Dr Greg Bahnsen - A Godly Attitude: A Godly Attitude Toward Worship (Part 1)

If you have been with our congregation for very long at all, it's possible that you've caught on to the rhythm of the preaching cycle in our church. But then there are some who may not have caught onto that, and it might be helpful just to outline for you what is going on. I try to make it a habit in the early part of the year, the first weeks of January, to preach on matters that pertain specifically to our life as a congregation. This is the time of year when you can count on hearing a sermon on tithing. Our congregational meeting is coming up, and that duty of the Christian to support the work of the ministry of his or her church is to be repeated. And though it's an awkward thing for the pastor to do, sometimes it is a duty. And so you can count on hearing about that. We talk about our life as the people of God outside of that as well. And then later on in the year, in the month of June, usually I try to preach a series of sermons that you can count on being pointedly evangelistic in their thrust, since we focus on ourselves in January, and June is a good month to be planning to bring visitors, of course, bring visitors all the time to church. All of our messages have an evangelistic thrust in them in one form or another. But we. We specifically are pushing an evangelistic message in the month of June. Outside of that, we have holiday seasons, Christmas, the New Year, Fourth of July, whatever it may be. Sometimes we have elections in November. And I try to be seasonal in my preaching and to preach something of relevance at that time of the year. And then apart from that, we have series of sermons that we go through and we've been in for a long time, the Book of Proverbs. Now, since this is the beginning of the month of January, then you should realize that we're going to be talking for a few weeks about our life as a congregation. And in particular this month, I'd like to talk about having godly attitudes toward, first of all, worship. That's what we're going to talk about this morning. Next week, we're going to talk about having a godly attitude toward time, the question of the Sabbath, and how we should look upon that and how we should use our time on Sunday. And then thirdly, we're going to talk about a godly attitude toward money, the one that I've already told you about. We'll talk about tithing and offerings at that time. And finally, a godly attitude toward Christian friendship and fellowship, which is a crucial part of our congregation's life. And so this morning, as we look at a godly attitude toward worship, please turn to two places in your Bible. We have an Old Testament and a New Testament reading. First of all, Psalm 100 from the Old Testament. And you might put your finger there and find Romans the twelfth chapter in the New Testament, where we'll read just verses one and two. And so let's hear God's word this morning, beginning in the Old Testament at Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto Jehovah all ye lands. Serve Jehovah with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that Jehovah, he is God it is he that hath made us and we are his we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Give thanks unto him and bless his name, for Jehovah is good his loving kindness endureth forever, and his faithfulness unto all generations. And then turn to the New Testament, Paul's words found in Romans the 12th chapter, beginning at verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And thus far, the reading of God's word. What are we here for? Why do we live? What is human life all about? It's hard to raise that question, to move on to an answer very quickly. I think we need to pause for a moment and think about the profundity of it, the importance of that question. It's a question that has been raised since time. Immortal men ask why things happen in general, but more particularly ask why they are alive, why they come into this world. Man is such an unusual creature in the midst of everything else that is made. Because man reflects upon himself and upon his purpose, he does not want to lead an aimless and absurd existence. He wants to find a reason for things. So why does man live? Why are we here? Or to put it in the terms of the Shorter Catechism of our Church, what is the chief end of man? The chief end being archaic English, for what is his primary purpose? What end does he serve? What purpose does he have? What goal is he striving for? Or what goal should he strive for? Why is man here? You know, sometimes children have difficulty understanding why they should be educated. And sometimes parents have difficulty explaining why children should be educated because they don't Know how to answer the question of why a man is here? You know how it goes, right? Child says, why should I study for this test? If you don't study for this test, you won't pass your course. Why should I pass this course? Well, if you don't pass this course, you won't graduate from school. Why should I graduate from school? Well, if you don't graduate from school, then you won't be able to get a good job. Why should I get a good job? Well, because if you don't get a good job, you won't be able to have enough money to support yourself and live. Why should I be alive? Oh, well, you've got to be alive so you can go to work. But why should I work? Because if you don't work, you won't be able to get the money, the money necessary to sustain your life. Why should I live to go to work? You know, and you get this cycle going. And we very legitimately ask, well, why go through all this? A lot of young people that I know who were in school thinking, well, that's what it's all about, preparation for life, getting out there, getting a job. Once they get a job and they settle into that and the novelty of the job wears off, then they're asking, well, why am I going through this five day a week routine? You know, there's this rhythm where I go to work, I get my paycheck, and then on Friday and Saturday enjoy myself, I sleep all day, Sunday I get up and go to work. And it's just this meaningless cycle. Why do we live? And so we ask the question now that philosophers have reflected on and that everybody else, whether you're a professional philosopher or not, needs some answer too. Why are we here? And our catechism says man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We've been made to worship God. God made us so that when we went out in this world and cooked a good meal, it would not only sustain our life, it would bring glory to his name. And that sustenance that we received from that God glorifying meal would be used to do other work in this world which would further glorify his name. That's why we write concerts. That's why beautiful pictures are painted and novels are written. That's why diseases are healed by doctors and why plumbing problems are taken care of by plumbers. That's why we do everything we do to bring glory to God. We exist to glorify His Name, not our own, not Simply to take advantage of this world for our own enjoyment, but to enjoy him in the midst of this world. And so we have to ask what a godly attitude toward worship would be. If that is our key purpose for living, then what should we think of worship? How should we understand it? And the first point I want to make this morning in terms of a godly attitude toward worship is that we reject any sacred secular dichotomy in life. That word dichotomy may be a little unusual. It simply means to cut things into two pieces. To dichotomize means to have this area and that area separated from one another. And a godly attitude toward worship does not allow us to look at life and to cut it into two areas. A sacred area and then a secular area or a mundane area that doesn't pertain specifically to God. Holiness and worship. In Romans the 12th chapter, verses 1 and 2, we find the expression your reasonable service. Let's look at that. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Now, that's a very awkward expression in the original Greek. Well, it's not awkward in the Greek, but it's awkward translating it into English and capturing all of the significance of it. And that's why some of your translations will have different wording there. Some will have spiritual service or spiritual worship. But the words very simply pertain to worship. The word for service is one of the common Greek words for worship. And so Paul speaks of your reasonable worship. The passage also speaks of offering a sacrifice to God. And So clearly, Romans 12 pertains to worship, to sacrifice to our attitude toward God and bringing glory to his name. It obviously instructs us in a godly attitude toward worship. And what I want you to see is that in this sense, worship is the expression of a transformed life. Worship is the expression of a life that's been transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A life which Paul says stands apart from the worldliness around you. A life which makes every activity a form of serving and praising God. You see how he says that? It's one of my favorite passages in God's Word. It's right to the point. Paul says, your acceptable worship is to be a living sacrifice to God, so that everything you do in your life is a sacrifice of praise to him, is an offering up to him. You offer up the way you do your tax forms. You Offer up the way you buy your groceries. You offer up the way you dress in the morning and the way you speak to people and the way you do your job and the way you conduct your family life. Everything you do is offered up as a sacrifice before God. And you do not look at the world around you to get your cue. You do not look at the world around you for your direction and guidance. You are rather transformed, not conformed. Instead of being worldly, rather than being secular, if you will, excluding God in some areas of your life, you are transformed by the renewing of your mind so that everything is a sacrifice to God. Now, Paul says that's godly worship. He puts it this way in First Corinthians 10:31. Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God, One of the questions a godly person will ask himself or herself, no matter what activity, what attitude we're talking about in life, the question is going to be, how can this glorify God? How can I cook this meal to glorify God? How can I mow the lawn to glorify God? How can I make my bed to glorify God? How can I study for school to glorify God? How can I pursue my vocation in this world to glorify God? For, you see, we are concerned as transformed people not to sin. And sin is falling short of the glory of God. So whatever you do, Paul says, do everything to the glory of God. In 1st Peter 1:15, the apostle Peter puts it this like as he who called you is holy. Be also yourselves holy in all manner of living. In all manner of living. Not just in this area of life or that area of life, but in all manner of living. Be holy, be set apart unto God, be transformed, not conformed. Offer yourself up as a living sacrifice to God. Whatsoever you do, bring glory to his name. That's godly worship. And so a biblical and historically reformed attitude toward worship does not allow for a sacred secular distinction in life. We are not like so many religions of the world that teach there is this little domain of ritualistic worship that the deity or whatever sacred force there is in the world requires, and then outside of that life is your own. So that you have the religious part of life and the part of life that isn't particularly religious. That is not a biblical attitude. That is not a reformational attitude. As we look at the world, we see everything belonging to God. He made it all. We see everything redeemed by Jesus Christ, so that all of creation comes under his redemptive power. We see everything in life coming under the final judgment and evaluation of God. So there is nothing in life that can be excluded. All of life is sacred. All of life is religious. All of life is worship. As far as we're concerned, everything we do in life is an act of worship to God. Cooking our dinners and weeding our gardens and dressing for school and working for an employer or chatting with friends. It's worship and boy, that is going to transform you if you take that seriously. Because, you know, most of the things we do in life, we tend to categorize, even if we don't say it outwardly, we tend to categorize as indifferent matters that don't really count. These are not worshipful issues. But you know, it would really change the way you talk to someone on the telephone if you said, this is an act of worship to God, Jesus Christ is present to this conversation. It would change the way you looked at duties laid upon you by your employer. If you said, my service here is an act of worship before God and the quality of my work, whether it is children cleaning their rooms or you carrying out an assignment for an employer, the quality of your work would be changed, wouldn't it, if you saw it as an act of worship. And so all of life is worship. That's the first thing we have to see in a godly attitude toward worship. But then secondly, not in contrast to that, but building upon that, we need to recognize as well that within the totality of life as worship, there is a special duty of corporate worship and praise to God. We must recognize that special duty of corporate worship. A godly attitude toward worship will go beyond making all of life a form of worship, all of life a form of service to God, and will recognize the biblical call to corporate praise and corporate exhortation, something that is distinct from just any ordinary garden variety gathering of believers. What I'm saying is what we're doing this morning as we've assembled together is more than just the worship that pertains to all of life. Whether you're cooking your meals or dressing for work, what we're doing here is a specially required duty of the Christian man, the Christian woman. In the New Testament, those assemblies which constituted the corporate worship of God were understood as clearly distinct from such informal household fellowship and eating that the worship assembly was seen by Paul as pertaining to the Lord's supper, Whereas the eating in your home, Paul calls your own eating in your own houses. Haven't you your own houses in which to eat? He says First Corinthians 11, 20, 22. But when you are assembled for the Lord's Supper, you see how he sets that apart. The Lord's Supper isn't just any ordinary meal. Being in the church at worship is thus something more than a normal gathering with other believers. Even if you gather with other believers and read the Bible and pray and sing, that is not the biblical requirement of worship. It is in the general sense, in the sense of fellowship that we should have with one another. But there is a special time of worship God ordains for his people. And I think that's especially evident from the way that Paul speaks in a passage like First Corinthians 14:35. In that verse, Paul differentiates the situation of a woman asking questions at church from her asking them at home. Look at First Corinthians 14:35. And while you're turning to it, let me explain very simply that this form of asking questions is kind of a cross examination for the sake of evaluation. Here in 1 Corinthians 14, certain people come to the church with a prophecy, allegedly from the Holy Spirit. And Paul speaks of those people with the prophecy being evaluated, being questioned to make sure that their message is true, that their message is faithful, that it's orthodox. And in the midst of that, Paul says, a woman is not to ask questions. It's not a woman's place to govern the church. To put it in terms that we might understand, Paul is saying, women don't go to presbytery and cross examine candidates for the ministry. That's the place of the elders. You must be a man to occupy that position. But let's learn something further from this verse, verse 35. And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church, faithfully reflecting the Greek, by the way, in the church, it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. Now, if we think of the church as the body of believers, that is the people that make up the church, there is biblical warrant for that. In fact, it's such a remarkable insight for many Christians to come to that they tend to say church is the people, and that's it. They see that new aspect of, if you will, new covenant revelation that the sanctuary, the temple, the church is the people, it's not the building anymore. But then they tend to think that's all church means. But that can't be true. And this verse makes it very obvious, doesn't it? Because Paul says it's shameful for a woman to speak in the church. If he means by church here, the body of believers, then what Paul is telling us is that anytime a woman is in the presence of another Christian, it's shameful for her to speak. That isn't what Paul means. Paul says it's shameful for her to speak in the church, meaning the church assembled for that formal corporate time of worship that we refer to when we tell our children we're going to church this morning. Yes, we're going to be with the people. But it's more than just being with the people. It's with the people to perform the ordained task of worship. And in that setting, a woman should be silent. She should not exercise authority over a man, she should not teach, she should not cross examine the prophets. And so it should be obvious to us that the church is called upon by God to assemble at some special time for what we call worship. Worship is first the general attitude of our life. Everything, everything is sacred in our lives. And everything we do is an act of worship and service to God. And within that broad framework, there are special times of corporate worship that are ordained by God that we call going to church. And so let's look at the biblical call to worship. In this sense, the religious piety of the Old Testament saint was evident in his desire to render unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship Jehovah in the Beauty of Holiness, 1st Chronicles 16:29, which is repeated virtually in Psalm 96, verses 8 and 9. Come before Jehovah, Bring an offering. Worship him in the beauty of holiness. Render unto him the glory due unto his name. There must be a time when we stop and say God deserves something because of who he is and what he has done. And that is the time of worship when we glorify him in a way which is worthy of him. The believer will be eager to worship God, to worship him openly, to worship him faithfully. And to do so in the midst of the assembled people of God, we must do away with this attitude that says, well, I can worship God out in nature, or I can worship God at home in my bedroom, or I can worship God by turning on the TV and hearing one of these religious evangelists that have TV ministries. That isn't what the Bible says, my friends. The Bible says we need to stand with God's people shoulder to shoulder with one mouth, to use the expression of Paul in Romans 15, praising God. And that is the pinnacle of our Christian experience. All of life. Is worship. But you see, it gathers together as God's people assemble and set before God finally the praise that is due to his name. That's why we were made to say, God, you are beautiful God, you are great God, you are good and merciful. And to thank him and to hear his word, David said in Psalm 22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of of the congregation I will give thee thanks in the great assembly. David said, I will praise thee among much people. Psalm 35 and so David's inspired testimony clearly shows his desire for congregational worship. He makes that normative for all of God's people. Psalm 95 oh, come, let us worship and bow down let us kneel before Jehovah our maker. Psalm 100, which we read this morning. Come before his presence with singing enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Give thanks unto him and bless his name. Psalm 107 Let us exalt him also in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders. Psalm 149 Praise ye Jehovah sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise in the assembly and of the saints and God's new covenant people are no different than the old covenant people in this regard. The pattern was set in the Old Testament, and it's confirmed in the new. In Hebrews 13:15 we read through Christ, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of lips which make confession to his name. Or again listen to 1st Peter 2, verse 5. You are a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. And so God looks to us as his new covenant people to worship him with sacrifices that are acceptable the fruit of lips that bring praise to his name, that honor him. Indeed, this is a duty of the Christian life. The author of Hebrews says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, Hebrews 10:24 25 and remember from First Corinthians chapter 14, that the assembling that is spoken of here specifically for the purpose of worshiping God. And so when we miss attending the church's worship service, or when we do not participate in its activities, we are not living up to the scriptural command to stand together in worship before God. Romans 15:6 that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So A godly attitude toward worship says, first of all, no sacred secular distinction. All of my life is service to God, everything I do. But it also goes on to recognize there is a special duty of corporate praise that is a great privilege for the Christian man or woman to engage in. And what are the various parts of corporate worship? It's been some time since I've given some instruction about our bulletin to this congregation. And I think it's appropriate this morning that we take just a few moments to look at what we are doing and what our attitude should be as we do these things. And so if you'll take your bulletin out and look at it, hopefully you'll notice there's some purpose to every element you see there, and there's a reason why the elements are in the order that they're in. And if we just go through this together, I think some important observations can be made about what God requires of us in terms of worship. In the first place. The worship service begins with news and service. I think we have a tendency to say, well, that's just kind of preparation. That's just kind of warming up. Or maybe at its worst, that's just allowing for those people who straggle in late, repeatedly to finally get here. And I know that it's tough to have to say, to look at you and all, but I do have to say something about that we should be on time to worship. What do you think when someone makes an appointment and then shows up late for that appointment with you? What, especially do you think when the person shows up late because they just decided not to get up on time or because they were so busy the night before that they just couldn't do what they promised you? I mean, you're insulted by that. It's a common thing. And so I don't mean by that insult that you're going to break fellowship or you're going to bear a grudge. But, you know, that hurts a little. You know, you promised to be here at 10, you show up at 10:30. That not so good. But you see, when we bring God into the question, it's not just a matter of being polite. It's a matter of recognizing that you see the pinnacle for which I was created. I have snubbed, I've said, well, other things got in the way. I just got too busy this morning. I was too tired from last night. Too tired to do what God made you to do? Too tired to engage in the highest privilege of the Christian life. What are you looking at worship as being just Some kind of rote thing you go through. Just something that we engage in because it's our tradition as Christians. Something that's nice if you have it, but you can do without it. Well, those are wrong attitudes toward worship. Those are not godly attitudes towards worship. And so, friends, I must tell you, come on time. And obviously, if they block off the freeway or if you get lost getting here, I mean, that's a different story. But if you're not here on time because you just haven't been responsible in preparation, then you have to ask, what is your attitude toward worship? What is your attitude toward God? What is your attitude toward your Christian experience and toward this congregation? So we come on time. Community news and service is not for latecomers to arrive. It's here because we gather as God's people and we have a life as a community. And it's tough because, you see, we don't live with one another under the same roof day in and day out. We don't even live on the same block in the same neighborhood. God's people are dispersed through the world. We are lights in a dark place. And there are many of us in many places. And so when you turn on the news at night, it's not all news about the kingdom of Jesus Christ and its advance. It's not all news about how to build one another up. We come together, and the first thing we recognize is that we're a body and we have things to talk about. Things have happened this week. Things are going to be happening in the future that you should be planning on the life of this congregation, opportunities for service. And then, of course, there are prayer requests. God's people come together to pray. And I realize it is not a very common thing in Christian churches today to do this, but I can't for the life of me figure out why not. When God's people come together, they don't come simply to be entertained, to sit there as passive spectators. They come to pray with one another. And we can't pray for one another if we don't know what to pray for. We need to come and say, God answered my prayers. God did good things to me this week. Praise his name. We need to say, I'm hurting in this way. I have needs in this way. Would you help me? Would you pray for me? That's why we begin worship in that way. We come as his community, a covenant community, to hear what's happening in our lives and what our needs are and how we can serve God. And then there's a Call to worship to remember that we're in the very presence of God. That call to worship is something that should change your mentality. Should be almost like a light switch, if you will, if you've come in. And the concerns of the week are whether you're going to get gas on the way home, or whether the roast is going to burn in the oven, or whether someone is sick in your family, whatever it may be, if that is occupying your thought. The call to worship is a reminder we are now coming into the presence of God. Remember who he is. He made us. We're here to serve him. And so let's get our hearts right. Then, of course, you see that we sing hymns in our congregation. We try to label these so you have some idea what the various functions of hymns are. We begin our worship with a hymn of praise. We not only open our mouths to sing to God to praise him, but later on you notice we sing to one another, to exhort and to edify. In Colossians, Paul says that we are to build one another up and to exhort one another with hymns and songs, spiritual songs and psalms. And that's one of the reasons we sing. So we might be instructed. I think it's amazing how often people do not remember the words of Scripture. They have to work so hard at memorizing them. But it's easy to remember the words of hymns. That's because God made us musical beings. Now, I've talked to some of you. You don't think you're so musical. And maybe you aren't the sort of person who ought to stand up on a stage and sing a solo, that's fine. But you are a musical being, and God calls you to use your music to praise him. If you say, well, it's just noise coming out of my mouth. Believe me, it's beautiful noise in the ears of God. Sing. Sing with gusto. Sing with sincerity and sing to praise God, to exhort one another. And then at the end of our service, you notice we have a hymn of love that follows the communion and the love spoken of. There is love to God who has redeemed us. That's why we often sing the Doxology. Praise God, from Whom every blessing flows. We also sing hymns of love about communion that we have with the Savior and with one another. And so we need to enter into these things. Thoughtful and. Do I have to say this to this congregation? When you sing a hymn, you should read the words and understand what you're singing. The human mind is such a wondrous object that it's able to do this and it's insulting to God, but it's able to do this. It is able to look at words on a page, have them go in through the eye, translate it into the brain, out the mouth, and not remember at all what you were saying. Almost like an instrument, just like some kind of computer reader maybe, you know, just goes over those things. Now I know you can do that, because I know I've done it, and it isn't right. When we sing these hymns, we should be saying, what are we saying? And why are we saying this? I think we'd sing a lot louder and a lot more enthusiastically if we did. As we go down the bulletin after that hymn of praise, notice we have an invocation in Lord's Prayer. Prayer is a part of worship, and we have different kinds of prayer in our congregation. The invocation, of course, is asking God to be present and to be pleased with our worship. We invoke him to be here. The Lord's Prayer is that pattern of prayer that God, through His Son, revealed to his people. Jesus said, when you pray, pray in this way. That doesn't mean you have to say the Lord's Prayer verbatim every week. But it isn't a bad idea to do it, to remember that pattern that God has given. And so corporately we do that, and all of us should pray it. The Gloria is a form of prayer too. The Gloria combines prayer and hymn. It's a musical way of giving glory to God. And you notice that in the Gloria, which is a traditional thing sung by evangelical Christians down through the ages, the Gloria praises the triune God. Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because what marks this worship assembly off from every other worship assembly in the world with all their other rituals, is that we come before the presence of the triune God. God the Father made us and His Son redeemed in us, and His Spirit has given us new life. And all three members of the Trinity are to be remembered. And so we sing the Gloria after we say the Lord's Prayer. When we sit down after the Gloria, our congregational reading is for the sake of one praising God corporately, so that we all unite our voices in saying what God's word says. We read from the Psalter, the praise book of God's people, but we also instruct one another when we do that. And there are two ways that we do that. The usual way is by the leader saying one part of the psalm, and then you follow with a response. The leader Says another. You follow with a response. Another way of doing it, which I think is helpful, is to have the congregation split into two parts and speaking to one another. And so one part of the congregation speaks God's word to the other, and then the second half of the congregation responds with God's word to the first. The congregational reading is not there just to fill time. I have to admit, when I was a child growing up in the church, I sometimes wonder, I said, why do we do this? We have scripture reading already. And hopefully you have that problem too, that you wonder, well, if we're going to read the Bible later on and have somebody preach about it, why are we doing it up here? Because it serves a separate function in worship, to exhort one another and to praise God by using His Word. Now, wouldn't it be glorious if the day would come when we had together memorize so much of God's word from this altar that we could do that by memory, where we could stand up and half the congregation could say, praise God for His mighty works, and the other half of the congregation could say, and praise him in the firmament. Praise him back and forth. Because we just say that from the heart. Well, we're not to that point. And so it's written down. But that should give you the idea of the congregational reading. Following that reading, we have a pastoral prayer. This reading really calls for some discussion, because I'll bet you're like me. That's the easiest place to let your mind wander, isn't it? It's because you close your eyes and you hear that person up there in front kind of going, droning on and on, maybe. And it's easy for your mind to go somewhere else. But it's sinful. You don't like me to use words like that. I have to, though. It is not a godly thing. When we together say, God, we are here to worship you. And then somebody starts looking around and doing other things or napping. This isn't the time to nap. And it isn't the time to balance your checkbook or to plan out your week or to think about a TV program that you saw. This is the time to hear what the person is saying. Now, I would suggest that if you have difficulty, there are two things in you can do here. There are others as well, but two come to my mind immediately. First of all, when you hear the person praying up in front, why don't you repeat every word he says silently yourself? You can do that very quickly. By the way, the human mind's Wonderful. That way you can think a lot faster than I can talk. And so if I'm praying, if one of the elders is praying, pray our words along with us. That will help you keep your mind on the subject. And another thing which is going to sound very out of place and very untraditional, maybe you should open your eyes. You know, closing your eyes is a traditional mark of, you know, reverence and bowing our heads, and that's perfectly fine, and I think that's preferable. But if you have difficulty when you close your eyes listening to the other person, and why don't you just look at the floor, stay alert enough with your eyes open that you can pay attention to that prayer. It's crucial that you do it. And now we come to the end of the prayer. What happens at the end of the prayer? The person says Amen, Right? Well, what do you do? You sit there like this prayer was his prayer. You sit there as though he were performing a prayer for you. And I'm afraid sometimes people who are asked to lead in prayer are awkward in doing it and hesitant to do it because they think they're performing, but they aren't. They're leading God's people and saying words that are acceptable to him. And when the leader finishes, the people should say Amen. It's biblical. In fact, Paul says in First Corinthians 14, how will the person who comes in say the Amen at the end if he doesn't understand what you're saying? Paul takes it for granted that those who come to worship service are going to want to say the Amen. Since I knew I was going to say these things this morning, I thought about it at the time of our congregational prayer. In particular, I don't know that I could hear anybody, perhaps my wife over at the piano, besides myself, say the Amen. I think there were others, but you see, sitting over here, there may have been a few scattered elsewhere in the audience. We all tend to say, if we say it at all, a very quiet and very mousy Amen. God doesn't want mousy Amens. He wants enthusiastic, heartfelt, sincere Amen. And when should you say Amen? Well, whenever you have had part in the worship that calls for confirmation, when you want to say, so be it. And we say that after we pray, we should be able to hear one another say Amen. After we pray, at the invocation, at the Lord's Prayer, of course, we say the Lord's Prayer automatically with an Amen. And so we should all hear that and after we sing hymns. And I don't think it's inappropriate sometimes. I wouldn't want it to become a matter of entertainment for you. But at some points, I think when the pastor is preaching, he might just have touched a note that calls for an amen. It's not distinctively Pentecostal to do that, you understand. It's very Presbyterian to be part of the worship service and say, yes, so be it. So we need to hear those Amens. The hymn of preparation I've already talked about. Obviously, that is intended to open up the subject for the exhortation that morning. Scripture reading is part of godly worship. God speaks to us directly and infallibly through his own Word. And then the sermon is intended as a way of opening up God's word and helping to apply it to your life, to help you understand properly what it means to refute false opinions, to correct our living and to guide our thoughts and our attitudes. A hymn of response is just what it says, a way of saying in him something that replies to the content of the sermon. And then we come to a congregational confession. This too has biblical warrant. In fact, Paul speaks of it in writing to Timothy in his First Epistle. How we are to have the pattern of sound words. Now, when we confess with God's people, the orthodox faith, we need to understand that we are saying things which to the world are a declaration of where this congregation stands. And they may not hear us out there. There may be some visitors who do. But symbolically, we stand before the world and we say, this is what is the truth. And we unitedly believe this, and we'll take our stand for this. And we're willing to die for this. So we confess our faith, and when we confess it, we stand not just with God's people. Here you need to know we stand with God's people in La Mirada and Garden Grove and San Diego. We stand with God's people in San Francisco and New York and Tokyo. Around the world, God's people say the Apostles Creed. Around the world, God's people say the Nicene Creed. And not just around the world, but through all the ages since the founding of the church, that has expressed the orthodox faith of God's people. And so there's a real historic and universal depth to that. When we stand together and we say this is the truth, we confess it. We are united behind it. We also confess our sins. Because as God's people, we need to recognize that we don't have the right to the Lord's Supper. We come to be disciplined by the worship service, as well as to offer our praise to God. And so we sometimes confess our sins there. The next item is, in fact, church discipline. This has been explained to you in the past. In fact, almost every time we have something in this area of worship, we try to remind you that the discipline of the body is kind of like the training of an athlete, building of that athlete's life, showing him how he should live and how he shouldn't live. And the body of Christ is disciplined as it's built up and new members come in and baptisms are performed, and the Body of Christ is built up. When we commend people for doing specific works of service that are exemplary, and all of us should follow that, emulate that kind of life. And the body is built up when we have to negatively disappoint and say, hey, this isn't right, don't follow this example. And sometimes we have to put people out of the body because they are not living up to their Christian profession. Call that excommunication. But you see that discipline takes place, even if there's nothing actually in a particular service. That discipline, you see, is what leads us into the Lord's Supper to remember that we are his body, that we come as sinners, confessing our sins and glad that God has graciously redeemed us, ready to remember what Christ has done and declare his death until he comes again. And in the Lord's Supper, we not only commune with our Savior, but we remember that we are one loaf, that we are His Body, and we commune with each other redemptively. And so the Lord's Supper reminds us that we should love one another. That's why Paul says, if you're coming with a bad attitude towards your brother, if you're coming and despising others and you're eating when others are still hungry, and so forth. Paul says you should examine yourself to discern the body. If you don't discern the body of the Lord, meaning the congregation, the church, and your attitude is bad toward it, then you shouldn't take the Lord's Supper. Of course you should take the Lord's Supper because you repent of that bad attitude and you're determined to change it. The Lord's Supper is the constant weekly reminder on the Lord's Day that we exist as Christians only because of what he did in our behalf and that we are nurtured as his people and nourished by him in the sacrament of the Supper. Finally, the hymn of love, as you See? And then notice the benediction. The benediction is equally an element of worship. The benediction is not a prayer. It's not a corporate prayer, and it's not the leader's prayer. The benediction is the pronouncement of blessing. And there are a lot of people. Most evangelicals think of benediction as a closing prayer. I still remember when I was asked a long time ago at our school to offer the benediction at the end of one of our faculty dinners. And I said, do you want a pronouncement of blessing? He said, no, a closing prayer, a benediction. See, but that isn't what a benediction is, although it has come to be used that way. A benediction is the leader, because he is ordained, God has anointed and set him apart, saying, in the name of God, here's His blessing. It's on you. You've come to worship. You have praised his name. God now praises you, as it were. He puts his blessing on you, even as you have blessed Him. And so the benediction is something that you need not close your eyes for and bow your head in prayer. It's not inappropriate to do that, but it's perfectly alright to look at the leader saying, God bless you. And that's what he's doing there in the benediction. Fellowship is listed in your bulletin. Next, we may stop our formal time of worship. You see, that fellowship is just as much part of the worship of God as those other elements, because he calls us together as his people, to love each other, to weep with those who weep, and to rejoice with those who rejoice, to see what our needs are, to see if we can befriend one another, help one another, encourage one another, exhort one another. Fellowship should be a time for worshiping God in the way we relate redemptively as the covenant community. Well, I've taken more time than I really intended. But I think it's important, important that we look at the worship service then as a time in which we are called out of the world, called out of our normal worship in all things, in service to God and corporately come together now to praise God's name, to hear God's word, and to commune with God's people. Godly worship according to Jesus in John the fourth chapter, is worship that is in store spirit and in truth. It's worship that is done in sincerity and in faithfulness. It's worship that's performed in the power of God's gracious spirit. And we learn from that verse that Our worship should reflect the very character of God. Because what Jesus says is God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Because God is of such a nature, our worship must, must be of that nature. And notice who it is that spoke these words. Notice who it is that said we should worship in spirit and in truth. The one who would later said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And so worship must be through Jesus Christ and according to his faithful word, the good News, and in the power of his Spirit. If our worship is to be godly. Let me conclude with the these words. If our worship is to be godly, our worship should be with God recognizing that he's present. Our worship should be of God provoked by him. And our worship should be unto God offering praise to him. And then we will leave the assembled time of worship and begin our reasonable service throughout all of life. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would show us the privilege of corporate worship this morning, that we might enjoy being here and that we might enjoy participating in every element of it. That we might participate with sincerity and faithfulness. That our minds might be focused on the right things. That we might see this as the very epitome of our existence to stand in your presence with your redeemed people as a covenant community and offer you the worship and praise that is due unto your name. We ask that you would transform our worship experience, that you would begin to transform it here. That as we come, we wouldn't come in a dutiful spirit, in a spirit of going through certain rote actions, that we would do these things because we understand what we are doing and we believe what we are doing and we want what we are doing to honor you. And we pray that you would transform our experience as we leave our corporate worship so that as we go into this week, everything that we do in every area of life might not be conformed to the world, but would be holy unto you and bring glory to your name. As we offer you that reasonable service and worship that you bid us, we pray in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.