May 5, 2024 | An Appeal for a Family Worship Ethic

Transcript

Children. If you're going out to children's church, you may be dismissed now or you may stay with us. We welcome you in here. There's one point that I failed to mention when earlier this morning's message. maybe this because I'm not really versatile with my phone and my Bible app on my phone. But you may need a paper Bible to keep up with what we're going to be doing this morning.

If you don't have one or if you if you'd like to have a paper Bible, because we're going to be going through the book of Hebrews, the young people will come up, raise your hand, let them give you a paper Bible. Find the book of Hebrews. If you have trouble doing that, go to the end. You got revelation.

Then you have Jude. You got third, second and first John.

And you got verses for second Peter, James and Hebrews. You can go go from the back. You'll get the Hebrews. please turn this morning. Pastor Jed is out of town on a much needed family break this weekend. Pastor John is doing professional work to pursue another degree. I am so grateful for two. And for me. These are young guys.

Okay? Two young guys who are still growing, who are still pushing, and who are helping lead our assembly. I know you share my emotion on that. I feel we are so blessed to have them. So after hearing me, hearing me preach today, next week, when they're back, tell them how much you missed them. I will tell them how much I miss them because I just love them being here.

If you will take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter ten. Hebrews chapter ten, I'm getting a little bit of an echo. Can you turn me down? Just a hair back here? And, I was going to start with verse 19 through 25. And that's our text this morning. Okay. So I'm not going to cover the whole book of Hebrews really.

That's the text 19 through 25. But I want to back up to verse 14 because of the songs that we sang. Our worship flows together. Back when I was young, which long time ago, we would come and you would have singing, congregational singing and then worship, which was the preaching and more modern generation. We come and we have worship, and then we have preaching.

The problem with both of those is it's all worship. And I am so thrilled, especially with Pastor Jed coming, who leads the worship and has led the worship and is leading how to integrate that. And we have a worship service. So because of the first part of our worship service this morning, I want to back up to verse 14 because we sang some songs and let those come back to your mind as we read this, for by a single offering he, Jesus, has perfected for all time those us who are being sanctified.

And Holy Spirit bears witness to us. For after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds. No more. Where there is forgiveness of these, the sins and lawless deeds, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, we sang about that that is through his flesh. Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. I want to focus on one particular phrase meet together, as is the habit of some.

I would say that all of us who are here today have a habit of meeting together, and that is good. So why did you come this morning?

If you're a kid, it's because Mom and Dad made me come understand that my dad was a pastor. Every time the church doors were open, we were at church. Matter of fact, we were the ones that opened the church doors. We had to be there. yeah, I had to be there because Mom and Dad were there. why did you come?

Well. That's what believers do. They come to church on Sunday mornings. Because you're supposed to. Have you ever had a time of your life? I don't know about you, but this week was especially tough, especially the last part of this week. I think it was as I was preparing the sermon. I have battled, I have just had a struggle on the inside, and I can remember times there were years that I was going through a struggle.

The last place I wanted to be was in this service, in this room on a Sunday morning. But I didn't know anywhere else I wanted to be. Explain that one. Some of you may be dealing with that this week. It's been one tough week. You can tell me about what happened at work. You can tell me about what happened at home.

You can tell me what happened in your body, in your health. At all. So why did you walk through the doors this morning? I think that's one of the things, one of the things that we can learn from this passage. Why do we do what we do the way we do it? Why do we come to church as we come, as we open this text, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.

So father. I think more than anything else, we desperately need you. I need you. We all need you. We gather, gather together as a congregation. Congregation because we all need you. And part of being here is to help each other meet that need to point to you, to point to Jesus, to hear from you, to hear from Jesus to again be reminded of all that you are and all that you have done and all that you're going to do.

So I pray, Lord, that you would meet with us today. That you would speak through your Word. Meet us at the need in our heart. Transform us to be like you. Bless us with your presence. We're in your name we pray. Amen. So as we look in verse number 19, verse two, words kind of set the stage for everything.

Therefore, brothers, let's take the second word first. Who is he talking to? He's talking to brothers and sisters. He's talking to believers in the family of God. Hold that place a couple chapters back. Past verse. Chapter 13, verse 22. Last chapter of Hebrews, last paragraph of his final greeting. I appeal to you, brothers. Bear with my word of exhortation.

I'll share that I appeal to you, brothers and sisters. Bear with this word for exhortation. Turn back to the beginning of the book of Hebrews, chapter three.

Verse one. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling. I think there is no doubt that first of all, this book is written to fellow believers, to brothers and sisters in the faith, to those of the congregation of God, to his children and his children. Look at one another and call each other brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is written to us since. Okay, but what kind of us was this written to? If we put it that way, it's called the book of Hebrews to the Hebrews. Well what's that? I'm just condensed all the research that's on it to the best. As I understand it, it was probably my guess in Rome, a Jewish house, a house, church that was consistent, mostly of Jewish Christians, Christians who are of the Jewish ethnic background, who have been converted from Judaism to Christ.

You have the church that's at Rome meeting in a number of different house churches, because they didn't have buildings like we do to meet. They met in homes and this particular home, the group that gathered there in this home, this group of people, by and large, come from a Jewish background. How do we figure that out? Because of the subject matter of the book of Hebrews, it seems to be people who were very much acquainted with the Jewish background, with Moses, with the scriptures, with Aaron, and the priesthood, with all the sacrifices, and how Jesus connected with all of that.

But they're struggling.

This church was struggling like you and I might be today, like we all do at some point in the line in our lives. Let me point out a couple of those places of struggle. Chapter three, where we just were verse 12, take care, brothers. Okay, believers, let's there being any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God.

You ever find yourself where you don't believe in the promises of God?

I have. Yeah, we do. We take who God is and what he's done. And I'm just not quite sure. Sometimes I. I get in the middle of life, in the middle of the struggles in my life, and I doubt. Go back to chapter two.

Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, that is probably referring to the Old Testament. The idea was that the angels gave the message to Moses, proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution.

How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Have you have have you ever neglected? The truth of your salvation? Yeah. So two things neglect and unbelief. I think every one of us in here experiences dealing with that in our lives. How do we handle it? That's one of the reasons the book of Hebrews was written. So brothers who are struggling believers specifically Jewish believers, when it comes down to us today and applies to us who are Gentile believers.

One other thing there in chapter two, go to the next. The last part of verse three, it was declared. So it this message of a great salvation was declared at first by the Lord, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He came, he lived on earth. He preached the gospel of the kingdom. Repent and be converted. All right. Jesus preached that declared first by the Lord it was a test it to us.

So someone taught it to us by those who heard. Now if you just take that one verse, you learn something about the writer of this book. Do you know who wrote Hebrews?

I don't know, there's some that think Paul did because he mentions Timothy at the end. And a lot of what it talks about, you see, well, Paul would talk about that. And if Paul wrote it, there's no question it belongs in the Scripture. There are some who think Peter wrote it because it was right, written right about the time of first and second Peter to the church in Rome.

That's where Peter was. But it seems to be written from somewhere else to back to the church in Rome. And whoever it was did not hear this message directly from Jesus. Notice what it says. It was attested to us by those who heard whoever and I don't know who it is. Whoever the author is was what we would call a second generation Christian.

He wasn't one of those who heard it from Jesus mouth himself. He was taught.

On brothers, that's who it's written to, who it's written from, I don't know it's written the people who understood the Jewish law. If we go back in chapter ten, verse 19, therefore, brothers, so if you have therefore you've got to check and see why it is there. For there's a reason he is saying, because of what went before, then you need to believe this.

Well, I just read you verses 14 through 18 because Jesus has accomplished everything to forgive our sins. What follows is something we need to do. That's the short context. The wide context is because of everything he has said before in the book of Hebrews. We come down to verses 19 through 25 and it is almost an encapsulation of the whole message of the book of Hebrews.

So what has he said before? Remember I told you you need it. Your Bibles. Here's where you need them. Go back to Hebrews chapter one. We're going to do a flyover at 30,000ft. Okay, folks, so we're not going to look at things in detail. We are going to fly over Hebrews, but we want to get the main points.

So we start in the book of Hebrews long. It'll go at many times and in many ways over a number of years and through a number of different people, different types of, of, of literature. There's poetry, there's history, there's prophecy. Through many ways, God spoke. God spoke to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 of the tribes of Israel.

He spoke to Moses. That was a big one. Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy. He wrote one of the Psalms, maybe two of the Psalms. He spoke through Moses. He spoke through angels. That may be how Moses got. We don't know how he got that, but angels were used as minister experience, spirits. God spoke in old times.

Think of old covenant through these guys. He is now. But verse two in the last days has spoken to us by his Son, and the rest of the book is going to talk about what it means to be spoken to by his son first thing in chapter one. In chapter two, his son is greater than the angels. He came for a while he was put seem like he was put under them.

But the angels are his ministering spirits. His son is greater than the angels. If you will turn to chapter four, verse five, that should give you great comfort. We are flying. Okay, hopefully this won't be super long. Chapter four Hmhm. And what I like to do is read verses five through 19.

No. I'm back. I'm jumping ahead my bed. It's chapter three. Therefore, brothers, chapter three one you who have shared in heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, who was faithful to him, who appointed him. Just as Moses was faithful in all God's house, for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were spoken later. The Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house. If indeed we hold fast our confession and our boasting of our hope.

Jesus the Son is greater than angels. Jesus the Son is greater than Moses. Look at verse 14 there. Chapter three. No. I'm jumping ahead. Chapter four, verse five.

And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter into my rest, since therefore it remains for some to enter it. Those who formerly received the good news failed to enter it because of disobedience. Again he appoints a certain day today, saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted today, if you hear his voice, do not heart in your hearts.

That backs up in the first part of chapter three where he's talking about, well, this greater than Moses, how did the people respond to Moses?

You remember Moses leads them through the Red sea. Wow. There's fish on the side. It's dry on the ground. They get to the other side and Pharaoh, here comes Pharaoh, and here comes the water. And the greatest army of the world at that time was squashed in the waters of the Red sea. And they praise God. You would have thought that would have changed them.

They marched a few days in there, and they come to the mountain, Mount Sinai. They hear the thundering and they see the fire. They hear God speak in the old Moses. You go talk to them. We don't want to hear him speak again. And while Moses goes and talks to them, what are they doing down at the bottom?

Party idolatry. They build a golden calf and immorality. They couldn't even wait for Moses to come down. Moses has to deal with that. All the member. He shatters the Ten Commandments. He goes back up and he has to ride them out. This time he comes down and he makes them make a covenant. They will obey everything that's in there.

Do they do that? No, they grumbled, I know we don't grumble, but thank grumbled. The word for grumble is good. Some I, I like. I just wanted to share that with you, that you now know a Greek word that means grumble. So you can tell your children or your grandchildren, quit the Good Samaritan. You know, they quit grumbling.

They just like them. They grumbled. What is God call that? An evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God? They didn't enter a whole generation, did not enter into the Promised Land. The rest, not even Moses. So the warning is today, if you hear his voice, do not heart in your hearts, because God has given us a rest, a better rest, not like Joshua did.

God has given us a rest. Starting with verse 14 of chapter four. That's the verse I really want to go to you as Jesus is greater than the angels, he's greater than Moses. Verse 14, which I think we've heard this morning already since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I bet you that's one reason why you came this morning. Chapter six, verse 13.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom he swore to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Remember those promises we have a hard time obeying, believing for the people, swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes.

An oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope to set set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. Having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Let's stop and pause right there. Old Testament Moses was of the tribe of Levi. He said his brother Aaron up as the first high priest.

Really? God set him up. Aaron had to be consecrated, had to be set apart, is holy. Even the clothes he wore had to be consecrate it. And every time he he officiated in the office, he had to be cleansed and consecrated again. But Aaron died and his son took over, and his son died, and his grandson took over.

And the whole Levitical priesthood had to come from the legal heir of Aaron. And they died, and they died and they died and they died. And every day they offered sacrifice pieces. And you got to picture this because I would spend my time at the, at the, at the Tabernacle, because by the time I come on, offer a sacrifice for my sin and turn around and start to walk away, blow it again, and just have to get at the end of the line with another sacrifice.

I know that's me. And those priests every day kept going through that ritual of doing many different types of offerings. Once a year, once a year, the high priest, let's say Aaron or his descendant, which was high priest once a year, they would have a great convocation, the Day of Atonement, and they would have a special offering. There'd be two lambs that were slain.

One would be the scapegoat. He'd lay his hands on him, symbolic that our sins are laid on that one, and it would be sent off into the wilderness the other. He lay his hands on him, and that one was sacrifice. And the blood from that one was gathered together, and the high priest would take it into the tabernacle.

Through the first curtain into the holy place was the table of showbread, and the bread of the presence, and the candelabra, and the altar of incense through the second curtain. And only once a year could the high priests, and only him go through that second curtain into the the the ark of the covenant, on which sat the mercy seat, which was the presence of God, and he would sprinkle on behalf of all the people of Israel the atoning blood on the mercy seat of Christ.

And you know what that looks forward to? To Christ every year, every year, every year, the next descendant and the next descendant and the next descendant, it was the blood of bulls and goats that were constantly sacrifice, looking ahead to the sacrifice. And that's what he talks about. But Jesus is our high priest, not after the order of Aaron.

He's not a Levite. He's of the tribe of Judah. He's of the kingly tribe. He is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, who is Melchizedek. Oh, we could go off and there are people who really go off on that one. So please do not Google this and look up anybody who's talking about Melchizedek. You could get way off in the weeds, okay?

Melchizedek was the king of Salem. Abraham's coming back from a battle. He meets Melchizedek and he plays tithes. He recognizes that Melchizedek is a priest of God of the one true God. Now, Levi is not around for four generations. You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then you have 12 sons of Jacob, one of whom was Levi. And then you've got generations to come before you get to Aaron.

Okay, so the whole point is Levi is still inside Abraham. So Levi really paid ties to Melchizedek. That's the point of Hebrews. Melchizedek, king of Salem. He had no beginning. There's no evidence of where he came from. There's no evidence of where he went to figuratively. He has no beginning and no ending. Our high priest literally has no beginning and no ending.

Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Levi, in the loins of Abraham, paid tithes to Melchizedek, the lesser paid ties to the greater. That's the argument of Hebrews. Jesus is our great high priest. Chapter seven, verse 15. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

Who is that? Jesus. Verse six 818 for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. And I bet you that was one reason why you came this morning.

You wanted to draw near to God.

Verse 23. The former priest Aaron made many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds this priesthood permanently because he continues forever. I love this verse. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost. That's how you and I, God in the uttermost part, those who draw near to God through him, through Jesus, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

There are two curtains in the tabernacle, one that separated the outer courtyard from the holy place, and one that separate the Holy place from the Holy of Holies. That's why in many times here, curtains is plural. One relates toward the people, the other relates toward God. That's what these priests did. They talk to the people from God. They interceded on behalf of the people before God.

That is what a priest does. And what this passage says is that our high priest not only offered the perfect sacrifice, which was himself, he took that sacrifice all the way to heaven, and he always lives to make intercession for us. He is in heaven speaking to God the Father on our behalf. Always all the struggles that we've had this past week, because we find ourselves to be sinners.

He's speaking on our behalf because he has experienced that temptation. Yet without sin, he understands us. That's why we're here this morning. Chapter nine, verse 11, when Christ appeared as a high priest of good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places.

Remember, it's not of this tent, not of here. He's talking heaven and places is plural into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing and eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, in the sprinkling of the defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify, make holy for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve a living and true God?

It's another reason we came this morning.

So Christ is not only our great High Priest. Christ is the better sacrifice. And that brings us to our passage as a flyover. Verse 19 therefore, brothers, and you'll understand why I did this when you read the next verses, since we have confidence to enter the holy places. Plural, the Holy place and the Holy of Holies, since we have confidence to enter the holy places, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

Let's pause and look at that verse. This is fascinating. That word new. It's the only time that word is used in the whole New Testament. It was used. Homer used it. Okay. Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer used it in classical Greek when Homer used it in classical Greek. What that word meant was a freshly slaughtered sacrifice. Yeah. What did it come to mean years later, when the.

When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the Septuagint, when the New Testament was written a couple years, 100 years after that was New words change. You understand that? But whoever used that word, whoever wrote this epistle, knew the power of words and knew the power of that word that had not been used by any other biblical writer.

And he reached back, and he pulled a word that used to mean a freshly slaughtered animal.

Does that fit in with the text by a new and notice the contrast and living. He puts death and life right next to each other. Don't we find both in Jesus Christ? What he's saying is in this time God has written this in our hearts, and he's done it by the slaughter of Jesus Christ. Remember what we just had in communion?

Jesus. God crushed his son. That's behind that word new, a new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain. That word curtain is a fascinating word to its use. Just a few times it's used in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You know why it's used there? Because when Jesus died on the cross and the whole earth went dark.

The curtain inside the temple and that curtain was thick, hugely thick, was ripped from top to bottom.

Notice what it says by a new and living way. His death and he's alive. That he opened through the curtains. He tore that curtain that is, through his flesh. See how he's putting that together? And since we have a great high priest, remember we've talked about after the order of Melchizedek over the house of God that encapsulates everything that goes before.

There's three exhortations that he gives us. That's our message today. The first one, let us draw near.

Let us draw near with a heart. True heart, a real sense in heart. Sincere heart in reality, in truthfulness and honesty of who we are, of who God is in full assurance of faith. Now he's going to amplify that in chapter 11, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. He's going to give us illustrations of that full assurance for our faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.

Remember the Old Testament sacrifices and the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat, and our bodies washed with pure water? There's a debate over what that means. Whatever it means, both of them are in the past tense. So what this is saying, having had at some point in the past, our hearts sprinkled clean and our bodies wash and outward testimony that we are gods and we have been sprinkled clean.

Now let us draw near.

Because of what God has done, draw near. Come to him, come to him. Second thing, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Let's grab on to what we believe. It is not a well, I kind of hope so. Well, I kind of hope the stock market goes up or I kind of hope prices go down. No, it's not that kind of hope.

It's a sure hope. I know this is true. It is what I staked my life on that type of hope. Let us draw. Hold fast the confession of our hope. This is what I believe without wavering. Why? Because I can hold on so tight. No, because he who promised is faithful. Remember back to those promises that they were having a hard time believing the ones that you have a hard time believe.

The one that I have a hard time believe. Those are promises given by one who is faithful. He will keep his promise.

So why did I come this morning? So I can hold fast to Christ and what he promised? And the third one, let us consider and let me give you the object of that one another.

Why don't we come this morning? Look around.

We come for one another. You don't just come for yourself. You come for one another.

We pray for one another. We pray for health for one another. And when God brings health back and George Waller walks back in the room, we rejoice. Do we not? Or if God takes Jill Baker home and Jill Baker is made completely well, we rejoice. Different kind of rejoicing, but we rejoice. There are also many needs. Health seems to be the one we always bring up, because that's one that we feel good about sharing.

What about the financial needs?

About the spiritual needs? I'm having a hard time believing this. I'm struggling with my belief on this promise with God. I'm struggling with my, my sin here and here. And I need someone to pray with me. What about just showing up and singing so that the person next to you hears you praising God? That is, considering one another.

I bet you that wasn't in your mind as you walked in that door. And that's why I just want to remind you of that, considering one another. What are we to do? Consider one another toward what? To love and to good works.

How can I encourage the person sitting next to me to love God more and to obey God? First thing you have to do is get to know one God, pray with them, encourage them, and greet them. Most of you did that outside there before you came in this morning. There was all kinds of fellowship that takes place. And you you encourage one another.

But then he gives a qualification, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. I titled this I really had two titles for this is. This is toward a family worship ethic. That word ethic is the word habit ethos. We can get our word ethic from it.

It's more it's it's a why we do things. It is our motive of life. I think worship ought to be a motive of life. The point is, is that gathering together ought to be just part a habit, a habit of your life, an ethic of your life to come together not just to come together, but to come together to worship.

This whole thing is set in this concept of worship, of coming before God because of what he has done for us and who he is with this church. Remember those Jewish brethren that we talked about at the beginning there in Rome? It is right after the end of Nero's reign. What do you know about Nero and Christians? Nothing good.

He put Paul to death. He would cover them in tar and put them on a pole and use them to light his parties. Later it became the Coliseum and the Lions, and usually the Lions won in the immediate fight, This church in Rome had been in a protected group of a protected religion called Judaism. Rome protect tolerated them.

Let them live, let them exist. That's fine. But this church, this group of people had said, that's not complete. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Messiah. And the minute they did that, they stepped out from that protected class of people.

And times got tough. The book talks about you have not been persecuted to the point of drawing blood. They hadn't died yet, but they had lost possession. They had lost positions. They had pressure on them because of that. And the temptation and not only the temptation. The problem was, is that they started pulling away and going back to Judaism.

And what they would do is because of the pressure, they would not meet together, they would neglect the meeting together. And the writer of this book is saying, don't do that, will you? And I don't face the pressure to withdraw back into Judaism. But every one of us had pressures this week that would put pressure on us of not to show up, or if we did show up to not really show up kind of in our own little world, with walls around us boxing ourself out, not being with a sincere true heart toward one another, of not reaching out and getting the encouragement we need.

I did that, remember I told you I would come, I didn't want to be here, but I don't know where else I wanted to be at that time. And so I would sit in my own. Back then it was pews. Remember the pews? Okay. In my own pew by myself. And frankly, I didn't want to talk to people.

Service, be over. I'm out the door. I'm out in the car. Don't believe me? Ask my wife. She found me out there. Because I didn't want to talk to people. I was wrong. And as God broke through and showed me who he was and what he did and that it yes, it did apply for me. It was the brethren who broke through that barrier and said, Lynn, you can't be that way.

And as God changed me, it changed drastically. Not neglecting to meet together, that's the word for synagogue is is the habit of some but encouraging one another. And, you know, times are getting worse. And that's that's not. Disinformation. That's just truth, okay? Times are getting worse. They have been for a long time. All right. My parents thought times were getting worse back when I was a kid.

Okay. And I definitely know that my grandparents thought things were getting worse when my dad was a kid. At least I remember that testimony. And now they're just terrible. And as we see that day approaching, do it more often. So why do we come to church? We come because of Jesus, who he is and what he has done.

He's my great high priest. He paid everything. He paved the way. And one of the ways he paved is so that I can go behind the curtain. That's worship. You understand the picture behind the curtain? If I go through the curtain, that's where the presence of God is on the mercy seat. And Jesus now has taken a straight to heaven, and I can come boldly before the throne, uninvited, to come boldly before the throne.

And he, my high priest, is my intercessor, holding the curtain back, standing there saying, come on, Lynn, let's go. And he calls your name. It says, let's go. Let's go into the father. Now you can do that anytime, any day at home. But there is something really special and meaningful when we do it together. One time a week, one time a week, Brian gathers as a whole assembly.

It's on Sunday morning. The time we meet on Sunday morning is inconsequential. It could be 9:00, it could be 8:00. And I'm glad it's not. It could be 1:00, all right. But on the first day of the week, recognizing that's the day of the week that our Lord Rose, we meet together and there is purpose for us to meet together.

I need you need that encouragement from one another to where we each point to Jesus. That's who he is. This is what he's done. Let's go before the throne. Let's sing, let's praise, let's pray. Let's get in his word. Let's hear from him. Let him changes. He's paid for everything. And we go behind the curtain, so to speak, to meet with God.

So? So my questions come when you came today. Oh, well, yeah, that's what I came for. Good. Were you prepared for that?

And some of the younger parents who have kids say, oh, if you only knew what a ride to church was like. I remember those rides to church, and my dad was the pastor. Yeah. Whoa. That definitely didn't prepare us for worship that morning. Some of those mornings, when do you start preparing for worship?

I may just throw a few suggestions out. Why don't you start in Saturday evening? Just take ten minutes, sit down, read your Bible and ask God to get your heart ready. And when you get up Sunday morning, turn on some praise music and do that again and find out how different it is when you come in here.

I found a couple things when I have to prepare a prayer, a passage in prayer, I find my heart is strangely warm for the message I. Last week I did that and I was just amazed how good Jed was last week.

No, it wasn't Jed. It was me. My heart was better. Prepare ahead of time. I know fellowship is part of worship, but why not come in a few minutes early like most people did today? When the piano starts, play and sit down and just rest your heart for a little while. Just suggestions. Get ready to come worship. Be ready to draw near.

Be ready to hold fast. Be ready to consider others. In my last point of application was one of those in the announcements Sunday School this summer. The whole point of our Sunday School series this summer is preparing our heart to worship a short devotional in the Word of God. And then we pray. And then we come to worship.

Evaluate yourself. What if you came to Sunday? You know, compare that days you come to Sunday school and you sit and you hear the Word of God, and you interact with people and you pray, and the days you don't come and you come rushing in at the last minute, come in and sit down, compare the worship experience to your own experience, your own experiment.

See what it's different the whole point of this summer and we invite you to be part of that. Come prepare your hearts to worship. We sing about that. Let's do that. Come prepare your heart to worship, to go behind the curtain. Let's bound for.

Father. You have died for us. You have shed your blood. You have given your broken body. You have given us so many exceeding great promises. We have such a future to look forward to. We have such a life to live now in your presence. Because of your promises. We struggle with believing them. We struggle with that evil heart of unbelief.

We struggle with believing who you are. We neglect the salvation that you offer us. Forgive us Lord, and as we draw near today, strengthen us so that we don't do that. Strengthen us so that we look to Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith. Strengthen us so that as we look to him, we can lay aside our sin and the sins that evil easily beset us, and the weights that are around us, so that we may run this race, that we may pursue you.

Lord, teach us to worship. Help us not just be a church that teaches cold, hard facts from the Bible, but help us to be a church that comes before our Bibles and meet you here. That we are ushered behind the curtain to meet with God and worship him, and extoll him for his excellent mercies toward us. Help us to be a worshiping people.

Teach us. I need to learn that. We all need to learn that we need to learn more of it so that we can encourage one another when we meet together. In your name we pray. Amen. Last chapter of the book of Hebrews says, now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of his eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do.

His will working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight. Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless you.