Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "What to Bring with You to Worship" by Neal Pollard

Transcript

"What to Bring with You to Worship" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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I'm excited to hear how the meeting went
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among the vision groups that Mike Thomas led. I think I saw
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signs of that in the prayer that was prayed, a beautiful reminder
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that this— there's much to do. There's work on every hand, and all hands
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on deck will get that accomplished. And I want to say this by way of
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looking back and then looking ahead at how that's
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something that's already happening and that we can build on as we go forward.
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Last night we had our annual trunk or treat, and I wondered
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how that was going to go. We had a big event in town, and this
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is— I think this is— is this the 2nd or
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3rd one we've done here? I'm trying to keep up. Well, I guess it's the
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2nd one, has to be. And it was great last
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year, but I believe we set a record by far. And what's so exciting
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is to hear, as I went around and talked to different folks, that different
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ones of you invited folks to come and to be a part of that.
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It's a great introduction to who we are as
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a people. And so I want to commend you for all the work that you
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did, who you are on a daily basis that had a big contribution
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in the folks that showed up yesterday. We are just guessing.
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We think there were 275 in the multipurpose room,
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but there were no doubt well over 300 that were here as a
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result of that. So thank you for all that you do to
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make that an enticing event and for folks to come.
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And then this weekend we have a chance to solidify our relationships with one
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another as we come together and we encourage each other. I hope
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if you are on the fence and have not yet decided that you will decide
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to be a part of our annual family retreat. The elders
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always provide for us a great speaker who comes in and
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encourages us, and literally he'll do that because his theme is Serving Through Encouragement.
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And anybody I've ever talked to at any time is in need of encouragement.
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And so, I know you'll be encouraged by being here and learn how to better
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do that. And it's just part of the growth that can take place here.
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Well, you're here. It's the end of a busy day, and perhaps
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you're more than a little bit tired. And perhaps it is just simply— this
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is a good thing— a part of your custom. This is what your day is
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going to look like Sunday at 6 PM.
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And every time that you come, there's probably somewhat of a
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packing list that you are putting together. In your
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packing list of what you bring to worship, you will probably include
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perhaps some kind of a notebook, either electronically or a physical
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one. And if so, then maybe a pen. And with
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that, you'll bring your Bible in some form or another.
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You're probably going to bring your wallet and your pocketbook, not just
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for worship purposes, for the meal that may follow that.
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And if you have a little one, you're probably going to be packing all kind
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of stuff there, bringing in toys and snacks and whatever else
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that you need in order to be adequately prepared for the time
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in which we are together. That suggests
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some manner of anticipation and preparation before
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you come into these assemblies. There are a lot of things that
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we get ready and we prepare ourselves for, but there
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is none, I suggest, that will ever do that will
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ever be more important than every time we come before the great I Am in
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worship. I appreciate Jeremy and the songs that he led our hearts and minds
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to think about. They were all songs that directed our mind toward
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worship. It was 11 years ago this month that Cathy
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and I were in New Zealand. She had done a ladies' workshop there,
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and then on that Sunday morning, I was preaching for the Palmerston
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North Church of Christ in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
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And because of where it's situated on the globe, it's just over
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the International Date Line. Here's what that meant. On that Sunday,
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at least, Cathy and I were among the first people to worship
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God on that Sunday morning. That's an object of
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earthly fascination, but it is not of heavenly notation
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to a God who's not bound by time anyway.
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And God's not concerned so much about who's first to worship.
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And by the way, that place was 17 hours ahead of
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Bowling Green, so whenever you worship that day, We were almost, I'm sure,
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going to bed by that point. He doesn't care who's first.
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He is concerned that we bring our best when we come to
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worship him. And so he says, oh, come, let us worship
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God in song. Let us shout joyfully unto
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the Rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving,
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and let us shout joyfully in psalms. For the Lord is a
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great God, a great King above all gods, in whose hands
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are the depths of the earth And the peaks of the mountains
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are his; the sea is his, for he has made it,
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and his hands formed the dry land. O come,
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let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord
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our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture,
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and we are the sheep of his hand.
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Today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts
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as in Meribah, in the day of Massah in the wilderness.
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For your fathers tempted Me and proved Me, though they
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had seen My works. For 40 years I loathed that generation, for I said,
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they do always err in their ways, and they have not known Me.
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Wherefore I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into
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My rest. Those are the words that we read in Psalm chapter
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95. And we're not told, if you have your Bible open to Psalm
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95, who is the writer of that psalm, but the
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Hebrews writer by inspiration gives us divine commentary and
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says this, This is David, Hebrews 4 and verse 7.
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But man, you almost don't need that as you listen. Doesn't that sound
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like what David would say in one of these wonderful worship psalms
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that are preserved for us in Scripture? And you think about David
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as he comes before God in worship on the occasion that he writes
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about. And even though his worship would have been radically different
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from the worship that we offer God, you think about the fact that his worship
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would have included animal sacrifice. That his worship would've
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been led by the Levitical priest who had charge of that service,
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that David in his lifetime would've gone into the tabernacle, and that's where worship would've
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been conducted. And his worship would've been accompanied
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by the harp and the lyre. But despite all of that,
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his principle, his words are timeless.
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And he calls us, he summons us to consider
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what it is that we need to bring to God in worship.
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It makes us think about what Jesus says, as Jesus would encourage
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through the conversation He has with the woman at the well. And He says,
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God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in
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spirit and in truth. John 4:24.
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So much is said about that. Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 14:15,
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I will pray with the spirit. I will pray with the understanding also.
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I will sing with the spirit. I will sing
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with my mind also. The idea being that
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I pour out an intelligent mind, but also a
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heart that's involved in my worship. Or you think
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about what the Hebrews writer would say, that we're offering up a sacrifice
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of praise unto his name, giving thanks to him in Hebrews 13:15.
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For we are the true circumcision who worship God
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in spirit, Philippians 3:3. And so there's a
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call to our heart to be engaged and involved.
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But on the other side of that, God is concerned about the what of worship.
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That is, that it's not a matter of our attitude or the authority,
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it's a matter of both of those, because He understands that
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God does, and He wants us to understand as the participants in worship,
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that worship's not automatically acceptable.
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Now, think about what we just saw a moment ago. You can
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have everything done according to the truth of God's Word and
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your worship not be acceptable. We'll say more about that through the course of this
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lesson tonight. But how many people whose hearts are
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open and whose desire is to please God who come in and worship
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him and God can choose not to accept that if
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the worship is not according to what he wants? And the Bible lays
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that out for us. It tells us that our worship can be vain and empty.
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Well, how, Lord, can that be? He says in Matthew 15:9,
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but in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of
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men. People who follow what man says rather than God says,
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It's empty as God evaluates it.
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Not only is there vain worship, but Paul would call a particular
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kind of worship ignorant worship, not at all indicting
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the intelligence of the people who are giving it. But do you remember what he
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says in Athens in Acts 17:23, as I passed by your
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inscriptions, I beheld an altar that said, to the unknown God whom
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you worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you.
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These are the folks who are sincere and well-meaning, and yet
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what they're offering is not according to what God has designed and
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called for in worship. But perhaps one of the most dangerous of all is
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will worship, and anyone can be guilty of that. Wherefore, if you be
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buried dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in
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the world, are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not,
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which are to perish with using, which have a display of wisdom
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in will worship? Colossians 2, verse 20 through 23.
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Will worship is worship that says, not Thy will be done,
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but my will be done. It doesn't matter what You want,
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Lord, this is what I want to bring. Perhaps that's what Cain
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does in Genesis chapter 4. So thankfully, we're not having to make
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a choice. But it seems to me that as you
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have gathered here tonight and as you see how worship is conducted and why— and
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as we approach this seeking to add nothing to or
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take anything away from what God calls for as worship
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among his people. Hopefully, for the sake of—
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at least we're going to assume in this lesson we have the truth portion down,
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but there are still things that we need to bring to worship. And I
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think that David is going to help us with that as we look briefly through
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this psalm tonight in Psalm chapter 95. What do we need
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to bring to God to worship? What should be in our divine
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packing list as we're here? Very briefly, notice this. Number 1,
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you need to bring your heart. Now in verse
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8 through 11, does it sometimes seem if you read that Psalm that
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you almost have 2 Psalms that are smushed together? You have all of this beautiful
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language about praising God and shouting joyfully and how wonderful that
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all is. And then all of a sudden he says, today, if you will hear
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my voice, do not harden your hearts. What a shocking,
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a jolting change. In the tone of the psalm.
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Now, as we walk through this, it seems that David is giving us some warnings
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in this psalm at the end. It's kind of how he caps off the psalm,
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that David warns against delay. How do I know that?
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He says in verse 7, to begin this last portion of the psalm,
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today, if you will hear my voice.
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You know, when we begin to drift away from God, we may find
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how it impacts our worship. And maybe we
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would say to ourselves, I'm just going to be gone for a little while.
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I'm just going to step away. It won't be that long.
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In God's vocabulary, there is no tomorrow. In 2
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Corinthians 6:2, he says,
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today, if you'll hear my voice, or he would say,
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today is the day of salvation. There's a warning against delay.
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And then there's a warning against desensitization as we see it there
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in verse 8. He says, harden not your heart,
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When we think about the fact that one of the things that we need to
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bring to worship is the heart, it is in this part of the psalm that
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David brings up the heart. Now,
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the heart can be hardened in one-on-one relationships.
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The heart can be hardened when it comes to a doctrinal command
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that God gives. The heart can be hardened in literally any place that
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it's possible for the heart to be hardened. And what he does
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here is, is he directs us back. He says, there's a present
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privilege, but I want to take you back to the potential for the problems of
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the past. And if you want to hold up an example of how not to
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do things in the Bible, the generation you're probably going to
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settle on is the wilderness generation. And he said they hardened their hearts.
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40 years' worth of God-prescribed opportunities to
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worship and their hearts had just become a stone wall
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against what God wants. And this very passage is quoted
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by the Hebrews writer and he says that there should— take heed, brethren,
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lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing
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from the living God. Wherefore exhort one another,
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and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
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While it is said today, if you will hear my voice. Hebrews chapter 3,
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verse 12 and verse 13. Don't become desensitized
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in your spiritual life. And then David warns against distance
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in verse 10. He says that they went away
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from me. They erred in their hearts and they did not
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know my ways. Apostasy,
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that is falling away from God, perhaps the first phase of this can
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be when our worship is impacted and affected, not in physical
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presence, but in our heart.
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Now David says all of this about the heart, but in the context
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of what? It is in the context of worship.
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God is saying, I want you to watch your heart and
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make sure that you bring a heart, a heart that's open,
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That means maybe if there's something that's difficult to hear or something that challenges
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you, don't put a wall up, but instead mull it
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over. Or maybe you find yourself in a situation to where the phrases in
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the prayer are very familiar, or maybe the song you've sung
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1,000 times and it's very easy to get yourself
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on autopilot. In Ezekiel 33:30-32,
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God's speaking to Ezekiel, calls him the son of man. He says, the people
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are out talking. And they're talking about you, and they're talking about the Word
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from the Lord that you're going to bring. He says, they come before you as
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people and they sit and they listen, but they do not do.
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They're there, but they're not responsive. James talks about
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this in James 1:23-24. He says, don't be a hearer
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only, but a doer. What Ezekiel seems to be saying is that
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somebody may come in and they may have the paper and the pen and even
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take notes, but they don't do anything with it.
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What's going to help us not to do that as we engage in
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our worship is to bring our heart.
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True stories are funnier than fiction, and preachers' stories,
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I assume, are typically true. I know Wayne Price, and Wayne Price tells
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a story of something that happened to him while he was preaching.
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He was preaching one Sunday, and he got to be distracted. You ever
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had a sound of something in the auditorium, and it just kind of— you don't
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know what it is, and you begin— I've had that happen. The sound of clippers
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in worship while I'm preaching. It's a, you know, a ping, ping,
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ping. I didn't know how many fingers that lady had, but she just kept
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going. But Wayne was preaching. He begins to hear the sound of nail
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clippers, only they weren't fingernail
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clippers. And as he was trying to locate the source of it, it was his
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song leader and he had pulled off his shoes
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and his socks And he was taking care of business right there.
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Wayne had more self-control than I did because I think I would have
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stopped right there, offered the invitation, and had him get up and lead this invitation
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song. Can you imagine? You got to think maybe
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that's just something to help him listen to the preacher better while he's doing that.
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And I don't know what kind of distraction it was, but is it possible
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for us to be so disengaged in the worship that we're engaged
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in something else even in the auditorium? Whether it
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involves things we're doing physically or something that we're doing mentally that
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nobody else knows about. What do you need to bring to
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worship? David says, bring your heart. Keep your heart
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fully engaged as you worship according to truth.
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That's the first thing. The second thing that he would suggest
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is to bring your anticipation. I love
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how he says this. He says it in verse 1 and verse 2 and verse
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6. He says, come, let us sing Come before Him.
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Come, let us worship and bow down.
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It sounds to me like somebody who's anxious and who cannot wait.
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It sounds like the psalmist in Psalm 42:2 when he wants to
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know, when shall I come before the Lord? It's the idea, the picture
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of when will it be Sunday and Wednesday when I can come before
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the saints? Or when will it be that I can be alone
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so that I can get into the Word and let God speak to me?
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When is it that I can get apart so that I can pray to God
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and speak to him. It's this idea
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of anxious anticipation. You ever wanted to go somewhere so bad,
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or maybe you told your children you were going to go somewhere, and as it
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got closer, and as it got really close, they said— they would begin to say,
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come on, get ready, get dressed, let's go. There's an excitement
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that's palpable, an anticipation of coming
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before the Great I Am. An anticipation that says, I know that
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I get to be among people who are going to encourage my faith as we
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together pay homage and praise and honor and glory to
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the God of heaven. And so you have here an anticipation that
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the psalmist would shape us and mold us to
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exhibit ourselves. Tell me if you know
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3 achievements of Grover Cleveland's.
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Presidential. I think he even had 2 terms. I don't even
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know. He's not in anybody's top 25. You really can't tell me
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anything if you even Googled it right now, anything great that he did,
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but he was in office when we were given,
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dedicated to us, the Statue of Liberty. And you may know
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that on that, the base of that statue, there's a
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poem by Emma Lazarus who says, to bring your
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cold, your tired, your teeming masses who
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are yearning to be free, bring them to the golden door.
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He says, bring them to me. The beautiful
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words there is that the idea is the Statue
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of Liberty was going to be a beacon for people who were homeless and who
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were tempest-tossed, that they could come to these shores
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and they could find what they could not have anywhere
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else. And that golden lamp was
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going to light them to that golden shore. They want to be
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free. You know, you think about us spiritually, that before
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we come to Christ, we are those homeless ones, we are
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those dejected ones. And our Lord holds up
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the lamp to the golden door. He says, I am the way. He even
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says, I am the door. And on the other side of that, those of us
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who have been free yearn to come and express how
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grateful we are. We hunger and thirst like the psalmist in Psalm 63:1,
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who saw him in the sanctuary and longed to be before him
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in that worship psalm. And so, what do you need to bring to worship
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is not just your heart fully involved and engaged,
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but an anticipation that precedes your getting here that
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says, I can't wait. I can't wait because we
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get to do this together. And I can't wait because there's not a higher aspiration
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that we can have. What else do you need to put in
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your packing list to bring to worship? You need to bring your praise.
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Now notice how this sets up in the middle of that psalm. The Lord is
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a great God. He's a great King.
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And then he points to his creation. Look at what he's created. He's created
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the depths. You think about the deepest waters and you think about the peaks
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of the highest mountains. You also consider the dry land
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and the sea. Basically what he's saying is God has made everything.
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And what is the natural response to that? Come, let us
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worship and bow down. A heart
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that comprehends and that lets that shape the
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anticipation is going to have a hard time not pouring
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out their heart and their mouths with praise.
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Now, if we were to examine this psalm somewhat comprehensively, we'll see
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how praise shapes the heart of this. We see
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that worship that praises should be joyful. Not only
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does he say, come and do these things, he says, do it joyfully,
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shout. There's superlative here.
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It's not a mundane, indifferent, stoic experience.
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It is something that should elicit joy out of us.
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We also see that worship that praises should be expressive.
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In verse 1 and 2, You see that it's something external that
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will be seen, that will be heard, that will be felt, that will reverberate
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as we do it together. And we see that worship
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that praises is going to be grateful. He says, enter into
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His presence with thanksgiving. Eddie Clore says that thanksgiving
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is the soil out of which praise grows.
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If I truly am grateful for what God has done, what God has given,
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and what God wants to do in my life, I cannot help but to let
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that be expressed in my worship. But worship that praises should
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be reverent. Notice that he says in verse 7,
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today, if you will hear his voice, recognize who you are.
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You are the sheep of his pasture. You're the people of his pasture.
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You're the sheep of his hand. You're dependent on him for
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your life. And if we get ahold of that, we're going to do
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as he did. We're going to bow down before him.
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And then he would tell us that worship that praises should be obedient.
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Today, if you will hear his voice, do what he says.
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So maybe don't think about that in terms of praise.
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Worship that is joyful, that is expressive, a worship
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that finds itself grateful to God, that's reverent and obedient.
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But you put all of those things together and on the other side of that,
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then your heart is going to be filled with adoration for God.
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What do you need to bring in your packing list to worship God?
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You need to bring your participation.
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Will you notice how he puts it in verse 1 and verse 2 and verse
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6? It's a call for us to come together.
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He says, let us do this. Now,
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there is a sense in which worship is something that's done corporately.
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Jeremy got up here and he led us in singing tonight.
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And through that particular peculiar part of the worship, all of us had
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a vocal part in that in which we engaged that it could be heard by
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those presumably who were around us. And when Greg led
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us in a word of opening prayer, we had him audibly
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speaking, but all of us had our hearts and our minds gathered around the
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throne as we individually led by him. We perhaps imitated,
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maybe we expounded on those phrases, or maybe it took us in a little bit
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different direction as we were a part of that. The fact that we
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weren't the one who was leading it did not make our participation expectation
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any less. And as I'm standing before you and palavering on and
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preaching, I'm the one who's speaking, you're the one who's sitting there, but we're actively
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engaged together in that. In the Lord's Supper, maybe none of
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us are speaking, but all of us, and in the giving, are doing the same
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thing on the Lord's Day. It is not a
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passive exercise. Maybe sometimes we set it up
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to where we kind of think of it in that way. We show up on
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Sunday morning and our wonderful greeters are there and they have a bulletin. And if
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we're not careful, maybe we can begin to see that bulletin as somewhat like a
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program. You get at a play or at a ballgame, you come inside and then
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you have announcements and they're somewhat like the commercials
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or the preliminaries. And then the folks who get up
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and they lead the singing and lead the prayer and they do the preaching and
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the rest of it, maybe they are the performers and we may
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find ourselves as the analysts and the critics of that. But not only is that
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unbiblical, but that's also going to rob us
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of the joy that God wants us to have in worship. We understand
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who the object is, and we understand why
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we're here, and we're here to participate.
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In fact, I came across this. This is not unique to me,
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but if you want to give God powerful worship,
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what can you do? Actually, this was from me,
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but it was from me at another time. I borrowed this from my sermon tonight.
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You participate. It means that you're going to actively
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be involved in this. You're going to engage yourself.
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You open your mind. Don't put it in autopilot.
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Stay engaged and think about it. Unite your heart
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and your lips, Matthew 15:9, in worship.
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Worship means to kiss toward. It's an intentional activity.
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You never accidentally worship. You've got to make sure that you
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have intended to do so and expect results.
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Well, what are the results of worship?
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We've pleased God, we've obeyed Him,
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we have fulfilled one of the expectations that He has for us in
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Scripture, Hebrews 10:24-25, Acts 20:7,
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Acts 2:42. But the results go far deeper than
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that, don't they? Man, it can transform your entire attitude,
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coming in one way, leaving another. You may have had one mindset
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coming in, but as you humbled your heart, maybe you had a different one with
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something that God says in His Word. Expect, I've never seen it, that something
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doesn't happen of a result-like nature.
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Raise your voice. And the part in which we engage
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in that together, but raise your heart to God in worship.
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Feel what you do.
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Worship being as it is to the one to whom it is,
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Ought to evoke a feeling in us. And that's what we saw in the spirit
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portion. And unite. See worship as something
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that we do together to Him, but we do to stimulate one another,
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Hebrews 10:24. And love to worship.
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Now, maybe this is something you settled long ago and you don't have to worry
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about that. You already do. I mean, it is something
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that you can't wait for every time the doors are open. But if
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not, here's the good news. It's a mindset. It can change.
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You cannot particularly enjoy worshiping, but you can come to
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love worship, and you need to bring that. And when you do,
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you will offer God powerful worship,
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and you will be a participant that pleases God.
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But then finally, what you want to bring in your packing list of worship
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is yourself. And the psalmist actually sprinkles
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this throughout the entire psalm. You'll see the we and
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the us and the you. He never gets
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too far as he's exalting God and praising him in this Psalm and
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talking about what a privilege it is that he— all these commands,
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interestingly enough, are in the plural, but each one of them has
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to be obeyed individually. You can't obey it for anybody else and
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they can't obey it for you. And so you've got to bring you.
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Now, if you're here in the pew, you've already got half that
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job done. But the idea is heart and mind.
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Now, why would I say that? Because when
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I'm not up here, I'm in the same boat that you are.
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And this something that we do, as wonderful as it is, that we do
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over and over and over again can settle into the very
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mundane, the very ordinary. It can be that
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which can kind of tax us and become more than
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we really can focus on. And so we've got to bring that packing list
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with us each and every time. You know, there's an interesting event
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that takes place in Abraham's life. And as Abraham is
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about to offer up worship to God, there's a little footnote in what Moses
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has to say in Genesis chapter 15 and verse 11, talking about Abraham's
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worship. It says that as he was preparing the animals,
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the carcasses, for sacrifice that birds of prey came
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and Abraham shooed them away.
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You ever had to do that? You ever had to shoo the buzzards out
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in your worship? I mean, they come in the form of distractions and aggravations
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and annoyances, and they can settle in. They can begin to pick at
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your worship and even consume it. And so we've got to do like Abraham as
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he was worshiping and shoo those things away. But when we
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do, and what will help us is if we will bring our hearts
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and our anticipation, our praise, our participation,
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if you'll bring yourself, you will bring worship
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that makes God happy. Now I want to think about this.
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What can you do on a weekly basis that
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the Bible tells you that will make God happy?
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One of those things is worship.
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Worship makes Him pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16.
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And every time we come together as the people of God and we fully engage
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our minds and we do it according to truth, He's well pleased.
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And like you, I want to please Him. And so yes, we've done half
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of that at the very least by coming in together tonight and having been
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led according to the acts of worship as we find them laid out for
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us in the New Testament. But the rest of that is on each and every
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one of us. I realize that a sermon like this doesn't naturally
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lend itself to an invitation. It's a home crowd kind of a sermon.
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It's focused on those who are already in Christ. But think
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about how we will grow and how 1 Corinthians 14 says
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we can reach even those outside as we grasp these principles
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about worshiping God in spirit and truth. And as we do
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this, pleasing God,
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you know, that is the central aim of life. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14,
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that's the whole duty of man is to fear God and to keep His commandments.
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We want to do that in our worship. We want to do that in our
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lives. He wants us to do that by the very basic
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fundamental idea of giving ourselves. That's discipleship,
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denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Him. The question
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tonight is, have you done that? Have you done that initially to come into Christ?
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As a child of God, are you living faithfully? Or perhaps you
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have fallen away and need to come back home. Or perhaps you're overtaken by
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the difficulties of life and you need us to pray with you. I don't know
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what your need may be, but if you have a need that you need to
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express publicly, we would encourage you to come right now as we stand
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and sing.