I just finished my annual liturgy sermon. It is not a sermon proper. I don't exegete a portion of Scripture. I go through and explain our liturgy. I'll post those regular notes below if you are interested.
However, this year, I did not follow that format. I have some notes for the sermon but if you read them and then listen to the sermon you won't see much of a connection.
I recommend listening here:
http://providencekirk.com/sermons/
Here are notes from previous liturgy sermons. Trouble sleeping? Keep this by your bedside.
There are lots of notes! I preach some of this every year but rarely ALL of it. Don't feel compelled to read them!
Liturgy is Life
1/15/2017
Summary Year 1
New Changes in 2016
1.
Response after Sermon- Ten Commandments
2.
John 4:4-26
Psalm 96
Ps 96 96:1 O sing unto the LORD a new
song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name;
shew forth his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the
heathen, his wonders among all people. 4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to
be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the
nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. 6 Honour and majesty are
before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
This Psalm describes
worship as showing the glory of the Lord before all the heathen. For the Lord is great and greatly to be
praised. Strength and beauty are in His
sanctuary.
7 Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of
the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 8 Give unto the LORD the
glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. 9 O
worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.
God certainly gives
to us in worship, but we also give to Him and serve Him. We bring an offering of praise and worship
into His courts in the beauty of holiness.
This should cause all the earth to fear before Him.
10 Say among the heathen that the LORD
reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he
shall judge the people righteously. 11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the
earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. 12 Let the field be
joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall
judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
The fact of our
worship is a declaration among unbelievers that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is the truth of all truths. It is the bedrock and cornerstone and cannot
be moved. The earth and sea will be glad
at this. The fields and trees will
rejoice before the Lord because He comes to judge. We often see the judgment of God as a bad
thing but that is not the case. The
righteous call upon God to judge. We
desire that He come as judge for it is He that comes to judge for good on our
behalf. This, too, is a declaration to
the world, that God is right and He has chosen a people for His own name’s
sake. This should cause us to bow down
in reverent worship and to rise up with lips of praise.
INTRODUCTION
Christian, what is your plan in this life? What is
your daily aim? Are you seeking to grow in grace, advancing in the fruit of the
Spirit? How are you doing? How is your love growing? How about your joy? Peace?
Patience? Kindness? Gentleness? Faithfulness? Meekness? How are you doing with
self-control?
To grow in these areas is to be like God, to bear His image
here on Earth, to be like Jesus and reveal the work of the Holy Spirit in your
lives. It is being heavenly. So, how is it that you become heavenly minded? And
where are you going to spend eternity? In heaven? Yes, in heaven. And to be fit
to spend eternity in heaven, you practice heavenly mindedness here on Earth.
The Scripture that I read reveals something glorious to us.
God has brought us to heaven in Jesus. When we gather as God’s people, we are
getting a glimpse of this glory full blown. We see the gathered people of God,
forgiven in Jesus, engaged in worship, sitting at the feet of Jesus, rising up
in song, eating at His Table.
I
have titled this sermon-The Lord’s Service, Liturgy is Life. That title may
give some of you the heebee jeebies. The
idea that the things that we do are loving God or that the liturgy that we do
brings life smacks at the heart of much of what we have been taught in modern
evangelicalism. But if our liturgy is
not knowing God, if our liturgy is not a source of life and growth in Christ,
then I find it extremely difficult to find any other reason to be here this
Lord’s Day.
We
come to worship the Lord. This means
that we esteem Him as God, lay hold of Him through Christ, bless His name and
receive blessing from Him. We are
accounted His people and take His name on us as our God. We are prepared for a feast, hear a
preparatory message from our King, sing songs in the joy of the celebration and
it all culminates in the eating of a meal.
This is a great love relationship.
We love God and He loves us. This
is all declared in the acts that we do here each Lord’s Day.
God
is concerned about raising up a faithful people to worship Him in Spirit and
truth. He was in the times of Abel at
the beginning and with Abraham as He called a people to Himself, as He called
the children out of Egypt and as they sojourned in the Wilderness and made
their way into the Promised Land. God
desired a people to worship Him in the tabernacle of David and in the Temple of
Solomon and again as they returned from their captivity. And God has made a way for us to worship Him
now, in the most holy place through Jesus Christ. Christ is seated in the heavenlies, at the
right hand of the Father, and we are drawn up to Him each Lord’s Day as we
gather to worship. Our main desire
should be to do this in a way that pleases the Lord.
The
Word of God is a sharp-sword. It cuts us
deep. Before God, we are not able to
hide, to resist His will, or to defend ourselves. We are flayed open like a sacrificial lamb
and sacrificed before the Lord. This is
the picture of death and sacrifice. But
it does not leave us there. The picture
of death always includes resurrection.
Our High Priest was resurrected and so are we. We rise and live and are encouraged to come
boldly into His presence with thanksgiving to obtain mercy and find grace for
our souls.
This
is grand and glorious. God’s Word lays
us bare and reveals the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This frightens us, as we know that our hearts
so easily deceive us. If we were honest,
this flaying open by the Word of God ought to make us shrink from His presence
but that is not the conclusion of the writer to the Hebrews. It should make us march boldly into the
throne room of God expecting mercy. How
so? Because we have a High Priest and He
is still ministering at the altar on our behalf. His once for all sacrifice cleanses us for
all time. If we grasp this glorious
truth, we are glad for the Word to cut us deep so that we might be healed in
the name and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
No sacrifice means no resurrection.
What we do each Lord’s Day ought to picture this glorious truth.
My
intent today is simply to walk through our liturgy and give some brief
explanations about what we do and why we do what we do. We do a liturgy sermon each year. That way, any new members that may not
understand what we are doing get an opportunity to see that it is
purposeful. Also, as we continue to reform
in this area, it will be good for us to continually remember why we do what we
do.
One
of the surprises in my life has been to attend mainline denominational churches
or even a Roman Catholic Church and see what they are saying in their
service. It is often beautiful, glorious
and true. The Words and the music
testify of the holiness of God and the goodness of Jesus Christ and the
presence of the Holy Spirit but you look around and see people that think that
they are chewing on gravel instead of enjoying a feast. The problem is not that they don’t have something beautiful, good, and savory in
their liturgy. The problem is that they
have stopped believing it. They are like
the dwarves in the stable at the end of the Last Battle. We must continue to believe God as we worship
Him. And one way we can do this is to
understand the dance steps that we are taking in our liturgy. We want to know the Liturgy so that we can do
the dance without having to think about the process of the dance too much. But we must do so with wisdom, knowing that
we go this way for a reason because we have to soon go that way for a reason and
it is all part of the enjoyment and glory of embracing Jesus Christ freely
offered to us in the gospel.
We
should embrace our Lord’s Day services with the zeal of a great oath. We come to pledge our allegiance to Jesus
Christ and to receive His blessing upon us.
He holds out the promises of God to us and we receive them by faith.
We
should view our Lord’s Day Service as a paradigm in which we learn to live the
rest of our lives. In this life, we fill
many roles. We are citizens of a
country, husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, and children. But fundamentally,
we are the people who worship the one true God, in the Triune name of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. And we should view
this not only as individuals embracing God but as the gathered worshipping
people of God. This view of reality is
no more clearly seen than when the saints gather on the Lord’s Day to worship
God.
OLD TESTAMENT MODEL AND THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE
Many
Presbyterians claim to be adherents of the regulative principle of worship
which says that whatever is not commanded in Scripture is prohibited. A different formulation of worship is that
whatever is not prohibited is allowed.
There are problems with both of these views. I suppose our view is somewhere in
between. We do believe that we must have
a biblically informed worship. The New
Testament does not give us a tremendous amount of detail on Christian
Worship. Many adherents of the
Regulative Principle have a hard time of making much of a worship service from
the New Testament example alone. This is
one reason why their services are very simple, the sanctuary extremely plain,
no instruments, psalms only, and no recognition of the church calendar. Many of these things are just not to be found
in the pages of the New Testament.
We
agree that our form and substance of worship must be biblical. However, the
mistake of arguing the regulative principle mostly based upon the contents of
the New Testament alone, have led to minimalistic applications of New Testament
era worship. It would be better for us
to look at all of Scripture to come to an understanding of how the Old
Testament forms apply to us in the era of Jesus Christ, for they were certainly
given for our benefit as well as the benefit of the Old Testament saints. In order to practice a biblical form of
worship, we must look to the Old Testament Sacrificial system and understand it
in the light of being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Many Christians wrongly assume that the Old Covenant system
was a means to keep people away from God.
That is not what was going on at all.
The purpose was to draw worshippers to God. God, in His grace and mercy, made a way for
sinful men to approach Him and to be cleansed from their sins. This process culminated in a meal of
fellowship. We want to view our service
as a process whereby God draws us up into Himself. And where we renew our covenant vows to Him
and He renews His vows to us.
There are three major movements
in our liturgy and two minor ones.
The
Major Movements are Cleansing, Consecration, and Communion. The Lord’s Service,
Jeff Myers, Page 79.
The
Minor movements are the Call To Worship and Commissioning. Beginning and
ending. Not insignificant. They are important, but are a prelude and a
postlude to the major aspects of worship.
The
Call to Worship recognizes the fact that we have come to God to begin formal
corporate worship. The Commissioning is
an acknowledgment that we have worshipped God and have been made aware of all
His blessings for obedience and potential cursings for disobedience. It is a charge to remain faithful and a
blessing until we meet here again.
Let us now walk over the different elements of our
particular service. You can follow along
in your bulletin so that you can understand what I am referring to and how we
go through this liturgy each week.
Pre-welcome-Our
piano player begins to play. This is a
call to come and be seated, to get the children in order and get ready to join
the corporate worship service. In order for you to be working towards your seat
at five of nine, you have to be here.
We really want to work on this in 2015. I would like the
piano player to begin promptly at 8:50 and for us to find our seats by 8:55 so
we can start right in at 9:00am. I know that in a congregation of any size,
there are always going to be good reasons why someone is late on any given
Sunday. However, it should not be the case that a significant portion of the
congregation is late. I would like us all here for the Call To Worship. If you
are late, it is very important to get here for Confession of Sin and the
Assurance of Pardon.
That
all said, if you are running late, we still want you to come to worship. Make
sure that if you miss the Call To Worship or the Confession, that you take care
of business as you come into the Service. Gather yourself, enter into the
Lord’s Presence, Confess your sins, be ready for your marching orders.
WELCOME
AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
We do these before we start our official worship that it may
not be interrupted by mundane matters.
MEDITATION
AND PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP
This
sets the mood of reverence and solemnity as well as gives individuals an
opportunity to turn their hearts and minds away from previous distractions and
towards the worship of the only living and true God. This is a good time to confess any sins that
are keeping you from drawing near to God.
We encourage you to silent prayer and preparation to join the people of
God through the blood of Jesus.
If
you have already confessed your sins in preparation for worshipping God, which
I recommend that you do, then follow along the words of the Psalm or Hymn and
let the words minister to your heart.
Spirit of God, Descend Upon My
Heart(#58)
Please follow along in silent meditation
CALL TO WORSHIP: GOD SUMMONS HIS PEOPLE
Let us Worship the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen! We will worship God in Spirit and in Truth!
I hope you see the import of our service right from the
beginning. This is something we incorporated right at the end of 2011 and had
in our service for all of 2012. It took us a few weeks to get the hang of it
but once we did so, it had a great effect on the overall service. It has a
martial sense to it and well it should. We are the Lord’s Army, gathered for
marching orders. We stand at attention and hear the Call to Service. Our
response is attentive and vigorous. It is a great blessing to me to hear your
response. It should be something like, Yes Sir, by God’s grace, we are going to
get it done. So, remind yourself to be ready for this part of the service. Snap
to and be ready to go and try to maintain this sense of alertness and
responsiveness for the rest of the service.
God
certainly calls us into His presence. This
is the minister formally calling the saints to worship God. We should understand that we are ascending
into heaven. The Amen, we will worship
God in Spirit and in Truth, should remind us that we are climbing Jacob’s
Ladder with Jesus. We are entering the Holy of Holies to see the Shekinah
Glory, we are joining the heavenly host without number. This should be an
exciting and expectant time.
We
sometimes view worship as God coming down to be with us, but Jesus has ascended
to heaven and is seated there at the right hand of the Father. He has sent the Spirit to draw us up into Him
as He reigns over all the earth.
Congregation
stands-
Posture is important in our worship for several
reasons.
1.
We do not worship
God with our minds only. God has saved
us as complete men. We are saved in
soul, spirit, and body and we should worship God that way. This means that we incorporate our bodies,
emotions, and intellect into our worship.
We are not stoics or Gnostics.
So, we worship God with our bodies.
2.
Different bodily
postures are representative of different states of mind. We stand to honor God, just as a gentleman
should always stand to honor a lady when she walks into a room. Or as young men should stand when their
elders walk into a room. This shows reverence,
respect and due honor. Just so, we stand
to honor our God, who has come into our room.
Or being consistent with the picture I mentioned about being called into
His presence, we stand. But we stand
with humility recognizing that He is higher than we are.
Scripture reading
of praise:
We want to do all that we do in close association with the Scriptures,
this includes our worship and prayers. Our attempt here is to read a Scripture
that exalts God. We want to show His
majesty in His works of creation and providence. This kind of Scripture helps us to see God as
our exalted Father. It also shows us
that He has condescended to saving and sustaining us. Our response is one of
praise and thankfulness.
Prayer of praise-This prayer is generated from the Scripture reading of Praise. It is meant to raise our eyes up to God as
our Great Father in Heaven. Because He is exalted and we are sinners,
this prayer should point out the gulf that is between us. It should make it apparent to us that the
only way to bridge this gulf is for God to do something because we are wholly
incapable of ascending up to Him on our own efforts or by our own merit.
Far from being a prayer of despair,
this prayer should give us hope also, acknowledging that God has done this work
of coming to us in His Son and in His Spirit.
By praying this way, we recognize God in His Triune character, seeking
to honor God in all His revealed persons.
Prepared Prayers-Many of the prayers in our Liturgy
are prepared. Some in the church both
modern and historical have objected to prepared prayers. The argument is generally along the lines
that they are stiff or that they stifle the leading of the Holy Spirit. Some prepared prayers are stiff as some men
cannot read without sounding like they are reading. This gives a very wooden sense to public
prayers and speaking. So, these men
would do well to read over their prayers and be able to deliver them in such a
way that the hearers are not distracted by their style.
As
to prepared prayers stifling the Holy Spirit, this is a wholly inconsistent and
foolish argument, as if the Holy Spirit cannot work ahead of time as easily as
He can work at the spur of the moment.
Ministers and laymen that pray in public ought to think about what they
are saying. Why not thinking about what they are going to say ahead of time is more
spiritual than thinking a great deal about it ahead of time, is beyond me. Men should think about their prayers so that
the prayers are biblical including scripture and scriptural language as well as
the particular situation and the context of worship.
It
is not necessary that all of our prayers be written down. Writing them down is good but they can be
prayed either by reading them or saying them without the help of notes. But they should be thought about. Like any written document, the prayer should
be concise and to the point.
Furthermore,
unprepared prayers tend to often be incoherent and rambling, filled with many
filler words, um, I just, uh, that sort of thing. If one prays unprepared, he should probably
make his prayer very short and very to the point.
Congregational response- This service is also a
conversation between God and His people.
God speaks in His Word and the people respond in prayer and
singing. Or shall we say prayerful
singing. We also respond with
Amens. We also respond to various parts
of our worship with the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, the Creeds, the
Doxology, and the Offertory Song. Not
only is God speaking to us but we are also speaking to Him and to one another.
Jesus Shall Reign(#50)
AMEN!!
We need to take
our Amens seriously. They should be said
with all the enthusiasm of an oath. They
should be more than, “Yes wasn’t that a nice song.” It should have the impact of ‘Those words
bind us to obedience in the Lord for blessing in obedience and for cursing in
disobedience.” We have made some headway in our Amens. It would be good if
they were said with gusto. Volume is
important but I don’t mean merely volume.
I would like them said with sincerity of heart. If this is taken seriously, there will be
both volume and emotion. This is also
true of the way that we recite the creed, sing the Lord’s Prayer and offertory
as well as the doxology. Because these
things are regular parts of our service that we do every single week, there is
a temptation to get lazy in the way that we approach them. Do not do that. Don’t get lazy in your worship. Pay attention. Speak with sincerity, knowledge, passion,
honesty and faith.
Exhortation
As we move towards the corporate
confession of sin, it is helpful for us to see that we have need of confessing
our sins. This exhortation is both an
encouragement and an exhortation as we see what God has done, realize that we
have failed His standard, and yet again, as we rejoice in His grace and mercy
in confession and repentance.
We
have used this exhortation for various teaching on the creeds, church and
family issues, the church calendar of holidays and many other subjects. In all of them, the purpose is to hold up the
standard of God’s words and requirements for Christian living. When we do this, if we are honest, we must
necessarily see that we fall short of His standard. If we are faithful Christians, this
realization will lead us to the duty of confession and repentance.
This
is nothing less than a mini presentation of the gospel of reconciliation. God is perfect. He has perfect
standards. Here they are. You have fallen short and are so made liable
to His wrath and curse. However, God has
preserved a way of salvation for you through His Son. So, come to Him in confession and repentance
and you will be forgiven.
This
is a mini-presentation of the gospel as is the Lord’s Supper but we are not
merely re-enactors, playing a game without real bullets. We are truly the
Lord’s Army and all these re-enactments are the real deal. When we confess sins
or gather at the Lord’s Table, Jesus really is forgiving us and blessing us.
So, we should take these things very seriously, speaking to God and hearing Him
speak to us.
CONFESSION: GOD CLEANSES HIS PEOPLE
Scripture reading
of confession: These Scriptures are not always directly a command to confess sins and
repent. Sometimes, they are scriptures
that simply point out the fact that we are sinners in need of repentance. The scriptures from the call to worship,
confession of sin and assurance of pardon are coordinated so that they present
a consistent message.
Congregation
kneeling-We changed
our liturgy so that we would kneel at this point of confession. It has been a wonderful addition. It is hard to be proud when you are on your
knees. It hurts, like confession. But the end result of our humility and pain
is that we get to stand up, refreshed and forgiven.
Scripture of Assurance
As I mentioned above, the Call to Worship, Confession
and Assurance Scriptures are coordinated to present a consistent message and
presentation. They are often taken from
the same Psalm or Chapter of the Bible.
This shows how often the duties of exalting God, being made aware of our
own need, confessing and then receiving reassurance from God are presented to
us in Scripture. This is no wonder as
this is the biblical story. This is the
gospel.
Assurance of pardon
Congregation
Stands-We rise up forgiven in Christ.
This is a very important part of our service. I hope that you all take care to listen and
to heed these words. Because we take sin
seriously, many of you are of a tender conscience and are easily made to feel
the weight of your sins. This is good
and is a blessing from God. If you did
not easily feel the weight of your sins, the danger is that you might become
cold and indifferent to repentance and drift away from following Christ.
But some of you have a hard time
receiving the real forgiveness offered in Jesus Christ. You are good at feeling guilty and ashamed,
bad at feeling clean and holy. This can
come from humility but it can also come from a sneaky version of pride.
A humble man does not think highly of
himself, so he will not easily exert his rights. This is a good and godly characteristic. But there is a sneaky form of humility that
is pernicious.
This form of humility says that one must beat himself
up in order to receive the favor of God.
He thinks, “I have sinned and therefore I am not worthy to come into the
presence of God.” The problem with this
way of thinking is that it is so unbiblical.
The only ones who can come into the presence of God are those who have
sinned. To refuse to come to God because
you are sinner is to refuse the healing hand of God for sinners.
Furthermore, to fail to believe the assurance of
pardon is a sneaky and prideful way to assert your merit of sorrow above God’s
declaration of pardon. You cannot be
sorry enough for your sins to merit the right to heaven. You don’t get to heaven through merit. You get there by grace through faith.
So, your duty here is to believe God. When the minister pronounces the pardon of
sin, you must believe that you are pardoned from your sins. You are made innocent before God. You are absolved of your sins. You are made blameless in His sight. To continue to grovel in your sins after this
point merely shows that you either have not been honest in your confessions or
that you do not believe God’s promises.
The answer to both of these problems is to confess
them as sin and to truly receive the pardon of Jesus Christ. This is glorious stuff and should make us
truly joyful.
Thanks Be To
God- In 2012 we added our corporate
response of forgiveness and assurance of pardon draws us together as a people.
Each of us have been forgiven and as we gather as God’s people and confess
corporately, we realize that we are the welcome collected people of God.
Apostle’s
Creed or Nicean Creed- These Creeds
are early formulations of what a Christian and a Christian Church is. We continue our covenant vow renewal as we
confess not only what we believe but stand with Christians throughout the world
and the ages as we profess our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This should not be mumbled. It should be intensely read, recited or sung with
emotion and volume. Again, we are confessing our faith before God but not only
to God. We are also confessing our faith to one another. This is one reason why
the responsive songs are sung. The different sides of the church sing to one
another, confessing what we believe to one another.
Congregational
response in song.
Again, the words are binding. The Psalms have been the songbook of the
church for 3000 years. They are
transforming. Study them, learn them,
sing them.
Responsive Psalm Reading- In 2011, we added the responsorial Psalm reading.
This has been a way for us to systematically make our way through the Psalms as
a congregation. In addition to this, we get to say the Psalms together, which
is slightly different than reading them. As a minister up front, I really enjoy
hearing the power of the congregation reciting Scripture together.
Predominant Psalmnody
While we are not exclusive psalmnodists, we do believe
in singing the Psalms and predominantly so.
When we are singing the Psalms, we are singing God’s very words after
Him. The Psalms are a magnificent
microcosm of the Scriptures. They
recount much of the Old Testament story of God’s people and also point a great
deal to the Messiah. They cover many
theological subjects, human emotions, divine worship, enemies, laments,
ascents, praises and more. Singing
Psalms is both transformational for individuals and congregations and very
reformational as our thinking is conformed to a biblical standard.
Another important aspect of the Psalms is their manly
nature. One of the great enemies in the church is a creeping feminism. Singing the Psalms is a great antidote to
feminism. The Psalms are martial in their concerns, pointing out to us the real
nature of battle and warfare in our faith as we fight against the enemies of
Christ in our own flesh, in the spiritual realm and on the Earth. The singing of Psalms is one way to keep men
in the church and to keep them singing.
Psalm 40E,
Psalm 47A-Our standing and sitting
here also has to do with the human condition.
We do a lot of standing, so you need a break. We sit for a minute to rest and stand up
ready to hear the Word of God.
CONSECRATION: GOD EQUIPS
AND PREPARES HIS PEOPLE
After
confession, we move into the section of our service where God sets us apart to
His Holy Work in and through us. We hear
His Word and respond to Him in faithfulness.
Reading of God’s Holy Word
Congregation stands-posture is
important here as we stand in respect for the words of God.
We read fairly long passages of
Scripture. For some of you this is
different and may seem long. But this
speaks of the great authority of God’s Word.
As elders, we know that the body is hearing the Word of God. We pray that the Holy Spirit will give ears
to hear and hearts to obey what God says in His Word. We proclaim ourselves as those who submit to
the Word of God.
We are committed to reading the entire
Bible to you. We will read Old and New
Testaments. Some extremely long chapters
may need to be split up.
Old
Testament Chapters-929 chapters, New Testament Chapters-260 chapters
It takes about eighteen years to read
through the whole Bible this way. Old
Testament once, New Testament three times.
Our children will hear the whole Bible at church in the course of their
lives. By the end of the year 2021, we
will have read the entire Old Testament to you once and the entire New
Testament over three times. That is a
great testimony to our commitment to bring you all of God’s Word.
Hear the
Word of the Lord-it is not enough to simple hear the men reading the text. You must hear the Word of the Lord when you
hear the men reading the text.
Old/New Testament: Many traditions do an Old Testament, New Testament Epistle and a Gospel
reading. We might do this if we had more time in our service.
Old
Testament Scripture: (Psalm 96)
The Word of the Lord
Thanks
be to God
What we are doing here is a conversation. God speaks and we
agree with Him.
New Testament Scripture: (Rev. 5:1-10)
The
Word of the Lord
Thanks
be to God
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord taught us how to pray and we
ought to both pray according to this prayer as well as pray this prayer. It is fittingly placed here as various men
lead in prayer. May the Lord’s prayer
instruct us in what kinds of things to pray for as well as how to pray for
them.
This was one of the main consistencies
in all the post-reformation reformed liturgies.
The
Same but Different- One of the things we do is to use the same form,
Covenant Renewal with its three major movements and two minor movements while
at the same time changing some of the elements in between. We sing different
versions of the Lord’s Prayer. We sometimes say the Lord’s Prayer. We also do
this with the Creeds, doing a few different Creeds as well as sometimes saying
and sometimes singing them.
This gives us some breadth as well as
depth and it keeps us on our toes and thinking about what we are doing. While
we like having set forms, we also realize there is truth to the argument that
if the service is completely memorized and never changes, that there is a
tendency to shut off your brain and not pay attention to what you are doing.
So, we want the dance to be familiar but we also want to be a good follower of
the lead, paying attention to what is going on and able to quickly follow the
step.
CORPORATE PRAYER OF
THANKSGIVING AND PETITIONS
It
is fitting for us to thank God and ask Him to continue to bless us. We try to stay away from praying whatever
comes to mind. We give our men notice of
their prayers a day or two ahead of time so that they can compose a thoughtful
prayer to the Lord. Some men write them
down and this is appropriate.
Thanksgiving
New and ongoing petitions
Psalm 96A
Preaching of the Word:
Text:
1Peter 1:22-2:3 Read without comment and then preached verse by verse or
section by section. Make sure to
tell the story of the bible and not just the individual words of the
bible. Don’t miss the forest for the
trees. It is better to preach more
rather than less, larger sections rather than shorter, get the broad picture
rather than a microscopic closeup. Of
course, these are generalizations.
Sometimes, the import or difficulty of the passage requires us to bite
off a very small portion to understand it correctly. But the far greater mistake is that preachers
do not really tell the story of the bible because they are busy preaching only
their favorite theological texts and these much too slowly.
In some traditions, the preaching of the word has
become so central to the Lord’s Service as to minimize the rest of the
service. It is the grand show that
everyone is waiting for and the rest of the service is sort of tacked on and
around the preaching to simply set the stage or to relieve us from having to
hear two hours of preaching. This should
not be the case. Although the primacy of
the preached Word is important to the Lord’s Service, it ought not to be so
emphasized that everything else that we do is incomplete without a bang-up
sermon.
Think of how you talk about the service. Is the only thing that mattered was what the
preacher said? Is the rest of the
service somewhat irrelevant? What about
the confession of the creed? Did you
believe it? Did you gain any insight
into your faith through it? What about
the confession of sin? Did you hide your
sins from God? Are you not really being
honest with Him? Or do you have a hard
time believing that you are actually forgiven and thus are not able to
adequately worship with the saints?
We ought to receive teaching from the entire
Bible. Obviously, this takes time, but
there should be a clear commitment from the elders to preach all of the Bible,
Old and New Testaments and to call us to do whatever it says. We cannot preach only favorite texts. We must engage with all of God’s revelation.
Tithes and
Offerings-This is an
important part of worship as we recognize that all blessing comes from
God. We don’t pass the plate but we do
bring our offerings to the Lord for blessing.
The
tithe also shows that we offer ourselves to the Lord. The Lord receives us because we have been
called to Him, confessed our sins and been forgiven, been laid open before Him
and instructed by the Word. We are now
set apart and holy and are therefore able to draw into His presence without
fear. We give Him our offerings because
we give Him ourselves. The tithe is similar to the Lord’s Day. We do not give ourselves to God on Sunday
because that is His day. We give ourselves to Him on the Lord’s Day in
recognition that all days are His.
This is also true for the tithe. We give a tenth of our
increase to the Lord, not because that is His portion but as recognition that
it is all His. Some argue that the tithe
is no longer valid in the New Covenant and that we are now governed by a law of
grace and love instead of the Old Covenant administration. Although I disagree with this view, in
relation to the tithe, I believe if you argue this way, then you are required
by your theology to pay more than ten percent.
The law of grace and love should far outshine in formal law that is more
restrictive. Giving is good, so under
the New Testament we should give MORE not less.
Sadly, many Christians who think this way, actually use it as an excuse
for giving less or none at all. This simply shows that they are not giving
themselves to Jesus Christ.
COMMUNION: GOD NOURISHES HIS PEOPLE
This is central to our understanding of Christ and His
Church.
Wine-why not
grape juice? The Lord instituted this
supper with wine. If it was good enough
for him it is good enough for us. It
tells of the potency of Jesus Christ. It
is no wonder that an impotent modern church uses grape juice.
Bread-why leavened? The Passover meal was with unleavened
bread. However, as the Holy Spirit came
at Pentecost and the saints were gathered, breaking bread, that meal was using
leavened bread. The kingdom is like a
loaf of bread that is leavened and grows until the whole loaf is leavened. The sins have been permanently purged in
Jesus Christ and so we can fully enjoy the loaf that is Christ.
We look around as we eat the bread and drink the wine
because this is what we are invited to do at a table. We want to see who is at the table with us.
We want to talk to them afterwards about the exciting fact of being invited to
the table of Jesus Christ the King. We
want this communal meal to be a joyous event and not a personal self-absorbed,
introspective, morbid dirge. We are
looking at the joy of the cross, not the misery of the cross.
We eat together because we all partake of the one loaf,
Jesus Christ. It is simply good manners
to wait until everyone is served before eating.
Meditation
during communion
The word is always to accompany the sacrament. Reading of the word and preaching of the word
meets this requirement. It is also good
to think of the many different facets of the Lord’s Table. Of course, the many facets of the Lord’s
Supper should be viewed through the lens of the Bible and not through the lens
of artful creativity.
Also,
this encourages us not to do it in an unthinking way. We meditate upon the what the Lord is
declaring in this meal and also what we are declaring. We do believe that this meal is a blessing,
but we don’t believe that it is an automatic blessing. We must do it in faith. And it is good for us to think about what it
is that we do. We declare that we are in
union with Christ and one another. We
are in Him and He is in us.
Soul Adorn Thyself with Gladness (#39)
COMMISSIONING: GOD BLESSES HIS PEOPLE
Congregation stands as is ready to
march out into the world having been fed and blessed by Jesus Christ.
Congregational Response: Gloria Patri-Our final response to God for His
calling us here for blessing.
Congregation
raises hands-again posture is an important part of worship. The scriptures have many instances of
ministers raising hands in prayer and of the congregation lifting up holy
hands. Modern conservative Presbyterians
need a good dose of this. For many in
our circles, worship has become a painfully mental gymnastic. We deny that this ought to be the case. God
has saved our whole man, including our bodies.
These are bodies are not yet perfected spiritual bodies,
We give praise to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We proclaim this truth and that it will go on
world without end, amen. Or simply to
say that God’s glory will never end.
Charge and Benediction
This is a true blessing. We receive it the same way that we do the
rest of the service, in faith
EXHORTATION
This
worship service is nothing less than a heavenly feast. When you come to
worship, you are coming into heaven. Now, who would does not want to go to
heaven? Seriously, who in their right mind, would refuse heaven?
Would you refuse heaven because you had a late night on
Saturday? Would you refuse heaven because your child had a sporting event?
Would you miss heaven because your family was visiting from out of town? Would
you miss heaven for nearly any old excuse? Dear Saints, I am not kidding about
this or being glib. I mean it with all my heart. If you do not understand that
we are going to heaven together when we gather as God’s people, you really do
run the risk of missing heaven altogether. If you cannot see the glory in the
gathered people of God, then you are missing the glory of God. It really is
that simple. So, come to heaven every week so that you are consistently drawn
to God and will spend eternity with Him and His people in Heaven.
.
