Morning church. And. Merry Christmas, a little bit early, a couple days early, and if you're here on Christmas Eve, then we'll be able to say Merry Christmas again, but Merry Christmas to everyone.

We are doing a little series as we prepare to move into the new location, and as we do this, the, we're going through a handful of topics that are basically church essentials, things that can be formative. for the culture of our church and our expectations and things that don't always get laid out loud, this is a chance for us to say them out loud, so that way we can acknowledge them and build our church culture around them.

And today we're talking about worship, and in particular what I'm getting at is the right worship of God whenever we come together on Sunday for worship. There's a phrase that was popular a few years ago that you've probably heard it many times and I've said it many times and I won't say it going forward with at least not without qualification.

And here's the phrase. The phrase is all of life is worship. You probably heard that, right? You heard that? I've said that before and it's true but it's not true without any qualification. Because what happens whenever we say things like that is there's a subtle implication that if all of life is worship, then nothing in particular is worship.

And it has the effect of downgrading the value and the power and the necessity of when we formally gather for worship on the Lord’s Day, as we're doing this morning. So, it can lead to essentially an apathy towards the church when we gather for worship. And that's what I want to address. I want to I want to address the fact that worship is not merely something that happens at our leisure.

Worship is something that we are called into and there is a particular a liturgy. There is a service. There's an order to the way that God's people are required to worship whenever we come together. And scripture tells us God did create us for this reason. He created us for worship. In an all of life sense, and he created us to worship him in a very specific way.

And that's what we're talking about this morning. And whenever we do worship him in that way, God demands that we worship him rightly. It's not anything goes. There is a way that we are called to worship him. And so faithful Christians should make Lord's Day worship a priority, top priority. So that means, you show up with your mind and your heart prepared and you're ready to engage in the worship of God in a very reverent and delighted way.

That's the essence of what I want to talk about this morning. And everything I say this morning is driving at that one main application point. So, I'll just say it again. The main application point that I'm driving at and everything I say in the morning is simply that. Exodus. That we would value the worship of the Lord on the Lord’s Day whenever we come together as a church.

And that we will come expectant and with our hearts and minds prepared to do so in a very reverent and serious way. That's what I'm getting at. And with that, let's dig in and turn in your Bible to the book of Exodus. Turn in your Bible to the book of Exodus. We're going to be in chapter 24 and I'm going to read the entire chapter.

Exodus chapter 24, listen to God's word.

Then he said to Moses, this is the Lord speaking, then he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come nearer to the Lord, but the others shall not come near. And the people shall not come up with him. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules.

And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins. And half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they said all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient and Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words Then Moses and Aaron 70 of the elders of Israel went up and they saw the blood The God of Israel, there was under his feet, as it were a pavement of Sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction. So, Moses rose with his assistant Joshua and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

And he said to the elders. Wait here for us until we return to you, and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them. Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, the word of the Lord.

A few observations about this text, I'm not going to observe everything that could be observed about it, but I'll just give you a few very quickly. Seven of them. Number one, God determines who can approach him and under what conditions. It is his prerogative.

I've got these on the screen. Under what conditions who can approach God? So, to the to the native and a buy who, and the others, they had to worship from afar, but for Moses, he could come near God determines this. Number two, God gave specific instructions, how to conduct worship, and he did not allow any deviation from it.

So, they're not permitted to worship however they want. They were not permitted to come up with some of their own ideas or to suggest their own ways of worship. God dictated how they were to worship, and they were to follow exactly what God prescribed for them. Number three, sinful people cannot worship a perfectly holy God without the sacrificial blood to atone for their sins.

We see this in verse eight, Moses took the blood and threw it on the people. It's a bloody affair and kind of gross at this thing. Threw it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. So, the covenant of God was ratified with blood, and they were not permitted to enter into his presence and worship him without the blood of sacrifice.

Number four, God was present with them in worship. Verse 10, they saw the God of Israel. He was there. Number five, God's people worshiped by eating a fellowship meal with him.

So, verse 11, they beheld God, and they ate and drank. And this is something that we don't, doesn't get a lot of attention, but this is an important part of Old Testament worship. Worship was a fellowship meal because you're dining with the divine. And so, it's a part of worship. And we'll get into a moment how we do that now.

Number six, God's people received instruction from the Lord. And God was gracious to write down that instruction on stone and Moses preserved it for them. And number seven, God's presence continued with them as his glory came down in the cloud of fire in the sight of his people. So, there's just a few quick observations about what was happening in this particular instance.

We're New Testament Christians, and we do not worship the way they worshipped then, right? Things have changed in light of Jesus Christ and his coming, and Jesus has fulfilled what the Old Testament law was pointing to, and now, in the New Testament time, worship is fixed on Jesus, and it's changed.

Nevertheless, it is not as though these things are not instructive for us and is not as though God has somehow changed. It's the same God and God's priorities and prerogatives are the same, but the forms and structure is somewhat modified in light of Christ. So let me give you the changes that have happened in the New Testament.

All of these things are fulfilled in Christ. Now Jesus has fulfilled Israel. He is the true Israel. Jesus is the true Son of God. In the Old Testament, Israel as a nation was the Son of God. Number three, Jesus is the true people of God. He is the one who is the perfect embodiment of God's people. Number four, Jesus is the true Lamb of God.

He is the sacrifice. And John says, Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And yet, the Lamb that was slain has risen from the grave. Number five, Jesus is the true temple. He is the place of worship. And in the book of John, Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will rise it up again.

Raise it up again, meaning the body, the temple of his body. Whenever his body was crucified, the temple was destroyed. And then God raised it up again in three days. And so now Jesus is the God man. Who's by whose death, all things are reconciled to himself and through whose spirit fills all things. Number six, Jesus opens the way for true worshipers to worship God in spirit and in truth, such as the Father seeks.

We see this in John 4. And since we worship God in spirit and in truth, God's people can gather for worship wherever we happen to be. Because the spirit of God, the temple, is in the people of God whenever they gather. They are transformed into a holy priesthood, a holy nation. And so, we worship in truth, meaning what we've heard and received and believed is the truth of the gospel that was preached to us, which we received, and we believed when we committed our life to the truth of who God is and what he has done to save us.

And we worship by the Spirit, because our hearts are regenerated by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit lives within us. So now, therefore, anywhere true Christians are, and they gather together as a church, they may worship in spirit and in truth in any corner of the globe. It is no longer localized in Jerusalem at a building.

It is now wherever God's people are. So, we can worship in Grand Cathedral somewhere, and we can worship in Third World Mud Huts, and we can worship at 333 Warner Street in Clifton, Cincinnati, Ohio. We can worship God wherever we choose, and whenever we, wherever we come together and say we are the church and we are going to worship God, we are free to do now, even though Worship has been transformed by Christ. The basic contours and the basic shape of worship has not changed. We still worship God by his invitation, and we do so on his terms. We do so by the means of blood, and we still enjoy his presence. We still dine at his table during communion. We still receive instruction from his word, and we worship in the power of his spirit who is with us.

God cares about worship. Worship matters, not because God is insecure, but because He is worthy of it, and He created us for worship. God is not needy, God is worthy. And not only is he worthy, but by virtue of the fact that we are created beings, we owe him utter allegiance. Once we were his enemies, we were traitors and rebels who would have had no existence apart from him.

And yet though he created us, we rejected him. We rebelled against him. We were his enemies, and we did not give him glory. And rather than destroying us as he rightly could have, he rescued us. He forgave us. He adopted us into his family. He transformed us. He called us his own children. He is our Father.

And He did all these things at the cost of that which is most precious, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of His Son, that which is of supreme value. God owes us nothing, but God gave us everything. We owe God everything, and yet we have nothing to offer. Whenever we come and worship, we do so knowing that this is It is the background story that is operative whenever we come.

He is worthy of all worship. He is worthy of everything. And yet there is nothing we could possibly give him that would increase him, improve him, benefit him in any way. We give him our worship. We give him our hearts and our praise simply because he is worthy of it, simply because it is what we were made to do.

And we do so without any expectation. We do so without any sense that we deserve anything at all. It is all because of his grace that is enabled and paid for by his own blood. And so, the only proper response whenever we come to worship is to fall on our faces before him and total humility and gratitude.

And so, with that in mind, what should we know now as New Testament Christians, how to worship God properly? What should we think about proper worship as New Testament Christians? I want to give you three points. Three points. And the first one is worship must be orderly. Worship must be orderly. I'll read you one text.

1 Corinthians 14:40 says, but all things should be done decently and in order. If we were to read the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 14, we would see that he's giving instructions for worship. And the Corinthian church, whenever they got together for worship, it was chaotic. And there were things went nuts and the people running around and it was a bit chaotic and wild, and Paul is telling them, hey, whenever you gather for worship, everything should be done decently.

And in order there are acceptable forms of worship. We'll give some examples of things in scripture that we see that are acceptable forms. Confession of sin, we do that. Lament, praise, thanksgiving, prayer, singing, preaching. And these things can be done standing, sitting, kneeling, lying prostrate, with heads bowed, or standing up with hands uplifted.

These are forms that are acceptable. If you've read through the Bible, you've probably gotten bogged down around, right around this part where we're reading here. So, you read through Genesis and it's pretty exciting. It's riveting. It's a gripping story. And even though there's some stuff that you may not understand, it's an exciting story.

And then you get to it in Exodus and man, it just keeps going. And then you get to Mount Sinai and God appears to them, and they have this wonderful experience where God speaks, and he saves them out of Egypt and there's the ten plagues and then they come to Mount Sinai and then he gives them the ten commandments.

And it's big, exciting, and then 24, chapter 24 of Exodus, you see this ceremony where the covenant is ratified, and God is on the cloud, and its fire, and its smoke, and its glory, and it's amazing. And then for the rest of the book of Exodus, it is a detailed schematic of the tabernacle. You're probably thinking this is the most boring thing.

God, how, do you not know how to write a story? This story is so dull, like what, why do you have all these measurements? And you're telling us what kind of yarn to use, telling us what color to use and how many cubits this and how many, basins of this and the bronze altar and all this stuff. It's it just seems like God, like, why is it so detailed?

And it's detailed because God cares about how he is worshiped. If there's one message that you can take away from all of those chapters is that God did not tell the people in exodus, hey, now that God has saved you and brought you to his mountain, he's going to send you in his land, go find some way to worship

Figure it out somehow. God does not give them liberty to just go and choose to worship however they please. God says, you will worship in this building that is measured exactly this way. It must be set up exactly this way. It must be led by these men who are dressed this way. Here's what it looks like.

Here's what the turban looks like. Here's what the breastplate looks like. And you will use these utensils. Everything is extraordinarily detailed because God wants worship to be in order. It must be done decently. And there's a particular way that God wants to be worshipped.

Here's a term that may be new to you. Some of you may be familiar with it, but the term is called the regulative principle. We don't use this term a lot, but we practice it. Generally speaking, and the regular principle of worship basically means that worship must be conformed to what is prescribed in scripture.

We don't make up things that are outside of scripture. We submit to what the scripture says about worship and how we should conduct it. So, the worship we practice, whenever we come here on the Lord’s Day, it’s not a place for our innovations and our creativity in a sense of we're just making up things and hey, I want to just offer up to God whatever I feel like, no, it's like there's a particular structure in order to it.

And the order of service that we do. is simple and straightforward, and every part of it is part of the gospel story. And we rehearse the gospel story every week. Whenever we come here, we call that a liturgy and every part of the liturgy is authorized by scripture. And we know Wade talks about this a lot.

We try to make a practice of using the Bible's own words to in the liturgy that we do. So, there's a call to worship at the beginning where God invites us in. There's a confession of sin where we acknowledge we don't belong here. We are not worthy to worship and yet God invited us to be here. So, we start with a confession and then there is an assurance that our sins are forgiven based on the blood of Jesus and his finished work and our faith in him.

And we do these things singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And then there is a pastoral prayer of some type. There's a time of hospitality and greeting where the, you know, Alex this morning gave announcements and there was a prayer about a particular need that we have. And reading of scripture.

Then we have a ministry of the word, and after that we do the ministry of the table where we commune, we dine, we have a fellowship meal together with God. And then there's a benediction. A benediction is a good word. Bene means good. Diction is a something. You speak benediction, which is, we're sent out with a good word of blessing for the road.

That's an order and worship should be orderly. I'm not saying that every church must do it the exact same way, but I'm saying worship must be done decently and in order. Second point, worship is dangerous. Worship is dangerous. So, in the story I read in Exodus 24, there were four names. Do you remember those?

It Moses and his brother, Aaron, and he had Aaron's two kids, Nadab and Abihu. But Nadab and Abihu are famous, not for that story, right? But for the story I'm about to read to you, Leviticus chapter 10 verses 1 through 3, Nadab and Abihu were priests that were ordained in the ministry. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it.

And laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said, among those who are near me, I will be sanctified. And before all the people, I will be glorified, and Aaron held his peace.

Aaron's boys were just terminated because they offered unauthorized fire. And then Moses said, Aaron, this is what's going down. The people who minister in the Lord's temple, the people who come near, God will be sanctified before them, and God will be glorified before the people. And your boys did something they were not allowed to do.

They offered unauthorized fire. Strange fire, some translations call it. And because they participated in unauthorized worship, the Lord killed them. Harsh?

Worship is dangerous.

God did not kill them for worshiping idols, even. Do you notice that? It didn't say Nadab and Abihu were, they built an Asherah pole. And they were out there worshiping the Baals, and the Lord consumed them. No, they were trying to worship God Himself, but they were doing so in a way that God did not authorize.

And because they were offering strange fire, the Lord consumed them. They were offering, they were worshiping the right God in the wrong way. This is one of the many troubling things that happens in secret churches. And that is they cheapen the worship of God. They turn the worship service into a venue of self-expression, religious entertainment.

Now here's the thing if humans, sinful humans, are not constrained. We will turn worship into a blasphemous monstrosity. And there are more examples than I can think of that I can count that I have seen in recent years about churches that do all kinds of just wildly inappropriate things that are not just unauthorized, but are just straight up irreverent, disrespectful, dishonoring to God himself and acting as though dishonoring God is an expression of his grace.

It's look how gracious God is. I can treat God with utter contempt. Isn't that wonderful how gracious God being? I'm like, no, that is not. The people who act that way and do these things have, should have more fear of the Lord. But worship is a lot more dangerous than we realize because this is not an anything goes gathering.

Worship is meant to be an invitation for forgiven sinners to honor and glorify God in an orderly way that he prescribes. But if people disregard what the Bible says about worship, the very service of worship can become an invitation for his wrath.

Ephesians 13, or just 12 rather. Paul says, if we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, who do we wrestle against? It's the rulers, it's the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places. That is what we're dealing with.

Think of it this way. Suppose you're at a gun range and you want to train your young son, how to handle a firearm.

How do you teach him? Son, here's your gun. There you go. Don't shoot anybody. Try not to kill anybody. Is that how you handle it? Or do you say it now, son, listen, before I even put this in your hands, we’re going to talk. This is a dangerous weapon, and this dangerous weapon can be used for very good purposes, but it could also be used for very deadly purposes that are very harmful, and you must know how to utilize this weapon in ways that are for good and not in ways that are harmful.

Or even careless because somebody could die with your carelessness. So, you have a talk, and you tell them here is an order and people handle guns. You know that there is an order. It's as a safety on is there a round in the chamber? How do you hand it to them? I make the, there's a liturgy of sorts.

There's a practice of even how you handle a firearm because you're handling something that is deadly. That also can be very good. That could also have a very good use. Whenever God shows up in the Bible, he is described in ways that sound more like a deadly weapon than a teddy bear.

There's thunders, there's lightnings there's flashes of cloud and smoke and fire and heat. God's presence is never safe. It's described in ways that sound like a hurricane and a tornado and a volcano all wrapped into one. That's who God is. And that is the God who invited us to come here and to worship him today.

And who tells us, here's how I want it to go. That's who God is. But whenever worship is conducted sinfully or carelessly, it's like handing a child a loaded weapon. And this is why blood is always a requirement for worship, because sin itself is an act of violence against the Holy God. And sin can only be atoned for by an act of violence, which Christ suffered on our behalf at his own blood being shed.

So, whenever worship is conducted righteously, it is a weapon of warfare against our spiritual enemies. This gathering is like a loaded weapon, and it is trained and aimed against our spiritual enemies. And there is power in the worship of God. When God's people worship him rightly, when they come together with hearts prepared and they're focused and fixed on the Lord, and we are engaged, it doesn't matter if we sing off key or if the preacher's boring or if the slides don't work.

Those things don't matter. Those are mere incidental aspects of worship. But God's people coming together for the express purpose of worship is powerful. And it is transformative. It transforms us. It transforms one another. It glorifies God. It is a testimony of who God is to the world. These things matter because worship is dangerous.

Because God himself, as C. S. Lewis said in the Aslan books, he's not a tame lion. He's not safe, but he's good. And that is who our God is. It's a great description of him. And so whenever faithful Christians, armed with the truth of God, whenever they gather in this way, Jesus says the gates of hell will not be able to stand against its power.

And so, for these reasons, worship is much more than most Christians think, because this is a spiritual battleground. And whenever men and women gather together for worship, we are trafficking in mighty powers in spiritual places that are unseen. We should approach worship knowing that what we are engaged in is something equivalent to plutonium.

This is powerful, and this is dangerous. But it has extraordinary potential for wonderful and great things to happen. We can't see these spiritual realities with our physical eyes, but we know that they are there because God's word tells us, of course, God is the Lord of the spiritual realm and all of the universe and every other.

And whenever God's word speaks, he's telling us what is true about not only our realm, but about the spiritual realm that we can't see. And we know from God's word that these things are true. So whenever little old ladies get together in a country church singing Fanny Crosby hymns, Podunk Baptist Church in Mud Creek, West Virginia, with a piano that's out of tune, if they even have a piano, they add their voices to the angelic host of heaven that are fighting a spiritual war with otherworldly weapons because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

We wrestle against cosmic powers and principalities and forces in the heavenly places. That's what we're committing acts of aggression against. Because God is powerful, and that's where God tells us the war is, and whenever we worship, we are committing warfare. We are waging war against God's enemies, and we are taking ground.

And the weapons of our church are word and sacrament. And it's the prayers of God's people and the worship of the church is like a battering ram. So, every Sunday as we come together and we sing and we pray and we hear God's word and we feast at his table, we're taking another swing with that battering ram against the gates of hell, which Jesus promises will not be able to withstand us.

And so, for this reason, both of these reasons, leads me to my third point, that is worship must be reverent. Worship must be reverent. There's a few places in the Bible that give an exclusive peek behind the curtain where you can see the worship of God unveiled. One is Exodus 24, that we've just read.

There's another one. And this one is familiar and some of you may be, your favorite, it's one of my favorites. We get to see Heaven's throne room. And this, among many others, they always communicate a similar message. There's a sense of awe and transcendence and wonder. I'm reading the, just finished the book of Revelation for my Bible reading plan for this year.

Even the angels are so glorious and mind blowing that a couple different times the angel has to tell John, Hey John, get up dude, I'm not God. Don't worship me, worship God. But he is so blown away by the spectacular, amazing splendor of the angels that he has to be told don't worship him. That's what the spiritual realm is like that we don't see, but scripture testifies to us that it's real.

Isaiah chapter six, listen to this and see if you can let this, let the text paint a picture in your mind of what Isaiah saw. In the year that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. He's in the temple and he's beholding, seeing something. I saw the Lord sitting up on a throne high and lifted up.

He's way up there and the train of his robe filled the temple. So, imagine this flowing glorious robe and it is just it's so massive that it's filling the temple and above him stood the seraphim. Now the seraphim are not these cute little chubby baby angels with wings floating around. The seraphim are fiery winged serpents.

And they're terrifying. If we saw one, you would be absolutely horrified. But these creatures are around the throne. Each of them had six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one called to another. And he said, Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Not just this temple, not just this robe, but the entire planet, the entire globe. In fact, the entire universe is filled with his glory. That's who this God is. And they're so enamored with it. It's so fascinated and captivated by it. They don't shut up. They say it all the time. Holy. It's this antiphonal praise where they're calling to one another left side, right side holy is the Lord of hosts and the whole earth is filled with his glory.

Can you imagine seeing that? Can you imagine how mind blowing it would have been for Isaiah to witness these things? And he's there, and he's watching this thing unfold. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. It's blinding. He can't see anything.

And then he responds in the only way that is appropriate for any human being to respond. And he calls down, woe upon himself saying, woe is me for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now imagine if you were there.

Imagine if you had seen that. You would have been face down eating dirt because that is all that we are worthy of. Because God is glorious and he's in his temple and he's high and he's lifted up and he's so holy. He's unfathomably glorious.

Then one of the seraphim flew. That's terrifying. One of these huge winged fiery serpents. Coming down and making a beeline for him. And he had in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth, and he said, behold, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away. Your sin atoned for.

What on earth?

If we ever, for a split second, truly comprehended the depth of our sin and how utterly reprehensible sin is to this God. We would spend the rest of eternity marveling that he would ever lower himself to forgive us, let alone at the price of his own blood. And yet here we are. That is what he's done.

Wouldn't you know it? That's what we'll spend eternity doing because that's what happened. What Isaiah is describing here is something that is very real, even though our eyes can't see it.

Would you be surprised to think that this reality described in Isaiah is actually present here. You might think there's no way. I don't see that. We have in here. We have fussy babies. Praise God for them. We've got, some people are various levels of awake. Some of us can't sing a note.

Sometimes the sound system will go off or the words will be wrong on the screen. Sometimes you showed up here and you're just barely able to drag yourself in the door. You argue with your wife or your husband on the way here, arguing with your kids. You showed up angry, frustrated. The last thing you want to do is sing and pray and act, smile and fake it like everything's great when you've had the worst week of your life.

And yet in that moment, if you were to see As God sees, if you were to see the spiritual realm, if God would appeal back reality and give you an insider's look, an exclusive peek at the spiritual realm that happens simultaneously, coexistent with this realm, we can't see it. But if we saw that, we would be instantly overwhelmed.

By the power and the majesty and the glory, and we would forget everything, and it would all dissipate and fade away because of how utterly powerful that moment would be.

But what we see with spiritual eyes, and this is faith, right? We don't see this with our eyes, but if we see through spiritual eyes, believing what we see in Scripture about what it is like in the throne room of God. We know that God is here, and God is no less glorious now than He was in Isaiah's day.

God is present, and the whole angelic host follows Him around and surrounds Him everywhere He goes. And these angels are bursting with delight and wonder at the extraordinary privilege to worship this God. And their sense of wonder will overflow and causes them to repeat. Just over and over again.

Something that would bore us to tears. Holy. Yeah, okay, gotta get it. Because we don't see. We don't believe. But it's no less real. And if only we could see it. If only we could see this. The way God sees this. What we're doing right now. A true church that gathers in true worship and joining the angelic realm in worship.

If only we knew that the spirit of God applies the grace of God to everything we do. And he takes our meager prayers and our distracted singing, and our boring sermons and he lifts them to heaven. Like a sweet fragrance that fills the throne room of God with a delight.

This is who God is. This is what God is like. This is the God who bids us come and worship Him. Therefore, when we come to worship, we should not do so in a cavalier, dismissive way. We should come to worship with our hearts, prepared with our minds engaged hearts full of humility and contrition and reverence.

And even if you've had the worst week of your life, you could still come with your heart prepared knowing Lord, nothing in my hands, I bring simply through thy cross I cling. I've got nothing to give you, but I know that you are the only thing that I truly need, and you are. everything that I really want.

And you come here, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. It's a confession, right? Seraphim touched his lips and said, your sin is atoned for. Your guilt is taken away. There's an assurance of pardon.

So, let's conclude then with a simple exhortation. Worship is about giving just as much as it is about getting. There's probably something that everybody in this room at one time or another has said about worship, and I'm not being overly critical because I've said it myself, but you've probably said something like, you leave church, didn't really get anything out of that today.

Somebody you talk to later on the Sunday afternoon what was church about today? Yeah, it was all right. I didn't get anything out of it. Didn't really get anything out of the sermon today.

No, I am certain. The elders of this church want everybody who comes on Sunday to get something, to be edified because scriptures tell us, do everything for edifying, right? So, we want people to get things and to be built up to get a real spiritual benefit from our worship gathering. And we work hard, we prepare in order to do that very thing.

However, the benefit that we get is simply a byproduct of the real reason we're here. Amen. And the real reason we're here is because of God. This gathering is for God. We're called to worship God. And then we gather, and we worship God with the saints, with other people who are here to worship God. And whenever God calls people together and all of them are here to worship him, that is the purpose, and their hearts are prepared and engaged regardless of what happened in their week.

But they come knowing this is why we're here. Then everybody will receive something, everybody will benefit from that. And so, we all get, but we don't come to get, we come to, to proclaim and to declare and to give and to serve and to worship and to glorify. And in doing those activities, that's where we receive the greatest benefit.

So, if you ever say, I didn't get anything out of church today. Consider whether or not your heart is really in the right place, whether you're not, whether or not you're really here for worship, whether or not you're really here because God is worthy and that's enough.

But we still get things. We get to see our friends. We get to sing with the saints. We get to hear the word of God. We get to be reminded of his grace despite our sin. We get to dine and share a meal with the Lord and with our fellow saints. God bless. What do you mean you didn't get anything? You got lots of things.

You got lots of things. You maybe didn't appreciate them, but you did get lots of things. And if everyone thought of church in this way, of I didn't get anything, if that was a general attitude, it wouldn't be a healthy church. Because a church like that can't function. If everybody comes to a relationship thinking, what do I get from you, that's not going to be a healthy relationship.

But if everybody comes to church thinking, I have something to offer, I have my voice to add to the chorus of saints. I have a prayer that I can offer to somebody who's in need. I have just my smiling presence that I can bring and that I know that builds somebody up and just showing up is an offering to the Lord and to the other saints that benefits them.

Now what I'm saying here, is one of the many things that I love about our church, because I'm describing an attitude that I don't see very often. I can't remember the last time I heard anybody in this church say anything like I didn't get anything out of the service. It's not something that I hear and we're talking about it because we want to keep it that way.

And that's why we're doing this little series over these few weeks, because whenever we go into a new building, there may be more people that come, Lord willing, we need them we want them to be here, but we don't want to lose a good thing that I think is a strength. So, this attitude that we have is an attitude we want to maintain as part of our culture.

And so simply, the takeaway here is whenever you come to worship on Sunday, bring them your best.

Make this the highlight of your week. Make this the thing in your week that you never miss unless you have no other alternative but make this something that is mission critical and orient the rest of your life around it. That means when you think about an advance and you make preparations, you show up, we're not exactly the most punctual of people.

Just to be honest, but show up on time, prepared, and in 10 minutes, we'll make all the difference. Show up enough time to say hello to a few people and then greet the saints. Make your way into this room. And then whenever Wade begins a call to worship in the first song, you're at the ground running with your eyes and your heart fixed on the Lord's and Lord, this is about you or here for you and whatever I get will be whatever you happen to give, and I'll receive it gladly.

So, whenever we come, we give God an attitude that is less like an entertainment or less like a, something, a spectacle, but more an attitude of service and duty. My Lord, my master has called me into active duty, and I report every Sunday morning for duty. You have that kind of attitude? And watch out what God will do.

The gates of hell won't stand against us. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we have no business being in your presence were it not for the blood of Jesus poured out for our sake.

Lord, it is by your gracious mercy. That Jesus came and died in our place so that our sins can be atoned for, and our guilt can be taken away. And so that we can have the privilege of worshiping you, having our consciences purified, but we don't deserve it. And you deserve everything. We are unworthy. So, Lord, I pray, edify your saints, challenge and encourage us, and press the truth of your word onto our hearts. and show us Lord, where in our own lives might we make changes to conform more fully to your image, to conform more fully into what worship is and how we should approach worship or to pray for anyone here who is weighed down and burdened by a feeling of sin or guilt. Lord, I ask you right now that you will remind them. that there is forgiveness and healing and complete reconciliation available at the cross. May no one leave this place today without knowing that they can be fully forgiven because you are eager to forgive, and you are mighty to save.

And I thank you God for the privilege it is that we get to worship. We get to call on your name, we get to come into your house, and to sing and to pray, and to greet the saints and visit with them, and to dine at your table, and to hear your word. Thank you, Lord. This is such an incredible gift that we get to do this.

May we never take it for granted. Bake this into our culture as a church, Lord, so that we can maintain it. We give you all praise. Thank you, Jesus, that you make it possible. We ask all these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.