the Jewish leadership, their acts of worship was were just hypocritical.

They just wanted to be seen.

So what Jesus is telling the woman here is this you can connect with God wherever you are.

You don't have to go to a place, you don't have to have an animal sacrifice.

God is where you are.

We see this, you know, early on in scripture.

Wherever people are humble, sincere, submissive to him, wherever they love him, you see it all through the Old Testament.

Joseph, of course, he was a slave in Egypt, but God was with him.

He never made it to Jerusalem.

The father of the faithful, Abraham, God met him in Babylon.

Abraham never made it to Jerusalem, at least in the sense that there wasn't even a Jerusalem there then.

And of course, Moses, he never made it to the promised land.

But God was with Moses all through the wilderness.

This is the key, right?

Wherever you are, you can worship.

You should worship wherever you are.

God is not confined to a specific location.

You worship God when you are subject to Him.

So really making worship a priority simply means being subject to God at all times.

It's not restricted to church time here, it's not restricted to your prayer time, it's not restricted to your Bible study time.

Yes, those are specific acts conveying worship.

Those are good.

But we are also being worshipful, or we should be, as we go about our day-to-day, just seeking to follow God.

In other words, we're to be in a worshipful mode at all times.

Romans 12.

Let's look at Romans 12.

And beginning in verse 1.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Now, here again, we see emphasis on both outward behavior and our inner life.

The indication here is what I kind of already mentioned, but it's Paul lays it out here.

The indication is what prompts our full worship is our just appreciation for the mercies of God.

You know, he says, in view of the mercies of God.

Mercy begets, to use the old King James word, mercy begets thankfulness.

Thankfulness results in a grateful behavior or worshipful behavior.

If we are grateful for what God has provided through his grace, we should be grateful enough to obey him.

We should seek to make him happy as he has brought us joy.

God has made sacrifice for us.

Our appropriate response is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

And it's noteworthy here, I think, that Paul presents our worship in a different order than we tend to think.

And I recognize that this is probably purposeful, but he starts here with the outward.

We normally mention that we really can't do anything outward unless there's been this inward renewal, right?

And that's true.

But he's made the point up through Romans that we that we've been reading, he's made the point up through there that we are renewed inwardly by the Spirit.

In fact, really Romans 12 is picking up where we left off in Romans 8.

Uh really the last sermon that I gave.

That's probably the main thing he's doing is picking that back up because what's happened is, I don't know if you remember, but I told you that I'm hoping that next year we can study Romans 9 through Romans 11 as a unit.

He takes a digression, a major digression about the nation of Israel.

It's majorly debated right now.

Um, and so I want us to look at it.

I'm still not 100% sure what I think about it, but I want to explain to you what people say about it.

But anyway, um so after he gets away from that at the end of Romans 11, now he comes back to Romans 12, and again, he you may remember in Romans 8, he had been talking about the wonders of the believer's triumph through Christ.

The last thing that we studied, and in doing so, he noted how we belong to Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

So probably what he's doing here is just noting that we can start obeying the second we profess faith.

So once we say, yes, Jesus, I receive you as my savior, I believe in you, however that goes about, and we're born again, we can start obeying God.

But on the other hand, changing our mindset about everything is going to take some time.

The first order of business is to recognize that, yeah, God is my Lord, and I want to present myself to Him in obedience.

In all religions, worship involves sacrifice.

In Christianity, what this is saying is we are the sacrifice.

Not, of course, in the sense of dying, although it can come to that.

It has come to that for a lot of Christians.

But in general, it's presenting ourselves as living sacrifices.

And it's sacrificial in the sense that we're again going against our natural fleshly impulses, you know, the fleshly desires that we want to fulfill.

And that's what Paul has talked about.

We've studied that in Romans.

Instead of physical animal sacrifices, we are offering up, he says, spiritual sacrifices.

But the sacrifice is not entirely spiritual, again, because there is this physical aspect of offering our bodies.

Paul seems to be saying the offering of your body as an outward act indicates your inward worship.

It's been said it's harder to live for Christ than to die physically for him.

And if you think about it, you can understand that, right?

To die for Christ requires a decision in a moment that I'm not denying him.

And that's it.

I mean, we don't know what we might have to suffer in that instant, but it's one decision.

To live for him requires many decisions in many moments.

Dying to yourself decade after decade requires lots of choices for lots of days.

But Paul's saying that is your reasonable service or your reasonable worship.

That is making worship a priority.

It's approaching decisions, and I've mentioned this before.

The question is, would Father approve?

Instead of presenting an animal for sacrifice, I am presenting me.

You are presenting you.

We now belong to God.

My purpose is to be his purpose.

In other words, or two rephrase, what are God's purposes for me?

Everything I do at this point should be in pursuit of his pursuit.

What he would have me do.

If I move without any concern for God's will, I am not making worship a priority.

As a living sacrifice and still living, but still living in this fleshly coal.

We have a tendency, you know, when we think about it in terms of symbolism, I guess, is a sacrifice on the altar.

We'll try to crawl off the altar.

Of sacrifice.

It's of note here that Paul uses the word translated as present.

It's the same word that, or at least it's the same verb form we read in Romans 6, 13.

I'm going to flip back there since we're in Romans.

Romans 6 and verse 12.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.

Do not offer, that's the word that's translated present over there.

Do not present any parts of it to sins as weapons for unrighteousness.

But as for those who are alive from the dead, present yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

That's that last part there is basically what he's saying in verse 12.

In Romans 6, Paul is saying, we cannot present any part of ourselves to sin.

And then by contrast in Romans 12, he's saying we are to present our whole bodies, all of our individual members as instruments for God's service and God's purposes.

That is true worship.

And Peter picks up on this thing in 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2.

Let me just read it.

Verse 4.

As you come to him, a living stone, rejected by people but chosen in honor by God, you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Again, it's the idea of offering spiritual sacrifices.

This is our reasonable act of worship.

And yes, it does.

I think we think of worship as just adoration.

And again, I run around charismatic circles sometimes, so they, you know, get they put an emphasis sometimes on the emotional side of it.

Um and look at verses nine, verse nine.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people for his possession, so that you may proclaim his praises.

Um this, I think, brings us back to what Paul said.

Our worship ultimately is in how we live.

And it's really not in how we feel at any given time.

But how we live does stem from our thankfulness for what's been done for us.

And in that sincere thankfulness, we will praise God.

His deeds are amazing and wonderful.

He has blessed us.

He is awesome in power indeed.

And there, as we think about that and contemplate that, there is emotion in that, and it can be really powerful.

But it's not, again, primarily about emotion because emotions do ebb and flow.

Uh I was thinking about some of our charismatic brethren.

They're they're they're encouraging to me from the standpoint that they do, you know, get excited.

And I think part of sometimes it's based on our personalities, I think, how we, you know, if we get excited about certain things or not.

So it's it's not that it's anything that has to be, but there's certainly nothing wrong with being emotional in our worship.

And in living for God, I I mentioned this last time, and I want to say it again because I'm stressing here as we, you know, worshiping God and going in a worshipful attitude basically involves us living for Him every day and seeking His will.

But that's not meant to paralyze us.

Notice, I I notice this.

Let me go back to uh to the Romans 12 passage and notice what he says here.

So that you may discern what is good and pleasing.

I don't know if you remember last time I mentioned something about a kid that wouldn't he wouldn't eat his breakfast cereal.

He was asking God, what do you want me to eat for breakfast?

Fruit loops or apple jacks, you know.

I mean, it's just no, that's not what God is saying.

You can ask him anything, of course, but he's not the way that the Bible presents it is has a pragmatic sense to it, a practical sense to it.

We're going to be walking.

God is with us, we want to follow him, we'll ask him, and then we'll walk.

We're not paralyzed, just go and ask God for wisdom.

Keep moving forward.

To worship God means to prize him above everything else.

We are to honor him at the highest of importance because, of course, he is.

And again, that's pointing to our hearts.

So if we want to worship God in a way that pleases him, again, it starts with our hearts, our will.

And it is more than just emotion.

God can't be second place in our lives.

If we want to worship him, then we must put him first above everything else.

If we love something more than God, then we are devaluing him.

You know, whether it's another person or a possession or a job or even a hobby, anything, anything that we hold in more esteem than God, that really is idolatry.

So if we want worship to be more of a priority, we must love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds.

A great commandment, you know, that Jesus said.

And love for God, I think, is the result really of truly knowing Him.

When we come to appreciate more of what He's done and understand more of who He is, we can't help but love Him.

And the Holy Spirit that indwells us moves us in that way as well.

Through the Bible, God reveals himself to us, of course, and through our lives, he reveals himself.

We see how much he loves us and we understand what he's given us through his gospel.

So spend time reading his word, responding to it in prayer.

The more we read his word, I think and pray, and then just contemplate on it on his mercies, Paul says, and and his grace, then our hearts will continue to be more and more filled with love for him.

Now, before we wrap up, I do just want to have a brief word about corporate worship.

God, of course, tells us to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together.

That's Hebrews 10 and 25.

Clearly, God wants us to love one another.

And he mentions it's not in the context of church, but he says, of course, the second great commandment is like the first love your neighbor as yourself.

And um, so it's very important we love each other.

And he tells us elsewhere, Paul tells us we need to take care of our family.

And we're, of course, that means our physical family, but also we take care of our spiritual family.

We're told the early church was in fellowship, shared resources, they encouraged one another.

And I just want to point out since the most important factors in our worship are hearts and minds, really, the the external actions are not very important in Christian worship.

If we think about it, there are no rules for whether we sit or stand or whether we're quiet or whether we shout amen in the service, or whether we raise our hands or sing praises loudly.

There's none of that stuff.

You know, here in our worship service, we've adopted what you might call the the big four.

You can think of them as the S if you want to.

The uh singing, uh scripture, supplication, and speaking, or if you prefer, singing and scripture and prayer and preaching.

That's the that's the big four that we have.

And oddly enough, that's probably what most churches do, although some will have more ritualistic.

Um and I don't think there's anything wrong with the ritualistic approach, um, you know, as some do.

And even uh we're planning on doing communion this weekend, and that's a bit of a ritual that Jesus Himself prescribed.

So nothing wrong with that.

Um, but churches do divide over these issues, right?

Based on the emphasis of those things or how those things are presented in the service.

We've had some complaints over the years.

I and I'm definitely open, I'm sure Richard is too, to changing things how we do.

You know, I was thinking about it, I've been here, I guess, 25 years now.

Um, and we've not changed very much.

We uh we probably don't sing quite as much as we used to.

I was thinking about every other area is probably the same.

Now, I don't think it's necessarily bad.

I don't think we're stale, but we're certainly static.

We're not changing things around a lot, so it might not be a bad thing to jolt them up.

I mean, I'm probably not going to cut down on my preaching time unless you just make me.

Um, but I could, you know, for an extended song or two, or we could just extend the service a little bit.

And look, people, you know, people can be emotional in the service.

We typically haven't done that.

There's you don't have to be either.

Um again, there's no prescription for that.

But if people want to raise their hands in the service, there's there's no judgment about that.

It's between individual and God, just like if you don't raise them.

Um anyway, I just thought I'd mention that.

I don't know if corporate worship was at all in mind for the topic, but it, you know, I just realized in thinking about our corporate worship over the years, that it could be that some people could be saying, well, it might not hurt us to do things a little differently, change things up a little bit.

So it's certainly okay to bring that up if that's how you feel, because I I think I know Richard and I think the same way about this.

We want the service to help you grow in your love and knowledge of the Lord that will lead to more devout worship personally and then ultimately corporately.

And I think that's what we all honestly desire.

So let's pray.

Father in heaven, um, thank you for your word.

Thank you that uh you love us and that you have sustained us, that we're able to still be here as a church family.

We thank you so much for that.

And um we um thank you, Father, that uh you do love the things that are small and um and unwise and all that, Father, because you're because you're so kind toward us.

And uh we um know we can do nothing without your help.

And we just praise you.

We are in awe of all that you have done for us individually.

We know we all go through trials and difficulties, and we're just thankful that we have you to turn to, and we have our spiritual family, our physical families to look to, and we just thank you and praise you, Father, and we want to worship you more fully in spirit and in truth.

And we thank you for your word and just the love that you have for us and all that you've done for us and the comfort you bring to us, and so we praise you for it, Father, and just pray that you would be with us this week and and others that we couldn't be here, and then just the other brothers and sisters, Father.

And we we thank you again for hearing our prayer and for being with us in Jesus' name, amen.